Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s meetings with top officials in Washington and interview Pennsylvania AG candidate Jared Solomon. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Colin Allred, Howard Kohr and Amit Soussana.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant engaged in damage control during his meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Washington on Tuesday. In remarks delivered to reporters after the sit-down, Gallant spoke in strong terms about the U.S.-Israel relationship — which stood in contrast to the White House and ministers close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who continued to trade blame for the fallout over Washington’s abstention at the United Nations on Monday and the subsequent cancellation of a separate Israeli delegation to Washington.
“The visit to the United States comes at a crucial time for Israel. I emphasized the value and importance of U.S.-Israel ties to the security of the State of Israel,” Gallant said. “I am here to emphasize the importance of those relations. We share 100 percent of the values and 99 percent of the interests with the United States.”
The two military leaders spoke about Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah, which the U.S. has said must be severely curtailed to protect civilians in the area, while Israel has insisted that a larger operation is needed to topple Hamas.
“It was a good conversation to have, not only about Rafah but just generally about the ongoing Israeli operations within Gaza,” the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said Tuesday. “What we continue to reiterate both publicly and privately is that any type of operation into Rafah must account for the over 1 million people that are sheltered there and take into account innocent civilian lives.”
Gallant also met this week with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Amos Hochstein, the White House special envoy tasked with lowering tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.
“I think there is an understanding we have to dismantle Hamas,” Gallant said of his meetings with U.S. officials.
At a campaign stop in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, President Joe Biden said that demonstrators who were disrupting the event to protest the president’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war “have a point,” following up the comment by saying, “We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.”
And in the Middle East, Israel recalled its team handling hostage negotiations from Qatar after a week and a half of talks. Netanyahu blamed the failed talks on the U.S.’ abstention on a U.N. Security Council resolution delinking the hostages’ release with a call for a cease-fire. A senior Biden administration official said in response that Hamas’ rejection of the latest proposed terms came before the vote.
And while the U.S. argues that its abstention was not a policy shift, at least one country doesn’t see things the same way.
Colombia is threatening to cut off its diplomatic ties with Israel if it does not comply with the resolution. Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has been a frequent critic of Israel in the months since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, posted on X that Bogota would sever diplomatic ties with the Jewish state if it does not abide by the resolution. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that it “will not give in to any pressures and threats,” and alleged that Petro was a “supporter of Hamas terrorists.”
x files
Allred described anti-Israel imam as ‘the best of North Texas’
Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) in 2019 praised a well-known imam with an extensive history of anti-Israel commentary, including comparing the Jewish state to the Nazi regime and calling for a third intifada, as “the best of North Texas,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Allred, a former NFL player and three-term congressman, recently became the Democratic nominee for Texas’ Senate race, where he’ll face Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
What he said: Allred posted a photo on Twitter in 2019 with Omar Suleiman, a Muslim activist and author who had been invited to deliver the opening prayer on the House floor. Allred, in the tweet, praised Suleiman as “representing the best of North Texas” and said that Suleiman’s “message of peace, unity, and support for our fellow Americans is needed now, more than ever.”
Background: Suleiman has an extensive history of antisemitic and anti-Israel comments, including prior to the photo with Allred. Prior to that meeting, in public comments, Suleiman had compared Israel to the Nazis, called to “resist” Israel “by any means necessary,” called for a third Intifada and “the end of Zionism,” promoted the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, described Israel as a “terrorist regime” and as “a racist, oppressive, psychotic Apartheid regime.” Suleiman also described “Zionists” as “the enemies of God, His Messengers, sincere followers of all religions, and humanity as a whole,” and said that support for Israel has made the U.S. “unprincipled and contradictory” and that support for Israel undermines “our claim to greatness and our claim to being the moral superpower of the world.”
Elsewhere in Washington: Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Ted Budd (R-NC) declared, following Hamas’ rejection of the latest hostage deal offer, that “enough is enough” and that the administration should demand that Qatar expel Hamas leaders from the country immediately. “Until Doha acts against the Hamas leaders it is currently sheltering, we will work with our colleagues to hold Qatar accountable for its support of this vile terrorist group,” they said.
PA pitch
Pennsylvania AG candidate Jared Solomon bets fighting antisemitism is good policy — and good politics
When Pennsylvania state Rep. Jared Solomon, a Democrat, announced a campaign for attorney general in September, he expected to focus on abortion, gun violence, fighting Donald Trump’s allegations of election fraud — standard fare for Democrats these days. That’s all still part of his platform, alongside other legal issues like consumer protection and going after opioid manufacturers. But lately, one of the issues he talks about most is fighting antisemitism, and promising Pennsylvanians that he will be the toughest on hate crimes of the five Democrats vying to be the state’s top law enforcement official in next month’s primary, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Jewish values: “I was always planning to talk about my values and my Jewish identity, because that’s important to me,” said Solomon, who grew up in Philadelphia in an apartment above his great-grandparents’ kosher butcher shop. His grandfather, who fought in World War II, used to warn Solomon that “we always have to guard against the rise of antisemitism.” But Solomon, 45, always thought his comments were overblown.
Lower the temperature: “Post-October 7, they continue to be right, in the constant drumbeat of antisemitism across the country,” Solomon told JI in an interview last week. “It became much more important to me to be outspoken, and to actually not just be outspoken against, but to come up with concrete ways to take down the temperature of the climate and bring people together.”
All forms of hate: Solomon recently stopped by a rally in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood to call for the release of the hostages held by Hamas, and he joined a community solidarity event in Lower Merion, on the Philadelphia Main Line, after a kosher restaurant was vandalized with graffiti that said “Free Gaza.” “Antisemitism, Islamophobia and hatred of all forms have no place in PA,” Solomon wrote in a post on the social media platform X from Nana’s Kitchen, the restaurant that was vandalized. “As your next AG, I’ll be the toughest in the country on prosecuting hate crimes.” His response indicates his approach to hate crimes — an emphasis on fighting all kinds of hate together, a move that has rankled some Jewish advocates since October.
scoop
AIPAC CEO Howard Kohr to retire at end of year
Howard Kohr, the longtime chief executive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, will retire at the end of the year after nearly 30 years atop the influential pro-Israel organization, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch scooped yesterday.
Big year ahead: The announcement comes as the organization gears up to spend tens of millions of dollars on congressional races this year. That AIPAC is now playing a major, direct role in elections is a result of a massive strategic shift that Kohr and co-CEO Richard Fishman, who died in October, oversaw in recent years, moving the organization away from grassroots bipartisan lobbying and toward political spending.
Tip of the spear: “We are the tip of the spear for driving vital pro-Israel policies in Congress and ensuring America stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel. We are building the political strength to stand firmly with our allies and defeat our detractors,” Kohr said in an email to AIPAC members, which was obtained by JI.
Highs and lows: Kohr’s tenure at AIPAC has included several key moments in the U.S.-Israel alliance, including the completion of a 10-year funding package approved by Congress in 2016 and the decision by the Trump administration to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In recent months, the group has lobbied Congress to pass $14.3 billion in supplemental security assistance to Israel. Kohr’s years at the helm of AIPAC also coincided with growing partisanship in Washington. AIPAC has always worked closely with both Democrats and Republicans, but building broad bipartisan consensus on legislative priorities became more difficult in recent years.
Bowman’s blunder
Jamaal Bowman on the defensive for promoting conspiracies — again
Tuesday morning began with yet another headache for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), the embattled far-left lawmaker who has continued to draw headlines and raise eyebrows for endorsing fringe positions and figures, offering the latest in a long line of missteps and controversies that have plagued Bowman’s reelection campaign, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. He faces a primary challenge from Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a moderate Democrat who is backed by AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel.
Backtracking conspiracies: After Politico reported that Bowman had called reports of Hamas’ sexual violence on Oct. 7 a “lie” that Israel uses as “propaganda” at an anti-Israel rally in November, Bowman walked back the remarks, but did not apologize for them. “The UN confirmed that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence, a reprehensible fact that I condemn entirely,” he told Politico. “So let me be clear, and ensure my words are not twisted: I always stand against sexual violence in all forms and stand for peace for all.”
Truth and consequences: Bowman had faced opposition within his district even prior to Oct. 7 for his growing antipathy to Israel. But the congressman ratcheted up his rhetoric in recent months, alleging that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and accusing anyone who supports Israel of complicity in genocide. He has also alleged that the truth about the war has been suppressed. “No one is telling the truth,” he said in January. “We have fed ourselves a myth and a lie and propaganda as facts, and truth and knowledge, and as a result of that, people are consistently dying and being slaughtered and killed, mostly women and children.”
Content review: Bowman lost the support of his closest ally in the Jewish community in January when J Street rescinded its endorsement. Days later, the Daily Beast revealed that Bowman had published numerous 9/11 conspiracy theories on a personal blog that he ran during his tenure as a middle school principal.
Playing defense: Bowman has often found himself on the defensive, including at least one other instance of promoting a figure who has espoused conspiracy theories. Bowman said in January that he was “a bit starstruck” as he introduced Norman Finkelstein, a controversial anti-Israel scholar who celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, at a Westchester event about the war in Gaza. He later copped to ignorance about Finkelstein.
Worthy Reads
Life in Captivity: Former Israeli hostage Amit Soussana details her time in Hamas captivity, including a sexual assault, in an extensive interview with The New York Times’ Patrick Kingsley and Ronen Bergman. “‘He sat me on the edge of the bath. And I closed my legs. And I resisted. And he kept punching me and put his gun in my face,’ Ms. Soussana said. ‘Then he dragged me to the bedroom.’ At that point, Muhammad forced her to commit a sexual act on him, Ms. Soussana said. After the assault, Muhammad left the room to wash, leaving Ms. Soussana sitting naked in the dark, she said. When he returned, she recalled him showing remorse, saying, ‘I’m bad, I’m bad, please don’t tell Israel.’ That day, Muhammad repeatedly returned to offer her food, Ms. Soussana said. Sobbing on the bed, she turned down the initial offerings, she said. Knowing that Ms. Soussana craved sunlight, she said, he refused to open the curtains, leaving the room in darkness. Desperate for daylight, she accepted the food, believing that she had no other option but to placate her abuser. ‘You can’t stand looking at him — but you have to: He’s the one who’s protecting you, he’s your guard,’ she said. ‘You’re there with him and you know that every moment it can happen again. You’re completely dependent on him.’” [NYTimes]
No Place Like Home: The Associated Press’ Adam Geller interviews residents of Israel’s southern border communities as they debate whether to return to their homes or move their families away from the Gaza envelope. “The choices are fraught and deeply personal. The trauma of seeing family members and friends killed and others taken hostage remains raw. The attack, which trapped many residents in the dark for 17 or 18 hours, left homes in some communities beyond repair. Artillery fire and the roar of fighter jets make clear that Nahal Oz and nearby towns, built decades ago on or near the sites of former Palestinian villages, are extensions of the war zone. Many older people, including Nahal Oz’s founders, pledge to return and a small number of residents have gone back to some communities. But the future of the cooperatives, known as kibbutzim, depends on younger families. ‘One day you say, “No, no, no, I don’t want to go back.” The next day you wake up and you say, “I want to go home,”’ says Raymond Reijnen, standing outside the dairy barn where a handful of residents have come back to work a few days each week. The other days, he and his wife deliberate whether Nahal Oz, where their children ran barefoot for hours, can ever again be home.” [AP]
Shaky Alliance: In Time, Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman consider the history and future of U.S.-Israel relations. “The alliance between Israel and the U.S. is not a force of nature that can be taken for granted. Thirty years ago, we wrote a book aimed at deciphering the secrets of an alliance between a superpower and a tiny country in a far-off strategic region. We outlined factors such as shared democratic values, the importance of the Jewish American community, the strong attachment of Evangelicals to the Holy Land, and memories of the Holocaust. We also warned that the passage of time and changes in U.S. demography could erode support for Israel. It’s happening now, with protests on American campuses against the war in Gaza. Many of the protestors consume a diet of self-selected, sometimes fake news and have little understanding of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” [Time]
Growing Daylight: The Times of Israel’s David Horovitz examines the broader implications of the deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Israel. “However the Biden administration chooses to spin it, the non-veto manifestly constitutes a significant further deterioration in its fraying ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition — but with consequences for the entire nation. … But as Netanyahu has himself highlighted in recent months, it is vital to thwart ‘international initiatives against Israel that would endanger the continuation of the fighting,’ Indeed, he has frequently praised himself for his ability to do just that. Not on Monday, he didn’t. He has also often acknowledged that Israel cannot actually continue to fight Hamas in Gaza without the constant shipments of crucial US weaponry and defense equipment. Biden has already hinted that not all these supplies are guaranteed, telling MSNBC two weeks ago that ‘there’s no red line [in which] I’m going to cut off all weapons, so that they don’t have the Iron Dome [missile defense system] to protect them’ — phrasing that strikingly did not promise ongoing supplies of offensive weapons. Holding [Strategic Affairs Minister Ron] Dermer and [National Security Adviser Tzachi] Hanegbi at home is hardly the best way to persuade the president to keep the arms coming.” [TOI]
The Purim Principle: The Wall Street Journal’s William Galston applies the lessons of Purim to Israel’s war against Hamas. “In times of armed conflict, soldiers should exert maximum effort to distinguish between civilians — especially children — and armed combatants, as it appears the Jews of Persia did. They had a significant advantage over contemporary Israeli soldiers, however: Their enemies didn’t hide behind women and children. … Hamas’s tactics create hard choices for Israeli troops. While international law doesn’t prohibit Israelis from attacking legitimate military targets located near civilians, it does require them to balance the worth of the potential military advantage gained against anticipated damage to civilians. As military commanders try to strike this balance, their decisions are frequently contested, and reports of civilian suffering are disturbing. This helps explain why many American Jews observed Purim this year with troubled hearts. Yet compared with Israelis, relatively few American Jews have direct experience with military service, let alone armed conflict. Making moral judgments is much easier from the armchair than on the battlefield.” [WSJ]
The Fire This Time: In Tablet, David Jager looks at the upbringing of Aaron Bushnell, the Army servicemember who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington last month; Bushnell was raised in a conservative Christian cult that has faced lawsuits alleging child abuse. “The fanaticism and ultimate messiness of Bushnell’s final gesture, however, points to something murkier. It presents a traumatized individual lost in a maze of belief. A cultish brand of Christian extremism devoured Bushnell’s childhood and youth. In attempting to escape its ideological straightjacket, he appears to have substituted new ideological convictions for the ones of his childhood. But these too were hopelessly tainted by his traumatic past. In his desperate search for a new cause to replace the one he was raised with, he is not so much an example of moral rectitude or refutation than of traumatic confusion.” [Tablet]
Around the Web
Biden Boost: A new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll found President Joe Biden made gains in six of seven swing states following his State of the Union address and subsequent visits to a number of battleground states.
Adelson’s Bet: Politicolooks at how Dr. Miriam Adelson’s likely support for former President Donald Trump could impact her bid to get sign-off from officials in New York to build a casino in the state.
Obama Advice: Former President Barack Obama is reportedly liaising with White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients and top Biden reelection campaign officials on strategy, amid deepening concern over Biden’s chances of winning in November.
Red Cross Concerns: Fifteen House members led by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) urged the State Department to intervene in the Red Cross’ hiring of former U.N. Relief and Works Agency head Pierre Krähenbühl as its director general.
UC Probe: The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into the University of California, Santa Barbara; last month, an on-campus building that housed the office of the school’s student body president, who is Jewish, was vandalized with dozens of anti-Israel posters, including some with antisemitic imagery.
Campus Beat: Police at the University of California, Berkeley released images of people believed to have participated in a violent protest on the campus outside an event last month featuring an Israeli attorney.
Last Laugh: The Los Angeles TimesinterviewsAlex Edelman at the end of the run of “Just For Us,” his one-man play about attending a meeting of white supremacists, ahead of the airing of an HBO special of the show.
DNA Discovery: A former neo-Nazi who served as the inspiration for Edward Norton’s character in “American History X” is now a practicing Orthodox Jew, after DNA testing uncovered his family’s Jewish heritage.
Dan’s Donation: Washingtonianlooks at the real estate and legal considerations behind former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder’s recent donation of his Potomac, Md., estate after it failed to sell on the market.
Citizenship Criteria: Germany’s new citizenship test may include questions about Jewish life and the country’s relationship to Israel, pending final approval from Berlin.
Behind Bars: A Russian court extended Evan Gershkovich’s detention an additional three months, nearly a year after the Wall Street Journal reporter was first arrested in the country.
Ackman Investment: Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman praised the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which he and his wife recently invested in, describing it as “a unique non-disruptible franchise in one of the most entrepreneurial economies in the world.”
Shifa and Strategy: The Financial Timesspotlights the challenges Israel’s military faces in its second operation at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, as IDF officials say the army has dismantled — but not destroyed — 20 of Hamas’ 24 battalions in the enclave.
Pier Project: Israel agreed to provide security for the temporary pier being built off the coast of Gaza to facilitate the delivery of additional aid.
AI Operation: The New York Timesreports on Israel’s use of facial recognition technology in Gaza.
Casualty Count: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy released an in-depth assessment of discrepancies in casualty counts coming out of Gaza.
Northern Exposure: In the Substack “Clarity,” Sarit Zehavi looks at the challenges facing Israel in the country’s north, where tensions with Hezbollah are nearing a fever pitch.
Qatari Cash: A former Qatari government official who is a member of the Gulf nation’s royal family invested approximately $50 million in American conservative news outlet Newsmax.
Downsizing: Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Nissenbaum was let go by the newspaper amid a series of layoffs in recent weeks.
Amman Arrests: Police in Amman arrested dozens of demonstrators involved in clashes as they attempted to march toward Israel’s Embassy in Jordan.
Remembering: Chicago activist Lew Kreinberg, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement and marched to Selma with Martin Luther King Jr., died at 87. Stanford University professor Marjorie Perloff, a scholar of avant-garde poetry whose family fled Nazi Europe when she was a child, died at 92. Holocaust survivor Helma Goldmark, who joined the Resistance as a teenager after her father’s deportation, died at 98.
Pic of the Day
Director Steven Spielberg addressed a crowd at the University of Southern California on Monday night, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Esther Kustanowitz reports. The school awarded its University Medallion to the 52,000 Holocaust survivors who have given their testimony to the USC Shoah Foundation, founded by Spielberg, over the past 30 years.
“We have always been a resilient and compassionate people, who all understand the power of empathy,” Spielberg said. “We can rage against the heinous acts committed by the terrorists of Oct. 7 and also decry the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza. This makes us a unique force for good in the world and is why we are here today to celebrate the work of the Shoah Foundation, which is more crucial now than it even was in 1994. It is crucial in the wake of the horrific October 7 massacre. It is crucial to the stopping of political violence caused by misinformation, conspiracy theories and ignorance. It is crucial because stopping the rise of antisemitism and hate of any kind is critical to the health of our democratic republic and the future of democracy all over the civilized world.” Read the full story here.
Birthdays
Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, Jacob Hirsch Soboroff turns 41…
Composer and violinist, Malcolm Goldstein turns 88… Rabbinic leader of the Tunisian Jewish community in Israel, Rabbi Meir Mazuz turns 79… Principal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal until 2013, Walter S. Mossberg turns 77… Executive director at Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue Club mental health center, Rachel Forman… Chairman and CEO of First International Resources in Fort Lee, N.J., Zev Furst turns 76… Sports agent, Leigh Steinberg turns 75… Retired host of the “Matty in the Morning Show” in Massachusetts on KISS 108, Matt Siegel turns 74… Deputy director of leadership giving at Baruch College, Linda Altshuler… Member of the Knesset since 2011 representing the United Torah Judaism party, Yisrael Eichler turns 69… Moral philosopher, she is the director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany, Susan Neiman turns 69… Former NFL linebacker, now president of Performance Coaching (training real estate agents), Steven Mark Shull turns 66… Economist and banker in Latvia, Valerijs Kargins turns 63… Smooth jazz saxophonist, he has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Dave Koz turns 61… Managing director of the Maimonides Fund, Daniel Gamulka… CEO of BBYO, Matthew Grossman turns 53… President of NYC’s Tenement Museum, Annie Polland… Founder and CEO of the Movement Vision Lab, Sally Kohn turns 47… Associate professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, Dorothea Lasky turns 46… Hitting coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, he played for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic and the 2020 Olympics, Blake Shane Gailen turns 39… GTM consultant, Adam B. Engel… Former producer at ABC’s “The View,” Daniella Greenbaum Davis… Theodore James Kushner…
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