Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. We also do a deeper dive into Jewish communal concerns over Vice President Kamala Harris’ Israel positions, cover the rejection of a proposed BDS ballot measure in Pittsburgh and report on Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s meetings in Israel yesterday. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Shari Redstone, Sen. John Fetterman and Ilan Goldenberg.
What We’re Watching
- Former President Barack Obama will be headlining the list of speakers on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will also be among the featured speakers. We’ll be watching whether Emhoff — the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president — mentions his work combating antisemitism.
- Democratic delegates will be casting symbolic votes to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to deliver the delegates to ceremonially put her over the top to clinch the honor.
- The Israeli American Council (IAC) is opening Hostage Square in Chicago, remembering the victims of Oct. 7 and spotlighting the hostages still held by Hamas. Attendees will hear from family members of the hostages and members of Congress.
- On the sidelines of the convention this morning, the American Jewish Committee is hosting a breakfast event with a panel discussion titled “Israel and the path to peace.” Later, the Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting its second day of programming — a conversation with political strategists about Democrats’ path to victory, and a “congressional schmooze” with pro-Israel Democrats.
- In the Middle East, Secretary of State Tony Blinken heads to Qatar today after a one-day visit to Israel. More below on his meetings with Israeli officials.
What You Should Know
On Monday night, the first day of the Democratic National Convention, speakers painted a picture of a party united. Despite fears that the war in Gaza could become a divisive issue, or the source of major disruptions, Democrats were remarkably unified, with a message that targeted former President Donald Trump as an extremist and a convicted criminal, Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch reports from Chicago. (When attendees started chanting “Lock him up” during Hillary Clinton’s speech, the former secretary of state looked on with a smug grin and nodded.)
Still, Israel did tangentially make it into the proceedings — with references to the hostages coupled in each instance with a call for a cease-fire, and even words of encouragement from President Joe Biden to the anti-Israel protesters gathered in Chicago. (Organizers had said they expected tens of thousands of demonstrators on Monday, but the actual number was likely below 5,000.)
The only two speakers whose planned remarks touched on the war in Gaza, Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), did not actually mention Israel. Only Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), who added an unsanctioned message about the shared humanity of Israeli and Palestinian children, used the word “Israel.” Still, earlier in the night, the party adopted without incident a party platform that included support for a “strong, secure and democratic Israel.”
“We’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza, and bring peace and security to the Middle East,” Biden said, more than 30 minutes into a nearly hour-long address detailing his administration’s accomplishments.
“I wrote a peace treaty for Gaza. Two days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to doing that than we’ve done since Oct. 7,” Biden continued. We’re working around the clock, and my secretary of state to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian, health and food assistance into Gaza now, to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people, and finally, finally deliver a cease-fire and end this war.” End. This. War, he enunciated. It felt like a built-in applause line.
He closed his brief Middle East remarks by shouting out the protesters outside the United Center. “Those protesters out in the streets, they have a point — a lot of people innocent people are being killed on both sides,” Biden said, before pivoting to discussing his administration’s recent deal to return several Americans wrongfully detained in Russia. Fox News’ Bill Hemmer said shortly after the speech that Biden ad libbed his comments about the protesters and innocent people killed “on both sides.”
Biden’s comments rankled some Democratic Party observers. The president “so caved to the anti-Israel lobby that he did not even use the word ‘Israel’ and spoke only of ceasefires and hostages adding that there are good people on both sides,” Mark Penn, a former longtime Clinton strategist, wrote on X. Democratic activist and former Los Angeles City Council candidate Sam Yebri said that Biden was “dead wrong. The protesters are not calling for peace; they are standing with terrorists. Please don’t play politics with national security and foreign policy.”
At one point, delegates in the back of the arena unfurled a banner that said, “Stop Arming Israel.” But other attendees nearby tried to drown them out with “We Love Joe” chants, and the banner was quickly removed.
Earlier in the night, Ocasio-Cortez was the first to broach the topic, in what seemed like a pro forma nod to the hot-button issue while mostly ignoring it. The firebrand politician’s speech was wildly popular. She briefly mentioned the crisis in the Middle East when rattling off a laundry list of Harris’ policy positions: “She is taking on corporate greed, and she is working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing hostages home,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
Later, Warnock, a Baptist pastor, gave a passionate address about Biden healing the country. Political conventions are carefully scripted events, but Warnock deviated from his prepared remarks with a plea to convention-goers to acknowledge the shared humanity of Israelis and Palestinians.
“We are as close in our humanity as a cough. I need my neighbors’ children to be OK so my children will be OK,” Warnock said. “I need all of my neighbors’ children to be OK. Poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children in Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza. I need Israelis & Palestinians — those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine — I need Americans on both sides of the track to be OK. Because we are all God’s children.” He was met with massive applause.
Overall, Democrats presented a carefully calibrated image of a party in lockstep. The one small disruption from anti-Israel activists was quickly drowned out by Democrats who likely see the attacks on Biden as counterproductive to their goal: electing Vice President Kamala Harris. But we’re waiting to see whether there’s space for Israel in the convention’s planned programs.
deep dive
Wary Jewish Democrats see flashback to Obama in dissection of Harris’ views on Israel
Hours before Democrats gaveled in the start of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center, Jewish Democratic activists gathered elsewhere in Chicago — at a location kept private due to security concerns — for a discussion about what the election means for Israel. The party’s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides acknowledged, was “not Joe Biden. I mean, Joe Biden is of a different age, of a different generation. I love him dearly, but she’s not Joe Biden, and that’s OK.” This unusually frank public conversation reflects the particularly intense scrutiny of Harris’ positions on Israel and the Middle East that has followed her since President Joe Biden left the race a month ago, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Weighty words: Taken at face value, Harris’ rhetoric indicates that she would not stray from Biden’s long-standing support for Israel, especially after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. “From when I was a young girl, collecting funds to plant trees for Israel, to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel,” Harris said in July. But politicians’ words are rarely taken at face value, particularly when it comes to the Middle East. Harris has adopted a more empathetic tone toward the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, though she usually couples her comments with pro-Israel language. Her campaign has also expressed an openness to keep in touch with the organizers of the Uncommitted National Movement, which urged Democrats to vote against Biden in the primaries over his support for Israel.
scene in chicago
Harris campaign Jewish liaison touts VP’s support for Israel ‘long before Oct. 7’
Late on Monday night, after President Joe Biden wrapped up a nearly hour-long address, Jewish Democrats gathered for an after-party hosted by the progressive pro-Israel group Zioness at a trendy Israeli restaurant in the city. By the time Ilan Goldenberg, the Harris campaign’s new Jewish outreach director, took the stage, guests were trickling out; it was after midnight, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports from Chicago.
Defining the candidate: But it was the first public address for Goldenberg, an Israeli-born Middle East policy wonk who only started on the campaign last week. In less than 10 minutes, he laid out a case for why Jewish Democrats should support Vice President Kamala Harris in November, offering a window into the points Goldenberg will be making in phone calls and meetings with Jewish leaders over the next three months. “I can tell you a couple of things about her,” said Goldenberg. “One, from the very beginning, she was completely adamant that Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, and Hamas is a terrorist organization, and we’re going to be behind Israel supporting its response. And two, this is just part of a much longer record of hers that she has an unwavering commitment to Israel’s security that goes back long before Oct. 7.”
on the ground
Blinken touts Israeli acceptance of latest hostage deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the latest version of a U.S.-mediated cease-fire and hostage deal with Hamas, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said on Monday, during his ninth visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 attack, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Blinken also met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog.
Breaking it down: Blinken did not provide details of the proposal discussed in the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, such as how they addressed Israel’s requirement that it continue to control the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors to ensure weapons are not smuggled to Hamas, or Hamas’ insistence on only accepting an agreement that would end the war entirely. Even if Hamas agrees, Blinken said, “complex issues” remain and leaders will need to make “hard decisions.” Netanyahu called the meeting with Blinken “good and important” without saying what, if anything, Israel had agreed to, noting U.S.-Israel joint defense efforts against a possible Iranian attack before addressing the deal and focusing the extent of his comments on the agreement on the hostage release element.
boycott backlash
Pittsburgh BDS ballot measure proposal thrown out
A controversial effort to establish a proposed ballot measure in Pittsburgh that would require the city to cut ties with companies that do business with Israel was set aside on Monday after a judge ruled that the recently filed petition lacked the required number of valid signatures, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Hailing victory: The petition, backed by the Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, faced legal challenges from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the city controller, Rachael Heisler, alleging that the ballot referendum would violate state law. In a statement, Heisler called the ruling “a victory for the City of Pittsburgh” and said that the “proposed referendum would have been impossible to implement, a threat to public safety and a significant legal liability.”
loose lips
Political operatives from both parties stunned by Fetterman spox’s intransigence
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is facing bipartisan calls to fire his communications director for distancing herself from her boss’s positions on Israel to a journalist, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Carrie Adams spoke by phone with The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik after his interview with the Pennsylvania senator. Adams told Savodnik during the call that she differed with Fetterman on the issue of Israel. “I have a sense that his international views are a lot less nuanced than my generation, because when he was growing up, it was might makes right, and for my generation and younger who, of course, are the ones protesting this, they have a much more nuanced view of the region,” she said.
‘Absolutely flabbergasting’: “I would fire her on the spot. Having been in a Hill press shop, it is absolutely flabbergasting to think that a Hill press secretary would call a reporter, on or off the record, it doesn’t matter, and distance themselves from their boss and their boss’s policy position. That is unheard of,” Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist with Mercury Public Affairs, told JI.
scoop
WhatsApp’s AI-powered sticker generator advances antisemitic stereotypes
WhatsApp users found on Monday that when they typed “Jew” into the mobile messaging app’s artificial intelligence sticker generator, a man holding a money symbol appeared, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen for Jewish Insider.
Sticker shock: Each time “Jew” was typed into the sticker generator, the sticker’s skin color and clothing changed, but the dollar sign he was holding remained. When the exercise was replicated on WhatsApp with “Christian” and “Muslim,” no images affiliated with negative stereotypes appeared. The AI sticker feature is only available in limited countries.
App fix: A Meta spokesperson told JI that the issue was fixed as of Monday afternoon. “We apologize for the error,” the spokesperson said. “This is new technology, and like any generative AI system, it may return inaccurate or inappropriate responses. We share information within the features themselves to help people understand this and are constantly releasing updates to improve our systems.”
Worthy Reads
What the Protesters Believe:New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait writes on the state of the anti-Israel movement. “Its members will not stop harassing and intimidating Jewish people. Nor will they adopt any standard of behavior. When they say they believe they are part of the Palestinian liberation movement, and that the movement is entitled to use any means necessary, that is exactly what they mean. What Democrats and progressives need to decide is whether to treat these groups as noble idealists broadly on the right side of history or as the fanatic adherents of an illiberal and unjust program. In the Middle East, that program calls for endless war until the Jews have been expurgated from a soil on which they unnaturally reside. In the West, it means imposing social norms that make most Jews feel alien and unwelcome. To advance justice for Palestinians and Jews does not require placating, forming alliances with, or ceding “leverage” to followers of this hateful program. The morally just response is to meet this ideology the way liberals meet other forms of hate: by calling it what it is.” [NYMag]
Left Out:The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik interviews Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) about his evolution away from the progressive flank of the Democratic Party. “He grasped instinctually, like most ordinary Americans, that one does not butcher and rape children, teenagers, grandmothers, that the attack [by Hamas on Oct. 7] was not about decolonization, that this was a Marxist canard superimposed on a conflict and region that almost everyone outside it know nothing about. It was this commonsensical thinking — so plainly laid out, devoid of any of the word-salad idiocy that now passes for high-minded oratory on the progressive left — that made him a hero to so many American Jews.” [FreePress]
The Rules of Reprisal Strikes: In The Times of Israel, Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid argues that terror groups’ reprisal strikes on Israel after the assassination of a terror official should not be accepted as a justified inevitability. “When the United States eliminated Osama bin Laden, no one thought it justified an al-Qaeda attack on Washington or New York. When al-Baghdadi was killed in Syria, no one expected the US to calmly accept the inevitable revenge of ISIS. Terrorists thrive because they don’t play by the rules, yet today the world behaves as if their rules are reasonable. The discourse that ‘everyone has their own narrative’ has been transplanted into the war on terror. Even against the world’s most heinous murderers, there’s no longer right and wrong. … By what moral code should Israel accept rocket barrages from terrorist organizations and rogue states? The narrative is outrageous. It equates a legitimate defensive action by a law-abiding state with the blatantly illegal actions of a terrorist organization. This kind of untenable and unethical narrative is to be expected from fringe groups that rationalize terror, but it can’t be something we accept in mainstream discourse.” [TOI]
Her Father Was a Nazi: The Washington Post’s Petula Dvorak spotlights Erika Schreiber, the 91-year-old daughter of a Nazi who recently gave her oral history to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “With supporters by her side, and her memories sharpening each time she spoke, Schreiber gave her oral history to the [museum] last week. Her story is not the usual testimonies to the atrocities of the Second World War that the museum gathers. But testimonies like hers — long buried in silence and the uncomfortable, national shame that generations of Germans struggle with — are vital to understanding a pivotal moment in American and global politics. ‘We have a very broad scope of people that we interview and that is not just, let’s say, not just Jewish survivors,’ said Ina Navazelskis, senior program manager of oral histories at the Holocaust Museum. ‘That’s the core of our holdings, the core of the archives. But in order to really understand the history, you have to put it in context.’” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
The Office of National Intelligence said that Iran was behind efforts to hack the campaigns of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump…
Politico reports on the widespread use by anti-Israel protesters in Chicago of the encrypted messaging app Telegram to organize their protests around the Democratic National Convention; the tactic was picked up from campus protesters…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that antisemitism did not play a role in his not being selected for the Democratic presidential ticket…
Expelled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft tied to his 2022 campaign…
A member of Maryland’s reformed hate crimes commission withdrew from the panel; Ayman Nassar had faced pushback over his chairing of a foundation that had, among other things, praised the Oct. 7 perpetrators as “Palestinian resistance fighters”…
The Washington, D.C., City Council will conduct its own additional investigation following the arrest of Councilmember Trayon White, who was arrested by federal agents on charges of accepting $156,000 in cash bribes and kickbacks…
Edgar Bronfman Jr. made a $4.53 billion bid for Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, weeks after Redstone had agreed to merge her Paramount Global with David Ellison’s Skydance Media…
Among those named to City&State NY‘s 2024 Manhattan Power 100: Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY), N.Y. state Sen. Liz Krueger, N.Y. state Assemblymembers Harvey Epstein, Deborah Glick, Linda Rosenthal and Rebecca Seawright, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, JCCA CEO Ronald Richter, Sid Davidoff, Jeff Blau, James Tisch and Merryl Tisch, Suri Kasirer, Julie Greenberg, Steven Rubenstein, Steven Roth, Allen Roskoff, Larry Silverstein, Robert Grossman, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Dan Biederman, Eva Moskowitz, Micah Lasher, Nancy Cantor, Seth Pinsky, Ruth Messinger and Scott Stringer…
The New York Times spotlights the Arab Watch Guide, which raised interest in horology across the Middle East, on its 10th anniversary…
Canada’s Liberal Party withdrew from Ottawa’s annual Pride Parade, after organizers said they would “recognize the ongoing genocide against Palestinians” at official events; the U.S. Embassy had previously pulled out of the event…
The Wall Street Journal looks at dwindling Israeli and Palestinian support for a two-state solution…
The IDF retrieved the bodies of six Israeli hostages held in Gaza: Haim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Avraham Munder, Nadav Poplewell, Alexander Danzyg and Yagav Buchstab; 109 hostages remain in the enclave…
Composer Harold Meltzer died at 58…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) met yesterday with Secretary of State Tony Blinken in Tel Aviv.
Birthdays
Real estate agent, author and television personality as an original cast member on the show “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” Josh Flagg turns 39…
Laguna Hills, Calif., resident, Phoebe Bryan… News anchor and reporter, Connie Chung turns 78… Director of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration, now a commentator for Fox Business, Larry Kudlow turns 77… Former secretary of labor for the State of Kansas, Lana Goodman Gordon turns 74… Chair of the Golda Och Academy in West Orange, N.J., Steven H. Klinghoffer… Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba, from 2004 until 2014 and the owner of minor league baseball’s Winnipeg Goldeyes, Samuel Michael “Sam” Katz turns 73… Managing director of equity derivatives at Rice Financial Products, Jay A. Knopf… U.S. representative (D-IL), Brad Schneider turns 63… Wilmington, Del., resident and treasurer of the Jewish Federations of North America, Suzanne Barton Grant… President of the Council on Foreign Relations, he was the U.S. trade representative during the Obama administration, Ambassador Michael Froman turns 62… U.S. senator (R-MT), Steve Daines turns 62… Founder and controlling shareholder of the Altice Group, he acquired Sotheby’s in 2019, Patrick Drahi turns 61… Executive director of A Wider Bridge, Ethan Felson… Israeli writer known for his short stories and graphic novels, Etgar Keret turns 57… Film director and screenwriter, Mark Levin turns 56… British ambassador to Israel from 2010 to 2015, the first Jewish U.K. ambassador to be posted to Tel Aviv, he is now the CEO of the Zoological Society of London, Matthew Gould turns 53… Ethiopian-born, former member of the Knesset for Kulanu, Asher Fentahun Seyoum turns 53… Director of communications at Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, Ari Goldberg… Executive director of Lisa Stone Pritzker’s LSP Family Foundation, Abigail Michelson Porth… Chief strategy officer and one of the founders of the Jerusalem Season of Culture, a summer music festival that showcases Jerusalem, Karen Brunwasser… Co-founder of Boundless Israel, Rachel Lea Fish, Ph.D…. Partner in the Iowa office of Cornerstone Government Affairs and foundation president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, David Ryan Adelman… Canadian television and film actress, Meghan Ory Reardon turns 42… Stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster and internet personality, Gianmarco Vincent Soresi turns 35… Triathlete and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Israel 2019, Sella Sharlin turns 28…
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