Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at today’s Senate and House primaries in Arizona, report from the Christians United for Israel summit in Washington and talk to legislators in Washington about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threat to invade Israel. Plus, a look at a new poll in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, where Wesley Bell is taking on Rep. Cori Bush next month. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: James Tisch, John Kirby and French President Emmanuel Macron.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on the veepstakes, with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s withdrawal from consideration yesterday. One of the determining factors behind Cooper’s decision was a state law that would automatically transfer power to North Carolina’s lieutenant governor any time Cooper leaves the state. Cooper’s absence while he’s on the campaign trail would empower Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican who has faced accusations of antisemitism by the state’s Jewish community. We wrote last week about the North Carolina law — and Robinson’s track record of incendiary and antisemitic comments.
- Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is slated to address the Christians United for Israel summit in Washington, D.C., this morning.
- In Paris, Israel’s soccer team will take on Japan at 3 p.m. local time/9 a.m. ET.
What You Should Know
Arizona’s primaries are taking place today, and the ideological battles taking place within both the Democratic and Republican parties are again at center stage in a couple of key contests, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports.
The marquee matchups are taking place in Phoenix, where Democrats are nominating a successor to Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is running for the Senate; and in suburban Phoenix, where Republicans are choosing a successor to retiring Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ).
The one race where pro-Israel groups are directly involved is in Gallego’s 3rd Congressional District. Democratic Majority for Israel has endorsed former Phoenix City Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari against former state Senate President Raquel Terán, and has spent over $280,000 on her behalf. (Their ads tout her work to raise wages and increase affordable housing on the City Council.)
Jewish Insiderreported in February that Jewish leaders in Arizona had been concerned about Terán’s reticence talking about Middle East policy, including whether she supported conditioning military aid to Israel.
Ansari’s campaign released a poll this month showing her with the momentum in the race, leading Terán by 11 points (41-30%) — and her stronger fundraising lends credence to the trend lines. Both campaigns, however, believe the race is unpredictable, given the low expected turnout in the primary. (For more on the race, read the story below.)
Arizona’s 8th District has been home to one of the nastiest primaries in the country, where former Senate candidate Blake Masters and former state attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh are slamming each other, with a more-pragmatic Statehouse speaker, Ben Toma, emerging as a dark-horse alternative.
Masters and his allies have focused attacks on Hamadeh’s Muslim faith, plastering pictures of him in religious garb in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on television advertisements and billboards, and implying that he’s a “terrorist [sympathizer].”
Masters came under scrutiny in his 2022 Senate race for his ties to neo-Nazis and the extremist far right, old writings that quoted Nazi leaders and antisemitic conspiracy theorists and his past hard-line libertarian views.
Former President Donald Trump, after endorsing Hamadeh, issued an unusual dual endorsement last Saturday night for both Hamadeh and Masters — a reflection that Masters appears to be narrowly ahead in the contest.
Democrats are also nominating a challenger against Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) in a battleground district that President Joe Biden narrowly carried. Former state party chair Andrei Cherny, former TV anchor Marlene Galan-Woods, state Rep. Amish Shah and Wall Street executive Conor O’Callaghan all have a chance to prevail, according to Democrats tracking the 1st District contest. All hail from the moderate wing of the party, a necessity to prevail in the traditionally Republican district around Scottsdale.
Cherny, who is Jewish, is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and has long been a strong supporter of Israel. O’Callaghan has also campaigned as a stalwart supporter of Israel, citing his grandfather’s service as a United Nations official in Jerusalem and his wife’s experience fleeing the Iranian revolution as reasons for his personal connections to the Jewish state.
The progressive Israel advocacy group J Street has endorsed Galan-Woods, who is the wife of former GOP Arizona attorney general Grant Woods (who died in 2021).
In the 2nd District, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) is also facing a primary challenger — former Yavapai County Supervisor Jack Smith — backed by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in retribution for Crane’s vote to oust McCarthy as speaker. Smith has struggled to raise money for his bid, and Crane is expected to win comfortably.
phoenix politics
Phoenix House race features two Democrats with differing views on Israel
A closely contested race for an open House seat in Phoenix concludes today, as voters choose between two Democratic primary rivals with differing views on Israel. The race pits Yassamin Ansari, the former vice mayor of Phoenix, against Raquel Terán, a former state legislator and party chair, who have embraced contrasting approaches to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — an issue that has drawn outside spending, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Israel positions: The pro-Israel community has coalesced behind Ansari, 32, who notched an endorsement in June from Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm, DMFI PAC, which has spent just over $280,000 to boost her campaign in the final weeks of the race. In a Middle East position paper circulated during the campaign, Ansari endorsed continued military aid to Israel “without additional conditions,” advocated for expanding the Abraham Accords and vowed to counter Iran’s influence in the region, including what she called its “financial support of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.” Terán, 46, has been less forthcoming in publicly sharing her positions on Israel over the course of the primary, raising concerns among local Jewish leaders who have been frustrated by her lack of clarity on a key issue.
targeting hate
VP Harris, lawmakers condemn antisemitic vandalism in Pittsburgh
Leading public officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, spoke out on Monday against the vandalism of two Jewish buildings in Pittsburgh targeted with antisemitic graffiti tied to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Hate ‘has no place’: In a statement to JI, Seth Schuster, a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, said the vice president “condemns antisemitism in all forms, particularly in the neighborhood of the deadliest act of antisemitism in our nation’s history.” He added that Harris “believes this kind of hate and discrimination has no place in the United States of America.”
poll position
Wesley Bell builds momentum in final days of Missouri primary
A new poll commissioned by Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm suggests that momentum is building for Wesley Bell as he prepares to take on Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in a hotly contested primary next week, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Polling ahead: The poll shows Bell, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis, with a six-point lead over Bush, a prominent Squad-affiliated lawmaker who has faced backlash from Jewish voters over her strident criticism of Israel. Among 400 likely Democratic primary voters surveyed between July 21-24, Bell led Bush 48-42%, according to a polling memo shared on Monday.
Endorsement alert: Bell won the endorsement of Rev. Darryl Gray, a prominent progressive Black pastor in St. Louis who backed Bush the last three cycles.
tough talk
At CUFI summit, Lindsey Graham vows UNRWA won’t receive ‘one dime’ from U.S.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) vowed to attendees at the Christians United for Israel summit on Monday that “Not one dime of your money is going to [the U.N. Relief and Works Agency] as long as I’m in the U.S. Senate,” days after the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to extend the freeze on the U.N. agency with ties to Hamas and Oct. 7 perpetrators, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Also keynoting: Dr. Miriam Adelson, a megadonor to the Republican Party and widow of philanthropist Sheldon Adelson who also keynoted the event, said that Oct. 7 was the first time she “got a glimpse” of what it was like to be Jewish in Europe leading up to the Holocaust. “The Holocaust seemed distant, a reality I could never experience myself. And then came the Hamas atrocities,” she said. “What was not as shocking was the quiet complicity of much of the West [including] anti-war demonstrations that were really vessels of hate for the Jewish state.”
Israel’s options: Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, presented at the conference three routes Israel could take in response to Hezbollah’s deadly rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights on Saturday.
sde teiman saga
Far-right Israelis, MKs break into military facilities protesting sexual abuse probe
For much of Monday afternoon and evening, Israelis were distracted from the possibility of war with Lebanon by a group of Israeli ultranationalist agitators – including lawmakers from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s party, with the minister – bursting into two military police facilities, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The demonstrators forced their way into the Sde Teiman base, where Hamas terrorists have been detained since Oct. 7, to protest the detention of nine IDF reservists suspected of sexually abusing a terrorist, who was hospitalized. Ben-Gvir released a video calling for “hands off the reservists … our fighters get full backing.” The marauding protesters then moved to a military police base where they mistakenly thought the reservists were being held.
Late into the night: The incident continued until after midnight Monday, with IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Herzi Halevi showing up and moving two combat units to protect the base. The police, under Ben-Gvir’s authority, did not make any arrests, in contrast with recent anti-government demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a one-line statement on Monday afternoon, calling “for immediate calm at Sde Teiman and strongly condemn[ing] the breaking into an IDF base.” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called to “enable professional authorities to carry out the necessary assessments, while ensuring the dignity and respect of our soldiers. Even in difficult times, the law applies to everyone – nobody may trespass into IDF bases or violate the laws of the State of Israel.” But Almog Cohen, a lawmaker from Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party who took part in the riots, blamed the IDF for not giving the public information about the detention of the reservists: “If the Army Spokesperson would have made one [statement] no one would have protested,” he said in an interview with KAN.
donald in deal
Trump: ‘We’re going to save Israel’
Former President Donald Trump, speaking on Sunday at a campaign event in Deal, N.J. — which has a sizable population of Syrian Jews — pledged to help Israel win its war against Hamas if elected in November, reiterating his claim that the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks would not have happened had he still been in office. Trump spoke at a large outdoor tent in front of American flags, approaching the stage to the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood, and proceeded to riff on Israel, Iran, Jewish voters, Vice President Kamala Harris and more for 36 minutes, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
On Israel: “Israel is under attack. Israel – I don’t know if I should say it, but it’s true – it does not get good public relations,” Trump said. “I had a meeting with Bibi in Mar-a-Lago. We had a good meeting, had a strong meeting, and he wants to be able to win this war. … He’s getting tremendous kickback, and when you see a thing like what happened yesterday [Hezbollah’s attack on Majdal Shams], you realize something is going to happen very, very fast. We have to do one thing, we have to get me elected because if I’m elected, it’s all going to come to an end.”
turkey talk
Senators denounce Erdogan’s Israel threat
Senators roundly condemned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent threat to invade Israel over its war in Gaza, with some saying the warning is nothing more than tough talk. Erdogan, who has stood with Hamas since Oct. 7 and harshly condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza, was delivering a speech to his ruling Justice and Development Party focused on celebrating achievements in Turkey’s defense industry when he made the comments, which mark his strongest indication that the NATO country would take any sort of action against Israel, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Real or rhetoric?: “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” Erdogan said. It was not clear if Erdogan’s comment was heated rhetoric or if Turkey has concrete plans to act against Israel.
Read the full story here with comments from Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Joe Manchin (I-WV), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
Reconstruction conversation: The House Abraham Accords Caucus met last week with the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to the United States last week to discuss the reconstruction and future of Gaza, as the U.S. pushes for Arab states to become involved in the “day-after” plan for the territory, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Worthy Reads
Founding Farmers: In eJewishPhilanthropy, Ruth Marks Eglash spotlights Yoel Zilberman and Hashomer Hachadash, the organization he co-founded to raise awareness about Israel’s agriculture industry. “Unlike Israel’s powerful defense systems or innovative energy resources, Zilberman argues that less emphasis has been placed on agriculture and the food security it can provide, with Israel instead relying heavily on produce imported from countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Ukraine. ‘I think [the current conflict] has made all of us realize that we are too dependent on countries that could suddenly stop supplying us with food,’ he stated, highlighting Israel’s precarious relationships with Turkey, which has already halted imports, and Jordan, which is highly critical of Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, as well as Ukraine, which is in the midst of its own turmoil. In Israel, Zilberman said, the Hamas attacks, which destroyed many agricultural communities in the Gaza Envelope, and the ensuing evacuations in the south and north, have brought into sharp focus the crucial role that such communities, which dot Israel’s borders, can play in strengthening the country’s security.” [eJP]
Past As Prologue?: The New York Times’ Reid Epstein looks at how Vice President Kamala Harris’ left-leaning policy positions during the 2020 presidential campaign are being used to define her current campaign. “When she ran for president the first time, Kamala Harris darted to the left as she fought for attention from the Democratic Party’s liberal wing. After she dropped out, social and racial justice protests swept across the country in the summer of 2020, and Ms. Harris joined other Democrats in supporting progressive ideas during what appeared to be a national realignment on criminal justice. One presidential cycle later, with Vice President Harris less than a week into another race for the White House, video clips of her old statements and interviews are being weaponized as Republicans aim to define her as a left-wing radical who is out of step with swing voters.” [NYTimes]
Battle Brewing: The Financial Times’ Gregory Meyer, Maria Heeter and Rhea Basarkar explore the challenges facing new Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan as the company’s earnings slip amid clashes with workers unions and pressure from his predecessor Howard Schultz, as well as Elliott Investment Management, to make changes inside the company. “The company and Workers United sued each other days after the Hamas attack on Israel last October, when the company said a pro-Palestinian social media post from the union harmed its reputation. Some customers have shunned Starbucks in response, with restaurant chain operator Alsea warning investors last week it was ‘facing some pressures’ at licensed Starbucks locations in France and the Netherlands, ‘due to the boycotts against American brands.’ Starbucks, which has no stores in Israel, has not quantified the impact of what Narasimhan has called ‘misinformation’ about its stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict. The union and the company announced a framework in February to resolve their differences, with Starbucks saying it hopes to have contracts ratified this year.” [FT]
Word on the Street
John Kirby, the National Security Council’s communications coordinator, downplayed the chances of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, saying such a scenario was “exaggerated”…
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced legislation requiring greater transparency for foreign funding in schools, companion legislation to a bill introduced in the House…
Warning of the threats from Iran’s nuclear program, Hamas and other Iran-backed threats, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Brian Mast (R-FL) are reintroducing legislation to provide Israel with “bunker busters” — the largest non-nuclear bombs in the U.S. arsenal, otherwise known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrators — to allow it to destroy deeply buried nuclear facilities in Iran…
The Office of the Director of National Intelligenceissued a statement warning that Iran was attempting to use “covert” online operations to influence the upcoming November elections…
The Washington Post issued a lengthy editor’s note acknowledging that the paper did not provide “adequate context” on its Monday front page, which juxtaposed the photo of a funeral of a Druze girl killed by a Hezbollah strike in Israel with the headline “Israel hits targets in Lebanon”; the clarification is the second time in seven months that the paper has had to issue an editor’s note about its coverage of the Israel…
A group of junior congressional stafferscreated a website to circulate anonymous critiques of policies regarding Israel and the U.S. stance on the war with Hamas, modeled after a similar channel for State Department staffers…
JDCA PACis planning a six-figure spend on a new ad backing Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid; the ad features clips of Harris speaking at a press conference last week and at the Israeli Embassy’s Yom Haatzmaut event in 2023…
New York City Comptroller Brad Landerannounced his entry into the 2025 mayoral race, mounting a primary challenge to Mayor Eric Adams. Earlier this week, JI’s Matthew Kassel interviewed Jewish activists and politicos in the city concerned about Lander’s bid…
A federal judge orderedUCLA to craft a plan to combat antisemitism on its campus within the next month, after three Jewish students filed a lawsuit accusing the school of not doing enough to protect them…
The Carmel (Calif.) Unified School District and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rightscame to an agreement following an investigation that found that the California school district did not properly handle more than a dozen incidents involving antisemitic or racial harassment…
James Tischplans to step down as CEO of Loews after nearly 25 years, and will become the chair of the corporation after his Dec. 31 retirement; Benjamin Tisch was announced as his successor…
Palestinian-Dutch-American model Bella Hadid, who has used her platform to post anti-Israel content, issued a statement after Adidas said it would revise a campaign around a sneaker celebrating the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 Israelis were killed; Hadid said she had “no knowledge of the historical connection to the atrocious events in 1972” and said that “[a]ntisemitism has no place in the liberation of the Palestinian people.”
The U.K.delayed a decision on banning weapons exports to Israel until later this summer…
Bloombergreports on Saudi concerns over an escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen…
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpsseized a Togo-flagged tanker, owned by an Iraqi resident of the United Arab Emirates, in the Persian Gulf and arrested the vessel’s crew on charges of fuel smuggling…
French President Emmanuel Macroncautioned Tehran against continued support for Russia in its war against Ukraine and suggested that another war between an Iranian proxy and Israel would have “devastating consequences for the region”; on the call between Macron and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian leader warned that Israel would face serious consequences if it attacks Lebanon…
Francine Pascal, the creator of the Sweet Valley High young adult book series, died at 92…
Pic of the Day
Sharon Kantor of Team Israel competes in women’s windsurfing on day three of the Olympic Games in Paris on Monday at Marseille Marina in Marseille, France.
Birthdays
Commissioner emeritus of Major League Baseball, his 2019 memoir is For the Good of the Game, Allan Huber “Bud” Selig turns 90…
Retired attorney from the firm of Hatton, Petrie & Stackler in Aliso Viejo, Calif., Ronald E. Stackler turns 87… Author and longtime owner and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, he was chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation for 12 years, Martin H. “Marty” Peretz turns 85… The first woman justice on the Nebraska Supreme Court, as a teen she won two gold medals and a silver medal as a swimmer at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman turns 77… Actor, director and producer, Ken Olin turns 70… Philanthropist and investor known as the “King of Diamonds,” Lev Leviev turns 68… Former mayor of Arad and then a member of the Knesset for the Kulanu and Likud parties, Tali Ploskov turns 62… President of C&M Transcontinental, he served as COO for the first two Trump campaigns, Michael S. Glassner turns 61… Emmy Award-winning actress, comedian and producer, Lisa Kudrow turns 61… Head coach of men’s tennis and director of tennis operations at Columbia University, Howard Endelman turns 59… Best-selling non-fiction author, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines, he is a co-creator of the HBO series “Vinyl,” Rich Cohen turns 56… District director for Rep. Jerrold L. Nadler (D-NY), Robert M. Gottheim turns 53… Assistant attorney general for antitrust at USDOJ, Jonathan Seth Kanter turns 51… Motivational speaker, author and entrepreneur, he served as a law clerk in 2008 for Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg, the only blind person to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, Isaac Lidsky turns 45… SVP of content strategy at MSNBC, Rebecca M. Kutler… Senior producer at Vox and host and producer of the podcast of the Association for Jewish Studies, Avishay Artsy… President and founder in 2014 of Dallas-based ECA Strategies, Eric Chaim Axel… Senior director of camp leadership for BBYO, Lewis Sohinki… Author of Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered: One Woman’s Year in the Heart of the Christian, Muslim, Armenian, and Jewish Quarters of Old Jerusalem, Sarah Tuttle-Singer turns 43… Former director of policy and public affairs for the Jewish Community of Denmark, now in the renewable energy and offshore wind industry, Jonas Herzberg Karpantschof… Head of digital operations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Tamar Schwarzbard… Managing principal of West Egg Development, a New York-based real estate development firm, Samuel Ezra Eshaghoff turns 32… Director of business development at Israel’s economic mission to the South and Midwest U.S., Joshua Weintraub… Winner of the Miss Israel pageant in 2014, she is now an international businesswoman, Mor Maman turns 29… Actress, as a 10-year-old she starred as Ramona Quimby in the comedy film “Ramona and Beezus,” and since then in many movies and television shows, Joey Lynn King turns 25…
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