Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on former Vice President Mike Pence’s comments on a potential Rafah operation at last night’s Hertog Forum in D.C., and talk to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz about her recent trip to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Aryeh Lightstone, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani and Rep. Ro Khanna.
The Israel Defense Forces is on high alert following an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, on Monday that killed seven Iranian officials, including Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria, and his deputy, Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajriahim. Tehran has vowed revenge for the attack, which destroyed the consulate building but left other areas of the embassy intact.
Iranian and Syrian officials blamed Israel for the strike, amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran’s Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF chief spokesman, described the strike target as “a military building of Quds forces disguised as a civilian building in Damascus.”
“According to our intelligence, this is no consulate and this is no embassy,” Hagari told CNN. “I repeat, this is no consulate and this is no embassy.”
A spokesperson for the National Security CounciltoldAxios that the U.S. had “no involvement” in the strike on the consulate. Israeli and U.S. officials confirmed that Jerusalem gave a heads-up to Washington shortly before the strike.
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told us this morning that Monday’s strike was “the most consequential strike against the IRGC since the takedown of IRGC-Quds Force commander Qasem Suleimani.”
“The precision and daring of the operation against senior IRGC commanders cannot be overstated,” Dubowitz added. “Israel is reaching a decision point on its northern front, where Hezbollah’s lethal provocations have become unbearable. Taking out top-tier IRGC commanders in the hostile axis that runs from Tehran through Damascus to Beirut is an effective way of getting the enemy and Washington to focus on what’s at stake.”
The strike occurred shortly before a virtual meeting between National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and top Israeli officials, including Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, which had been convened to discuss Israel’s looming Rafah operation. The strike did not come up in the officials’ meeting, a U.S. official told Axios.
An official who spoke to CNN after the two-hour meeting said that Israel has yet to produce plans for a large-scale Rafah incursion that protects the 1.3 million Gazans sheltering in the city.
A U.S. readout of the call said that the parties “agreed that they share the objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah. The U.S. side expressed its concerns with various courses of action in Rafah. The Israeli side agreed to take these concerns into account and to have follow up discussions between experts.”
The IDF is launching an inquiry into a strike in Gaza that killed seven aid workers from chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, including several foreign nationals, among them a U.S.-Canadian dual national; the NGO has suspended operations in the enclave following the incident.
Sullivan, meanwhile, is slated to travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday for discussions with Saudi officials on a so-called mega-deal that would include normalized relations with Israel. President Joe Biden suggested at a Manhattan fundraiser last week that Saudi Arabia is “prepared to fully recognize Israel.”
pence’s position
Pence: Israel has ‘no choice but to invade Rafah’
Former Vice President Mike Pence backed a potential Israeli incursion into Rafah and called for the country to destroy Hamas amid growing pressure from the Biden administration and some congressional Democrats to seek a more surgical approach to taking the terror group’s final stronghold in southern Gaza, Jewish Insider’s new congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs reports.
Ignoring the critics: Pence said Monday night at the Hudson Institute’s annual Hertog Forum that Israel should keep its focus on taking out Hamas rather than the anti-Israel Democrats and isolationist Republicans. “Whatever position the current administration or voices in my own party take, here’s the reality: Israel has no choice but to invade Rafah and to hunt down and destroy Hamas once and for all,” Pence said. “The war should end when Israel’s military goals are achieved, and not a moment sooner, and the American people will stand with Israel.”
Biden’s Israel quagmire: The former vice president’s comments come as Israel faces increasing pressure from the Biden administration to seek alternatives to a full-scale invasion of Rafah, the southern Gazan city where some 1.3 million Palestinians have evacuated. Scores of Democrats have called for a temporary cease-fire amid reports of starvation and disease outbreaks in the enclave, with some warning that a ground offensive in Rafah would lead to more suffering. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that going into Rafah is necessary to complete the IDF’s mission, while President Joe Biden has said he would not cut off military aid to Israel if Netanyahu goes through with an incursion as expected.
Other measures: The former vice president also used his address to call on the president to impose a federal ban on laws promoting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. “When I was governor of Indiana, I became one of the first governors in America to stand up to the racist BDS movement. I signed a law taking tens of millions of dollars away from companies that were trying to harm Israel economically through boycotts,” Pence said. “And in 2025, I strongly believe that the next president of the United States must fight for and sign a bill permanently banning antisemitic BDS laws nationwide.”
jersey shake-up
After securing New Jersey Senate nomination, Andy Kim calls for permanent cease-fire
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said that he supports an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, days after effectively securing the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s Senate seat and putting himself on a glide path to the Senate, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Changing perspective: Earlier in the Senate race, Kim had remained supportive of Israel’s efforts to defend itself while pushing for greater humanitarian aid and rejecting calls for an immediate and permanent cease-fire as recently as February. But he announced a shift in his views in an interview on CBS New York on Sunday. “I believe we need to be able to bring this violence to a close,” Kim said. “We need to make sure that it’s immediate, that it’s permanent, that we have that bilateral cease-fire that’s able to push this forward and allow for the hostages to get out and surge humanitarian support getting in to save as many lives as possible.”
Pessimistic perspective: New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy’s withdrawal from the race last week and indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)’s minimal chances of reelection are leaving some in the pro-Israel community “highly depressed,” in the words of Ben Chouake, the president of NORPAC, a grassroots pro-Israel group that had been backing Menendez. He said that NORPAC would back Menendez if he does ultimately rejoin the Senate race. He was skeptical that any Republican could offer a serious challenge to Kim.
Other views: Karin Elkis, a co-chair of the New Jersey-Israel Commission who had praised Murphy’s stance on Israel, told JI, “Congressman Kim, through his work in national security and his trips to Israel, is someone who values peace and values facts. He understands the history of the Jewish people and he knows that peace in Israel is central to achiev[ing] peace in the Middle East.”
In the community: A pro-Israel leader in New Jersey told JI that Kim has support from the local Jewish community in southern New Jersey, as well as from more progressive-leaning Jews aligned with J Street, but that AIPAC and AIPAC-aligned voters had been moving toward supporting Murphy, and would likely have backed her had she stayed in the race. The pro-Israel leader said that Kim can likely count on support from most Democratic Jewish voters in November over his eventual Republican opponent. The leader described Kim as walking a fine line on Israel policy, like many politicians across the country.
trip talk
Wasserman Schultz emphasizes need for dialogue, downplays U.S.-Israel tensions after weeklong trip
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), returning from a weeklong visit to Israel, downplayed the tensions between the U.S. and Israeli governments while emphasizing the need for strong and continued communication between the two nations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Maintaining communication: She said that the lawmakers had encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu to reschedule meetings between high-level advisers and the Biden administration about Israel’s plans for Rafah, which Netanyahu had canceled in response to the U.N. vote. “We communicated… to the prime minister, there needs to be understanding and active listening to one another about the necessity of making sure not only that the threat of Hamas is destroyed, but at the same time that process is underway, that care is being taken to clear civilians, which Israel is absolutely committed to,” she said in an interview with JI on Monday.
Strong ties: Wasserman Schultz characterized the diplomatic tensions as a desire for “clarifying” plans. She pointed to the administration’s recent moves to approve significant additional military aid to Israel as evidence that the relationship remains strong.
Looking ahead: Asked about Israel’s approach to future governance in Gaza and a two-state solution — another point of friction with the Biden administration — Wasserman Schultz said that Israel’s focus remains on the security challenges posed by Hamas. “What they’re focused on in the near term and medium term, is what they should be,” she said. “They have to make sure that they have the threat eradicated so that they can make sure that they restore the safety and security of their people, that their people can move back to the places that they live, that reservists can go back to their daily life and that the safety and security of everyday Israelis can be restored.”
peace prospects
Despite war’s challenges, Abraham Accords Peace Institute CEO optimistic about the region’s future
Since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, Israel’s relations with Arab states have been under significant stress, with leaders across the region criticizing to varying degrees Israel’s war effort while expressing support for the Palestinian cause. Yet, unlike in the Second Intifada or early-aughts rounds of fighting against Hamas in Gaza, no Arab countries have cut relations with Israel since the start of the war nearly six months ago. As the Abraham Accords Peace Institute (AAPI) states in its 2023 Annual Report, provided exclusively to Jewish Insider ahead of its publication today, Israel’s 2020 normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, plus Kosovo and prior peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, “survived, and diplomatic and trade relations have continued.” In an interview with JI’s Lahav Harkov, Aryeh Lightstone, the CEO of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, explained why there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic and how the Abraham Accords can still serve as an example and a platform for advancing peace in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia insight: “I think there will be meaningful talk about normalization with Saudi Arabia this summer… If it’s a deal that is peace for peace, it should be pursued rigorously and speedily,” Lightstone, the Trump administration’s special envoy for economic normalization and senior adviser to former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, said. “Creating peace that is dependent on the Israeli-Palestinian relationship as it stands today is asking for long-term challenges in that relationship. We should get off on the right foot. It’s important to double down on the existing relationships and praise those countries for holding it together during this time, so that when the time comes, they’re ready to jump forward meaningfully.”
North-dependent: “Depending what happens in the north, and assuming there is not an all-out war [between Israel and Lebanon], I think 2024 is going to see a reset starting on Sept. 1, a dating process between the people of Israel and the Abraham Accords countries,” Lightstone said. “It’ll start with the UAE, because they’ll lead this again, followed by Bahrain and Morocco, and depending on how the U.S. elections go…extend to other interested countries, as well.”
run through the pain
Nice Jewish Runners offers community, support in 19 cities around the world post-Oct. 7
When Joey Abrams finished the New York City Marathon in 2021, he didn’t know that injuries would make that his final run for a while. Even more unexpected to Abrams, 26, was that the impetus to finally put sneakers to pavement again would be the most devastating massacre of Jews in generations — and his subsequent desire to connect with New York’s Jewish community, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports.
Regular run: Every Friday at 7:30 a.m., Abrams meets a dozen or so runners on the corner of 90th Street and Fifth Avenue to embark on a three-and-a-half-mile loop around Central Park. The group, which calls itself Nice Jewish Runners (NJR), ends each run with a quick bite at Cafe Aronne on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, then heads out by 9 to log on to work. Then, Abrams counts the days until the next NJR run. “On Monday, I’m like ‘OK, four more days til NJR.’”
In search of community: Abrams, an investment banker who grew up in a small town outside of Deal, N.J., and now resides in Manhattan, told eJP that NJR “just appeared” in a post as he scrolled through Instagram in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, a period of time he looks back on as “trying to find community.” He added, “Oct. 7 shook me to the core, like it did for all of us. My whole life being Jewish was about [family], but I can’t believe it took me 26 years to find how special a big Jewish community is.”
Coping with trauma: While Abrams didn’t join the club until February, NJR was formed days after Oct. 7 as a way to help the group’s founder, Ezra Feig, cope with the trauma in Israel. An avid runner, Feig, 32, recalled “how lonely it felt” participating in running clubs after Oct. 7. “There was silence from a lot of people in the running community, and a lot of my friends felt the same.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
Someone like Sadat: The Washington Post’s Max Boot laments the lack of farsighted leadership in Israel and the Palestinian territories, citing assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as a peacemaker who could serve as a model for future Israeli and Palestinian leaders. “It is enough to make an observer despair. Israelis and Palestinians are trapped in a death spiral. The only way to break out of this deadly impasse is for at least one farsighted leader to emerge who is willing to seek an alternative to endless war. In other words, another Anwar Sadat. Such a figure, sadly, is nowhere in sight. Instead, we have two cynical time-servers — [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas — and the fanatical men of Hamas. But there is still a sliver of hope. Hamas’s power has been much reduced by the Israeli offensive, and Netanyahu and Abbas won’t be in office forever. Perhaps, just perhaps, their successors will be willing to revive the long-dormant search for a two-state solution. It doesn’t seem likely at the moment. But then no one could have imagined when Sadat took over in 1970 after the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser that this career army officer would turn out to be a transformational figure. ” [WashPost]
Problematic Perceptions:The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman talks to writer Matti Friedman about the shift away from traditional reporting in favor of activist journalism. “‘The media and arts world is clearly in the thrall of a certain ideology,’ Friedman said. ‘The world is very gray. But the arts world is no longer willing to put up with gray. People want to be in the business of fighting for justice. So instead of covering the circus, they want to be part of the circus.’ This black-and-white construction is most nakedly evident on elite American university campuses where the Palestinian cause is just, no matter the atrocities committed by Hamas, and the Israeli response genocidal. The media has begun to reflect aspects of this binary world view. I asked Friedman what he thought was the biggest misconception Americans have about the Israeli-Hamas conflict. He did not hesitate. ‘Americans think this is a story about inequality,’ he said. ‘And about their own inequality. They graft their politics onto this conflict.’ In fact, Friedman said, it’s about something else entirely: ‘This is a story about the rise of radical Islam – in Iraq. In Syria. Yemen. Algeria. Afghanistan. Parts of Africa. There are six million Jews here trying to hack it. Making good decisions. Bad decisions. It has nothing to do with what’s happening in America. Americans are self-involved.’” [TheWrap]
Ro’s Rules:The Atlantic’s Russell Berman profiles Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) as the California progressive hits the campaign trail to stump for President Joe Biden. “No issue has tested Khanna’s ability to satisfy all of his party’s factions more than Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Khanna called for a cease-fire seven weeks after the Hamas attack — much later than some of his progressive colleagues, and much earlier than Biden, who resisted that demand until last week, when the U.S. allowed a United Nations resolution backing a one-month cease-fire to pass. … Khanna is still not as critical of Israel as some on the left; he doesn’t describe its campaign in Gaza as ‘genocide’ or ‘ethnic cleansing.’ But as Palestinian casualties have increased, he’s called more forcefully for Biden to demand that the Netanyahu government halt its shelling of Gaza. ‘We have a lot of levers that we haven’t used,’ Khanna told me.” [TheAtlantic]
The House Russia-Iran Caucus: In the Liberal Patriot, Jonathan Strum argues that Republicans who have taken a pro-Russia stance are inadvertently backing Iran. “Wittingly or not, House Republicans have thrown their hat in not only with Russia but also Iran and its so-called Axis of Resistance — Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and multiple militia groups in Syria and Iraq allied against the United States, Israel, and America’s allies and partners in the Middle East and Europe. In mid-2022, Russia began to buy thousands of attack drones, missiles, and other single-use weaponry from Iran for use in Ukraine. Iran even sold Russia a production line to manufacture such weapons domestically in Tartarstan — just out of range of Ukraine’s Storm Shadow cruise missiles. As a result, Iran has become a major global exporter of such lethal weaponry — all to U.S. adversaries.” [LiberalPatriot]
Around the Web
Weapons Sales: The U.S. is mulling the sale of a new tranche of weapons, including fighter jets, air-to-air missiles and guidance kits, to Israel; if approved, the delivery of the weapons will take years.
GOP Daylight: The New York Times looks at the gaps between former President Donald Trump’s comments on Israel last week and the position taken by congressional Republicans.
McConnell’s Fight: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he will prioritize fighting the GOP’s isolationist shift for the remainder of his term, which ends in 2026, even after stepping down from Senate leadership later this year.
History Lesson: The Council on Foreign Relations’ Elliott Abrams raises questions about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) claim of being the “highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America” in history.
Having Israel’s Back: The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn looks at how Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support for Israel has impacted public opinion about the two among liberals.
Network Blues: The Knesset passed legislation granting the government powers to temporarily shut down foreign news networks that are determined to be a threat to national security; shortly after the vote, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera would soon be banned in the country.
Called Up: The IDF began sending draft orders to Haredim, following the lapsing of a measure exempting Haredi yeshiva students from service.
Kohelet Cuts: The Kohelet Policy Forum, the think tank behind last year’s Israeli judicial overhaul efforts, is cutting staff and scaling back operations, citing “recent events and the need for budget cuts” following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Houthi Hits: The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady considers the possibility of Western adversaries adopting the Houthis’ strategy of attacks on critical international trade routes.
Plane Crash: Israeli tech entrepreneur Liron Petrushka and his wife, Naomi, were killed when their plane crashed in inclement weather near the California-Nevada border.
New Gig: Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani was named the next international spokesperson for the IDF, succeeding Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, who served in the role for the last two years.
Transition: Jewish Agency for Israel CEO and Director-General Amira Ahronoviz will step down from her position in six months after more than five years in the role and nearly 30 at the organization, eJewishPhilanthropy reports.
Remembering: Algerian Jewish pianist Maurice El Medioni died at 95.
Pic of the Day
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) visits the home of the Bibas family at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on Monday. The family — Yarden and Shiri Bibas and their sons, Ariel and Kfir — were taken hostage on Oct. 7 and remain in Gaza. Shiri Bibas’ parents were killed in the attack.
Torres was in Israel on a 48-hour trip with UJA-Federation of New York during the congressional recess.
Birthdays
Academy Award-winning film director, screenwriter and producer, David Frankel turns 65…
Olympian, holder of the world record in the 50-mile walk which stood since 1972, he is a concentration camp survivor via the Kastner train and a professor emeritus at Ben-Gurion University, Shaul Paul Ladany turns 88… National security adviser under President Clinton, then executive director of UNICEF, he converted to Judaism in 2005, William Anthony Kirsopp Lake, best known as Tony Lake, turns 85… Writer best known for being the first public editor of The New York Times and the inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball, Daniel Okrent turns 76… Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz turns 68… Former deputy U.S. attorney general (and later acting AG) during the Trump administration, now counsel at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Jeffrey A. Rosen turns 66… Supreme Court judge in Brooklyn, she is the founder of Ezras Nashim, the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in NYC, Rachel “Ruchie” Freier turns 59… On-air ice hockey analyst for NESN during pre-game, post-game and intermissions of the Boston Bruins, Billy Jaffe turns 55… Singer, songwriter, guitarist and composer, he is a founding member of the Jewish rock band Moshav, Duvid Swirsky turns 48… Producer and screenwriter for the stage, television and film, best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series “Breaking In” and “The Goldbergs,” Adam F. Goldberg turns 48… Actress, producer and singer, she and her husband, Guy Nattiv, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2019, Jaime Ray Newman turns 46… Reporter for the NYT covering NYC politics and government, Dana Rubinstein… Chief counsel for China trade enforcement in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Brian Janovitz… Ph.D. candidate at NYU, Isaac Roszler… Chief field officer at the Israel on Campus Coalition, Elisabeth Rosenfeld… Rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Evan Lerner Traylor… Executive director of the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival, Magda Strehlau… Attorney and strategic counsel at Medtronic, Rhona Shwaid… Miriam Rosen… Judith Berman…
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