Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and highlight Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s unwillingness to defend Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s prosecution against alleged antisemitic campus crimes. We also cover the pushback to former President Donald Trump’s comments about Jewish voters on Thursday, report on comments made by a Department of Education official about why schools haven’t lost federal funding over antisemitism and spotlight two newly minted GOP House recruits with questionable records on antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Elisa Albert, Aviva Siegel and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
What We’re Watching
- The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly kicks off today. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the gathering on Friday, but has postponed his departure to New York from Tuesday to Wednesday in light of security developments in northern Israel.
- The Atlantic Council will give Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni its Global Citizen Award at a gala tonight on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
- President Joe Biden and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will meet today in the Oval Office at 12:30 p.m. Vice President Kamala Harris will also meet separately with the Emirati president.
- The House will vote this evening on a bill to transfer Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to the Smithsonian Institution.
What You Should Know
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon intensified over the weekend after an unprecedented attack on the terrorist group’s communication devices was followed by the assassination of senior commander Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s operations, as well as at least 15 additional commanders of the terrorist group’s elite Radwan force and dozens of other people in Beirut on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve reports.
Hezbollah fired over 150 rockets, cruise missiles and drones into northern Israel overnight Saturday and on Sunday, striking as far as Haifa — Israel’s third largest city — in its deepest attack since Oct. 8. Most of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel’s aerial defense system but several struck civilian areas, including in the city of Kiryat Bialik, where three people were wounded by shrapnel.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF chief spokesman, this morning called on residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes, presenting evidence of Hezbollah hiding a cruise missile inside a home and announcing that “shortly, the IDF will engage in intensive precise strikes against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon.”
“We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety,” Hagari said.
The army launchedtwo waves of intensive strikes on Hezbollah terror targets this morning.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallantsaid today during an assessment on the readiness of the home front for an escalation, “In this new stage that we have entered in the war, our success also depends on the proper conduct of the home front … Ahead of us are days when the public will have to show composure, discipline and full obedience to the directives of the Home Front Command. The difference between success and failure will depend on citizens entering protected rooms and other areas in accordance with the instructions we gave them. This saves lives.”
IDF Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said yesterday that the army has “raised its readiness” to the highest level, and referring to the assassinations of the commanders, said Israel had struck a “a very important capability in the Hezbollah terrorist organization, I know how much it shakes up the organization. For years these commanders had been making plans to conquer the Galilee, and they are responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians as well as soldiers over the years.”
“They were planning how to execute the next attack, and it is possible that they were working on that very plan in the meeting on Friday afternoon — working on how to infiltrate the State of Israel, murder civilians, kidnap IDF soldiers — we preempted them,” Halevi said.
It was not immediately clear if the sorties signified the start of a full-scale campaign against Hezbollah, with the potential for a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, or an attempt to persuade the terrorist organization that Israel was prepared to launch such an offensive.
“We will bring the residents [of northern Israel] back to their homes providing them with security, and if Hezbollah still hasn’t understood, it will receive blow after blow — until that organization does understand,’ Halevi stressed. “We have, it must be said, many more capabilities that we are yet to deploy, we are in a very high state of readiness both in offense and in defense. We are well-prepared for the next stages and are planning them properly for the coming days.”
The Home Front Command instructed all schools north of and including Haifa to close as of Sunday. Over 1.5 million Israelis are currently in the line of Hezbollah fire and that range is expected to expand, according to Israeli analysts.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force continued striking in Gaza and Lebanon over the weekend with over 150 fighter jets, hitting launchers and military infrastructure with large amounts of weaponry in southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday in a statement, “On October 7th, the Hamas terrorist monsters burst into Israel, murdered our people, raped and beheaded our women, burnt babies alive, and took 255 innocent people hostage, including many Americans. A day later, on October 8th, another Iranian terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, attacked Israel completely unprovoked. They fired missiles and rockets into our cities. They made 60,000 Israelis leave their homes along the Lebanon border, becoming refugees in their own land.”
“In the subsequent months, they haven’t stopped for a single day attacking us. No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities. We can’t accept it either. We will take whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safe back to their homes,” Netanyahu added.
The U.S. is warning Israel against an all-out war with Hezbollah.
White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said in an interview with ABC News yesterday that “we believe that there are better ways to try to get those Israeli citizens back in their homes up in the north and to keep those that are there there safely than a war, than an escalation, than opening up a second front there at that border with Lebanon against Hezbollah. We still believe that there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here and that’s what we’re working on.”
education consternation
Department of Education official explains why colleges haven’t lost federal funding over antisemitic activity
Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, told lawmakers on Friday that existing federal law and procedures make it unlikely that any schools will lose their federal funding over antisemitic activity on their college campuses in the near term, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Lhamon explained at a roundtable with congressional Democrats that pulling funding requires a yearslong litigation process under current federal statute.
The process: Before seeking to revoke funding, Lhamon said that her department, the Office of Civil Rights, must first investigate and communicate a finding that the subject of an investigation has violated civil rights law, at which point she’s required to give schools the opportunity to voluntarily come into compliance. If a school refuses, then the DOJ can take the matter to an administrative law judge. If the judge rules that the school is in violation, the subject can still appeal the ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Only at the end of that process — which Lhamon acknowledged could take years — can funds actually be revoked, Lhamon said.
democratic divide
Gov. Whitmer declines to back Michigan attorney general for prosecuting anti-Israel protesters
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is declining to back state Attorney General Dana Nessel, a fellow Democrat, who has been attacked by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over Nessel’s decision to charge anti-Israel campus demonstrators at the University of Michigan for assaulting police and engaging in ethnic intimidation, among other alleged crimes. Tlaib has also claimed that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish. Nessel has publicly decried the congresswoman’s characterization as antisemitic and wrong, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.
No comment: Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether Whitmer agrees with Tlaib’s argument that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish, the Michigan governor declined to weigh in. “I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having,” Whitmer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” show Sunday morning. “I can just say this: You know, we do want to make sure that students are safe on our campuses, and we recognize that every person has the right to make their statement about how they feel about an issue, a right to speak out. And I’m going to use every lever of mine to ensure that both are true.”
tainted recruits
NRCC adds two candidates with questionable records on antisemitism to prestigious program
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, announced on Friday that it was adding two frontline congressional candidates with questionable records on antisemitism to its prestigious Young Guns program. The Young Guns program, which aims to boost challengers in key swing districts, provides extra assistance and guidance to designated candidates and is a marker of which candidates and races the NRCC sees as its top priorities, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The names in question: The NRCC on Friday said it was adding Orlando Sonza, a veteran challenging Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, to the Young Guns, and Neil Parrott, who’s running in Maryland’s open 6th District against former Biden administration official April Delaney.
taking on trump
Democrats speak out loudly against Trump’s Jewish voter comments
A group of House Democrats outspoken on antisemitism issues are joining Jewish groups, the White House and the Harris campaign in condemning former President Donald Trump’s Thursday evening remarks about the Jewish vote, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Trump claimed in a speech on Thursday evening, aimed at attracting Jewish voters, that, “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss” if he loses the November election.
What they said: In a lengthy statement first shared with JI, Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) described Trump as “a liar and bigot who views Jewish Americans as political pawns in his single-minded quest to stay out of jail by winning the election.”
Jewish groups’ response: The American Jewish Committee, highlighting that the Jewish population makes up just 2% of the U.S. population, said that Jewish voters “cannot and should not be blamed for the outcome of the election. Setting up anyone to say ‘we lost because of the Jews’ is outrageous and dangerous. Thousands of years of history have shown that scapegoating Jews can lead to antisemitic hate and violence.” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that Trump had “undermined” his condemnations of antisemitism last night “by then employing numerous antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish stereotypes — including rampant accusations of dual loyalty.” Read more here.
hate watch
New York literary festival cancels event after two authors protest ‘Zionist’ speaker
Award-winning novelist Elisa Albert was set to moderate a panel at Saturday’s Albany Book Festival, a literary event she attends annually, until she received an email on Thursday from one of the festival’s organizers about a “crazy situation developing,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “Basically, not to sugar coat this, Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko don’t want to be on a panel with a ‘Zionist,’” the organizer said, naming two of the three other authors with whom Albert was set to appear on a panel. The topic of their discussion: Girls coming of age. The event was canceled.
Albert’s reaction: “The institute was really shocked and apologetic and asked me what I wanted to see happen,” Albert told JI on Friday. “I told them I wanted to see them issue an unequivocal statement that bigotry and antisemitism are absolutely unacceptable and the panel would proceed with or without these people participating. They did not. They were not able to do that.”
exclusive
Italian FM Tajani expresses strong support for Israel at UNGA sidelines event
As hundreds of heads of state convene in New York City throughout the week for the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Antonio Tajani, Italy’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, emphasized support for Israel in its ongoing war against Hamas at an event held Sunday evening on the sidelines of UNGA, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Tajani’s take: Speaking at the invitation-only event hosted by the European Leadership Network (ELNET), Tajani told the approximately 70 attendees — prominent business and philanthropic leaders in both the Jewish and Italian communities — that there “is a link” between the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. “The names of the links are Iran and Russia. This is a dangerous situation,” he said, noting that the world is divided into a battle between “democracies” versus “autocracies.” Tajani condemned Spain’s formal recognition earlier this year of a Palestinian state. “I am against [it] … Palestine as a state doesn’t exist,” Tajani said. “It is the West Bank and Gaza [and] Gaza is under terrorist control.”
Worthy Reads
A Released Hostage’s Plea: In The Atlantic, released hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband, Keith, is one of the remaining seven American hostages in Gaza, pleads for the release of the remaining 101 hostages. “I’m not alone in this fight. Many of the hostages who were released during the November deal left Gaza with loved ones still in captivity. We are all unable to heal fully until everyone is home safely. The international community, with its promises of solidarity and support, does not fully grasp the personal tragedy of those who are left waiting. We are not just statistics or stories. We are real people with real families, struggling with the most intense sadness, exhaustion, and frustration. Keith’s captivity is not just a political issue or a humanitarian tragedy. It is a deeply painful and personal wound.” [TheAtlantic]
What Ideology?: The New York Times’ Ross Douthat writes about the retreat from ideology in the 2024 presidential campaign. “Whatever the current election season is delivering, it isn’t a grand ideological debate. Instead, there is a flight from ideological ambition on both sides, with the Democratic candidate offering a mix of poll-tested incrementalism and nonspecific pabulum and the Republican candidate closing out his campaign with inconsistent pandering — tax cuts for some, legal pot for others, mass deportations but also free I.V.F… Social justice progressivism’s position at the moment might be characterized as a mixture of retreat and consolidation. The retreat is most obvious in national politics, where Kamala Harris would clearly like everyone to forget some of the more outré positions she staked out four years ago.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Former President Donald Trump rejected the possibility of another presidential debate on Saturday, saying it’s “too late” for a rematch with Vice President Kamala Harris, who agreed to an Oct. 23 debate hosted by CNN…
New polls from The New York Times and Siena College find Trump leading in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina…
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, met with American hostage families last Thursday in Washington…
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee, sat down with Tucker Carlson during the right-wing commentator’s live tour in Hershey, Pa., Saturday night. “If you don’t think the United States should get involved in every stupid war in the world, then you’re a Republican. And if you think the United States should send billions of dollars and tons of innocent Americans to die in some foreign country, then you’re (a Democrat),” Vance told Carlson…
The Democratic National Committee responded to Vance’s decision to sit down with Carlson: “Today, Vance will take the stage with Tucker Carlson, a far-right extremist who platformed a Holocaust denier and echoes the worst elements of Trump’s hateful agenda,” DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said…
Hillary Clinton told Fareed Zakaria yesterday that outside groups were fomenting the anti-Israel protests on campuses. “I am willing to sit down and have a conversation with anybody but it’s difficult to have conversations with people who hold strong opinions with no factual and historical basis,” Clinton said to the CNN host…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday, responded to Trump’s recent comments about American Jews and Israel, saying, “My advice to President Trump is that the Jewish-American voter, I’m sure they do care about Israel. There’s been no better friend of Israel. But talk about crime, talk about the economy, talk about inflation, talk about the border”…
Axios talked to House Republicans about Trump’s comments…
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) declined to criticize Trump’s remarks about the Jewish vote; he also backed Israel’s right to defend itself and go on the offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and criticized the Biden administration for pressuring Israel in its war against Hamas…
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it had killed two Hamas terrorists who likely murdered six hostages who were executed in Gaza last month…
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick slammed Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), in a New York Post op-ed, for not doing more to push Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to bring the Antisemitism Awareness Act to the Senate floor for a vote…
Most of the senior staff members for scandal-plagued North Carolina GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson resigned on Sunday…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his wife Lori welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Scranton yesterday and the two signed an agreement establishing a partnership between the state and the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia…
The Orthodox Union, Yeshiva University and the Teach Coalition are launching a voter turnout project aimed at mobilizing U.S. voters living in Israel, including opening a voter resources center at the OU office in Jerusalem, which will be open periodically between now and Election Day…
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) introduced a bill to reauthorize U.S.-Israel cooperative energy programs through 2034…
Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Peter Welch (D-VT) asked the State Department about the international use of AI in conflict settings, including in Gaza…
Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked the Department of Justice for information about efforts to counter Iranian plots against critics in the U.S., including whether criminal penalties should be increased…
The chairs of the House Abraham Accords Caucus introduced a resolution to encourage the State Department to push for curricula reform to cultivate Arab-Israeli ties “as a key agenda item” in Abraham Accords nations. It also urges the United Nations to address antisemitism in its curricula…
The Washington Post spotlights the northern Israeli community of Kiryat Bialik in the face of an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah…
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats party won a narrow victory over the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party in a Brandenberg state election on Sunday…
The New York Times interviews actress Natasha Lyonne…
Former Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Sa’arsaid he will not accept any offer to become defense minister, a week after reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was mulling firing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replacing him with Sa’ar…
Israeli troopsraided and then closed the West Bank offices of Al Jazeera, alleging that the Qatar-backed outlet was “being used to incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel’s broadcasts endanger … security and public order”…
Benjamin Haddadwas appointed minister for Europe in French President Emmanuel Macron’s new government…
Eva Wyner, the deputy director of Jewish affairs for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, got engaged to Reuven Rosen on Saturday night. The couple was set up by a friend last summer and got engaged at Pier 84 after a kayaking date on the Hudson. Rosen, who plays guitar, played Eitan Katz’s version of “Eishes Chayil” before proposing…
Pic of the Day
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres (fourth from right) met on Friday with families of several Israel hostages, including relatives of the Bibas family and Carmel Gat, the latter of whom was killed by Hamas last month.
Birthdays
Actor, famous for his role as George Costanza on Seinfeld and known professionally as Jason Alexander, Jay Scott Greenspan turns 65…
Pulpit rabbi in Cleveland for more than 30 years, then a professor at Bar Ilan University, Rabbi Shubert Spero turns 101… Former president and then vice chairman of the board of Chanel, the French fashion house, Arie L. Kopelman turns 86… Sarasota Jewish Federation executive, Richard Bergman… Spanish singer, he has sold more than 150 million records and performed at more than 5,000 concerts for over 60 million people, Julio Iglesias turns 81… CEO of the American Jewish Committee until retiring in 2022, David Harris turns 75… President at Trendlines America, Mark J. Dollinger, Ph.D…. Co-chairman and COO of Chesapeake Realty Partners, he is also a founding partner of Boulder Ventures, Josh E. Fidler… Deputy director of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Colin M. Winston, Ph.D…. Partner at Steptoe & Johnson, Darryl Nirenberg… Co-founder and CEO of hedge fund Avenue Capital Group, Marc Lasry turns 65… Past president of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, now a rabbinic student at the Ziegler School, Angela Maddahi… Former vice chair of The Jewish Federations of North America, she is the president-elect of the Birmingham (AL) Jewish Federation, Sheryl W. Kimerling… Israel’s ambassador to Italy starting approximately two weeks ago, Jonathan Peled turns 63… Israeli-American venture capitalist and head of Zeev Ventures, Oren Zeev turns 60… Former U.S. Ambassador to the EU, now President and COO at the Business Roundtable, Kristen Silverberg turns 54… Chief strategy officer at Whistleblower Aid, Naomi Seligman… Executive director of the Foundation at Alpha Epsilon Pi, Jay S. Feldman… Author of two best-selling books and co-founder of Sefaria and Lehrhaus, Joshua Foer turns 42… Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington bureau reporter for The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt turns 41… Director of generative AI content at Meta / Facebook, Gabriella Schwarz… VP of sales at Idomoo Personalized Video, Abby Glassberg… Three-time Olympic saber fencer, last year he became the first American to claim gold in saber at the World Fencing Championships, Eli Dershwitz turns 29… Record-setting powerlifter, Naomi Chaya Kutin turns 23…
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