Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how labor unions became key drivers of anti-Israel organizing around the country, talk to Sen. Joni Ernst about her trip to Israel this week and spotlight a new chain of cafes that is helping displaced residents of Israel’s south reconnect with their communities. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Wolf Blitzer, Mara Rudman and Martin Scorsese.
What We’re Watching
- Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz are kicking off their first post-convention campaign swing in southeast Georgia this afternoon. The two will sit for their first joint interview with CNN’s Dana Bash tomorrow.
- We’re monitoring official channels in Israel following the rescue yesterday of Israeli Bedouin hostage Farhan al-Qadi, who engaged with other hostages during his time in captivity and has shared details of the conditions in which he and others were kept while in captivity.
What You Should Know
Amid all the attention on the presidential race, the battle for the Senate has been overlooked, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
Benefiting from a historically favorable map with few seats they have to defend, Republicans hold a clear advantage in winning back the Senate majority — needing to flip just two Democratic-held seats to guarantee control of the upper chamber.
But Vice President Kamala Harris’ emergence as the Democratic presidential nominee has energized the party base and boosted the prospects of vulnerable swing-state senators on the ballot. The dynamic has been especially pronounced in Arizona and Nevada, where Democratic candidates have emerged with healthy advantages in the aftermath of the Biden-to-Harris switch.
At the same time, Harris is still a political drag for Democratic senators running in red states — such as Montana and Ohio. The limited amount of public polling shows Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) trailing his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy, and continuing to face fierce political headwinds in a deeply conservative state. If Sheehy ousts Tester, it would all but guarantee a GOP Senate majority.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) faces similar challenges in his race against businessman Bernie Moreno, though Brown is counting on his close relationships with blue-collar workers as a major asset against Moreno, a wealthy businessman. If Democrats manage to hold red-state Ohio, it would be a sign they’re overperforming, and in strong shape to limit their losses.
The West Virginia seat, currently held by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), is all but guaranteed to be a GOP flip.
Notably, Tester and Brown skipped the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week — a sign that they’re trying to steer clear of their party affiliation in their uphill battles for re-election.
The purple-state races to watch most closely: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada. Republicans landed their favored nominees in all three races, but Democrats are still polling ahead in all three battleground races. And all three Democratic nominees are politically battle-tested: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) is one of the most moderate Democrats in the Senate; Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is one of the party’s top fundraisers; and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) boasts a strong political legacy back home.
Jewish Insider profiled the consequential Pennsylvania Senate race earlier this week between Casey and Republican Dave McCormick, and the importance of the moderate-minded Jewish vote in the competitive contest.
Democrats are more bullish on their chances in Arizona, where Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has been highlighting his military service and courting independent voters in his race against Republican Kari Lake, whose right-wing views have alienated moderates. They also are optimistic about Wisconsin, where Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) maintains solid approval ratings as she faces businessman Eric Hovde in a swing-state contest.
There are also significant developments taking place in Maryland, where former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan is managing to put the deep-blue seat in play against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. A new poll commissioned for the AARP shows Hogan tied with Alsobrooks, 46-46%, with a significant number of Harris voters backing the Republican for Senate.
Split-ticket voting has become increasingly uncommon, but Hogan has made a concerted effort to woo Jewish Democratic voters disillusioned with Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) anti-Israel turn — and the polling suggests he’s making real inroads with those moderate-minded voters dissatisfied with the party’s progressive turn.
It’s unlikely Democrats are able to pick up a GOP-held seat this year, but if Harris manages to win the presidential race comfortably, it’s possible Democrats could have an outside shot against Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) or Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). As of now, both Republican senators are solid favorites in their GOP-friendly states.
All told, a Republican Senate majority of 51 or 52 seats is looking most likely, but any late momentum from either presidential candidate would have an outsized impact down the ballot. If Trump wins the presidential race, it’s very possible he’ll provide coattails to the swing-state GOP candidates in close races.
The best-case scenario for Democrats: A clean sweep of all the toss-up races, giving them the narrowest control of the Senate possible — a 50-50 tie — with Vice President Tim Walz casting tie-breaking votes.
union label
Why several leading labor unions abandoned their long-standing support for Israel
In December, the United Auto Workers union — which includes auto workers and other industrial laborers, but has in recent decades expanded to include more college-educated workers such as graduate students and public defenders — became the first major union to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. By July, the UAW led a contingent of seven unions to throw their support behind a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. The decision by the UAW and other leading labor organizations to call for an end to American military aid to Israel represents a stunning reversal of many unions’ long-standing support for Israel, dating back nearly a century, when American unions donated money to the Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Awkward politics: Labor unions’ calls for an arms embargo puts Democrats in an awkward position. Unions have long been a core constituency for Democrats, and the UAW endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris days after President Joe Biden dropped out of this year’s presidential race in July. Then Fain received a prominent speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention last week. But neither he nor any of the other union leaders who spoke on stage in Chicago addressed the war in Gaza. (Later in the week, the UAW called on the DNC to have a Palestinian-American speak at the convention after the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin gave a primetime address.)
on the ground
Ernst, GOP House members visit site of Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 children
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), making her fourth visit to Israel since Oct. 7, visited Majdal Shams on Tuesday, the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 Druze children. She also said she believes Israeli leaders are more optimistic now about a cease-fire deal to free the hostages and ultimately end the war than they have been in months, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
On the ground: “It was very tough,” Ernst told JI, explaining that she’d met with the fathers of some of the children killed in the attack and visited the site of the attack on a soccer field and a memorial to those killed. “Just a devastating loss.” Ernst also said that, “It’s very important for me to do everything I can to make sure we secure the release of these Americans. And of course, we would love to see an end to the war — favorably for Israel.”
global warning
‘We could be on the cusp of… a global war,’ defense strategy commissioner warns
Mara Rudman, a former official in the Obama and Clinton administration who sits on a congressionally appointed panel to review the U.S. defense posture, warned that the U.S. is perilously close to a multifront global conflict, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “You have… a variety of different conflicts happening all over the world that are not isolated from one another,” Rudman told JI on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum last month. “In so many ways, we could be on the cusp of fighting what’s effectively a global war because of the number of different conflicts in different places and the ways they’re interacting with one another.”
coffee for a cause
The cafe uniting a Negev moshav’s evacuees
A walk along Tel Aviv’s bustling Kaplan Street means passing a lengthy display of posters of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. Between the tragically familiar photos on the side of the Sarona shopping and cafe area is a small navy blue sign with a red flower and white lettering: Cafe Otef – Netiv Ha’asara. The red flower is an anemone, a symbol of the Gaza border area that even hosted an annual festival in its honor. Otef — the envelope — is a term for the western Negev, the part of Israel that envelops Gaza. On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists murdered 20 residents of Netiv Ha’asara. Cafe Otef – Netiv Ha’asara is a small, unassuming coffee and gift shop in one of Sarona’s historic Templar buildings, where young residents of the moshav, who have been evacuated from their homes since Oct. 7, have found jobs, and residents of all ages have found a place to gather once again as a community, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Meeting ground: One of Cafe Otef – Netiv Ha’asara’s managers is Yotam Kidar, 25, along with his brother Raz, whose grandparents were among the original founders of the moshav in the Sinai. Kidar, who worked at the Erez Crossing, survived the Oct. 7 attacks by hiding in a closet, but later learned that two of his relatives had been murdered, along with other members of the tight-knit community. “I didn’t want to leave the house, but this gave me a reason to get up in the morning,” Kidar said. “The cafe gives [young evacuees from Netiv Ha’asara] a routine and a good cause, to raise money for the moshav…It gives you solid ground to stand on.” Kidar said his grandparents feel guilty for exposing their family to threats from Gaza. “I don’t want them to feel that for a minute,” he said. “They built the greatest community. We’re not a kibbutz, but our community is strong like a kibbutz; everyone knows everyone. This is my chance to give something back.”
Worthy Reads
Deep Impact: The Wall Street Journal’s Alex Ward looks at the role that Phil Gordon, national security advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, could play in a Harris administration. “Gordon’s impact can already be felt in the way the vice president speaks about the war in Gaza. During her address to the Democratic National Convention last week, Harris vowed to support Israel’s right to defend itself while ‘at the same time’ pushing for an end to the conflict that has devastated Palestinians. The use of that particular phrase to transition between thoughts — rather than ‘but’ — allowed Harris to express how she holds two seemingly competing ideas at once. Frank Lowenstein, who aimed to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians alongside Gordon during the Obama years, had an immediate reaction upon hearing Harris’s remarks: ‘This is classic Phil.’ A common refrain is that Gordon is a pragmatist, willing to go where the facts take him. That reputation stems from his time leading the Middle East portfolio in the Obama White House, as he saw U.S.-backed efforts to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad falter once Russia entered the fray and terrorists like Islamic State filled the vacuum.” [WSJ]
Selective Anger: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens asks why activist outrage is directed at Israel and not at the world’s worst abuses of human rights. “It says something about the moral priorities of much of today’s global left that Iran is one Middle Eastern regime toward which they’ve advocated better relations, including the lifting of economic sanctions, while simultaneously insisting on boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Why that is — the mental pathways that lead self-declared champions of human rights to make common cause with some of the worst regimes on earth while directing their moral fury at countries, including Israel, that protect the values those champions pretend to hold dear — has been one of humanity’s great puzzles for over a century. But that puzzle shouldn’t restrain morally minded, globally conscious people from standing up for the oppressed and suffering everywhere they might be. The list I’ve offered above is very partial: There are also Rohingya in Myanmar, Uyghurs in China, Christians in Nigeria and ethnic minorities in Russia, to name a few. They, too, deserve the world’s attention, compassion and, whenever possible, active assistance.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei indicated that Tehran is open to reengaging in nuclear negotiations with the West; a State Department official rejected the claim, saying that Iran “should stop nuclear escalations and start meaningfully cooperating with the IAEA” if it “wants to demonstrate seriousness” about its approach to talks…
John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesperson, said that the U.S. is “going to be prepared to defend Israel” in the event of an Iranian attack…
A USAID watchdog found that President Joe Biden pushed ahead with plans to construct an aid pier off the coast of Gaza, despite warnings about the pier’s ability to weather choppy waters and pushback from officials concerned that the effort would lessen pressure on Israel to open more aid channels to the enclave…
City&State NY interviewed former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) about his challenge to Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY)…
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at the events that led to former Rep. Mike Gallagher’s (R-WI) departure from Congress; the Wisconsin Republican, now an executive at Palantir, told Ignatius that a “swatting” incident targeting his family home was his breaking point”…
Meta banned the Instagram account of the NYU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a day after banning the account for the group’s Columbia chapter…
In The Atlantic, author Joshua Leifer reflects on last week’s cancellation of an event at a Brooklyn venue about his new book; the gathering was nixed by a venue manager over the event moderator’s support for Israel…
A group of Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the American Jewish Committee,filed a motion to supply additional documents supporting the claim that California’s Santa Ana Unified School District violated the state’s open meeting laws and excluded Jewish community members…
Outgoing Democratic Connecticut state Rep. Anabel Figueroa, who lost her primary earlier this month after making antisemitic comments about her Jewish opponent, defended her remarks, saying they were taken out of context…
Martin Scorsese, who had a close relationship with comedian Jerry Lewis, will star in an upcoming documentary about Lewis’ “The Day the Clown Cried,” an unfinished 1972 Swedish film about a German clown in Auschwitz…
The New York Times looks at the fallout of a Melbourne Symphony pianist’s unplanned performance of a piece about the deaths of Palestinian journalists during the Israel-Hamas war; the symphony’s managing director resigned and the company is now beginning an investigation into the incident…
Tablet published an excerpt of Naomi Kehati Bronner’s manuscript On the Wings of Eagles: A Story From the Other Israel, about her Yemeni Jewish family’s journey to Israel…
Israel launched a series of counter-terror military operations in the West Bank…
U.S. Central Command ran an ad on the Tinder dating app targeting users in Lebanon, discouraging them from taking up arms against the U.S. or supporting Iran…
The Wall Street Journal explores how El Al has cornered the market on flights in and out of Israel since Oct. 7…
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi is slated to visit Turkey next week to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan…
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was named the awardee of the University of Arizona’s 41st Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism…
Documentarian Ofra Bikel, whose PBS “Frontline” films helped to free more than a dozen wrongly convicted or charged people, died at 94…
Pic of the Day
Former hostage Farhan al-Qadi was reunited with family members at Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva on Tuesday, hours after being rescued by Israeli special forces in Gaza.
Al-Qadi, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin, was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 while working at Kibbutz Magen.
Birthdays
Artist and chemist, he survived the Holocaust by living in a hole in the ground for seven months, Tibor Spitz turns 95…
Independent international trade and development professional, Bernard Kupferschmid turns 93… Professor emeritus of quantum physics at Tel Aviv University, Yakir Aharonov turns 92… Honorary president of the Israel Policy Forum and the immediate past president of American Jewish Committee (AJC), Robert H. Elman… Filmmaker and the founder of Brave New Films, Robert Greenwald turns 79… Retired general counsel of Queens College of the City University of New York, Jane Denkensohn… Founder and CEO of retail chain Indigo Books & Music and co-founder and past chair of Kobo, Heather Reisman turns 76… Psychoanalyst and author of a 2019 memoir about her father Norman Mailer, Susan Mailer turns 75… Former chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, Merryl Hiat Tisch turns 69… CEO of the Consumer Technology Association and author of the New York Times best-seller Ninja Innovation, Gary J. Shapiro turns 68… Senior rabbi of B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Jose Rolando Matalon… Actor, best known for his roles in two “Home Alone” films and two “City Slickers” films, Daniel Jacob Stern turns 67… British actress, known professionally as Emma Samms, Emma Elizabeth Wylie Samuelson turns 64… Professor at The George Washington University, he was deputy counsel in the Biden administration and the National Security Council legal advisor, Jonathan G. Cedarbaum turns 63… Television writer and producer, he was the original showrunner and executive producer of “Family Guy,” David J. Zuckerman turns 62… CEO and founder of PharmStars and managing partner and co-founder of Ambit Health Ventures, Naomi Fried, Ph.D…. Activist, documentary filmmaker and former COO of Meta / Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg turns 55… Early pioneer of contemporary Jewish rock music, Richard Samuel “Rick” Recht turns 54… General counsel of The Guardian US and a lecturer at Columbia Law School, Kai Falkenberg… First VP in the Hunt Valley, Maryland office of Newmark Valuation & Advisory, Daniel “Doni” Greenwald… Olympic gold medalist in Four-man Bobsleigh in 2010, he is the co-founder and CEO of Classroom Champions, Steven Michael Mesler turns 46… Israeli soldier held captive for over five years by Hamas, released in 2011, Gilad Shalit turns 38… Offensive lineman for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, Michael Dunn turns 30… Ari Willner…
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