Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas’ expansive underground tunnel system, and talk to Hillel International President and CEO Adam Lehman about the climate on college campuses. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Dr. Ruth Gottesman, Adam Rubenstein and Jared Kushner.
Wereported last weekon the “uncommitted” campaign in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary, taking place today and serving as a rough proxy for anti-Israel sentiment within the battleground state.
But the effort by some critics of President Joe Biden’s Israel policy to urge Democrats to cast their vote for “uncommitted,” rather than for Biden, is also serving as a referendum on how Democratic voters view the president’s overall leadership by giving a larger swath of voters an opportunity to express a vote of no-confidence, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
Israel isn’t the only reason that some Michigan Democrats are dissatisfied with Biden. Many have concerns about his advanced age. Biden is losing about one-fifth of Black voters to former President Donald Trump, according to two newMichigan polls, with economic frustrations playing a pivotal role. Rank-and-file auto union members have been trending towards Republicans, in part because of the administration’s aggressive push for electric vehicles.
Asked about the Michigan primary, a Biden campaign official brushed it off and jumped to November — and pitched Biden as a “stark contrast” to Trump, including on the Israel-Hamas war. “When it comes to foreign policy, Trump has a lot of chaos. It’s a lot of xenophobia. It’s a lot of racism. Biden has really approached this issue with a lot of compassion,” the official said.
One outside group that is spending a bit to boost Biden’s prospects in the primary is the pro-Israel Democratic group Democratic Majority for Israel, which is spending over $125,000 on digital ads reminding Michigan Democrats to “be committed” for the president. DMFI circulated a memo to reporters on Monday night that minimized the significance of the “uncommitted” campaign while arguing that being pro-Israel is good politics. The group pointed out that in 2020, with seven Democratic presidential candidates on the ballot, “uncommitted” still won nearly 20,000 votes (which made up just 1% of the overall Democratic vote).
The one public poll that tested the Democratic primary matchup — conducted by Emerson College — showed “uncommitted” winning support from just 9% of Democratic voters — short of the expectations laid out by one group backing the effort. Winning less than one-tenth of Democratic voters is hardly a significant showing, especially given the publicity the anti-Israel, anti-Biden effort has received in national media.
Biden isn’t the only Democrat with a lot on the line in Tuesday’s results. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, viewed as a future presidential prospect, would be deeply embarrassed if Biden lost a significant share of the Democratic vote in her backyard.
Whitmer, for her part, has struggled to speak clearly about the Middle East as she tries to balance general sympathy for Israel and her Jewish constituents without alienating the state’s sizable Arab-American vote. Whitmer made one of the more politically tone-deaf statements in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, failing to mention Israel in her response to the terrorism. (Whitmer’s first trip as governor, in 2019, was to Israel, on a delegation organized by the Detroit Jewish Federation.)
Biden said on Monday that it is his “hope” that a cease-fire can be reached by next Monday. Biden appeared to be speaking about the negotiations currently underway toward a deal that would include the release of some hostages and a temporary pause in the fighting. But his use of the term “cease-fire” — which many have used as a catchall term for the end of the war — was new. Recently, White House officials have been coordinated in the use of the term “temporary cease-fire.”
The terminology used here matters, because for months the Biden administration entirely avoided using the word “cease-fire,” which has become a rallying cry on the left. The White House did not respond to requests for clarification on Monday as to what Biden meant by the term “cease-fire.”
Jerusalem is “less optimistic” about the prospect of reaching a deal by Monday, an Israeli diplomatic source told Jewish Insider.
hidden challenge
After four months of war, how much of Gaza’s terror tunnel network remains?
As Israeli troops push southward through the Gaza Strip, there are almost daily reports of new tunnel shafts, lavish bunkers, subterranean weapons factories and storage facilities being discovered. Yet recent estimates by Israeli and U.S. officials suggest that only a small fraction of the vast and intricate underground system built beneath the Palestinian enclave by the Hamas terror group has so far been demolished, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Threat assessment: While the IDF is certainly detecting and even mapping a growing portion of what observers believe could be more than 300 miles of underground passageways – roughly half the New York City subway system – it is not clear exactly how much progress has made in eliminating the threat posed by this elaborate subterranean network, which Israelis often refer to as the “Gaza metro.”
Quality over quantity: IDF spokesman Lt. Col. (res.) Peter Lerner told JI this week that no formal assessment had been made public of how much of Hamas’ tunnel system had been destroyed or neutralized, emphasizing instead that the goal was quality over quantity. “The magnitude is less important than what actually is the makeup of that magnitude,” he explained, highlighting that the army was focused more on “dismantling key components of the tunnel infrastructure that gives [Hamas] a tactical and operational advantage.”
Strategic asset: Daphne Richemond-Barak, author of the 2017 book Underground Warfare and a professor at Reichman University in Herzliya, told JI that taking the fight underground was not only a tactical advantage for Hamas but also a carefully planned strategic asset. “I would say it is absolutely and completely necessary for Israel to destroy all the tunnels and not just neutralize them,” Richemond-Barak said. “Neutralizing them is just a temporary measure, while a destruction is a hard kill that leads to the collapse of its structure – its walls and its ceiling, making it totally unusable.”
Bonus: The Washington Post interviews Israeli security officials who believe that Yahya Sinwar is hiding in tunnels beneath Khan Younis along with Israeli hostages who are being used as human shields to protect the Oct. 7 mastermind. The IDF announced yesterday that it had uncovered a tunnel network connecting the north and south of the Gaza Strip.
college conversations
‘This is that time’: Hillel Int’l CEO calls for Jewish students to lean in on Israel
Among the more than 800 North American college students who gathered in Atlanta this week for an Israel-focused conference organized by Hillel International, the mood was lighthearted and joyful, even as the students shared story after story of the antisemitism and demonization they have faced on their campuses since Oct. 7. That students are able to come together to share their pride in being Jewish and caring for Israel at a time when hostility toward Israel has become ingrained at many schools is a point of pride for Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman, who told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch in an interview at the conference that the organization’s “core commitment” to Zionism has never been more important.
Be clear: “If there has ever been a moment in modern Jewish history when Zionist organizations need to be clear about our commitments, and make sure that we are there for Jewish students who share these beliefs — and in ways that meaningfully support the Jewish and democratic State of Israel — this is that time,” said Lehman.
Ground rules: Hillel’s strong and straightforward embrace of Zionism — and its delineation of clear ground rules for how campus Hillels should handle anti-Zionism — stands in contrast to some Jewish institutions, like Reform and Conservative rabbinical schools, where the topic of Israel is largely avoided because it is viewed as divisive even among some Jews.
Not prepared: The degree of well-organized animosity to Israel that erupted even a day after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, revealed that the Jewish community was unprepared for such an onslaught of hate, Lehman said. “I do think that as a Jewish community, and as Jewish organizations supporting campuses, we’ve woken up post-October 7 to the unfortunate reality that the level of organization, resourcing and synchronicity of groups dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish and democratic state of Israel has surpassed what we as a community have organized to respond and address,” he noted. There is a need, he continued, to “better align across many organizations that are addressing pieces of the puzzle but not in a comprehensive enough way.”
pennsylvania politics
Dave McCormick calls on Summer Lee to resign after she scheduled appearance at CAIR gala featuring antisemitic speakers
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick called on Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) to resign from Congress after she scheduled an appearance at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) gala featuring a lineup of antisemitic speakers, including one who praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
McCormick weighs in: McCormick, a Republican, shared a video statement with JI condemning Lee. He also urged Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), his main rival for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, to disavow his endorsement of Lee. McCormick made reference to Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack on U.S. soil, which is inside Lee’s congressional district.
Casey’s response: Casey, the state’s senior senator, distanced himself from CAIR leadership without directly addressing Lee’s participation in the event. “October 7th was a brutal and vicious attack on innocent Israeli civilians,” Casey, a Democrat, said in a statement to JI. “I unequivocally condemn the antisemitic and hateful comments made by CAIR’s leadership and any comments that celebrate the despicable acts of Hamas terrorists.”
Shapiro’s condemnation: “Governor Shapiro has been very clear that in the face of rising hate speech, leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity,” Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Gov. Josh Shapiro, told JI’s Gabby Deutch. “The Governor believes there is no place in our Commonwealth – founded by William Penn, centered on the values of tolerance — for religious intolerance, whether it be antisemitism or Islamophobia. This hateful, antisemitic rhetoric cannot be tolerated — and it should be condemned, not elevated by our political leaders.”
increasing figures
Shomari Figures joins pro-Israel chorus in packed Alabama Democratic primary field
Shomari Figures, a former Department of Justice staffer running in the crowded primary for Alabama’s new Democratic-leaning 2nd Congressional District, is joining other competitive candidates in the race in staking out a pro-Israel stance, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Mutual alliance: “Israel is an ally. It always has been, and always will be. The United States has to be there for its allies, just as we expect our allies to be there for us,” Figures said in an interview with JI last week. The U.S., Figures continued, also benefits from its relationship with Israel, with Israel serving as a key to regional stability — “Israel’s security is paramount to the United States’ security… because we have mutual threats.”
Self-defense: He added that Israel, in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has the “right to defend itself and mitigate the threat, and do everything it could to secure the release of the hostages that were taken, do everything that it could to remain sure that this [could not] happen again.”
Preconditions to peace: He said that he would “ultimately like to get to a place where the violence comes to an end” and that he has “every confidence” that the U.S. is working to achieve that. He demurred when asked what, if any, preconditions — like freeing the hostages or removing Hamas from power — there should be to bringing the war to an end, noting that he does not have access to confidential information on the conflict, but trusts U.S. leadership to make “informed decisions and informed approaches to how we go about this.”
In Washington: Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) are hosting a private briefing for senators about sexual violence by Hamas. Set to speak: IDF reservist Eran Masas, who went to the Nova music festival to try to save lives and saw evidence of sexual assault among the deceased; Dan Liebersohn, a Nova survivor who heard rapes happening from a hiding place; Chaim Otmazgine, a ZAKA member who saw dead bodies that had been sexually assaulted; and Yarden Gonen, whose sister remains in Hamas custody.
art therapy
New Anu Museum exhibit offers ‘snapshot’ of how Israeli art responded to Oct. 7
The first response by Anu – Museum of the Jewish People to the Oct. 7 terror attacks was to reopen as soon as the military started allowing gatherings of more than 300 people in central Israel. “Two weeks after Oct. 7, we got together, and we said, ‘We are a museum. We’re not a tank, we’re not an airplane. What we can do [for the country] is to be a museum and open’ — so we opened. We were basically the only museum in the center [of the country] that was open,” Anu CEO Dan Tadmor said on Friday at the opening event of a temporary exhibition dedicated to the Israeli art world’s response to the Hamas massacres, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports.
Hostages exhibit: “The second thing that we did was to create the start or the taste of an exhibition that dealt with the issue of the hostages,” he told the small crowd, mainly the artists, curators and their families. This “taste” included a photograph of a graffiti artist, Inbar Heiman, better known by her moniker Pink, as she worked on a piece of street art and a link to a music video made posthumously from existing recordings of her, as well as a number of dreamcatchers that were made by Raz Ben-Ami. Both Heiman and Ben-Ami were taken hostage on Oct. 7; Heiman was killed in Hamas captivity in December, while Ben-Ami was released in November.
Snapshot: “We are the Museum of the Jewish People. How could we have an event like [Oct. 7] and not have this be in the museum?” the museum’s chief curator, Orit Shaham-Gover, told eJP at the exhibit. At the opening ceremony, Shaham-Gover stressed in her speech that the exhibit was “a snapshot” of how artists are responding to Oct. 7, not the final word on the subject. “We have no perspective. We have no way to summarize an event that is still going on,” she said. “This is a snapshot.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
The Ag War: In The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Sugar considers the role that agro-terrorism played on Oct. 7. “Terrorists targeted farmland, livestock, plants and infrastructure as they made their way across the western Negev, which produces roughly 70% of the country’s vegetables, 20% of its fruit and 6% of its milk. ‘The attack was designed to intentionally destroy agricultural production, but more than that, it was meant to destroy the identity of the region, to break the community,’ [Volcani International Partnerships Executive Director Danielle] Abraham says. Hamas terrorists damaged greenhouses and barns, many beyond repair. They slashed crop nets and flooded orchards. They burned irrigation pipes and shot at fertigation systems. They destroyed the filtration system for the local reservoir. Soil compaction and pollution from Israeli tanks brought in to expel the terrorists has also damaged roughly 10% of the area’s land. … Agro-terrorism takes a heavy economic toll and is designed for maximum psychological and emotional effect. Hamas didn’t just attack the land. It attacked Israel’s blooming desert, a national symbol of innovation and resilience that lies at the heart of the idea of Israeli statehood.” [WSJ]
Dueling War Goals: In The New York Times, Dahlia Scheindlin writes about the compatibility — or incompatibility — of Israel’s primary war goals: securing the release of the remaining hostages and destroying Hamas. “Perhaps Israelis aren’t sure what to think, since Mr. Netanyahu has implicitly promised Israelis that they can have it all. He has insisted that the military campaign will help bring their loved ones home alive while also defeating Hamas. But the long months of war since the last hostage release come with a cost written in blood. The hostage situation is an eerie metaphor for long-entrenched beliefs that Israel can fulfill fundamentally irreconcilable aims, a mistake that has contributed to the war in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and bloodshed over decades.” [NYTimes]
Sign of The Times: In The Atlantic, Adam Rubenstein reflects on his experience as a former New York Times op-ed editor involved in the publication of an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) that garnered national attention and led to the resignation of the paper’s top opinion editor. “In the years preceding the Cotton op-ed, the Times had published op-eds by authoritarians including Muammar Qaddafi, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Vladimir Putin. The year of the Cotton op-ed, it also published the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Regina Ip’s defense of China’s murderous crackdown on prodemocracy protests in Hong Kong, Moustafa Bayoumi’s seeming apologia of cultural and ethnic resentments of Jews, and an article by a leader of the Taliban, Sirajuddin Haqqani. None of those caused an uproar. Last year, the page published an essay by the Hamas-appointed mayor of Gaza City, and few seemed to mind. But whether the paper is willing to publish conservative views on divisive political issues, such as abortion rights and the Second Amendment, remains an open question.” [TheAtlantic]
A Bad Deal: In The Dispatch, Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argues against the political agreement President Joe Biden is pushing between Israel and Lebanon, asserting that it will only achieve temporary quiet. “In the weeks after October 7, the IDF targeted Radwan leaders, prompting Hezbollah to pull these high-value assets farther back from Israel’s border. Thus, a deal that requires these fighters to stay 10 kilometers from Israel’s border and removes their outposts south of that line would be a meager concession for Nasrallah. But alongside an historic surge of IDF border patrols, it could offer Israel enough of a fig leaf to persuade evacuated communities to return home. Unsurprisingly, that is exactly the deal on the table from the United States and France. With reports that sweeteners might include a massive economic bailout for Lebanon and Israeli negotiation over its disputed land border with it, too. Who would be responsible for keeping the peace? The LAF and UNIFIL — the same pair that has spent 17 years helping Hezbollah become the threat it is today. That would guarantee that Hezbollah’s commitments will never be verified or enforced. It’s a win-win for Nasrallah.” [TheDispatch]
Around the Web
Ramadan Respite: President Joe Biden said on Seth Meyers’ late-night talk show that Israel would be open to halting its war against Hamas during Ramadan, which begins in two weeks, if the remaining 134 hostages are released.
Dermer’s Dictum: Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer toldPunchbowl News that Israel needs security aid — which has yet to be passed by Congress — “yesterday.”
Tough Ro to Hoe: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a Biden reelection campaign surrogate who traveled to Michigan to meet with Arab-American leaders last week, said the state was unwinnable for Democrats absent a change in the Biden administration’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
Map Malaise: New York Democrats rejected the state’s newly redrawn congressional map — crafted by an independent, non-partisan committee — in an effort to redraw the lines to create more Democratic-leaning districts.
Switching Teams: More than 2,300 voters in New York’s 16th Congressional District changed their party registration to Democrat following an initiative to reregister Republicans and undeclared voters as Democrats.
Cairo Concern: In meetings with Egyptian officials last week, the heads of the IDF and Shin Bet reassured officials in Cairo that Israel’s operations in Gaza would not create an influx of Palestinians into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Gaza Aid: The Wall Street Journal reports on the challenges surrounding efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza after police disappeared from the streets of southern Gaza as part of Israel’s campaign to dismantle Hamas.
Survey Says: A Pew Research Center poll found that most countries say social media has been good for their democracy; in Israel, 65% believe this, whereas the U.S. has the most negative view of social media with regard to democracy, with 64% of respondents saying it has been a bad thing.
Kushner Clout: The Anti-Defamation League will honor former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner for his involvement in the Abraham Accords at its upcoming Never is Now conference.
Death in D.C.: The U.S. airman who self-immolated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington while yelling “Free Palestine” succumbed to his injuries.
Blitz Against Antisemitism: Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff met with New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft and lawyer Clarence Jones, Martin Luther King Jr.’s speechwriter, in Massachusetts to discuss the spike in antisemitism and other forms of bias in the U.S.
Harvard Resignation: A co-chair of Harvard’s newly formed antisemitism task force resigned over concerns that the university would not commit to implementing the group’s recommendations.
Debt Sale: Harvard University is planning to issue $1.65 billion of bonds in March and April.
Campus Beat: The University of California, Santa Barbara’s multicultural center, which houses the office of the student government president, who is the daughter of Russian Jewish refugees, was plastered with posters calling her a “racist Zionist” — including one poster that included horns, an antisemitic stereotype.
Billion-dollar Gift: Dr. Ruth Gottesman made a $1 billion donation to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she served as a longtime professor, to ensure free tuition for incoming students at the school.
Bird Buy: The sale of the Baltimore Orioles to David Rubenstein’s ownership group for $1.725 billion is expected to be finalized by April.
Nuke Update: The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said that Iran has decreased its stockpile of enriched uranium over the last several months, but still retains enough near-weapons grade material for three nuclear bombs.
Draft Discussion: Israeli war cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot released an outline of a plan to expand Israel’s military draft to include the enlistment of Arabs and Haredi Jews.
UAE Meetup: Israeli Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat met with his Saudi counterpart, Commerce Minister Majid bin Abdullah al-Qasabi, on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization meeting in Abu Dhabi.
Remembering: British financier Jacob Rothschild, a senior member of the storied British Jewish family, died at 87.
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog cast his ballot in today’s municipal elections in Israel. The elections, initially slated for the fall, were postponed in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
Birthdays
Stand-up comedian, Wendy Liebman turns 63…
Israel’s former chief of police followed by 10 years as mayor of Beersheva, Yaakov Turner turns 89… Performance artist and filmmaker, she is a professor emerita at UCSD, Eleanor Antin turns 89… Writer and illustrator of children’s books, Uri Shulevitz turns 89… William Drykos… Investor and trader, he is the chair of Juilliard, vice chair of Lincoln Center and on the board of the Metropolitan Opera, Bruce Kovner turns 79… Haverford, Pa.-based attorney, mediator and arbitrator, Judith Meyer… NYC-based real estate developer, Michael Gervis… Professor of physics at MIT, Alan Harvey Guth turns 77… Member of the British House of Lords, she is a retired rabbi and the chair of University College London Hospitals, Baroness Julia Neuberger turns 74… Historian, syndicated columnist, investigative journalist and talk show host, Edwin Black turns 74… U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) turns 66… Suzanne “Suzy” Appelbaum… Head of the International Relations Unit at the Jewish Agency for Israel and former spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Yigal Palmor… Writer and producer for television and film, David Krinsky turns 61… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, David S. Waren… Film and television actor, Noah Emmerich turns 59… Founder of Spanx and a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Sara Blakely turns 53… Founder and executive director of Toldot Yisrael, Aryeh Halivni turns 51… Director of Georgetown University’s journalism program, Rebecca Sinderbrand… Singer-songwriter, composer and prayer leader, Sam Benjamin “Shir Yaakov” Feinstein-Feit turns 46… Finance minister of Israel, he is the leader of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich turns 44… Historian of Israel and the Jews, currently a visiting professor and senior research fellow at Haifa University, Sara Yael Hirschhorn… Marketing director of the Via Sabra tourism firm and former director of Israel-Diaspora relations at the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, Ziva Haller Rubenstein… Senior baseball official for the Tampa Bay Rays and then the Boston Red Sox, now an advisor to the St. Louis Cardinals, Chaim Bloom turns 41… Massachusetts state senator until 2023, one of the originators of the White House Seder, Eric P. Lesser turns 39… video journalist for The Daily Wire, Kassy Dillon turns 28… Alana Berkowitz…
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