Daily Kickoff: White House to screen Sandberg’s Oct. 7 doc today
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the latest on the dissolution of Israel’s war cabinet, report on the University of Minnesota’s revocation of a job offer to an academic who accused Israel of genocide and spotlight an art exhibition that aims to reimagine Israel’s flag. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jerry Seinfeld, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, and Alex Katz and Jessica Dean.
As the Biden administration pressures Hamas to accept a hostage and cease-fire deal, Vice President Kamala Harris will host an event today spotlighting conflict-related sexual violence, including war crimes committed by the Palestinian terrorist group on Oct. 7 and in the months since, Jewish Insider senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch reports.
Harris will deliver remarks at the event, which will also feature a partial screening of “Screams Before Silence,” Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary about Hamas’ sexual violence, according to a White House official. Harris plans to argue that “more must be done by the international community to promote justice and accountability,” the official told JI. The plans for the event were first reported by CNN.
The White House event has been in the works for several months, according to a White House official, who said the timing is unrelated to President Joe Biden’s advocacy for Hamas to accept a cease-fire deal in Gaza.
The event is being spearheaded by the White House Gender Policy Council, which has been working closely with the National Council of Jewish Women and the Hostage and Missing Families Forum in recent weeks. The two organizations brought a delegation to the White House last month with female relatives of hostages as well as women who have been released from Hamas captivity, according to a source involved with that work. One of the released female hostages is slated to attend today’s event.
The Gender Policy Council sent invitations to all the major feminist and women’s rights organizations, according to one person involved in organizing the event. U.S leaders and Jewish women’s organizations have sharply criticized prominent advocates for the rights of women and girls for staying silent after the Oct. 7 attacks and for ignoring widespread reports of sexual violence committed by Hamas that day — so keeping an eye on the audience of the event will be revealing.
Members of Congress are not expected to attend the event, which falls during a House recess period. A bipartisan delegation of nine House members, led by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), touched down in Israel last night for a four-day congressional delegation that will include meetings with top Israeli officials. Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Jake Ellzey (R-TX), Randy Feenstra (R-IA), Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Lucy McBath (D-GA), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) are joining Hoyer in Israel.
Also in Israel today is White House senior advisor Amos Hochstein, who is slated to meet with officials this afternoon in an effort to calm escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon. He met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this morning and will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former war cabinet member Benny Gantz before heading to Lebanon.
While Hochstein is in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for meetings, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi are traveling to D.C. for meetings in Washington.
Gallant, meanwhile, is slated to travel to Washington next week at the invitation of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
nixed
Israeli cabinet dissolved after Gantz resignation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed members of his security cabinet on Monday that he had dissolved the country’s war cabinet after eight months. “There is no more war cabinet,” Netanyahu said, according to a source in the security cabinet. “It was part of the coalition agreement with [former minister Benny] Gantz, at his demand. The moment Gantz left, there is no such forum anymore,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Gantz and his National Union party resigned last week from the coalition, which it joined shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In their departures, Gantz and then-minister Gadi Eizenkot, a war cabinet observer, cited disagreements with Netanyahu about his handling of the war, hostage negotiations and other issues.
What it means: The forum’s dissolution is unlikely to have any real impact, since Gantz and Eizenkot were no longer members. Netanyahu noted in the security cabinet meeting that he will still be able to hold consultations with the remaining members — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and observers Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Shas leader Aryeh Deri — and he can make decisions about the war with Gallant. That would still leave National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich out, despite their demands to join the war cabinet.
Army argument: But Gantz’s departure, which took effect on Thursday, means there is no counterbalance to Netanyahu’s left in the coalition and gives Netanyahu less political and diplomatic cover to say that Israel’s maneuvers have support from both sides of the aisle. Under pressure from ministers in his newly narrow coalition on Sunday, Netanyahu rapped an announced pause in the IDF’s fighting in Rafah to deliver humanitarian aid as “unacceptable.” A diplomatic source said that “when the prime minister heard the reports in the morning about a humanitarian break for 11 hours a day, he contacted his military secretary to say that this is unacceptable.” The source added, “Following clarifications, it was reported to the prime minister that there is no change in the IDF’s policy and fighting in Rafah is continuing as planned.”
campus beat
University of Minnesota rescinds offer to academic who alleged Israel was committing ‘genocide’
A professor who wrote days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza was “a textbook case of genocide” has had his offer to head University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies revoked after two members of the center’s advisory board resigned in protest last Friday and several Jewish leaders voiced their concerns, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Search continues: Jeff Ettinger, the interim president of the University of Minnesota, said during a Friday morning Board of Regents meeting that Joe Eggers, the interim director of the center, would remain in the position as a new director search is conducted. Ettinger noted that the search process may extend until 2025 or 2026. The official withdrawal of Raz Segal’s job offer came after a pause was announced last week amid increased scrutiny of Segal’s comments on Israel, JI was first to learn.
Segal’s stance: “The assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, wrote in Jewish Currents on Oct. 13, days after Hamas launched a terror attack in Israel that killed more than 1,200 people. “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians,” he wrote.
stelson’s stand
Janelle Stelson doubles down on ‘Israel’s right to decimate Hamas however it sees fit’ as she challenges Rep. Scott Perry
Democrat Janelle Stelson is sticking to a staunchly pro-Israel stance as she seeks to defeat Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), a perennial Democratic target, and is seizing on his vote against the supplemental Israel aid package earlier this year, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Israel in focus: Stelson, a former local news anchor, told JI that “the U.S. is Israel’s most staunch ally and we need to continue to stand beside her,” predicting that “we would see another cease-fire in short order if Hamas would give the hostages back.” She also expressed strong support for Israel. “I have got to say, I also agree absolutely with Israel’s right to root out Hamas and decimate [it],” she continued. “It’s a terrorist organization that doesn’t even believe Israel should exist. So Israel needs to do what it needs to do to defend itself.”
Breaking with Biden: Pressed on the administration’s moves to withhold some arms shipments to Israel, Stelson again said she supports Israel’s “right to decimate Hamas however it sees fit. I just think that we need to tread lightly,” she continued. “This is an ally, and our allies need to be able to depend on us.” She distanced herself from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ouster, saying, “It’s very important that Israeli citizens are the ones who choose their leader. It’s a democracy.”
Iran threat: On multiple occasions, Stelson, unprompted, raised concerns about the threat of Iran in the region, tying Israel’s efforts to root out Hamas to the broader Iranian threat. Without specifying particular policy approaches, she said that the U.S. must “be really strong here” to send a message to Iran and other U.S. adversaries. “Part of [Israel’s operation] is [about] sending a strong message to Iran, that this is not going to be allowed to stand,” Stelson said. “Israel is surrounded by Iranian influence.”
reporter’s notebook
‘Rips in our fabric’: Reimagining Israel’s national flag
Some 90 Israeli artists have taken the highly recognizable and emotive symbol of the Jewish state, the flag of Israel, and reimagined it using worn-out and weather-beaten flags that once lined a road in the Arava Desert. While the works offer a new dimension to the flag’s design, all express the heartbreak, fear and hope the nation of Israel is experiencing after more than eight months of war. A week ago, the exhibition titled “From Erosion to Hope,” which opened last month in Tel Aviv ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day, arrived in Mevasseret Zion, a town just outside of Jerusalem where Arnon Zamora, who lost his life in the daring Gaza operation that saw the rescue of four hostages earlier this month, grew up, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Meaningful moment: Hours before the exhibit officially opened its doors in the town, hundreds of tearful residents lined the main boulevard waving a new set of Israeli flags as Zamora’s wife, Michal, and other family members made their way towards Jerusalem’s military cemetery on Mount Herzl. The juxtaposition of the new flags waved ahead of Zamora’s funeral, set against the repurposing and reimagining of worn-out and battered flags in the exhibition, was not lost on Yoram Shimon, Mevasseret Zion’s mayor. “The flag is a symbol that connects the individual to his or her country,” Shimon said as he opened the display in a repurposed store in one of the town’s shopping malls.
Artistic range: The works produced by the artists range in type and form, with all expressing their reactions as Israelis to the events on Oct. 7 and beyond. There are fragments of flags sewn together with other national symbols, such as parts of IDF uniforms or religious garments. There are flags that are screwed up and stuffed into pickling jars – for preservation – and another where the artist placed the flag inside a Palestinian Coca-Cola bottle mimicking a Molotov cocktail. Some of the works offer hope, with a golden Star of David replacing the faded blue one, or another that appears to be the belly of a pregnant woman bringing new life. Others are less positive, with some emphasizing the scorch marks caused by the sun or adding drops of red blood.
Worthy Reads
Forgetting Nuremberg: In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Daniel Feldman considers how the recent International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s effort to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials does a disservice to the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials. “The ICC’s arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas military leader in Gaza, equate the attacker and defender in the context of war, a fallacy that was itself highlighted at Nuremberg. This was addressed explicitly by the judges in the Einsatzgruppen Trial of the Nazis’ paramilitary death squads, one of the subsequent Nuremberg proceedings held by U.S. military courts at the same location. … The stark contrast between the two sides in World War II can be further summed up as follows: The Nazis committed their acts so that millions would die; the Allies killed the people they did so that millions more wouldn’t die. In peacetime, no citizen can decide that the ends justify the means and kill his neighbor; therein lies society’s collapse. War, by contrast, must be judged consequentially, meaning the ends have to be allowed to justify the means. There is no escaping a cost-benefit analysis, as painful as it may be. In that light, the opposite purposes of the Nazis and the Allies are clear.” [WSJ]
Diplomatic Straddling: The Washington Post’s Jason Willick suggests that President Joe Biden needs to take a stronger stance on the Israel-Hamas war. “Israel has a political and strategic need to finish off Hamas as a fighting force in Gaza. Hamas has an existential need to survive to fight another day, the winds of global opinion increasingly at its back. The Biden administration appears to have been laboring for months on the assumption that this contradiction can be papered over with sufficiently elaborate diplomacy. The result has been a predictably failed cycle of cease-fire back and forths. It’s time for President Biden to stop trying to bridge unbridgeable gaps and use his power to force one side or the other to submit to American will. That means either fully backing Israel’s military aim of wiping out Hamas, or else forthrightly demanding an end to the war that leaves Hamas in power. Biden has resisted taking either tack out of political calculation, but his anguished diplomatic straddling has reached the end of the line.” [WashPost]
Doomed Strategy: In Foreign Policy, Aaron David Miller and Steven Simon posit that President Joe Biden’s efforts to implement a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas are doomed. “Indeed, for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, time is an ally. For Biden, time is an enemy ticking down against an Israel-Hamas war that he’s desperate to end and has little immediate prospect of doing so. Even if the two sides manage to commit to some version of the comprehensive plan put forth by Biden and Netanyahu, it’s more than likely that they’ll only be able to implement the first phase. With less than zero mutual trust, even that would be nothing short of a small miracle. Based on our experience, Middle East negotiations tend to have two speeds — slow and slower. And these are not traditional negotiations. The principal Palestinian decision-maker is entombed somewhere in Gaza, or possibly Egypt; neither of the two leaders has any confidence that the other will comply with an agreement, no matter how limited; and the negotiations are being carried out indirectly by parties — the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt — whose goals are not always strictly aligned.” [ForeignPolicy]
Shifting on Saudi: The Financial Times’ Felicia Schwartz and Andrew England look at the Biden administration’s shift on Saudi Arabia, with which it had strained relations in the first half of Biden’s presidency. “In part, the dramatic shift in tone is a reflection of how Biden’s foreign policy has been driven by events rather than ideology, just as Barack Obama’s was before him. The volatile Middle East perennially sucks in US presidents even as they seek to pivot away from the region, a factor brought into sharper focus after Hamas’s October 7 attack ignited the group’s war with Israel. Key moments in the relationship It also underlines the importance to American domestic politics of energy from the Gulf; although the US has reduced its dependence on oil imports, what happens in the Middle East still affects global prices. But at its core was a realpolitik realisation in Washington that in the game of great-power competition, Saudi Arabia was too important to ignore, with concerns that if the administration did not engage with Riyadh, a traditional US ally would fall deeper into the orbit of China and Russia. ‘How do you keep Russia from aligning with Saudi Arabia? You have to have a relationship [with the Saudis]; how do you keep China from aligning with Saudi Arabia? You have a relationship,’ says Jon Alterman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.” [FT]
Around the Web
Presidential Statement: President Joe Biden denounced “The horrific acts of [a]ntisemitism” that took place last week, “including a demonstration celebrating the 10/7 attack, vandalism targeting Jewish homes, attacks on Jewish faculty at college campuses, and harassment of subway riders,” calling them “abhorrent”; “Antisemitism doesn’t just threaten Jewish Americans. It threatens all Americans, and our fundamental democratic values,” Biden added.
On the Ground: The Wall Street Journal talks to residents of the Nuseirat neighborhood of Gaza, where four Israeli hostages were rescued earlier this month.
A Survivor Speaks: CNN’s Bianna Golodryga interviewed Oct. 7 survivor Ofir Amir, who co-founded the Nova music festival where more than 200 people were killed by Hamas.
Tzav 9 Sanctions: The U.S. announced sanctions on the Israeli extremist group Tzav 9 over repeated incidents in which the group has disrupted trucks attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
Congo Line: A U.S. proposal would see restrictions against Dan Gertler eased if the Israeli businessman sells his remaining mining projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
No Khanna Do: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he intends to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress next month.
Latimer’s Edge: Politicounpacks Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) uphill battle to retain his seat amid a primary challenge from Westchester County Executive George Latimer, citing Latimer’s name recognition in the district, as opposed to his ties to AIPAC, which is frequently cited by Bowman and his Squad allies.
Crystal Ball: Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus and Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer debated the potential outcomes of the 2024 presidential election and their impact on the Jewish community and Israel.
Shul Vandalism: Manhattan’s Park Avenue Synagogue was defaced by vandals who spray-painted “Palestine” on a sign with the text, “How great are your tents O Jacob your dwelling places O Israel.”
Terror Tag: The U.S. designated the Nordic Resistance Movement and three of its leaders as terrorists, the second time in U.S. history that a foreign white supremacist group has received such a designation.
Fisher’s Price: Advent International will acquire a minority stake in Ken Fisher’s Fisher Investments; Advent, along with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, will invest $2.5-$3 billion in the money management firm.
Tonys Roll In: Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” took home the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival; the show’s stars Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff won for best actor and supporting actor, respectively; Shaina Taub, who won Best Score for her “Suffs,” quotedPirkei Avot in her acceptance speech.
Sheinbaum’s Back Pages: A Forward investigation into the Jewish roots of Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum found that her mother was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, before briefly moving to Mandatory Palestine and then immigrating to Mexico, contrary to Sheinbaum’s claim that her mother was born in Mexico.
Meloni’s Move: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni doubled down on Rome’s support for Israel at the G7, telling reporters that Hamas’ “trap” to isolate the Jewish state “seems it is working.”
Rental Row: An arts center in Antwerp, Belgium, denied a Jewish school’s rental request, telling organizers that the Monty Hall center could not work with “an organization for which we see links with present-day Israel.”
Sydney Shutdown: Jerry Seinfeld drew laughs and applause for shutting down an anti-Israel heckler at his show in Sydney, Australia.
Coin of the Realm: Archeologists in Lod, Israel, discovered a trove of silver and bronze coins believed to have been buried 1,700 years ago during a Jewish uprising against Roman Emperor Constantius Gallus.
Prisoner Swap: Iran and Sweden carried out a prisoner swap that saw the release of two Swedes, including an EU diplomat, in exchange for an Iranian official convicted in Sweden for his role in mass executions of Iranians in 1988.
Centrifuge Concerns: Iran has begun using more advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz facility, with plans to install more in the coming weeks; over the weekend, Tehran rebuked the G7 for its statement calling for Iran to de-escalate its nuclear program.
Record High: New figures released by Israel’s Defense Ministry indicate that Israeli arms exports hit a record high of $13 billion, the third time in as many years that Israel has set a new record for defense exports.
Turning Up the Dial: The Houthis in Yemen have begun using remote-controlled sea drones to attack vessels transiting through the Red Sea; U.S. military experts told the Associated Press that its campaign against the Iran-backed group has become the most intense ongoing sea battle in decades.
Middle East Momentum: The Wall Street Journallooks at how growth in countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are propelling the Middle East’s marketing sector to become the fastest-growing in the world.
Weekend Wedding: Alex Katz, a managing director for government relations at Blackstone, and CNN anchor and correspondent Jessica Dean were married at The Grill and The Pool in Manhattan on Saturday evening. The bride’s CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins officiated. Collins, previously a White House correspondent for The Daily Caller, joked how in D.C. she’s sometimes referred to as a “RINO” but, she said, little did people know that meant ‘Rabbi In Name Only.’ The groom’s sister quipped during her remarks that the wedding felt like “the White House Correspondents Dinner meets Rosh Hashanah at Temple Emanu-El.” Notable attendees at the macher table included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the New York Public Library’s Iris Weinshall, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Loews CEO James Tisch, former Chancellor of the New York Regents Merryl Tisch, Blackstone’s Jon Gray, Mindy Gray, CNN executive editor Virginia Moseley and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, Chris Isham and Jennifer Maguire Isham. Schumer led the hora and later serenaded the bride and groom with his rendition of Sinatra’s “New York, New York” alongside his longtime spokesman Angelo Roefaro.
Remembering: Former longtime ABC executive Martin Starger died at 92.
Pic of the Day
Soldiers carried the coffin of Capt. Wassim Mahmoud, who was killed in a battle in the southern Gaza Strip, during his funeral on Tuesday in Beit Jann, Israel. Mahmoud, who was Druze, was one of 12 soldiers killed in operations in Gaza in the last week.
Birthdays
Diplomat and attorney, undersecretary of state for international security affairs in the Carter administration, longtime U.N. special representative, Matthew Nimetz turns 85…
Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, professor at Georgetown and UC Berkeley, he is married to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, George Akerlof turns 84… One of the world’s best-selling singer-songwriters over the course of seven decades, born Barry Alan Pincus, Barry Manilow turns 81… Former member of the Knesset for the Zionist Union party, Eitan Broshi turns 74… Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission during the Obama administration, Jonathan David (“Jon”) Leibowitz turns 66… Deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration during the first two years of the Biden administration, Stephanie Pollack turns 64… President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Aaron Dan Peskin turns 60… Fashion designer, daughter of Reva Schapira, Tory Burch turns 58… Active in interfaith peace initiatives between Judaism and Islam and in encounters for Jews with Eastern religions, Rabbi Yakov Meir Nagen (born Genack) turns 57… Founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, Michael Freund turns 56… British historian, columnist and musician, Dominic Green turns 54… Comedian, actor, director, writer and producer, Michael Showalter turns 54… International human rights attorney who serves as managing director of the law firm Perseus Strategies, Jared Matthew Genser turns 52… Screenwriter, television producer, director and voice actor, Matthew Ian Senreich turns 50… Advocacy, philanthropic and political counsel at Chicago-based Beyond Advisers, David Elliot Horwich… SVP for the economic program at Third Way, Gabe Horwitz… Chief philanthropy officer of the Jewish Community Foundation and Jewish Federation of Broward County, Keith Mark Goldmann… Director of government affairs for the Conservation Lands Foundation, David Eric Feinman… Former rabbi of the Elmora Hills Minyan in Union County, N.J., now an LCSW therapist in private practice, Rabbi Michael Bleicher… NYC-based media and business writer for The Hollywood Reporter, Alexander Weprin… Professional surfer and musician, his family owns Banzai Bagels on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Makua Rothman turns 40… Founder and executive director of the Zioness Movement, Amanda Berman… Associate director at the New Israel Fund, Alexander Willick… Senior writer for The Athletic covering college football and basketball, Nicole Auerbach… Member of the U.S. Ski Team’s alpine program, he competed for the USA in both the 2014 (Sochi) and 2018 (PyeongChang) Winter Olympics, Jared Goldberg turns 33… Senior art director at Insider, Rebecca Zisser… Shortstop for Team Israel at the 2020 Olympics, Scott Burcham turns 31… Actress best known for her roles in the CBS series “Fam” and the Netflix series “Grand Army,” Odessa Zion Segall Adlon turns 24… D.C.-based freelance foreign media consultant, Mounira Al Hmoud…
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