Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the exclusive on three new primary endorsements from Democratic Majority for Israel’s PAC, and report on concerns over the impartiality of a New Republic reporter who writes about antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Magerman, Eden Golan and Jesse Eisenberg.
As Israel winds down its large-scale ground operations in Gaza and a new front opens on its northern border with Lebanon, one thing has become abundantly clear: all roads lead to Tehran, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
As Hamas, the Islamic republic’s proxy in Gaza, continues to fight IDF battalions and hold the remaining 120 hostages in the enclave, its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon has stepped up its own attacks on the Jewish state, with Israel responding with strikes across southern Lebanon, including one that killed a top Hezbollah commander last week.
Some 90,000 Israelis from the north remain displaced, many living in hotels and unable to return to their lives. Anti-Israel propagandists have delighted in the displacement, seeking to make the temporary shrinking of Israel’s borders more permanent, and the areas near the northern border too dangerous to be inhabitable.
Senior Biden administration official Amos Hochstein was in the region earlier this week, first in Israel and then in Lebanon, in an attempt to calm tensions and bring both parties away from the brink of an all-out war. Hochstein indicated in his meetings in Lebanon that if Hezbollah does not end its regular attacks on Israel, it could find itself on the receiving end of a limited Israeli operation — one that would have the support of the U.S.
In a Wednesday night speech, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah teased new weaponry: “When the decision is made [to use the new weapons], they will be seen on the front lines.” Days earlier, the terror group released drone footage of Haifa and the surrounding areas that appeared to be taken over the course of many hours.
In a first, Nasrallah threatened to attack nearby Cyprus if the country allows Israel’s military to operate from the island nation.
“Nasrallah and Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, are coordinating their messaging and their efforts as they patiently prepare for what they see as a potential kill shot against Israel,” Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told us hours after Nasrallah’s speech. “Khamenei is moving ahead with his nuclear weapons development, arming, training and financing his surrogates in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the West Bank to be other Hezbollahs and positioning Hamas to retain military control in Gaza. At the same time, his crown jewel Lebanese Hezbollah is dragging Israel into a full-blown war.”
Hezbollah and Iran, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Matthew Levitt explained, are “kind of equal partners.”
The rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah come as Iran moves to scale up its nuclear enrichment efforts, with plans to upgrade both its Fordow and Natanz facilities. But any significant movement toward all-out war, Levitt suggested, might complicate Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“I think it’s still the case that Iran would prefer that Hezbollah keep its powder dry at a time when Iran is seriously escalating its activities on the nuclear program because it sees Hezbollah’s rockets as its best deterrent against an Israeli or American strike on its nuclear program,” Levitt said.
Iran, Levitt added, is “not looking for full-scale war … they’re very happy with this kind of managed, daily, low-scale conflict. For a long time, they were looking for a way, coming out of their massive deployment to Syria, to reassert, as they would put it, resistance credentials. [For] years they did everything except fight Israel, they fought fellow Muslims. And this conflict in the past eight months has given them an opportunity to do that in spades. So as much as they don’t want it, this is what they prepared for.”
reporter’s record
After Nova exhibit article, The New Republic faces questions over impartiality of its new reporter
There’s very little that unites Squad lawmakers Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) with conservative House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). But all three found themselves briefly aligned last week when they condemned protesters who celebrated Hamas and Hezbollah outside the Nova music festival exhibit in Manhattan — and described the demonstration as antisemitic. Days later, The New Republic published an article arguing that it was “disinformation” to say that the protests outside the Nova exhibit and other recent anti-Zionist actions in New York were antisemitic. The analysis from the magazine’s newly hired associate writer for breaking news, Talia Jane, has drawn criticism including among some former New Republic staffers, for Jane’s approach to claims of antisemitism and their willingness to dismiss incidents that many Jews deemed antisemitic. But more than that, Jane’s public social media postings about antisemitism, the war in Gaza and Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel raise questions about their impartiality in covering those topics, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Bad arguments: “I’m always hesitant to label people racist, antisemite, unless there’s just absolutely undeniable evidence. I think [Jane is] just making terrible arguments that come from a place of factional purity in defense of people who are antisemitic,” said Jonathan Chait, a political columnist at New York magazine and a former senior editor at The New Republic.
Social media receipts: An avid poster on social media, Jane has defended people accused of antisemitism and justified the targeting of Jews when they show up to anti-Israel protests. Responding to a video of a group of visibly Orthodox Jews called “Zionists” and denied service at a drink cart in Brooklyn, Jane said in June that this would have been “clear as day antisemitism” if it were “said to someone genuinely just walking down the street.” But, they continued, “it was at a pro-Palestine protest these guys showed up to, who per their own videos had been hanging around annoying people who asked them to leave them alone.”
Hamas’ ‘rebellion’: Early in the war, Jane wrote an article for the digital news site Daily Dotasking whether posters of Israeli hostages taped up in public places are “drawing awareness or baiting pro-Palestinians into getting canceled when they tear them down.” On Oct. 7, Jane called Hamas’ actions a “rebellion against state repression.”
Address the situation: “I’ve discussed the post with the writer and the editor, and we are working to address the situation,” Michael Tomasky, the magazine’s editor, told JI. He declined to elaborate. Jane did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
bill blockage
Major antisemitism bills appear stalled in Congress with summer, election fast approaching
As Congress approaches its summer recess, and with just a few weeks in session left before the 2024 election, some in the Jewish community are growing concerned that two major antisemitism bills, the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the Countering Antisemitism Act, appear stuck in Congress without a clear path forward, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The issues: The bills face obstacles and opposition from various fronts and on both sides of the aisle, according to conversations with numerous sources on and off Capitol Hill. Those include a lack of action by Senate leadership on AAA — which passed the House earlier this year — and the leaders of both chambers on CAA, as well as objections from committee chairs from both parties to CAA.
Pressing Schumer: An initial, longshot attempt to pass AAA in the Senate shortly after it passed the House failed amid multiple objections to the bill from both sides of the aisle. One source told JI that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently met with Jewish leaders about the bill, and said he was working to resolve those objections — but given strident opposition to IHRA from some on the left and right, that could be a difficult prospect and potentially impossible. Schumer did not provide comment for this story. The source said Jewish leaders pushed Schumer to bring the bill to the floor for votes and put senators on the record, at which point it would likely see strong bipartisan support.
In the House: In the House, conversations about moving CAA forward with both House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) thus far have not borne fruit, Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), its lead House sponsor, told JI. “I think we can pass two bills on an issue that is frightening not just to the Jewish community, but undermines our democracy,” Manning said. “I think it is worth investing the time to pass a second bill that contains provisions that would increase our ability to combat antisemitism.”
exclusive
DMFI PAC wades into heated House races in New York, Phoenix, Wisconsin
Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, DMFI PAC, is wading into three hotly contested upcoming House primaries in New York, Arizona and Wisconsin, the group announced exclusively to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Wednesday.
Who they’re endorsing: The new slate of endorsements includes John Avlon, a former CNN commentator hoping to flip a swing seat on Long Island held by Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY), and Rebecca Cooke, a small business owner running to unseat Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) in western Wisconsin. DMFI PAC is also backing Yassamin Ansari, a former vice mayor of Phoenix, in an open-seat House race to succeed Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is now running for Senate.
PAC statement: In a statement to JI, Mark Mellman, DMFI PAC’s chairman, described the group of endorsees as “three promising Democratic candidates from wildly different backgrounds vying to represent three wildly different districts who are united in their commitment to the Democratic agenda, including strong support for the U.S.-Israel relationship. These pro-Israel candidates are playing a crucial role in maintaining our party’s support for the U.S.-Israel alliance and in retaking the House majority from extreme MAGA Republicans,” Mellman added. DMFI PAC also claimed in its announcement that the three candidates are all “facing Democratic primary opponents who would not be pro-Israel champions in Congress,” but did not elaborate further.
q&a
David Magerman: ‘We need to shift our focus to those Jews who want to leave Egypt, cross the sea and come into Israel’
David Magerman, a computer scientist-turned-venture capitalist, was among the first to join the so-called “donor revolt” against elite American universities in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the accompanying rise in anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents on college campuses in the United States. Days after the Hamas attacks, Magerman, who had decided to cut ties with his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, over its decision to host the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, which featured speakers who regularly call for Israel’s destruction and have been accused of antisemitism, published an open letter addressed to the school’s leaders, accusing them of “support[ing] evil” with their silence about the Hamas massacres and calling on “self-respecting Jews, and all moral citizens of the world, [to] dissociate themselves from Penn.” This week, he told eJewishPhilanthropy that he was taking the multimillion-dollar donation that he’d planned to give to Penn and giving it to Israeli colleges and universities instead. In an interview with eJP’s Judah Ari Gross, Magerman explained his rationale behind the move.
Oct. 7 impetus: “I was actually in Israel for Oct. 7, at my apartment in [the Jerusalem neighborhood of] Baka, celebrating Shemini Atzeret, when the attack happened,” Magerman said. “And when I came back to America and saw how bad things were, I booked a trip back to Israel, without a plan but looking to figure out how I could support the Jewish community — how to support Israel, but also support Americans and bring as many of them as I could to just to make a decision to make aliyah.”
View of Israel: “Both of my sons had gone to gap-year programs in Israel, but decided to come back to America for college,” Magerman said. “And I saw the different entry points into making aliyah, whether it’s coming as a young adult or as a young family, but also as pre-college and college-age students. I was thinking about ways that I can have an impact on Israel with my philanthropy, how I could increase the likelihood that people would choose to make aliyah. I’m not looking to support Israel as an exit strategy for America. I don’t think we should be trying to run away from or escape terrorists or violence [in America]. We should defend our right to be wherever we are. At the same time I think that our place is in Israel. Post-exile [from Israel], this is the first time that we have a viable option to go back to our Israel, and the State of Israel is an obvious solution, an obvious place for us to go where antisemitism is absent.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
End Game: In the Washington Post, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Dennis Ross and David Makovsky posit that the war in Gaza is unlikely to conclude without the U.S. and Israel agreeing on an “end point” to the war. “President Biden has focused on a deal that gets the hostages released and sets in motion a process that leads to the end of the war in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war can only end with Hamas’s military destroyed, it no longer being in control of Gaza and with the hostages returned.The two share the same basic objective, but neither has offered a clear enough explanation of when and how the war can end. From the beginning, Netanyahu has spoken of ‘total victory,’ which is a slogan and not an objective. True, sloganeering leaves room for Netanyahu to maneuver. But his desired end point is clearly broader than Biden’s goal of making Hamas ‘no longer capable’ of carrying out large-scale attacks on Israel. If Netanyahu’s definition is too broad, Biden’s is too narrow. It leaves open the possibility of Hamas being able to reconstitute and rebuild itself. But there is a path forward that both leaders could forge together. And it would be based on the demilitarization of Gaza and the guarantee that it could never again be militarized.” [WashPost]
Protest Pass:The New York Times’ Pamela Paul explains her aversion to participating in performative protest movements. “I’ve never been much of a tribalist or a joiner, and have no use for conformity of thought or dress. … When I see a bunch of white kids wearing kaffiyehs I can’t help wonder whatever happened to the whole anti-cultural appropriation thing. When someone drones on about ‘solidarity,’ all I hear is, ‘Get in line.’ When there’s no room for dissent from the dissent, there’s no room for me. Color me an anti-fan of performative politics, particularly if it means I’d be part of the show that features bigots posing as bleeding hearts. Plus, all that earnestness! It brings out my ironic and impish side, inclined to correct typos on signage or foment some kind of peripheral debate. Every time someone at one of those encampments cried out ‘Free Palestine’ I’d be tempted to yell From Hamas!’ I’d surely get kicked out of the group that wants to kick other people out. They don’t want troublemakers.” [NYTimes]
Around the Web
Grim Tally: U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the number of living hostages in Gaza out of the 120 who remain in the enclave may not total more than 50; previous IDF assessments have confirmed the deaths of 41 hostages.
Domestic Disagreement: IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that “whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong,” prompting a response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s security cabinet “has defined the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities as one of the goals of the war. The Israeli military, of course, is committed to this.”
Rafah Wind-down: Israeli officials said the IDF’s operations in Rafah are nearing completion, signaling an end to the intensive ground operations in Gaza.
On the Hill: Nine Senate Republicans wrote to the Department of Justice pressing it to publicly weigh in on the International Criminal Court’s pursuit of arrest warrants against Israeli officials.
Rubio’s Road: The Washington Post looks at Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) political trajectory, as the Florida Republican becomes a top candidate for the GOP presidential ticket this fall.
Tech Talk: OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever announced the launch of AI startup Safe Superintelligence, a month after leaving OpenAI.
In the Courts: A California man was arrested on suspicion of starting a series of fires on the University of California, Berkeley campus earlier this month; the 34-year-old self-described “scholar-activist” was taken into custody from the home he shares with his parents in the Bay Area.
Curriculum Concerns: The Portland Teachers Union removed controversial learning materials posted to the group’s website that accused “Zionists” of being “bullies” and called for students to engage in prayer.
Yearbook Fallout: East Brunswick, N.J., Public Schools released the findings of an independent report that found no malice or intention when a district yearbook swapped in a photo of Muslim students for the school’s Jewish student union and omitted the names of the school’s Jewish leaders.
Louisiana Legislation: Louisiana’s governor signed into law legislation requiring every public school classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments.
Coming Soon: Searchlight Pictures released the trailer for “A Real Pain,” which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as cousins who travel to their Jewish grandmother’s native Poland; Eisenberg directed the film, which includes footage of his ancestors’ former home in Poland.
WaPo Bias: A Washington Free Beacon investigation found that at least six staffers on the Washington Post’s foreign desk have written for Al Jazeera.
ADL Pushback: The Anti-Defamation League denounced the anonymous Wikipedia moderators who determined that the group, founded to combat antisemitism, was not a trusted source on the issue.
No Paradise for Eden: The Free Press’ Suzy Weiss interviews Israeli singer Eden Golan about her Eurovision experience.
Deep Sea Discovery: An ancient shipwreck believed to be “the first and the oldest” in the region and dating back some 3,300 years was discovered off the coast of northern Israel.
Terror Tag: Canada is preparing to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
Macron’s Move: French President Emmanuel Macron called for schools across the country to engage in conversations about racism and antisemitism following the reported gang-rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb.
Missed Match: Officials in Brussels said the city will not host an upcoming UEFA Nations League soccer match between Israel and Belgium in September, citing the “dramatic situation in Gaza” and concerns over security.
Press Matters:Politico’s Sam Stein is joiningThe Bulwark as managing editor.
Pic of the Day
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday with the congressional delegation that traveled to Israel this week. The bipartisan delegation of nine legislators, led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) (center, next to Netanyahu), is departing Israel today after four days in the country.
Birthdays
French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 40…
Weston, Fla., resident, Harold Kurte… Former member of Knesset for the Ratz party, Ran Cohen turns 87… Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman… Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie “Les” Gold turns 74… Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 70… Host of Bully Pulpit from Booksmart Studios, Bob Garfield turns 69… Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum… Federation leader, co-founder of Brilliant Detroit and of Riverstone Communities (it owns and operates over 70 manufactured housing communities in 12 states), James Bellinson… EVP of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Moshe Hauer turns 59… Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 59… Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 58… Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein… Governor of Pennsylvania, Joshua David Shapiro turns 51… U.S. Sen. Eric Stephen Schmitt (R-MO) turns 49… Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 47… Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D…. Israeli author of crime and thriller books that have sold more than a million copies in 14 languages, Mike Omer turns 45… Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, Maggie Shnayerson turns 43… EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel… Former White House deputy communications director, now at Standard Industries, Josh Raffel… Jennifer Bernstein… Photographer, producer and digital strategist, Sara Pearl Kenigsberg… Writer, director, and comedian, Allison Beth Raskin turns 35… Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 33… Chief campus officer at Hillel Ontario, Beverley Shimansky… Director of corporate governance at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Jaime Reich…
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