Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down the results of the elections in the U.K. and France. We report on yesterday’s spat between Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Haredi enlistment legislation, look at the security measures being taken to protect Israeli athletes ahead of the Olympics later this month and talk to Jewish leaders in St. Louis who are raising concerns about Rep. Cori Bush in the lead-up to next month’s primary. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Adam Mosseri, Taffy Brodesser-Akner and Anthony Housefather.
What We’re Watching
- With Congress back in session, we’re monitoring how many more Democratic lawmakers will be calling for President Joe Biden to step aside as the party’s presidential nominee. The number is growing after Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Mark Takano (D-CA), Adam Smith (D-WA) and Joe Morelle (D-NY) said the president should leave the race in a private phone call on Sunday with House Democratic leadership. At least five additional Democrats have already publicly called for Biden to withdraw.
- Vice President Kamala Harris is joining the president’s daily brief this morning.
- And on the campaign side, Jen O’Malley Dillon, the president’s 2024 reelection chair, is holding a call with bundlers today. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is also slated to speak on the call.
- Elsewhere in Washington, foreign leaders, including Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, are arriving for the NATO summit, which begins on Tuesday. It’s the first time that the nation’s capital has hosted the event in 25 years.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is slated to speak at the Hudson Institute this afternoon for a conversation about American deterrence amid a rise in global threats.
- We’re keeping an eye on Sun Valley, Idaho, this week, where big names from Shari Redstone to Bob Iger to Sam Altman are expected to converge for the annual days-long confab hosted by Allen & Co. Also on the invite list: Govs. Wes Moore and Josh Shapiro, Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, Josh Kushner, Alex Karp, Brian Grazer, Meredith Kopit Levien, David Zaslav, Max Levchin, Barry Diller, Adam Silver, Andy Jassy, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff and Ben Sasse.
What You Should Know
In the U.K. and France, the left has grown its power in the recent elections, raising questions in France about Paris’ commitment to tackling antisemitism and maintaining support of Israel. In the U.K., many Jewish voters put their faith back into Labour after having turned away from the party during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as its leader.
In a surprising result for France’s parliamentary elections, the far-left New Popular Front coalition won an estimated 178 seats in Sunday’s second round of voting, becoming the largest bloc in a deeply divided legislature. French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition won about 150 seats, while the right-wing National Rally fell short of expectations, winning about 145 seats.
The stronger-than-expected showing for the left-wing parties came as centrists built alliances with the left as part of a “Republican front” to block right-wing National Rally lawmakers from winning in the second round of balloting.
Leaders of France’s Jewish community lamented the strong showing by the left, led by leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is virulently anti-Israel and widely regarded as antisemitic. “Around him right now are some incarnations of the new antisemitism. A chilling moment. A stain: Continue to fight against these people,” French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote of Melenchon on X.
Israeli-French lawmaker Meyer Habib lost his seat representing French expats in the Mediterranean region, including tens of thousands in Israel, who gave him 85% of their votes, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Habib, a longtime friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who endorsed him, was a prominent figure in French-Israel relations in recent decades, even before his 11 years in the lower house of the French parliament. In his time in office, Habib was outspoken in favor of Israel and was targeted with antisemitic videos and comments, including by a lawmaker from Melenchon’s party who called him a “pig in the mud of genocide.” After his election loss, Habib visited the Western Wall and warned that “the extreme and antisemitic left has conquered France … I am very concerned about the future of the Jews in France and about France in general.” Habib was defeated 52%-48% by Caroline Yadan, a representative of Macron’s party who made fighting antisemitism one of her main campaign messages.
In England, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won in a landslide against a divided conservative opposition, winning control of the government for the first time in 14 years. Starmer, a pragmatist, played a leading role as opposition leader in purging Corbyn and his antisemitic allies from the party.
But the Labour Party is still filled with pockets of anti-Israel sentiment, and was pressured in predominantly Muslim constituencies by independent candidates running on radical anti-Israel platforms. Corbyn himself won his seat as an independent against a Labour candidate backed by Starmer.
The bigger question is whether Starmer’s government will maintain the generally pro-Israel posture of recent Conservative prime ministers. During a phone call on Sunday with Netanyahu, Starmer said that his government remains committed to continuing London and Jerusalem’s “vital cooperation to deter malign threats,” according to a British readout. The prime minister added he looks forward to “further deepening the close relationship between the two countries.”
But Starmer’s new foreign secretary, David Lammy, drew concern in Israel after expressing backing for the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, recently announced that he would seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Lammy has tapped Ben Judah, who previously served as Lammy’s political adviser, as a senior adviser.
After Starmer’s victory, Lammy said: “I want to get back to a balanced position on Israel and Gaza” during a visit to Germany last Friday, calling for a cease-fire and return of all hostages.
hard climb
Israel’s Olympic team prepares for sport and security

With the 2024 Summer Olympics set to kick off in Paris in less than three weeks, members of the Israeli team are not only busy training for the biggest sporting competition of their lives but are also preparing for the possibility of protests, animosity from other athletes and even potential terror attacks against the backdrop of the Gaza war, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash and Lahav Harkov report.
Protecting the athletes: “There is going to be a lot of security, both French and Israeli,” judoka champion Peter Paltchik, who will be one of two flag-bearers leading the Israeli delegation at the game’s opening ceremony on July 26, told JI in an interview. Speaking via phone from his training camp in Europe, Paltchik said that he could not go into much detail about the specifics of the security arrangements for the nearly 90 Israeli athletes, as well as coaches and support staff, but said he felt confident the games would be “safe and secure” for all members of the delegation.