Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the growing daylight between the White House and Jerusalem and how that could affect Israel’s operations in Gaza, and spotlight this week’s AIPAC convening in Washington. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Sen. John Fetterman and Eden Golan.
There are growing signs that President Joe Biden is beginning to soften his support for Israel and its mission to defeat Hamas in Gaza, even as the White House is publicly telegraphing that the disagreements are with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not the Israeli public, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
After a State of the Union address where Biden sounded more animated over the humanitarian situation in Gaza than over Israel’s ability to defeat Hamas, he gave an interview to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart where he warned an Israeli operation going into Hamas’ final stronghold of Rafah was a “red line” for him.
“[Bibi]’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel, by making the rest of the world — it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake. So I want to see a cease-fire. And I’m starting with a major, major exchange of prisoners for a six-week period,” Biden said in the interview.
This is part of anemerging White House strategy to break with Israel’s war strategy while proclaiming it still stands with Israel. The Biden administration is feeling pressure from its progressive flank in the middle of an election year, and is looking for a way to win back support from younger voters who have turned against Israel, while not sacrificing support from pro-Israel voters, who make up a clear majority of the American electorate.
For a while, Biden’s mollifying of the left was mostly symbolic. Administration officials apologized to Arab Americans in Michigan for initially being skeptical of the Hamas-provided death count, and tut-tutted Israel to take more consideration of humanitarian concerns. (Notably, Biden appeared to cite Hamas’ statistics in his State of the Union address, when he said “most” of the 30,000 Palestinians killed were “not Hamas.”)
But by focusing his energy on condemning Netanyahu instead of focusing on Hamas’ intransigence and disinterest in protecting civilian lives, Biden is ignoring the realities on the ground. He is no longer focusing his comments on calls for the terror group to be removed from power — even as Hamas has rejected the outlines of a temporary cease-fire that would require it to release some Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israel has been receptive to the prospect of such a deal.
To be sure, the Biden administration has continued to send ammunition and military aid to Israel, even as the president said that a push into Hamas’ last stronghold in Rafah would cross a “red line.” He followed that by saying he would not stop providing Iron Dome anti-missile interceptors — but did not make similar assurances about weapons that are not defensive.
Biden’s desire to make Netanyahu the boogeyman is also undermined by Israeli public opinion, which overwhelmingly seeks Hamas’ military defeat. While Netanyahu is unpopular in Israel, his war cabinet’s goal to attack Hamas in Rafah is widely backed by Israelis across the ideological spectrum. A new Israel Democracy Institute survey found about two-thirds of Israelis support an expansion of IDF operations into Rafah, including 74% of Israeli Jews and 45% of left-wing Israelis.
If the goal of the Biden administration is to break up Netanyahu’s shaky coalition, attacking him for supporting what most Israelis want will likely have the opposite effect — giving Netanyahu his own foil to keep the right wing in line. Indeed, in an interview Sunday with Axel Springer, Netanyahu argued that an IDF push into Rafah and his opposition to putting the Palestinian Authority in charge of Gaza “are supported by the overwhelming majority of Israelis… They understand what’s good for Israel.”
Asserting that Israeli forces will go into Rafah, Netanyahu said, “We’re not going to leave them. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.”
It was telling that even Netanyahu’s more liberal rival in the war cabinet, Benny Gantz, was similarly criticized by the White House last week over Israel’s military strategy. That only underscores that the divide is less about personalities but about policy and Israel’s ability to finish the war on its own terms.
The reality is that Biden’s evolving rhetoric is a result of his party’s growing divide with Israel that goes beyond the leader of its government. While a majority of Democrats still broadly support Israel — Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) publicly endorsed an Israeli operation in Rafah on Sunday — there are signs of increasing uneasiness with the humanitarian toll of the war and an increasing number of Democrats are all too content with making Netanyahu the target of their frustrations.
treading a tightrope
Amid Biden barbs, Netanyahu navigates his own balancing act
When President Joe Biden told MSNBC on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” he was hitting the polarizing Israeli leader at a precarious moment for his governing coalition, which is divided over domestic issues. But if Biden thought he was pushing Netanyahu closer to the political edge, he may find that this strategy has the opposite effect. Biden’s hot-mic call after Thursday’s State of the Union address for a “come to Jesus” meeting – a phrase unfamiliar to most Israelis, which Hebrew media translated as a scolding – and Vice President Kamala Harris’ call to “distinguish or at least not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people” punctuated a week in which Netanyahu had taken one domestic political hit after another, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Conscription consternation: The fallout continued from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s call at the end of February for an end to the Haredi exemption from the IDF draft, with Gallant saying he would only table legislation supported by all parties in the coalition – a seemingly impossible feat. Yet, if Netanyahu thought he could rely on the 64 members of his prewar, religious-right coalition to stick together when it comes to Haredi conscription, the response to remarks by Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef made clear that the issue is Haredim vs. everyone else – and that Netanyahu may not be able to avoid an election if he chooses the Haredi side, as he has in the past.
Gantz’s U.S. visit: In light of the increasingly critical comments from Washington, war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz sought in his visit to the White House to better communicate Israel’s position in the war than Netanyahu and other Israeli officials had managed. Yet the meetings with Gantz, in which there was little daylight with Netanyahu on Rafah and humanitarian aid, as well as the short-term infeasibility of the Palestinian Authority governing Gaza, should have clued the Biden administration into the fact that Netanyahu’s positions are broadly popular at home.
Opposite effect: Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren saw Biden and Harris’ attempt to separate Netanyahu and Israelis as “delegitimizing the government that was democratically elected. It’s unconscionable… They’re saying we don’t accept the outcome of the [2022] election.” Biden, Oren argued, is “actually strengthening Bibi, not weakening him, because people are going to rally around him. As much as I think this government is a deep strategic liability, it makes me want to rally around [Netanyahu], because Biden is attacking Israeli democracy.”
Read more: The Wall Street Journal’s Elliot Kaufman suggests that every player in the Israel-Hamas war has its own “Operation Ramadan” and that Hamas’ aim is to use the monthlong holiday, which began last night, “to set off internal Israeli disorder,” whether by exacerbating tensions in Jerusalem or goading Hezbollah into a military escalation.
taking the stage
Top four congressional leaders to address AIPAC leadership meeting
The top four congressional leaders — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffires (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — are all set to address AIPAC’s Congressional Summit in Washington, D.C., which kicked off on Sunday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Lobbying agenda: According to AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann, the event has around 1,600 AIPAC leaders and activists in attendance, and will also include a lobbying component in favor of emergency Israel funding, full-year 2024 Israel funding and the SHIP Act, an Iran oil sanctions bill that’s expected to be considered in committee in the Senate soon. “The priority lobbying message will be to House Republicans to urge their leadership to urgently pass a bipartisan emergency funding bill for Israel without conditions and that can be signed into law by the president,” Wittmann said.
Electoral focus: A partial schedule for the conference obtained by JI indicated that, outside of the keynote speeches by key leaders, the event’s agenda will be split roughly evenly between sessions on Middle East regional policy and the war in Gaza, and sessions on AIPAC’s political strategy and the 2024 congressional election cycle.
academy agita
Philanthropist Len Blavatnik onstage for Jonathan Glazer’s Israel criticism at the Oscars
Writer-director Jonathan Glazer included Ukrainian-born British-American philanthropist Sir Leonard Blavatnik in his denunciation of Israel as he accepted the award for Best International Feature Film for his Holocaust film, “The Zone of Interest,” at Sunday night’s Oscars, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports.
Remarkable remark: With Blavatnik and Jim Wilson, who both produced the film, standing behind him, Glazer declared: “We stand here as men who refute [sic] their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization.” (Glazer evidently meant reject or renounce, not refute, which means to disprove.) The statement was in line with previous comments made by Glazer and Wilson, who have in the past conflated the Israeli victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks with the Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and expressed sympathy for both.
Blavatnik’s presence: The remarks were notable in the presence of Blavatnik, who in December halted donations to Harvard, reportedly over the university’s handling of antisemitism on campus in the wake of Oct. 7 and who owns the controlling stake in an Israeli television network, Channel 13. Through his family foundation, Blavatnik is a major donor to a number of Israeli and Jewish causes, including a Chabad-run food bank in southern Israel, the National Library of Israel and Birthright Israel.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
iran in focus
U.S. strikes deterred Iran’s proxies but ‘deterrence is temporary,’ top general says
Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the top U.S. general in the Middle East, said in congressional testimony on Thursday that the deterrence achieved by U.S. strikes on Iranian proxies in recent months is unlikely to last, suggesting that successful long-term efforts to counter Iran and its proxies take a whole-of-government approach, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Deterrence is temporary: “There is some, but not enough” cost on Iran for its activities, Kurilla told lawmakers at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which leads operations in the Middle East. The recent U.S. strikes, he said, sent, “a very strong deterrent message, and we have not had an attack in 32 days in Iraq and Syria, but I will tell you that deterrence is temporary.”
Nuclear update: Addressing Iran’s nuclear threat, the CENTCOM commander said Iran hasn’t yet decided to pursue a nuclear weapon, but if it does, it could create enough weapons-grade uranium within “a matter of weeks” for three nuclear weapons. It would take Iran longer to actually create those weapons, he added.
Humanitarian aid: In Gaza, Kurilla described the primary humanitarian challenge as distributing and securing aid inside the enclave, particularly moving it into the northern portion of Gaza. He did not point to Israel as the major obstacle to humanitarian aid, as many Democratic lawmakers have.
Elsewhere in the Senate: Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) wrote to the administration requesting a briefing within two weeks on its implementation of the administration’s new arms sales conditions policy. Van Hollen has argued that Israel is in violation of the policy and U.S. law and that aid should be suspended.
mit under scrutiny
House committee requests documents from MIT for antisemitism probe
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Friday requested documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the fourth school to be drawn into the committee’s investigation of campus antisemitism. In a letter to MIT President Sally Kornbluth and MIT Corporation Chair Mark Gorenberg, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee chair, said the committee has “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of MIT’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Kornbluth concerns: Foxx referenced testimony by Kornbluth in December that “further called into question the Institute’s willingness to address antisemitism seriously” and raised concerns about the MIT Corporation’s continued endorsement of Kornbluth following that hearing. Kornbluth is the only one of the three college presidents who testified at that December hearing who remains in her position.
Incidents: The committee chair highlighted numerous incidents on MIT’s campus since Oct. 7, including disruptions of classes and campus events, blockades of buildings, harassment and assault of Jewish students and chants endorsing violence. She accused MIT of failing to enforce its suspension of a campus pro-Palestinian group that was punished for violating school rules. Foxx’s letter also includes excerpts from a statement to the committee by MIT Israel Alliance President Talia Khan, who said that MIT’s lack of action “must not be regarded simply as inaction, but rather as a feckless, cowardly, hypocritical, entirely deliberate choice to remain silent.”
survey says
Jewish college students report having to hide support for Israel; their non-Jewish peers agree they should
More than a third of Jewish college students report hiding their identity since Oct. 7, such as no longer wearing jewelry with the Star of David, in order to fit in — double the number of university students who said they did so before the Israel-Hamas war, according to new research, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports.
Social stigma: The study, conducted by Tufts University political scientist Eitan Hersh in partnership with College Pulse and funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, found that more than three-quarters of Jewish students (77%) have noticed a social stigma around supporting Israel’s right to exist. Non-Jewish students surveyed also agree that there’s a social stigma associated with supporting Israel — with the highest agreement (50%) coming from those on the far left or who identify as socialist.
Oct. 7 impact: For the study, Hersh surveyed students nationally pre- and post-Oct. 7. Since the earlier study, conducted in 2022, the number of students who expressed that they feel judged on campus for being openly Jewish rose dramatically, from 24% to 42%. The number of students who felt they must hide being Jewish on campus to fit in today climbed from 20% to 36%.
Read more here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
On the Quad: The Wall Street Journal reports on professors at Columbia University who are facing accusations of “abandoning context, advocating a pro-Palestinian bias, spreading disinformation and expecting an adherence to anti-Zionism.”
Worthy Reads
Biden’s Sounding Board: The Washington Post’s Tyler Pager explores President Joe Biden’s decision-making style, which often includes talking to current and former elected officials — such as former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who had previously been a Republican senator from Nebraska — before giving final sign-off. “Hagel’s impromptu conversation came after an unexpected visit to the White House a month earlier. Hagel had lunch plans with John Kirby, a White House spokesman who had worked with Hagel at the Pentagon. When Kirby casually mentioned the lunch plans to Biden, the president told Hagel to stop by the White House after the meal at the Hay-Adams hotel. Hagel ended up spending two hours in an impromptu meeting with Biden, during which they discussed a range of foreign policy issues. They were only briefly interrupted when an aide pulled Biden out to pose for a photo with the White House interns. ‘He likes to take the pulse,’ Hagel said. ‘It’s now more important than ever for him, because he’s a captive. He’s a prisoner of the White House. He can’t do what he used to do. He doesn’t have the same freedoms that he once had. I think it’s more important for him today as president to understand what’s going on out there.’” [WashPost]
Sullivan’s Sojourn:The Wall Street Journal’s Vivian Salama, Gordon Lubold and Sabrina Siddiqui spotlight National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, as he advises the White House on several foreign wars. “In wars spanning Afghanistan, Ukraine and now Gaza, Sullivan is the man in the middle, trying to negotiate between allies and enemies, and sometimes among warring U.S. government agencies. Supporters credit him with putting together a Western coalition to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, preventing a potential second front in the Israel conflict, and ramping up export controls on semiconductors and other cutting-edge technology as part of a blueprint for slowing China’s competitive advantage. ‘Every day, I toggle between guns and butter,’ Sullivan told The Wall Street Journal, describing the guns as the wars in the Middle East and Europe, and the butter as the work with allies to enhance and protect the American economy. …But Sullivan’s role, as other officials and experts said, isn’t to advocate a policy, but present an analysis of the options to Biden, who listens to advice and makes the ultimate decision. One former official likened it to a debate over the color of the sky: If five people said it’s blue, and Sullivan said it’s red, what ultimately matters is what the president believes.” [WSJ]
Shifting Sands: Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria suggests that a sea change away from extremism is underway in the Middle East. “The gulf states are now so rich that it has redefined their orientation toward the world. On a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, I was struck by how these countries’ elites predominantly worry about war and instability, are constantly looking for economic opportunities, and increasingly see Israel as a potential economic partner. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has huge ambitions for modernization. Violence and terror in the region can only upend these plans. … This change in both the composition of the leading Arab states and the attitudes of the leaders will not solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue. But it does suggest there is some support for peace, stability and moderation in a region that desperately needs it.” [WashPost]
Around the Web
Qatari Pressure: Qatar is reportedly threatening to expel Hamas leaders in the Gulf nation if they are unable to persuade the terror group’s Gaza-based leaders to reach an agreement to free the remaining hostages.
Trump on TikTok: Former President Donald Trump said he opposes efforts to force the sale of or ban TikTok after a House committee advanced such a measure unanimously. That could create roadblocks for the effort, but House leadership still plans to move ahead.
Lake Effect: Arizona Republican Kari Lake is attempting to mend fences with individuals within her party whom she has previously maligned as she mounts a bid for Senate.
Use ‘Leverage’: Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and Bill Keating (D-MA) led 60 House Democrats on a letter urging the administration to “use all of its diplomatic leverage” to press Israel, the Palestinian Authority and other regional powers toward a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including outlining a “clear plan and pathway” to a Palestinian state and “greater oversight” of military aid.
Push Against Repression: A House Homeland Security Committee subcommittee voted on Thursday to advance three bills aimed at combating transnational repression, including creating a dedicated office inside the Department of Homeland Security, creating a hotline and public awareness campaign and strengthening state and local law enforcement.
No on Cease-fire: Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) and 18 other Republicans introduced a resolution opposing calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and cutting all U.S. aid to Palestinians.
Notable Quotable: Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv last week, former CIA Director David Petraeus said that Israel should continue its counteroffensive in Gaza “until Hamas is fully destroyed.”
Campus Beat: Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced a bill providing an additional $280 million in funding for the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights, in response to an increase in antisemitism and Islamophobia on campuses.
Axed: Google fired an engineer who disrupted a tech conference in New York, where the company’s managing director for Israel was speaking, by accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Sam’s Club: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will rejoin the company’s board, months after an effort to oust Altman from the executive role; the company also wrapped up its internal investigation into Altman’s short-lived firing.
Scammer Saga: Atavist Magazinechronicles the efforts of two Algerian-French Jewish men — one now in Tel Aviv, avoiding extradition to France — to evade capture while amassing fortunes through a series of international scams.
Renewables Champion: The Wall Street Journal spotlights Invenergy founder Michael Polsky amid heightened interest in the renewable energy sector.
DEI Discussion: The New York Timescriticized Oscar Best Picture winner “Oppenheimer” for its lack of diversity and centering the stories of “powerful and privileged men who work at the nation’s most elite academic institutions,” despite several of those portrayed being Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe.
Ad at the Awards: A bomb threat at a synagogue and a neighboring church’s reaction were the central themes of a Foundation to Combat Antisemitism ad that ran during last night’s Academy Awards.
Museum Opening: Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended the opening of the Netherlands’ first Holocaust museum; Herzog’s presence was protested by anti-Israel activists who swarmed the area around the museum.
Retraction: Guernica Magazinedeleted an article written by a British-Israeli woman who, before and after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, served as a volunteer driving Palestinians to and from medical treatment in Israel.
Telegraph Talks: Semaforreports on the behind-the-scenes talks taking place surrounding the attempted acquisition of The Telegraph by RedBird’s Jeff Zucker.
Across the Pond: Anti-Israel activists in Cambridge defaced a portrait of Lord Arthur James Balfour, spray-painting the work over the century-old decision known as the Balfour Declaration, which called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in present-day Israel.
Young Gun: The Financial Times spotlights Tavistock co-CEO Josh Levy, who is taking on additional duties at the U.K. company as owner Joe Lewis faces legal troubles in the U.S.
Last Jew in Afghanistan: New Lines Magazinereports on the escape from Afghanistan of Tova Moradi, now believed to have been the last Jew in the country before she left in 2021 in an airlift organized by IsraAID.
Settlement Expansion: U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk raised concerns about the record rate of settlement expansion in the West Bank, cautioning that such moves could eliminate “any practical possibility” of creating a Palestinian state in the future.
Hemo the Hero:The Wall Street Journal spotlights Israeli tech executive Itamar Ben Hemo, a reservist who was seriously injured in Gaza.
Carrier Controversy: The Financial Timesreports on concerns that a bulk grain carrier positioned in the Gulf of Aden is providing targeting information to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Like Abraham and Sarah: An 88-year-old Jerusalem rabbi and his wife, who is in her 50s, welcomed their first child yesterday.
Remembering: Food insecurity activist Kathy Goldman died at 92.
Song of the Day
Eurovision unveiled Israel’s 2024 submission, “Hurricane,” performed by Eden Golan.
Birthdays
Israeli singer-songwriter and pianist who has twice been recognized as Israel’s Singer of the Year, Keren Peles turns 45…
Pioneering investor in high-tech startups, he was the chairman of Compaq Computer for 18 years, Benjamin “Ben” M. Rosen turns 91… Professor emeritus at Princeton University whose research focused upon the Cairo Geniza and Jewish life in Muslim countries, Mark R. Cohen turns 81… Doctor of nursing practice, Hermine Warren… Film producer, director and writer, Jerry Gordon Zucker turns 74… Office administrator at Creative Wealth Management in Islandia, N.Y., Glenda Kresh… Culinary writer, television host and novelist, Steven Raichlen turns 71… Suzanne Dreyfus… Academy Award-winning composer and conductor, he has composed the music for nearly 100 feature films, David Louis Newman turns 70… Co-owner of One Oak Vineyard in Sonoma, Laura Zimmerman… Chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment and head of MHR Fund Management, Mark Rachesky turns 65… President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan turns 63… CEO of The Carlyle Group, Harvey M. Schwartz turns 60… Managing director of Rockefeller Capital Management, Alexandra Lebenthal turns 60… College physician at Stony Brook University, internal medicine specialist, Richard E. Tuckman, MD turns 59… CEO of Weiss Public Affairs, Amy Weiss… Singer-songwriter, she also promotes an eponymous line of eyeglasses, Lisa Loeb turns 56… Keyboardist for the rock band Foo Fighters, Rami Jaffee turns 55… Former entrepreneur-in-residence at Primera Capital and fellow at Bloomberg Beta, Jon Cohen… CEO of Campus Apartments and a limited partner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, David J. Adelman turns 52… Northeast regional political advocacy director at AIPAC, Daniel Kochavi… Film, theater and television actress, Lucy Chet DeVito turns 41… Managing director at Ridgewood Energy, Samuel J. Lissner… CEO of Flow Carbon, Dana Stern Gibber… Financial advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors, Lev Beltser… Assistant director of Ramah Sports Camp, Ayala Wasser… Director of the Israel office at Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, Richard Pater… President of JCS International, Michal Grayevsky… Principal and chief strategist at MCS Group, Sharon Polansky…
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