Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight the efforts of Hostage Aid Worldwide as the families of the 136 remaining hostages held in Gaza work for their loved ones’ releases, and preview the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s upcoming Super Bowl ad. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alan Gross, Dana Stroul and Zac Posen.
A debate over the southern border with Mexico. Former President Donald Trump’s ascendency as the GOP’s likely presidential nominee. Rising concerns among some left-wing Democrats over aid to Israel.
Taken separately, all three issues would be enough to drive headlines over the course of a normal news cycle.
But the three issues have coalesced around a larger debate this week, as the House and Senate put forth competing Israel aid bills, with the White House threatening last night to veto the GOP House-led stand-alone bill that would send $17.6 billion to Israel as it enters its fifth month of war with Hamas. Jewish Insider‘s Marc Rod looks at the challenges facing both those bills.
The House will vote on its bill today, but it’s not guaranteed that it will have the necessary support. With the short- and long-term prospects for both bills in question, it remains unclear how or when Congress will be able to come together to approve additional aid to Israel, which lawmakers have agreed is sorely needed.
Today’s House vote will require a two-thirds majority for approval, making the legislation’s passage difficult given the White House’s opposition. House Republicans are contending with defections on their right flank from House Freedom Caucus members, such as Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who are insisting on funding cuts to pay for Israel aid.
Meanwhile, some Democrats told us that they’re not ready to announce their votes, while others said they oppose the bill. House Democratic leaders have not formally announced their position, but have been critical of the bill.
“It seems to me that the speaker and Republicans are playing politics with our national security interests,” Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told us on Monday. To attempt to pass portions of the supplemental separately, he continued, “threatens the likelihood and the probability that we can get the other things done also. It should be a package deal, in my estimation.”
The administration’s veto notice described the House bill as a “cynical political maneuver” turning Israel’s security, which “should be sacred,” into a “political game,” echoing the language National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan used while making the rounds on the Sunday morning shows over the weekend.
Things aren’t looking much better on the Senate side, where Republicans emerged from a conference meeting yesterday saying they need more time to review a comprehensive bill overhauling border security and providing foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine, leaving the legislation in limbo.
Trump’s influence is also shaping the GOP’s growing unwillingness to financially support Ukraine and scuttle a bipartisan immigration deal that he feels will hurt his own political prospects. Last month, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) privately warned Senate Republicans that Trump opposition to the package put them “in a quandary.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the lead GOP negotiator on the border package, told reporters that fellow Republicans will demand further changes to the bill’s immigration provisions in order to support it. Lankford indicated he might vote against a motion on the legislation — his own bill — on Wednesday.
The fact that the Republican senator who worked tirelessly in bipartisan negotiations could vote against his own bill underscores who’s running the Republican show these days. And it creates a whole new level of unpredictability when it comes to the GOP’s positions on core issues — including foreign policy — with Trump as leader of his party, and potentially as the next president. Read the full story here.
hostages helping hostages
The former hostages using data to help Oct. 7 victims
In the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, many organizations in Israel, the U.S. and beyond have come together to advocate for the release of hostages held in Gaza and support their families. But only one is made up of former hostages using their experiences and a data-driven approach to advise the loved ones of those still in captivity and the Western governments trying to bring them home. Hostage Aid Worldwide was established in 2020 to fight for hostages around the world to be released and to prevent future instances of hostage-taking. It tracks hostages worldwide and advocates for their release, as well as for policies to disrupt what they call “the hostage-taking business model,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
At the helm: The organization’s president is Nizar Zakka, who was held hostage in Iran for four years, and its board includes Alan Gross, who was wrongfully imprisoned in Cuba for five years, Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, Sam Goodwin, who was held hostage in Syria, and others.
Helping hand: Barry Rosen, a member of HAW’s board and a former hostage in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, spearheaded the organization’s efforts to help hostages of Hamas soon after the Oct. 7 attack, working with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in New York. Among the actions Hostage Aid Worldwide has taken to help Israeli hostages is to bring families to meet with The New York Times‘ editorial board, to take part in briefings to American Jewish community organizations and give interviews to the media to raise awareness.
Unique perspective: Gross explained that because “Hostage Aid Worldwide was founded by former hostages, we have a perspective about this that other people might not have, of great sensitivity for the hostages and hostage families.”
Today in Washington: Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana is on Capitol Hill today, where he will meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this morning. Later today, Johnson will meet with a delegation of families of hostages.
super bowl special
Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism to air first Super Bowl ad
Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism will air its first Super Bowl ad on Sunday, featuring Clarence B. Jones, a prominent lawyer and civil rights activist who helped Martin Luther King Jr. draft his “I Have a Dream” speech, the organization has announced. “The work Dr. Jones has done over the course of his entire life and career is the embodiment of FCAS’ mission to build bridges and stand up to Jewish hate and all forms of hate,” said Kraft, the New England Patriots owner, in a statement, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
King’s message: The 30-second ad is part of the foundation’s “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign, which seeks to raise awareness around rising antisemitism in the U.S. “With this ad, we hope to continue to spread Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of unity and equality at a time in which the country needs it most and our goal is to reach a wide audience of people and inspire all Americans to stand up together, arm in arm, and fight this horrific rising hate,” Kraft added.
Speaking out: Jones, for his part, said in a statement that the civil rights movement “would not have occurred without the unwavering and largely unsung efforts of the Jewish people. With hate on the rise, it is as important as ever that all of us stand together and speak out,” he said.
kosher cooking
JChef offers kosher meal kits for the busy consumer
When JChef broke into the lucrative meal-kit delivery industry more than 10 years ago offering the first kosher option, it partnered with kosher celebrity chefs to give the novel business some cache. Now, the South Florida-based firm launched by Gabriel Saul appears poised to grow with a new online meat store and further expansion plans, Tori Bergel reports for Jewish Insider.
Stand-alone offering: “A lot of our customers are typically located in places where they have access to regular supermarkets, obviously, but the kosher meat options at those said supermarkets are not the best,” COO Allen Rabinovich, 32, told JI ahead of the store’s opening last month. “Our customers order from us, obviously because the recipes themselves are really nice and the produce and everything, but for some of our customers the meat is the most important piece, and the fact that they can consistently get great meat from us is why they’ve been with us for so long. And so we want to create that stand-alone offering for possibly new customers that aren’t interested in necessarily cooking our recipes, but just want the meat.”
Wider plans: Even before launching the meat store, Saul toyed with the idea of expanding JChef’s capabilities beyond meal kits to include a full-scale kosher market that customers could purchase directly from. While he has no interest in transitioning into a brick-and-mortar store, he’s working to secure partnerships that would broaden the new online store’s offerings to include additional products such as wine, breads, challah, desserts and other snacks — though dairy products will remain unavailable. “In the longer run, we definitely see JChef as a kosher brand,” Saul said. “We’re a meal kit right now, but, just based on the logistics alone, the way we can help is we can help bring pretty much anything kosher to anywhere in the U.S.”
Worthy Reads
Iran on the Ballot: In The Wall Street Journal, William McGurn considers whether Iran will again play a prominent role in the presidential election, as it did in 1980 when President Jimmy Carter lost his reelection bid amid the Iran hostage crisis. “Mr. Biden’s bet on the Iranians has always been the same as Barack Obama’s: If we engaged and got them to sign on to a nuclear deal, we would prevent them from getting a bomb and gradually drag them into normalcy. Mr. Biden may still believe this, just as he apparently believes that a Palestinian state is the answer to Palestinian terror. But like Jimmy Carter, he is now getting a lesson that such regimes don’t behave normally because they have different priorities. It is doubtful Iran prefers Donald Trump to Mr. Biden. But if Mr. Trump does win in November, Iran will likely have had more to do with it than No Labels.” [WSJ]
What’s Next: The Washington Post’s Max Boot raises concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to address potential “day-after” scenarios for the Israel-Hamas war will pose challenges to any effort to permanently render Hamas ineffective. “Tragically, Netanyahu’s personal and political incentives are to allow military operations to continue indefinitely without making any hard decisions about what comes next. Thus, when the prime minister speaks of the ‘day after’ in Gaza, he limits himself to vapid generalities — such as saying on Jan. 18 that ‘total victory requires that Gaza be demilitarized, under Israel’s full security control.’ Note that he does not even broach the all-important question of who will exercise political power in Gaza. Israel is in dire danger of ignoring one of the most enduring lessons of counterinsurgency: Namely, victory requires not just tactical military success but a viable political end-state. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how many insurgents you kill — more will simply spring up to replace them. That is a lesson the United States learned at high cost in Afghanistan and Iraq.” [WashPost]
Context Clues: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg looks at the debate around decontextualization, following incidents on Capitol Hill and the International Court of Justice in which phrases and quotes were selectively used to drive predetermined narratives. “Just as decontextualizing campus chants can wrongly lead to pro-Palestinian activists being tarred as genocidal anti-Semites, the ICJ’s misrepresentation of [Israeli Defense Minister] Gallant miscast an opponent of Israel’s hard right as one of its allies. As it turns out, whether it’s ‘From the river to the sea’ or ‘Eliminate it all,’ context matters — and that cuts both ways. Political partisans tend to appeal to context when it supports their stance and ignore it when it complicates their narrative. This approach is useful if you are trying to win an argument, but it is deeply counterproductive if you are trying to understand reality. For the rest of us, stories like these are a reminder that there are better ways to learn about the world than from incendiary viral videos and selective citations.” [TheAtlantic]
Around the Web
Military Update: Israel said that it is in control of much of Hamas’ elaborate tunnel network in Khan Younis and is making progress in its search for Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.
Behind the Scenes: Israeli officials are quietly telling the U.S. and U.N. that the embattled U.N. agency assisting Palestinians should be allowed to continue to operate in the short-term, but will need to be overhauled when the Israel-Hamas war ends.
Harrisburg Hullabaloo: More than 100 people were arrested during a mass demonstration at the Pennsylvania State Capitol protesting the state’s investment in Israel Bonds.
Chicago Under Fire: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is facing criticism from Jewish leaders in the city over his handling of a recent cease-fire resolution, which passed after Johnson issued the deciding vote.
Red Run: Democrats in New York’s 3rd Congressional District are tempering expectations ahead of next week’s special election between former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Mazi Pilip, following several years of Republican gains on Long Island and Queens.
Ad Buy: The United Democracy Project has booked roughly $500,000 in cable and broadcast buys opposing California state Sen. Dave Min, who is running to succeed Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) as she mounts a Senate bid.
Safety Measure: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley requested Secret Service protection amid an uptick in threats as the GOP presidential field consolidates around her and former President Donald Trump.
CUNY Concerns: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called for New York State to appoint an independent monitor for antisemitism on City University of New York campuses, after one CUNY school was set to host an event on “Globalizing the Intifada.” Torres told JI that the event, now canceled, represented “an open invitation to violence against Jews across the globe,” adding, “The self-policing of CUNY will no longer suffice.”
Campus Beat: The interim president of the University of Pennsylvania, which is under federal investigation for its handling of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus, said that recent cartoons by a university lecturer that invoked blood libel against Jews were “antisemitic” and “reprehensible.”
Presidential Perspective: The Harvard International Reviewpublished an interview with Israeli President Isaac Herzog that touched on Israel-Saudi normalization, the recent International Court of Justice’s ruling on a South African complaint against Israel and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Art Attack: A dozen art galleries across New York City have been vandalized with red paint and, in some cases, anti-Israel graffiti.
Gap Gig: Fashion designer Zac Posen was named the new creative director of Gap. Inc. and chief creative officer of Old Navy.
Settler Sanctions: Israel’s Postal Bank closed the account of one of the four Israeli settlers against whom the U.S. announced sanctions last week.
Exposed: An American pornographic star who was a frequent critic of Israel online traveled to Iran, visiting the former U.S. Embassy; Tehran said it was unaware of the woman’s “immoral job” when issuing her visa.
Cameron’s Comments: U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s comments that London could recognize a Palestinian state ahead of final-status talks between Israelis and Palestinians were “over-interpreted” and reaffirmed that existing U.K. policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had not changed.
Across the Pond: A U.K. panel determined that a University of Bristol professor who was fired for incendiary comments made about Zionism was unfairly removed from his position; the Board of Deputies of British Jews said shortly after the ruling that it “will never stop fighting on behalf of Jewish students and others in this country who have to come into contact with people like him every single day.”
Milei in Israel: Argentinian President Javier Milei arrived in Israel today.
Quarter Pounder: McDonald’s said that it saw a drop in profits during the last quarter of 2023, citing “the impact of the war” between Israel and Hamas.
Syria Strike: Six U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters were killed in a drone strike on a base in eastern Syria that also houses U.S. troops; an Iran-backed Iraqi militia group claimed responsibility for the attack.
White House Walkback: The White House walked back an earlier statement that it had given advance notice to Iraqi officials of its weekend strikes against Iran-linked targets, saying on Monday that it notified Baghdad immediately following the strikes.
Top Target: In the New York Post, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Mark Dubowitz suggests the Biden administration more directly target the Iranian regime as Washington seeks to degrade Tehran’s ability to strike across the region.
Nuclear News: The head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency announced the construction of a fourth nuclear research reactor in the city of Isfahan.
Top Brass: The Wall Street Journalprofiles Quds Force head Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani as Iranian proxies scale up their attacks on U.S. interests across the Middle East.
Transitions: Dana Stroul is joining The Washington Institute for Near East Policy as research director as well as TWI’s Shelly and Michael Kassen Fellow. Michael Wilner was named chief Washington correspondent for McClatchy, where he was previously senior national security and White House correspondent.
Pic of the Day
Secretary of State Tony Blinken is greeted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, right, and Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, on Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Riyadh was Blinken’s first destination on his five-day trip to the region, which will include a stop in Israel later this week.
Birthdays
Actress, writer and producer, Naomi Grossman turns 49…
Israeli pediatric endocrinologist, winner of the 2009 Israel Prize, in 1966 he described the type of dwarfism later called Laron syndrome in his name, Dr. Zvi Laron turns 97… Advertising entrepreneur, part owner of MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks and the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, William Levine turns 92… Member of the New Jersey Senate for 17 years including 10 years as Senate majority leader, Loretta Weinberg turns 89… Rosalyn Kaplan… Cantor of Congregation Hugat Haverim in Glendale, Calif., Harvey Lee Block… Syndicated columnist for the Washington Post for 43 years, Richard Martin Cohen turns 83… Actor, best known for his role in the 172 episodes of the television series “L.A. Law,” Michael Tucker turns 79… Pulitzer Prize-winning author and vice chairman of S&P Global, Daniel Yergin turns 77… Professor at McGill University since 1975, Yitzchak M. “Irv” Binik turns 75… Louisiana commissioner of administration for eight years until last month, after serving as lieutenant governor of Louisiana for the prior six years, Jay Dardenne turns 70… Professor concurrently at both Harvard and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Michael Pollan turns 69… Past chair of the board of UJA-Federation of New York and a part owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, David Lewis Moore… Los Angeles attorney specializing in criminal and civil appeals, Paul Kujawsky… President of Brown University, Christina Hull Paxson turns 64… Former longtime foreign correspondent for NPR, author of the NYT-bestseller The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner turns 61… Special events producer at Ballas Bloom Creative, Jacquelyn Ballas Bloom… NFL Pro Bowl long snapper for 18 seasons, David Aaron Binn turns 52… Actress, writer and producer, Naomi Grossman turns 49… Rabbi and author of eight books, Danya Ruttenberg turns 49… Former tenured professor at MIT, she is the co-trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation, Neri Oxman turns 48… Israeli-French singer-songwriter whose hit single “New Soul” was used by Apple in a 2008 advertising campaign for its MacBook Air, Yael Naim turns 46… Equestrian show jumper who competes for Israel, Danielle “Dani” Goldstein-Waldman turns 39… AIPAC’s Mid-Atlantic regional political director, Stephen Knable… Investigative journalist, Steven I. Weiss… Deputy division director, public diplomacy and international relations at the Israeli Ministry of Health, Adam Cutler… Member of the Australian parliament, Joshua Solomon Burns turns 37… Strategic sourcing manager for IKO North America, Yadin Koschitzky…
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