Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s meetings in Washington this week, interview Rep. Ritchie Torres about calls from fellow Democrats to condition aid to Israel, and talk to senators about possible action against Turkey after Ankara imposed new trade restrictions on Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Justin Ishbia, Campbell Brown and N.Y. Attorney General Tish James.
In a new interview that aired on Univision last night, President Joe Biden for the first time called for a cease-fire in Gaza without tying the demand to the release of the Israelis still held captive in Gaza. The interview was recorded last week, days after an accidental Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy killed seven aid workers.
“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a cease-fire, allow for the next six, eight, weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country [Gaza],” said Biden, who added that he has talked to Saudi, Jordanian and Egyptian officials, who are “prepared to move in” to Gaza. “I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. This should be done now,” Biden said in the interview.
According to The Times of Israel, a White House official tried to walk back Biden’s comments. “There is no change in our position. The president was reiterating our longstanding position: we are calling for an immediate cease-fire that would last for at least six weeks as part of a hostage deal,” the official said. But Biden did not mention the hostages in the interview, according to a transcript published by Univision. (A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.)
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris met on Tuesday with the family members of the Americans still being held hostage in Gaza. She “underscored that President [Joe] Biden and she have no higher priority than reuniting the hostages with their loved ones,” according to a White House readout of the meeting.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son was injured by a grenade and then abducted to Gaza, said the group had a “very productive meeting” with Harris. “We are thinking of all 133 souls who are being held,” she told reporters outside the White House afterward. “We want results.”
Top U.S. officialssaid that a proposal for the release of up to 40 hostages in exchange for a several-week cease-fire is now in the hands of Hamas, after negotiations in Cairo between the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he spoke to the Qatari prime minister Tuesday morning, urging him to press Hamas for an answer. The hostage families met with Sullivan on Monday.
“We have seen Israel take some steps forward in terms of what they’re putting on the table, and of course we’ve seen the public statements from Hamas that have been, shall we say, less than encouraging,” Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday. “Let’s train the attention where it belongs, which is that the world should say at this moment to Hamas, ‘It’s time. Let’s go. Let’s get that cease-fire.’ We’re ready. I believe Israel is ready, and I think Hamas should step up to the table and be prepared to do so as well. “
Secretary of State Tony Blinken offered a similar message on Tuesday, seeking further international pressure on Hamas — and calling out people who had directed their outrage in recent months only on Israel, and not on the terrorist group in Gaza.
“It remains astounding to me that the world is almost deafeningly silent when it comes to Hamas,” Blinken said at a press conference. “We would not be where we are had they not chosen to engage in one of the most horrific acts of brutality and terrorism on Oct. 7 and had they then, having done that, not refused these many, many months to get out of the way of civilians, to stop hiding behind them, to put down their arms, to release the hostages, to surrender. Where’s the outrage there?”
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Aaron David Miller posited that Israel’s recent withdrawal from portions of Gaza, coupled with international pressure, had incentivized Hamas. “Still hoping for benefit of hostages and families there’s a deal,” he posted on X. “But if you were Hamas watching Israelis withdraw from Khan Yunis and pressure on Netanyahu from public and Biden Administration, would you hold out for more? It’s all about urgency. Who’s in the biggest hurry?”
With the remaining hostages now having spent more than half a year in captivity, calls are mounting for Washington to exert pressure on Qatar to, in turn, apply pressure on Hamas, whose leaders live in and operate out of Doha. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on Tuesday that Qatar “has done a lot to help get hostages released, and they continue that work” and said the Qatari leadership is “intensely focused on making sure that we can get hostages released as soon as possible.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told Jewish Insider that he had “reached out directly to [Qatar’s] ambassador, to the sheikh, to the foreign minister, to say, ‘You need to do more to pressure Hamas to get to the table, to get a hostage deal.’ I know our president has applied more pressure.”
Elsewhere on the Hill, JI’s Marc Rod reports, a group of Senate Republicans is pushing legislation to punish Doha over its continued backing of Hamas. Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would revoke Qatar’s status as a major non-NATO ally, unless the Gulf nation ends financial support for terrorist groups and expels or extradites Hamas leadership. Read more below.
attention shift
Is Biden losing his voice against rising antisemitism?
Amid the wave of antisemitism that has swept American college campuses and Jewish communities since October, Jews in the United States have looked to allies to take a stand on their behalf. They’ve begged university presidents to support Jewish students. They’ve cheered lawmakers who held hearings spotlighting the troubling trends. And now, some Jewish community advocates are asking President Joe Biden to again join the chorus of Americans condemning antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Shifting focus: Biden was a steadfast, reliable voice against antisemitism in the days and weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel. Days after the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, Biden convened a solemn meeting of Jewish American leaders in Washington. He and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke about their pain after the attack, and they vowed to support Israel and work hard to confront antisemitism in the United States. In recent weeks, as he has shifted to campaign mode and focused on other issues, he has not spoken about antisemitism. Some in the Jewish community lamented that Biden didn’t mention antisemitism in his State of the Union address.
New landscape: “It might not feel as robust as it felt in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, when we were being called down to D.C. for meetings with administration officials every week, if not more frequently. But it feels, still, very extensive and very robust,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “Maybe they should more directly communicate how much has actually been done.”
‘Silence is complicity’: “Following the horrifying Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, and a dangerous surge in antisemitism in the U.S. and globally, the president and top administration officials have consistently and forcefully spoken out against antisemitism, hate and bigotry,” White House deputy communications director Herbie Ziskend told JI. “And we will continue to do so because as the president has made clear, silence is complicity.”
On the Hill: A bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators led by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the Combating Antisemitism Act, which among other things seeks to establish a national coordinator to counter antisemitism.
Lapid in D.C.
In Washington, Israeli opposition leader Lapid meets with Blinken, Schumer
Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid huddled with U.S. officials in Washington this week as frustration grows among Democrats about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau’s handling of the war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
State Department visit: Lapid met on Monday with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan for discussions on humanitarian solutions in Gaza and a hostage deal with Hamas, the latter of which he told reporters on Monday was “doable.” “It is a difficult deal, this is a deal we might not like, but it’s doable and therefore it needs to be made,” Lapid said outside the State Department.
On Capitol Hill: Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters after huddling with the Israeli opposition leader later Monday that the two spoke at length “about what comes next” in the war in Gaza. Lapid returned to the Capitol on Tuesday for separate meetings with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the latter of whom visited Israel last month in a show of support.
Lawmaker discussions: Schumer said in a statement that the two discussed “strengthening the bipartisan U.S.-Israel relationship, increasing humanitarian aid into Gaza, working for a deal for the release of the hostages, the path to long-term peace and a two-state solution, and passing the national security supplemental.”
Read the full story here.
PUSHING BACK
Democratic Israel critics are ‘playing into the hands of Hamas,’ Rep. Ritchie Torres says
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod this week, condemned those in his party who have been pushing to cut off or condition U.S. aid to Israel as effectively aiding Hamas’ cause, but insisted that the Biden administration and most of Congress and the American people remain supportive of Israel and its fight.
Quotable: Torres denounced the “hyperbolic and hysterical demonization from fairweather friends,” referring to lawmakers who are pushing to suspend or condition aid to Israel, rhetoric he said has “given Hamas enhanced leverage.” “Hamas feels emboldened to reject cease-fires and keep the hostages in indefinite captivity,” Torres said. “Those in American politics who are waging information war against Israel are playing into the hands of Hamas.”
Critical of colleagues: He was also sharply critical of those — including some colleagues — who have characterized the Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza as reflective of a broader lack of discipline or caution by Israel. “The notion that Israel deliberately targeted aid workers or assassinated the aid workers — that strikes me as a lie and a libel, and shame on anyone who repeats it,” Torres said.
Standing strong: He said that Israel feels “under siege not only militarily but diplomatically.” But he insisted that “despite the noise on social media, despite the noise of American politics,” the majority of Americans and of Congress support Israel — a message he said he aimed to deliver to Israel during his visit.
Heard last night: Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jim Baird (R-IN), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Norma Torres (D-CA), Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) came to the House floor last night to mark six months since the Hamas attack on Israel and to elevate the continued plight of the hostages. Several U.S. hostage families were in attendance in the House chamber for the remarks. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) offered written remarks.
turkey talk
U.S. lawmakers call for possible sanctions against Turkey in response to new trade restrictions against Israel
Multiple senators said Tuesday that the U.S. should consider retaliatory measures, including potential sanctions, against Turkey in response to its decision this week to impose trade restrictions on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod, Emily Jacobs and Lahav Harkov report.
Hitting back: Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said the U.S. “should consider putting sanctions on Turkey, in response” to the move. Asked whether Ankara’s NATO status should be in question, Ricketts said that relationship should allow the U.S. to have greater influence over Turkey and make the case for Israel. “Israel is fighting for the good of civilization here to destroy a terrorist group, and that’s what we need to be focused on,” Ricketts said.
Need to respond: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI that the U.S. should “consider what our response should be if nations take action against allies, whether it’s economic or military.” He didn’t specify what that response should entail.
Need to respond: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI that the U.S. should “consider what our response should be if nations take action against allies, whether it’s economic or military.” He didn’t specify what that response should entail.
The other side: Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told JI on Tuesday that he hadn’t heard about the news, but thought that such pressure tactics were “an indication of the marginalization that Israel’s policies are imposing on itself, meaning the conditions in Gaza are horrific.” He continued, “I was not aware of Turkey making that decision but it reflects Israel and Netanyahu’s intransigence.”
Read the full story with additional quotes from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), John Kennedy (R-LA) and Todd Young (R-IN).
maryland matters
Maryland legislature passes law tweaking state hate crimes commission
When the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill late Monday night that makes changes to the makeup of the state’s hate crimes commission, the legislation’s original intent — to remove the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) from participation on the commission — had been stripped out, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Backstory: Kicking CAIR off the commission was the bill’s raison d’etre when it was introduced in January by Del. Dalya Attar, a Baltimore Democrat. It was a means of taking action against CAIR Maryland director Zainab Chaudry, a member of the hate crimes commission who had posted inflammatory pro-Hamas statements on social media in the weeks and months after the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel.
New language: But by the time the bill passed late on Monday, after a flurry of late-night phone calls and lobbying from Jewish constituents before the annual legislative session ended at midnight, it had been significantly changed; the watered-down version no longer mentioned removing CAIR.
AG in charge: Instead, the bill now gives Maryland’s attorney general the power to select the commission’s members, and to remove them if necessary, a provision incorporated after CAIR’s backers urged lawmakers not to target the group. All appointments will have to be approved by the state Senate. A spokesperson for Attorney General Anthony Brown told JI on Tuesday that he has not made any decisions regarding new appointments.
CRYPTO CONCERNS
Treasury’s Wally Adeyemo: Legislation needed to cut off Iran, Hamas crypto pipeline
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo repeatedly emphasized at a hearing on Tuesday that Congress needs to pass legislation to grant the administration new authorities to cut off cryptocurrency financing pipelines that are or could be used by Iran and its terrorist proxies to evade U.S. sanctions, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Action needed: “As we take steps to cut terrorist groups and other malign actors off from the traditional financial system, we are increasingly concerned about the ways these actors are using cryptocurrencies to circumvent our sanctions,” Adeyemo said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. “We fear that without congressional action to provide us with necessary tools, the use of virtual assets by these actors will only grow.”
Oil angle: Pressed throughout the hearing on the significant rise in Iranian oil revenues in recent years, particularly from sales to China — which critics have blamed on lax sanctions enforcement by the U.S. — Adeyemo again called for greater authorities to tackle cryptocurrency. “We are willing to and have sanctioned middlemen that are in Hong Kong and other places and will continue to do that,” he said. “But the challenge set that we have now is that, while you’ve given us authorities to go after the traditional financial sector, we could use additional authorities to allow us to go after cryptocurrencies.”
Elsewhere on the Hill: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), David Kustoff (R-TN) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) introduced legislation to sanction the Popular Resistance Committees, the third-largest terrorist group in Gaza after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. PRC, they noted, has a long history of terrorist activity and participated in the Oct. 7 attack. The legislation would designate the PRC as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group, which would include sanctions on assets, visa blocks and up to 20-year prison sentences for those who support the group.
Worthy Reads
Democratic Disarray: New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait criticizes the tactics of far-left agitators and anti-Israel demonstrators. “Abusive protesters usually meet critiques of their illiberal methods with a facile comparison to the civil-rights movement. But that movement was designed for a political environment in which basic liberal rights did not exist: Black Americans lacked the right to vote, to petition for grievances, or otherwise exert basic freedoms that white Americans enjoyed. The movement’s theorists did not intend their carefully designed arguments to be a permanent license for any progressive cause to declare itself beyond the law for all time. Civil-rights demonstrators had been shut out of electoral politics by force since Reconstruction. The pro-Palestinian movement, by contrast, is barely even attempting democratic participation. The movement could have run an anti-Israel candidate against Biden but never bothered, no doubt anticipating they would lose. Force is not their last resort but their preferred method. It allows them to maintain the moral binary that animates them in all its purity without engaging in the unpleasant compromises necessary to win support of the majority of the country, or even a party.” [NewYork]
Real Talk: Axios’ Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei break down the “reality distortion” that comes with fringe views being amplified on social media and by legislators. “No, most Christians aren’t white Christian nationalists who see Donald Trump as a God-like figure. Most are ignoring politics and wrestling with their faith. No, most college professors aren’t trying to silence conservatives or turn kids into liberal activists. Most are teaching math, or physics, or biology. No, most kids don’t hate Israel and run around chanting, ‘From the river to the sea.’ On most campuses, most of the time, students are doing what students have always done. No, most Republicans don’t want to ban all abortions starting at conception. No, most Democrats don’t want to allow them until birth. No, immigrants who are here illegally aren’t rushing to vote and commit crimes. Actual data show both rarely happen — even amid a genuine crisis at the border. No, most people aren’t fighting on X. Turns out, the vast majority of Americans never tweet at all. No, most people aren’t cheering insults on Fox News and MSNBC in the evening. Turns out, less than 2 percent of Americans are even watching. …What has changed is political activism invading everything, from football to beer to Target. Here, too, most normal people just drink, watch football, and shop — without giving a damn about the politics of it all.” [Axios]
Caving Concerns: The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim raises concerns about what he says is President Joe Biden’s pattern of acquiescing to louder, more forceful voices in the Democratic Party. “Beginning with the Democratic convention that year, Mr. Biden has embraced every position suggested to him by the party’s noisemakers on the left. He is now a proponent of free college tuition, student-loan forgiveness, the repeal of right-to-work laws, a $15 federal minimum wage, an imminent ban on gasoline-powered vehicles, dramatic expansions of Medicare and Medicaid, mass decarceration and the federal takeover of elections. Taken together these data points forcefully rebut the ‘asymmetric polarization’ thesis so popular among smart-set liberals. This view holds that the parties have moved apart mainly because Republicans keep moving to the right. But the GOP, as I like to point out regularly in these pages, has become extremist on tactics (government shutdowns, idiotic rhetoric) while remaining largely static on policy. Today’s Democrats, on the other hand, advance a host of positions neither they nor almost anybody else had thought of a quarter-century ago. Mr. Biden goes along with all of it.” [WSJ]
Shore Thing: Forbes’ Matt Durot and Amy Feldman spotlight Shore Capital Partners’ Justin Ishbia, co-owner of the Phoenix Suns along with his brother, Mat. “Ishbia’s understanding of entrepreneurs began with his father, Jeff, whose own father, a Turkish immigrant, died when Jeff was a teen. To help out, he bought ice cream bikes and rented them to other kids. The first in his family to go to college, Jeff bought ice cream trucks, restaurants, apartment buildings, hotels, a potato chip maker and an alarm company — all while maintaining a law practice in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham. In 1986, when Justin was 8 and Mat 6, Jeff founded Shore Mortgage, UWM’s predecessor. ‘We grew up very comfortable, but we weren’t wealthy by any means,’ Justin recalls. The family was tight-knit, and the brothers were best friends but also highly competitive. When they weren’t playing one-on-one and pretending to be NBA legends Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas (the latter is now a UWM director), they were wrangling over the Sega Genesis. ‘If I was winning with a few seconds left, Mat would just turn off the console so the game wouldn’t count toward the standings,’ Ishbia says. ‘We were both guilty of that.’” [Forbes]
Around the Web
Conflicting Timelines: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant contradicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there was a set date for Israel’s invasion of Rafah, telling Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that no date has been set.
Protest Peeve: The White House condemned recent protests in Dearborn, Mich., in which demonstrators were filmed chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Power’s Point: U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power characterized the Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza as part of broader systemic issues in Israel’s military and deconfliction procedures, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
On the Hill: Dozens of anti-Israel activists were arrested in a Senate cafeteria for violating building codes on mass gatherings.
Passover Price Gouging: New York Attorney General Tish James cautioned Jewish residents to be wary of “Passover specials” from businesses advertising Passover-related services at a markup.
Party Preference: A new Pew report found that 69% of Jewish respondents identified as Democrats, while 29% affiliate with the GOP, numbers that have been roughly unchanged since 1994.
New Gig: Campbell Brown is joining TollBit as a senior adviser, after leaving her role as head of global media partnerships at Meta last year.
Theater Trouble: A Philadelphia theater that had initially canceled a screening hosted by a local Israeli film festival amid protests from anti-Israel activists showed the film last night following a court injunction; a spokesperson for the Bryn Mawr Film Institute acknowledged in an apology statement that the theater “handled all of this very badly.”
Campus Beat: The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into Princeton University over its handling of antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
In the Courts: Lawyers for a California man with ties to a neo-Nazi group who is on trial for killing a gay, Jewish classmate said that the man’s actions should not be classified as a hate crime, denying that the murder was due to his extremist beliefs.
Sanctions Stopped: The EU’s General Court annulled sanctions that had been imposed on Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven over what the bloc alleged were their ties to Moscow.
In the NYT: The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman opines that Israel’s “utterly insane strategy” in its war against Hamas has “locked [itself] into a politically unwinnable war.” In an op-ed titled “Netanyahu Must Go,” columnist Bret Stephens calls for new Israeli leadership to replace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iranian Threat: Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to a threat from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying, “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will react and attack in Iran.”
Smuggling System: Iran is smuggling weapons into the West Bank through elaborate systems that run through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel and rely on organized crime rings, militants, military officials and intelligence operatives.
Bound for Kyiv: The U.S. transferred to Ukraine a large tranche of Iranian weapons — including machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and ammunition — that it had seized between 2021-2023.
Pic of the Day
Pope Francis met on Monday at the Vatican with relatives of hostages still being held in Gaza.
Birthdays
Movie producer best known for the 2016 musical romantic-drama film “La La Land,” Jordan Horowitz turns 44…
Past president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, he was previously an executive of both the LA Lakers and the LA Clippers, Alan Rothenberg turns 85… Author of four novels and a political history book, he is a former senior editor at The New Yorker and a deputy editor of the Outlook section at the Washington Post, Jeffrey Frank turns 80… Author of 265 books including 56 books in the Cam Jansen series, 68 biographies and books for youth on the Holocaust, David Abraham Adler turns 77… Naomi Atlani… Former member of the Knesset for 26 years, he once served as vice prime minister, Haim Ramon turns 74… Founder of Gantman Communications, Howard Gantman… Scarsdale, N.Y., resident, Robin Stalbow Samot… Soviet-born Israeli-American pianist, Yefim “Fima” Bronfman turns 66… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party for 23 years, now chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Yuval Steinitz turns 66… Journalist and author of four books, Lisa Belkin turns 64… Dana B. Fishman… CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, Shirley Ann Bloomfield… Tom Kohn… Author of five best-selling memoirs and six novels, Dani Shapiro… Editorial director for audio for New York magazine, Hanna Rosin turns 55… Former governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens turns 50… President of NJI Media and co-founder of FamousDC blog, Josh Shultz… SVP of entertainment and news media at RespectAbilityUSA, Lauren Appelbaum… Litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Yishai Schwartz… White House liaison to the American Jewish community and director for partnerships and global engagement at the National Security Council, Shelley Greenspan… Associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Daniel E. Wolman… Basketball player for Gran Canaria based in Las Palmas, Spain, Sylven Landesberg turns 34… Phil Hayes… Susie Diamond…
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