Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address before the U.N. General Assembly this morning, taking place against the backdrop of an escalating war with Hezbollah. We report on the republishing of an antisemitic screed by Paul Coates, the father of writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, talk to hostage families about the shift in attention to Lebanon and spotlight a new play that aims to poke fun at antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Bari Weiss and H.R. McMaster.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Israelis from Tel Aviv to Haifa brace for Hezbollah attacks; New film chronicles Joe Lieberman’s leap of faith to the political center; and Dave McCormick making inroads with Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the U.N. General Assembly during the morning session today.
- Elsewhere in New York, former President Donald Trump is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower, a day after Zelensky met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House.
What You Should Know
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the U.N. General Assembly today, even as the Israel-Lebanon border continues to heat up, Jewish Insider‘s Lahav Harkov reports.
Netanyahu was determined to make it to Turtle Bay, though he had a contingency plan in case the escalation in the north turned into a full-scale war, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon waiting in the wings.
The green marble backdrop of UNGA is not just any stage for Netanyahu — it’s another “arena” of war, a high-level diplomatic source told JI this week. The UNGA is the place where Netanyahu can best relay Israel’s message to the world and rhetorically settle scores with Israel’s enemies, especially the mullahs in Iran. Addressing the world body is “always important, and it is especially important at this moment,” Netanyahu said as he disembarked from his plane in New York.
The prime minister highlighted two parts of his upcoming speech in his remarks ahead of the address. First, that Israel has not forgotten that Hamas is still holding its citizens hostage; he brought six relatives of hostages on his flight to the U.S., including the father of Yonatan Samerano, who was kidnapped by an UNRWA employee. Second, that Israel is “continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. We will not stop until we reach all of our goals, foremost of which is to bring the residents of the north” – over 60,000 of whom have been evacuated for almost a year – “safely to their homes. That is the policy. Let no one be mistaken.”
Netanyahu implicitly rebuffed President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron with the second part of his tarmac statement, following a joint proposal by the two leaders that Israel and Lebanon (their statement did not mention Hezbollah) hold their fire for 21 days in order to negotiate a longer-lasting cease-fire. The Israeli prime minister, however, made clear in his own words, not through a spokesman, that there must be a long-term solution before the IDF stops responding to Hezbollah’s attacks.
As anonymous U.S. officials claimed that Netanyahu was backing down from his agreement to the proposal behind closed doors, his office acknowledged that the Biden administration updated Israel and that Washington and Jerusalem share the goal of enabling northern Israelis to return safely home, but there would need to be more discussions of how to accomplish that objective.
Netanyahu also addressed concerns that he will not be able to manage the increasingly tense situation while out of the country. The Wing of Zion, Israel’s Air Force One, which had its inaugural official flight when Netanyahu flew to Washington to address Congress in July, is equipped with an office that can be used for confidential communications. Netanyahu made use of it, authorizing the assassination of Hezbollah’s drone chief while he was still in the air, his spokesman said.
publishing problems
Paul Coates, father of journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, republishing antisemitic screed ‘The Jewish Onslaught’
Black Classic Press, a Baltimore-based publishing company founded in 1978, has long been dedicated to unearthing “obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent,” its website states. In recent weeks, the company has been a focus of renewed attention as its founder, Paul Coates, 78, prepares to accept a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in November. But even as Coates has been celebrated for nurturing such contemporary authors as Walter Mosley and reissuing works by W.E.B. Du Bois, among other luminaries, his company has also recently chosen to spotlight an antisemitic screed that seeks to uphold a widely discredited conspiracy theory alleging Jewish domination of the Atlantic slave trade, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Background: Called The Jewish Onslaught, the book was self-published in 1993 by Tony Martin, a former professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College who had faced backlash for approvingly teaching an infamous tract from the Nation of Islam purporting to show that Jews played a disproportionate role in the slave trade — a claim historians havedismissed as factually inaccurate. Black Classic Press makes no mention of Martin’s commitment to propagating an antisemitic trope in a laudatory blurb on its website, saying he “became embroiled in controversy over his classroom use of a book detailing the well-documented Jewish role in the Atlantic slave trade.” The company did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Thursday about its decision to republish Martin’s book — which was condemned at the time of its publication and has also been a source of controversy in recent years.
hostage concerns
With public attention on Lebanon, hostage families frustrated but see opportunity
Relatives of hostages kidnapped by Hamas have expressed frustration at the shift in attention of the public and decision-makers in Israel and abroad toward the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and away from the hostages, but some view cease-fire talks with Lebanon as an opportunity to secure their loved ones’ release, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Despair and hope: Udi Goren, cousin of Tal Haimi, who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 and murdered soon after, told JI on Thursday that he is “very, very concerned” that the focus is shifting north when “we have no diplomatic achievements in Gaza. We did not meet the goals of going to war in Gaza in the first place, to topple Hamas and bring home the hostages.” But Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was murdered in captivity by Hamas and whose sister-in-law Yarden Gat was released in the hostage deal last year, said that the international community’s efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah could help the hostages. “The situation in the north is very clear,” Dickmann said in a briefing to foreign press on Thursday. “We have an opportunity to get a deal that will not only bring peace and security to the people of Israel who live in the north, but will also end this horrible tragedy in the south, get the hostages out, and then maybe we will be able to build our lives again.”
tehran talk
H.R. McMaster describes negotiations with Iran, proxies as ‘delusional’
H.R. McMaster, who served as a national security advisor during the Trump administration and was a top general in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, predicted an extended conflict between Israel and Iranian proxies — and said that the U.S. needs to offer stronger backing to Israel and stop pushing for what he described as premature and foolhardy cease-fire agreements, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “It’s time for us to be much stronger in support of Israel,” McMaster continued, calling on the U.S. to stop placing pressure on Israel to agree to cease-fires with Hamas and Hezbollah or to limit its responses to attacks on its territory. He also said the U.S. should make Iran directly pay a price for its proxies’ attacks. “It’s really delusional,” McMaster said, of negotiations with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. “It’s a fool’s errand… These organizations will not be deterred at all until we impose costs on them that go far beyond the costs that they factor in when they take these aggressive actions.”
jewish humor
An outlandish, intentionally awkward Jewish play seeks to make a point about antisemitism
A clown, a klezmer band and Adolf Hitler walk into a bar. Well, not quite. But they do appear together on stage in “Good Showbiz: A Celebration of Jewish Theater,” a mostly one-man show that is wrapping up a monthlong run at the Elysian Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Punk rock Jewish: The show is the joint creation of comedian Eli Leonard and director Theodore Bressman, a writer and producer who got his first production credits working under the actor Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg. “What we’re trying to do here is build our own punk rock version of Jewish comedy that does not shy away from the history of Yiddish theater or Jewish stand-up, but embraces the history for the moment we’re in right now,” Bressman told JI on Thursday.
Worthy Reads
Greenwich Mean Time: The Wall Street Journal’s Emma Osman, a graduate of the Greenwich Academy, where Aisha Abdel Gawad teaches, reflects on Gawad’s decision to withdraw from participating in a literary festival panel moderated by a Jewish Zionist. “The school’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion describes her objective as ‘making sure every student feels seen, heard, and valued both in and out of the classroom.’ I imagine myself back in school, seated around Ms. Gawad’s table. Would I feel my voice was ‘heard and valued’? Would I feel comfortable raising a view that I knew Ms. Gawad disagreed with? Could she grade my essay objectively knowing it was written by someone she might label a ‘Zionist’? Ms. Gawad is entitled to her opinion, but her decision to withdraw from an event that ‘did not feel like a safe forum’ to her suggests to impressionable young students that it is advisable to run away from differing perspectives — and even to refuse to discuss a completely separate topic with someone who holds them. It’s an idea that will likely be reinforced when they arrive on illiberal college campuses and find that there is one accepted point of view.” [WSJ]
Where Antisemitism is Kosher: The editorial board of The Free Pressweighs in on Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) comments about the “possible biases” of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish, over her decision to charge University of Michigan encampment protesters. “So let’s get this straight. Nessel prosecutes 11 people according to the letter of the law, and she is guilty of differential treatment and bias? What, we wonder, would be the reason for that bias? We heard the dog whistle loud and clear. So did Nessel. ‘I don’t think you have to be Angela Lansbury to figure this out. Clearly, she’s referencing my religion,’ Nessel told Jake Tapper of CNN earlier this week. … In normal times the outrage would have been directed in one direction: at Tlaib. The congresswoman would have issued a statement apologizing for her remarks and everyone would have moved on. But we no longer live in normal times. We live in a post–October 7 America where antisemitism is kosher when it comes from progressives pontificating on Palestine.” [FreePress]
Word on the Street
New York City Mayor Eric Adams rebuffed calls, including from The New York Times’ editorial board, to resign following his indictment on a litany of charges including bribery and wire fraud; New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was reviewing a seldom-used policy that allows the governor to remove local officials from office…
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce blasted Harvard University, accusing the school of failing to impose proper discipline on those involved in antisemitic activity on campus; documents provided by the school indicated most involved remain in good standing and none were suspended…
Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Michelle Steel (R-CA)urged the Department of Education to open an investigation into alleged antisemitism by senior officials in California’s Santa Ana Unified School District…
The spokesperson for Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) participated in a congressional staff delegation to the West Bank led by a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, considered by the U.S. to be a “specially designated global terrorist” organization…
The Senate passed legislation awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to diplomats who helped Jews flee the Holocaust…
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) was the target of a “deep-fake” operation that involved the impersonation of a senior Ukrainian official in an effort to prod Cardin, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, into backing an escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war…
The State Department is offering a bounty of up to $20 million for information leading to the capture of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member involved in an Iranian plot to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton…
A federal grand jury indicted a group of Iranian hackers who allegedly targeted former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign…
Bari Weiss’ The Free Press raised $15 million in a new round of funding that gave the startup media company a $100 million valuation…
Wake Forest University canceled an upcoming event scheduled for Oct. 7 featuring a speaker who had previously hosted an event with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization…
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business released its annual fundraising report, which showed a decrease in donations during the 2023-2024 academic year, when the school had faced significant criticism over its handling of campus antisemitism…
The New York Times interviewed outgoing Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway about his decision to resign from his position…
Following the divorce settlement of Tony Pritzker and Jeanne Pritzker, the Southern California home that had been a focal point of their contentious separation is expected to go on the market for between $150-$200 million…
Lebanese officials who tested pagers that had been turned off last week and did not explode during Israel’s attack against Hezbollah members said that the technology used was virtually impossible to detect due to its sophistication…
The IDF intercepted a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen overnight, which triggered air raid sirens throughout the Tel Aviv metropolitan area…
The Wall Street Journal looks at Israel’s differing approaches to Hamas and Hezbollah, the former of which surprised Israel with the terror attacks on Oct. 7, and latter of which Israel has dedicated extensive intelligence and resources to in anticipation of a future conflagration…
Israel said it had reached an agreement with the U.S. for a $8.7 billion aid package, the majority of which will go to bolstering Israel’s air-defense systems…
The Washington Post spotlights the economic impact of the Israel-Hamas war in Israel…
Wine of the Week
JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Flam Noble 2020:
I had the perfect night at Aniba, a magnificent new restaurant in downtown Singapore the other day. My dear friend Nicky, a fellow whiskey collector, and my bride of 40 years joined me. The restaurant had an extensive wine selection, so I took my time choosing. The Flam Noble, a personal favorite, did not disappoint. This blend of 60% cab, 39% syrah, and 10% PV has a one-two punch like few other wines I have ever had. The front palate wakes you up, full of vim and vigor. The mid-palate is soft and filled with vanilla notes, and the finish goes on forever. Luscious cherry pie and plum flavors coat the back of your tongue and mouth. Drink this wine with Chilean sea bass, stock up, and buy as much as possible. There is no expiration date for this wine.
Pic of the Day
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama spoke about the Albania-Israel alliance at a reception last night in Manhattan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, the Center for Jewish Impact and B’nai B’rith International.
“I am not here to make any parallelism between the horrendous extermination of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and the tragic deaths our communist regime inflicted on thousands of innocent people, but simply to say to all of you that we Albanians know both the unparalleled pain of the grave wounds of history and the need to never forget,” Rama, who wore a yellow ribbon pin in honor of the Israelis held hostage by Hamas, told the crowd. “We are both small nations in size and numbers but immense in spirit.”
Amb. Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, also gave remarks at the reception.
Birthdays
President of New York University from 2002 to 2015, he is the author of Baseball as a Road To God, John Edward Sexton turns 82 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Arthur M. Blank turns 82… Of counsel, antitrust and business litigator at the Locke Lord law firm, Stephen J. Landes turns 79… Board member of the Milken Family Foundation, Ellen Sandler… Chairman of the Victoria Beckham fashion brand, Ralph Toledano turns 73… Author and longtime Washington correspondent, Dan Raviv turns 70… President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond until 2017, now chair of the Richmond Jewish Foundation, Jeffrey M. Lacker turns 69… President of public relations at Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, Jeffrey H. Birnbaum turns 68… Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2002, he is married to a Minneapolis rabbi, Marcia A. Zimmerman, Frank Hornstein turns 65… Comedian and author, Marc Maron turns 61… Chief rabbi of France since 2014, Haïm Korsia turns 61… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2005, Debbie Wasserman Schultz turns 58… Literary and film publicist based in Israel, Judy Tashbook Safern… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Michael Balaban turns 58… President of NBC News Editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein turns 58… Hockey reporter for Sportsnet and as an insider for the NHL Network, Elliotte Friedman turns 54… Rabbi and kabbalist, Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto turns 51… Deputy mayor of Jerusalem, she was appointed in 2023 as Israel’s special envoy for innovation, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum turns 51… Author of four books on North Africa and the Middle East and president of The Center for Peace Communications, Joseph Braude… Musician, actress, writer, director and comedian, Carrie Rachel Brownstein turns 50… Former state treasurer of Ohio, Josh Mandel turns 47… Architect, entrepreneur and author, Marc Kushner turns 47… Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the D.C. suburbs, Daniel Isaac Helmer turns 43… SVP for community relations at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rori Picker Neiss… Advisory manager for cyber and strategic risk at Deloitte, she was previously a Hebrew teacher and coordinator of Jewish programs at Zeta Beta Tau, Alexa Wertman Brown… Actor best known for his role as Geoff Schwartz on “The Goldbergs,” Sam Lerner turns 32… CEO of the ECI Group, he sits on the board of governors of the Jewish Agency, Seth Greenberg…
SATURDAY: International Emmy award-winning Scottish television producer, Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs turns 92… Former governor of Vermont (the first Jewish woman elected to govern any state), she was also the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, Madeleine May Kunin turns 91… Physician and theoretical biologist, he was a 1987 MacArthur genius fellow, Stuart Kauffman turns 85… Former president of Warner Home Video, Warren Lieberfarb turns 81… French businessman who, with his brother, own the controlling interest in the House of Chanel and several famous vineyards, Alain Wertheimer turns 76… Real estate agent in New York’s Hudson Valley, Jerry Weiss… Teaneck, N.J.-based real estate attorney, Gary E. Miller… U.S. senator (R-LA), Bill Cassidy turns 67… Pediatrician and author of the book Winning A Debate with An Israel Hater, Dr. Michael Harris… Best-selling author and journalist, Ben Greenman turns 55… Area director for San Diego and Orange counties for AIPAC, Elliott Nahmias… Winner of four Olympic gold medals in swimming for the USA (2000 and 2004), Leonid “Lenny” Krayzelburg turns 49… News editor and correspondent at Voice of America, Michael Lipin… Israeli Ironman triathlete, Nina Pekerman turns 47… SVP at the Katz Watson Group, Lauren France… Director of field marketing for the Anti-Defamation League, Samantha Collidge… Regional director for the OU’s Teach Coalition, Hadassa Levenson Korn… VP of operations at Tel Aviv-based iAngels, Ayelet Cohen… 2023 graduate of Yale Law School and author of a coming-of-age novel set in the Modern Orthodox community, David Hopen turns 31… Former NFL, XFL and CFL wide receiver and kick returner, Daniel Braverman turns 31…
SUNDAY: Professor of physics emeritus at MIT, he is a 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in physics, Rainer Weiss turns 92… Israeli author, translator, journalist and restaurant critic, Avital Inbar turns 80… Retired CEO of Southern Calif.-based LinQuest Corporation, he is the VP of innovation and technology at Temple Sinai, Leon Biederman Ph.D…. Former member of the Knesset, he serves as the executive director of Beit El Yeshiva and as chairman of Arutz Sheva, Ya’akov Dov “Katzele” Katz turns 73… CEO at Chain Link Services and past treasurer of the Board of Trustees of JFNA, Harold Gernsbacher… Tony Award-winning actor and singer, Roger Bart turns 62… Composer and pianist, he is the winner of the 2020 Azrieli Foundation Prize for Jewish Music, Yitzhak Yedid turns 53… Chief strategy officer for national affairs at AIPAC, Brian Shankman… Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s office of global affairs, Aviva Rosenthal… City controller of Philadelphia until 2022, Rebecca Rhynhart turns 50… YouTube-based yoga instructor with more than 1.5 billion views, Adriene Mishler turns 40… Program manager at NYC’s Neighborhood Restore, Aron Chilewich… Research director at DC-based S-3 Group, Shawn Pasternak… Film and television actress, Clara Mamet turns 30…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
