Daily Kickoff: Sit-down with University of Florida President Ben Sasse
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, interview University of Florida President Ben Sasse and preview the Indiana primaries. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Craig Goldman, Van Jones and Betsy Berns Korn.
The Israeli army took operational control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt this morning, after Israel’s war cabinet voted unanimously on Monday to press on with its operation in Rafah.
Announcing that the IDF had begun a “precise counterterrorism operation” overnight, the army noted in a statement that beforehand it had encouraged residents of eastern Rafah and international organizations working in the area to temporarily evacuate to the expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, where the IDF has facilitated the expansion of field hospitals, tents and an increase in water, food and medical supplies.
The decision came within hours of Hamas’ announcement that it had “accepted” a cease-fire deal mediated by Egypt and Qatar, sparking a flurry of headlines but which Israeli officials soon said was not the same as the proposal that Israel had agreed to. Hamas’ counterofferreportedly includes the release of deceased Israeli hostages among the 33 hostages who would be freed in the first phase of the deal, which would see a six-week cease-fire.
Israel officials told Axios’ Barak Ravid that the U.S. knew about the proposal before Hamas announced it, and failed to update Jerusalem, leading to the feeling that they’d been “played” — which a senior U.S. official denied.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that Israel would continue with the operation “in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war.” Israel said it would simultaneously send negotiators to Egypt “in an effort to maximize the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel,” though it said that Hamas’ offer was “far from meeting Israel’s core demands.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby addressed the Israeli decision at a press briefing Monday, saying, “I’ll reiterate again that we cannot and will not speak for IDF operations, but we’ve made clear our views about operations in Rafah that could potentially put more than a million innocent people at greater risk. During his call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president again made this clear. He also made clear that we continue to believe that the hostage deal is the best way to avoid that sort of an outcome while securing the release of those hostages.”
Pressed on the specifics of the deal that Hamas had accepted, Kirby said: “I’m not going to talk about the parameters of the proposal that was worked out before this Hamas response, and I’m certainly not going to talk about the response right now.”
Earlier in the day, President Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke on the phone for half an hour amid U.S. concern over Rafah. According to a White House readout of the call, Biden “updated the Prime Minister on efforts to secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha, Qatar.” The readout also noted that Netanyahu agreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing was open for humanitarian assistance after Israel closed it the day before following Hamas rocket fire on the crossing that killed four Israeli soldiers.
In Washington, Biden is set to deliver the keynote address this morning at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony on Capitol Hill. Biden is expected to use his speech to criticize antisemitic rhetoric at college protests and urge Americans to speak out against antisemitism and other forms of hate. He is also planning to bring up the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and criticize those who are downplaying its significance.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) are also expected to participate in and speak at the ceremony, which will be live streamed.
Indiana’s primaries are also taking place today, and Jewish groups are closely watching the outcome of an under-the-radar primary for the southern Indiana seat of retiring Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN).
Former GOP Rep. John Hostettler, who is seeking to reclaim his old seat, was a reliably anti-Israel vote in Congress when he served nearly two decades ago and has since become a purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories after losing his reelection in 2006.
Because of Hostettler’s past profile in the rural 8th Congressional District, Hostettler began the race with an advantage but millions in outside spending from the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project, the Republican Jewish Coalition and a PAC backing mainstream Republicans (America Leads PAC) have boosted the prospects of state Sen. Mark Messmer.
As Jewish Insider‘s Marc Rod reported, the race is close, with Messmer looking like he has a narrow advantage. If Hostettler wins, he would be one of the most anti-Israel Republican lawmakers in Congress — alongside the space that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has been occupying within the caucus.
With several retirements in the state, Indiana’s GOP-dominated congressional delegation is undergoing a makeover as the party moves to the right. Other races to watch in the state include the IN-03 primary, where former GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, is looking to reclaim his seat, with former Allen County Circuit Judge Wendy Davis looking like his most serious (and more moderate) competition.
In the suburban Indianapolis 5th District, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) is fending off a serious challenge from state Rep. Chuck Goodrich, the CEO of an electrical contracting company who has poured millions of his own money into the race. Spartz, the only Ukrainian-American lawmaker in Congress, initially announced her retirement before changing her mind and voted against foreign aid to Ukraine despite her early championing of her home country. (Goodrich has focused his campaign message on attacking Spartz for her Ukraine support, even though she voted against the aid package.)
Finally, the battle to succeed retiring Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN) in the 6th District looks like it’s coming down to a battle between two self-funders: businessman Jefferson Shreve, seen as the more pragmatic candidate, and state Rep. Mike Speedy.
in the spotlight
Milken conference holds its first-ever session entirely dedicated to fighting antisemitism
Inside the exclusive Milken Institute Global Conference happening this week in Beverly Hills, attendees schmoozed and took investing advice from some of the world’s most successful financiers. So when some people wiped away tears during a Monday afternoon panel discussion about addressing antisemitism, it was noticeable; the $25,000-per-seat conference does not have a reputation for sentimentality. But the honest conversation and the speakers’ cautious optimism, even at this difficult moment, emotionally moved some crowd members. Several of them wore yellow ribbon pins in honor of Israeli hostages. It was the first time in the conference’s 27 years that organizers held an entire session focused on antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Role of allies: More than anyone else, CNN host and social entrepreneur Van Jones shared a perspective that appeared to resonate deeply with many in the crowd. He led the other panelists — KIND Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky, Sinai Temple Rabbi Emeritus and Harvard Divinity School scholar Rabbi David Wolpe and Arielle Mokhtarzadeh, a former UCLA student body president and co-president of 30 Years After, — in considering the role of allies in fighting antisemitism, and discussing ways for them to become more strongly engaged.
Strained ties: Jones praised the storied Black-Jewish relationship that powered the Civil Rights Movement for decades, but acknowledged it must be rebuilt as the war in Gaza has strained ties between the two communities. “Nationally, the big tragedy, the big horror, is the palpable and obvious collapse of the Black-Jewish alliance,” said Jones. “The collapse of the most important alliance in 10,000 years of human history. You’ve never had two outsider ethnic groups come together under worse circumstances, and do more good for more people than our peoples.”
Read the full story here.
Sticking to script: In a 30-minute conversation with MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi, Jordan’s Queen Rania Al Abdullah blamed Israel for the war in Gaza and for prolonging the decades-old conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
campus choices
UF President Ben Sasse: Negotiations with ‘the people who happen to scream the loudest,’ are unwise
Last week, while college administrators across the U.S. seemed paralyzed over how to respond to campus anti-Israel protesters, one school weighed in with a simple statement that served as a counterweight to the hemming and hawing of elite private universities. “The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children,” a UF spokesperson said, declaring that students in an unauthorized encampment would face disciplinary action if they did not leave. The statement achieved every PR flak’s dream: It went viral. Much of the positive attention heaped on the school landed on Ben Sasse, the former Nebraska senator and Yale-educated historian who has been the president of UF since early 2023. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles yesterday, Sasse addressed his decision making process on the issue.
No exceptions: “It isn’t that complicated to affirm free speech and free assembly, which are fundamental American rights and something that institutionally we’re committed to. But that doesn’t mean that the people who are the loudest are the ones who don’t have to obey the rules that everybody else does,” Sasse told JI.
Educators’ role: Campus rules allow tents on one occasion, said Sasse — tailgating during football season, when tents are allowed only in certain places and for a particular amount of time. “Why would a specific group of protesters get special license that nobody else gets?” he asked. “We support folks’ free speech rights, but that includes the right to make an ass and an idiot of yourself, and a lot of the protesters say ridiculously, historically and geographically ignorant things,” Sasse said. There should be a role for universities and educators to play in responding to the content of what protesters are saying, he added, especially when some of their language echoes terrorist talking points.
Read the full interview here.
hill hearings
Lankford: Sanders intends to hold hearing ‘not just on antisemitism,’ with focus on Islamophobia
As the House Education and the Workforce Committee prepares to hold its third major hearing on campus antisemitism later this month, the corresponding Senate committee — chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — has yet to hold any special hearings about rising antisemitism at American universities. Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the co-chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, have been asking Sanders to call a hearing on the matter. As of last week, they hadn’t heard back from the Vermont progressive. But in a conversation with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference, Lankford said that Sanders has now weighed in on the matter, telling Lankford that he intends to call a hearing with a focus that is “broader and not just on antisemitism. He wants to really focus on increasing Islamophobia, and a very different direction on it.”
Speaking clearly: “I have no issue with trying to be able to say no one should be discriminated against, but we want to be really clear what’s actually happening,” Lankford added. He and Rosen have sought stronger Senate action on campus antisemitism for two or three years, he said, so the issue is deeper than just the current spike.
Putting it into context: “No one really took it seriously at that point. They are now. People do see it now,” said Lankford. “This is a bigger issue than what we thought was happening on campus. So we’re trying to just be really clear that this is not a knee-jerk to October the seventh. This has grown for a while and we feel it’s important to be able to set that context.”
Scoop: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Michelle Steel (R-CA) are set to introduce a bill today directing the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to create a curriculum to teach about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
campus protests
Jewish leaders worry that university presidents are appeasing anti-Israel protesters — at any cost
As universities around the country strike various deals with anti-Israel protesters to quell the turmoil on college campuses — including giving protesters a seat at the table regarding investment decisions — Jewish leaders fear that even these largely symbolic concessions could further poison the atmosphere for Jewish students, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Benefits and rewards: Negotiating with protesters sets up a climate in which “Jewish students — who are not violating rules —- are being ignored, bullied and intimidated,” Mark Rotenberg, vice president and general counsel of Hillel International, told JI. “People who violate university rules should not be rewarded with financial benefits and rewards for the violation of university rules,” he continued.
Open violations: Shira Goodman, senior director of advocacy at the Anti-Defamation League, echoed that the series of deals struck all “ignore the needs of Jewish students increasingly at risk of harassment and intimidation, or worse, on campus.” Goodman added, “It is critical to acknowledge the facts on the ground. For days and in some cases weeks, anti-Zionist protesters have openly violated school policies and codes of conduct by erecting encampments that have provided cover for students to fan the flames of antisemitism and wreak havoc on the entire campus community… The protesters’ aim and impact on many campuses has been to intimidate and alienate Jewish students for whom Zionism and a connection to Israel is a component of their Jewish identity. They must be held to account, not rewarded for their conduct.”
Chicago stalemate: Not all efforts to strike deals have been successful. At University of Chicago, for instance, negotiations to remove encampment tents from the campus central quad were suspended on Sunday, after protesters reached a stalemate with the university president, Paul Alivisatos.
lone star of david
Craig Goldman aims to be the third Jewish Republican in the House
Texas state Rep. Craig Goldman is running to join an exclusive club: If he wins a May 28 primary runoff, Goldman is on a glide path to becoming the third Jewish Republican in Congress — not to mention the first Jewish Republican ever elected to Congress from the Lone Star State. Goldman, running in Texas’ 12th Congressional District, which includes parts of Fort Worth and surrounding areas and is currently held by retiring Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), led GOP opponent John O’Shea in the primary, 44% to 26%. He’s favored to prevail in next month’s runoff, necessitated because neither candidate won a majority of the vote. Unlike a growing faction of his party, Goldman, 55, is leaning hard into support for U.S. allies abroad, including both Israel and Ukraine. “What’s going on in Ukraine, what’s going on in Israel have major implications to not only their futures, but the future of our nation,” Goldman said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.
Israel support: Goldman vowed “unilateral, unconditional support for Israel,” adding that the U.S. should give Israel “whatever means they need” to “go after every single individual who’s part of Hamas.” And he said the U.S. has “no right as a nation to tell Israel how they should run their war.” Asked about countering threats from Iran in the region, the Texas lawmaker told JI that the U.S. needs to “make it very clear that an attack on Israel is an attack on the United States and we’ll do anything and everything to defend our friends.”
Understanding the land: Many Americans, he continued, “don’t understand having an enemy across many of your borders — especially the northern border and southern border — who literally want to kill you just because of who you are and where you live.” He said he encourages everyone to visit Israel to better understand the country and the dangers it faces. “It also has fabulous people who just want to live their lives and live in peace,” Goldman continued. “They certainly aren’t warmongers there. No one asked for this situation to happen… but what Hamas did is indefensible and so I’m all for the strongest response Israel is giving to them.”
spotlight
Sen. Van Hollen to keynote gathering panning Israel for journalist casualties of Gaza war
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) will be the featured speaker at an event this week focused on the “challenges of covering Palestine” that accuses Israel of killing “an unprecedented number” of Palestinian journalists “during its campaign in Gaza.” Van Hollen will deliver the opening address at the Arab Center Washington DC’s gathering at the National Press Club on Thursday entitled, “Covering Palestine: A Shireen Abu Akleh Memorial Symposium.” Following Van Hollen’s remarks, which will be delivered virtually, the conference will hold panel discussions on “Western media coverage of … the war in Gaza” and the risks faced by Palestinian journalists covering the conflict, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Media matters: “Two years after the killing of acclaimed Palestinian-American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank and as an unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists have been killed by the Israeli military during its campaign in Gaza, this symposium will focus on the challenges of covering Palestine,” the event description reads. “The panels in this conference will focus on both the journalists at risk on the ground as well as an assessment of Western media coverage of Palestine and, in particular, the war on Gaza.”
Participants include: Among those appearing at the event are Al Jazeera’s Laila Al-Arian and MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin. Mohyeldin is an alumni of Al Jazeera, the Qatari state-run TV network, and frequently uses his weekend MSNBC show to criticize Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza. He claimed in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7 that the attack was “the deadly consequences of failed policies” by the U.S. and Israel and a “failure on the region’s part to not be able to say this is an issue that matters.”
Worthy Reads
Middle Ground: Ahead of President Joe Biden’s speech at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony today, The Bulwark’s A.B. Stoddard writes that now is the time for Biden to try to win back the center. “He better lean in hard — like his re-election, and the future of American democracy, depend on it. He must speak to the young liberal father in Georgia, a proud and observant Jew who can’t stand Donald Trump but doesn’t know how he will bring himself to vote for Biden this year. It’s the vote of this disheartened Peach State Democrat that Biden must salvage. But it seems like Biden may have lost the plot. Trying to win with young voters, he is paying off more student debt and is reclassifying marijuana. Yet for every young American screaming at ‘Genocide Joe,’ there are far more voters in the middle who find the normalcy Biden promised four years ago is nowhere in sight. In 2024, Biden is the chaos candidate. Fair or unfair, in politics perception is reality.” [TheBulwark]
Whose Speech is Free: In The Free Press, Abigail Shrier accuses university administrators of double standards in their approach to free speech. “A police officer who pulls over speeding black motorists — and only black motorists — isn’t protecting ‘law and order.’ He’s engaging in invidious discrimination. So too the university administrators who suddenly discover they are free speech absolutists only when student protesters call for the death of their Jewish classmates. The lengths administrators have gone to placate, encourage, and embolden the pro-Hamas protesters in the past weeks provide a signal reminder that there are at least two sets of rules governing elite universities today: one for the favored, protected class; the other for everyone else. And in case anyone has any doubt which category Jewish students fall into, the unwillingness of universities to enforce their own codes of conduct against pro-Hamas protesters in the months since October 7 should disabuse them.” [FreePress]
What to Call the Protestors?: In the Washington Post, Ramesh Ponnuru calls out fellow journalists for their characterization of the campus protests as “anti-war” or “pro-Palestinian,” urging them to identify them as anti-Israel. “These aren’t neutral, or accurate, descriptions. A leading group backing the demonstrations, Students for Justice in Palestine, exulted in the terrorist attack ‘against the Zionist enemy’ on Oct. 7. Protesters at George Washington University and Cornell University have been chanting, ‘There is only one solution: intifada revolution.’ (‘Globalize the intifada’ is another popular slogan.) Terrorist-group regalia has been spotted at protests at Yale, Princeton, Stanford and the University of Minnesota. At UCLA, a Jewish student claimed he was chased by a group of protesters for intruding on their turf… The rules governing these protests should be neutral with respect to their viewpoint. But the public is under no obligation to refrain from judging that viewpoint, and the media is under no obligation to provide the protesters with public relations assistance. If the extremism on display in the protests were associated with the right rather than the left, I suspect the media would be covering it with less sympathy.” [WashPost]
Stoking the Flames:Tablet’s Park MacDougald investigates who is behind the anti-Israel protests roiling U.S. campuses. “Politically, moreover, the protests have displayed an incoherent mix of campus progressivism, hardcore Islamism and Arab nationalism, and revolutionary anarchism and communism, including open praise for North Korea. The only unifying thread would appear to be opposition to Israel and its alleged imperial patron, the United States. Have America’s college students suddenly converted en masse to anarcho-communist-jihadism? Not quite. Many are far left and anti-Israel. Some are foreigners, or the children of foreigners, who have imported the conspiracies and hatreds of their homelands. More, admitted under relaxed pandemic-era admissions standards and proudly ignorant of both American and world history, are taking the “decolonial” half-knowledge pushed by their elders to its logical conclusion. But students are not the only, and perhaps not even the most important, faction active in the campus protests.” [Tablet]
Around the Web
Passing the Baton: The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations nominated Betsy Berns Korn, AIPAC’s national board chair and former president, as its chair-elect. Harriet Schleifer was renominated for a second term as chair.
Feeling the Bern, Again: Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) announced that he will run for reelection for a fourth term.
Sign of the Times: Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff met with college students who are descendants of Holocaust survivors for a roundtable discussion honoring the victims of the Holocaust and discussing efforts to fight present-day antisemitism.
Take Three: Responding to recent events on campus, the House Education Committee is now calling the presidents of Northwestern, Rutgers and UCLA to testify before the committee on May 23 at its next college campus antisemitism hearing. The Yale and Michigan presidents who were previously called are now being asked to participate in a transcribed interview.
Brushback Pitch: A dozen Senate Republicans, including Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), threatened “severe sanctions” against the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor and the court if it issues arrest warrants against Israeli officials. “Target Israel and we will target you,” they said. “You have been warned.”
Cancel Culture: Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony amid ongoing campus protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.
Telling His Story: A custodian at Columbia University, who was photographed being pushed by an anti-Israel protester against a wall, spoke toThe Free Press about his experience.
Four Questions: New York University’s new Center for the Study of Antisemitism hosted its first conference on April 18, called “Four Critical Questions: Confronting Antisemitism in 2024 and Beyond.”
Seeing Crimson: Harvard graduation speaker Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who compared Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks to those of Nazi Germany, denied antisemitism accusations in an interview with Time.
Taking A Hit: The CEO of Hims and Hers walked back his earlier support of anti-Israel campus protesters after the hair loss company’s stock plummeted.
Pulitzer Politics: Several of the Pulitzer Prize recipients, announced on Monday, centered on controversial Israel reporting and photography in the wake of Oct. 7, including from Reuters, The New York Times and Jewish author Nathan Thrall.
The Case for the Rafah Incursion: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board argues that Israel’s operation in Rafah is essential in the war against Hamas.
DoJ Moves: The Associated Press spotlights the Department of Justice’s efforts to counter measures taken by countries such as China and Iran to intimidate and harass political opponents and activists who live in the U.S.
Nuke Update: Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi traveled to Iran yesterday amid increasing difficulties faced by this agency in monitoring Iran’s nuclear program.
Eurovision Security: Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar reportedly visited Malmo, Sweden, last week to inspect the security arrangements for the Israeli delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Pic of the Day
The 36th annual March of the Living took place at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp yesterday, on Yom HaShoah, led by 55 Holocaust survivors from countries around the world, including seven who were personally impacted by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Birthdays
Director of films including “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” “Look Who’s Talking” and “Clueless,” Amy Heckerling turns 70…
Member of the New York State Assembly from 1993 to 2022, Sandra R. “Sandy” Galef turns 84… Senior member of the Mobile, Ala., law firm of Silver, Voit & Thompson, Irving Silver turns 84… Napa, Calif.-based media executive and podcast host, Jeffrey Schechtman… Theatrical producer at Press the Button Productions in Monterey, Calif., Jane J. Press… Former member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Rabbi Meshulam Nahari turns 73… Former deputy secretary of state, deputy national security advisor, currently the dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS, James Braidy “Jim” Steinberg turns 71… Interim president of Harvard University, Alan Michael Garber turns 69… Professional poker player and hedge fund manager, Daniel Shak turns 65… CEO of Rationalwave Capital Partners, Mark Rosenblatt… Emmy Award-winning film, television and music video director, Adam Bernstein turns 64… Mexican actor best known for his work in telenovelas and the stage, Ari Telch turns 62… Founder of JewBelong, Archie Gottesman… Chairman and CEO of Hertz until a few months ago, following 30 years at Goldman Sachs, Stephen Scherr turns 60… Former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Mark H. Levine turns 58… CEO of the American Jewish Committee, he was previously a member of Congress for 12 years, Ted Deutch turns 58… Senior adviser to House Democratic Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA-5), Keith Stern… Former member of the Knesset who served as interior minister and justice minister, she now chairs Kardan Real Estate Group, Ayelet Shaked turns 48… AIPAC national board member and the regional political chair for AIPAC’s Northeast Region, Yana J. Lukeman… VP of sales at Harvey, Robert Warren Saliterman… Head of school at Manhattan Day School, Dr. Pesha C. Kletenik… Social entrepreneur, winemaker and CEO of Napa Valley’s OneHope, Jake Kloberdanz turns 41… Director of strategic initiatives for the Port of Los Angeles, Arthur L. Mandel turns 39… CEO of Austin-based Harris Media, Vincent Robert Harris turns 36… Las Vegas-based fashion blogger, DJ and writer known as Bebe Zeva, Rebeccah Zeva Hershkovitz turns 31… Film and television actress, Dylan Nicole Gelula turns 30… Actor and singer, Andrew Barth Feldman turns 22…
