Daily Kickoff: UNRWA’s Hamas ties resurface after Gaza strike
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at recent polling of Jewish voters, talk to Amb. David Satterfield about humanitarian aid in Gaza and report on the charges being brought against some of the participants in the University of Michigan’s anti-Israel encampment. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Robert Caro and Yossi Sariel.
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: Standing at the gates of Gaza – and telling the world what happened; Birthright Israel turning its post-Oct. 7 volunteer initiative into a larger, permanent program; and What’s giving Shari Redstone hope about the Middle East. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Washington today, and will be meeting with President Joe Biden at 4:30 p.m. The major focus of the meeting will be on next steps in supporting Ukraine.
- Vice President Kamala Harris is making two campaign stops in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania today — in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre.
- Israeli singer Ishay Ribo is performing at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
What You Should Know
The Israeli strike on a U.N. Relief and Works Agency school on Wednesday that killed 18 people, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, brought a new round of criticism and condemnation against the IDF for its operations against U.N. facilities — despite half of those killed, according to information provided by the IDF, being members of Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports. The IDF released the names and positions in Hamas of nine of the individuals it says were killed in the strike on the building, which was reportedly being used as a shelter.
At least three of the six UNRWA staffers killed in the strike were members of Hamas in addition to carrying out their duties with the U.N. agency. Israel says the school was being used as a Hamas command-and-control center.
The strike came hours before the publication of a New York Times Magazine piece focused on UNRWA’s role in Gaza and ties to Hamas, both prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks — in which at least 12 members of the terror group actively participated — and after. Israel has said that up to 10% of the agency’s staff of roughly 13,000 in Gaza have ties to terror groups in the enclave.
“Would I be totally surprised if at the end of the day there is proof that 2,000 UNRWA staff are members of Hamas?” Matthias Schmale, the head of UNRWA in Gaza until 2021, asked, citing the numbers put forward earlier this year by Israel and first reported in The Wall Street Journal.
“No, I wouldn’t be,” Schmale continued. “It would be a bit shocking if it is such a high number … but it makes sense given the circumstances of Gaza.”
Further evidence of UNRWA’s employment of Hamas members has been discovered as Israeli forces continue ground operations in Gaza. At an IDF intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv earlier this summer, JI viewed documents — including UNRWA employee ID cards and photographs — directly linking agency staffers to Gaza terror groups.
Communications between Israel and UNRWA broke down in the aftermath of the discovery of the close ties between the U.N. agency and Hamas. Since February, aid that enters the enclave comes through collaborative efforts between COGAT, the Israeli agency tasked with distributing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, and a number of aid organizations, including the World Food Programme, World Central Kitchen and UNICEF.
“There are ongoing discussions around vetting, but not directly with UNRWA,” an Israeli official with knowledge of the discussions told JI. “The State of Israel doesn’t talk to UNRWA right now.”
reality check
Former Biden Middle East envoy blames Israel for humanitarian crisis in Gaza
David Satterfield, the American official who spent months seeking to increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, criticized Israel for the beleaguered territory’s humanitarian crisis, claiming Israel’s partial operation in Rafah in May “upended” any progress that Israel had made in increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza, in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch.
Rafah ripples: “A level equal to that applied to the kinetic campaign needs to be applied to humanitarian efforts — that was President Biden’s explicit message when he visited Israel after Oct. 7,” Satterfield said in a conversation on the sidelines of the MEAD Summit in Washington this week. “That has not in practice been the case, although it was getting significantly better by May 7. It was the Rafah campaign that has fundamentally upended all of this.” Satterfield blamed the disruption on Israel and in particular, on Israel not successfully evacuating Rafah — a charge that COGAT challenged in a statement to JI.
survey says
Three new polls offer three different takeaways on the Jewish vote in 2024
Three new polls released in recent weeks show different results with respect to Jewish voter sentiment in the presidential election, raising questions about how a key voting bloc could shape the closely contested race, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Conflicting findings: The Jewish Democratic Council of America this week released a national poll of 800 self-identified Jewish voters that demonstrates robust support for Vice President Kamala Harris — leading former President Donald Trump by a wide margin, 72-25%, in a head-to-head matchup. But two recent nonpartisan polls indicate that Harris’ lead could be weaker than JDCA’s results suggest, even as the majority of Jewish voters continue to favor her candidacy. A new survey released this week by the Pew Research Center, for example, showed Harris shedding 10 points among Jewish respondents, with a 65-34% lead over Trump — a major drop in support in an election that is widely expected to be fought on the margins. Meanwhile, separate polling commissioned by Teach Coalition, a Jewish educational advocacy group affiliated with the Orthodox Union, shows Harris underperforming with Jewish voters in Pennsylvania — a key battleground state that could ultimately decide the November contest.
envoy assessment
Israeli government’s antisemitism envoy gives failing grade on efforts to combat anti-Jewish hate
Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Israeli government’s antisemitism envoy, said this week that governments, universities and other organizations are failing to take the necessary steps to properly combat antisemitism and called for the U.S. to make more of an effort to lead on the issue. She also characterized the growth of global antisemitism as the harbinger of a global antidemocratic and authoritarian movement. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod, asked whether any government, university, company or entity has been effective in combating antisemitism over the past year and can serve as a model for others, Cotler-Wunsh said, “No one has done it right so far.”
Seeing it for what it is: “We can only do it right if we acknowledge [antisemitism] as the national security threat that it is,” Cotler-Wunsh told JI on the sidelines of the inaugural MEAD Summit in Washington this week. “I call it an additional war front that has been raging for decades … It actually impacts the entire international rules-based order [because] it co-opted and weaponized that international rules-based order. So the only way to actually do this right is to have a comprehensive or holistic strategy.”
laying down the law
Nine anti-Israel demonstrators, two counterprotesters charged in University of Michigan incidents
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged nine anti-Israel demonstrators and two counterprotesters involved in incidents at the University of Michigan relating to the school’s anti-Israel protest encampment, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. “The right to free speech and assembly is fundamental, and my office fully supports every citizen’s right to free speech under the First Amendment,” Nessel said on Thursday announcing the charges. “However, violent and criminal behavior, or acts that trample on another’s rights, cannot be tolerated. I hope today’s charges are a reminder to everyone who chooses to assemble, regardless of the cause, that the First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity.”
The charges: The AG’s office said that some participants in the encampment attempted to physically block police officers who were clearing the encampment at the request of university officials. Nessel’s office charged seven demonstrators with trespassing and assaulting or resisting police, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Two were charged with misdemeanor trespassing, carrying a maximum penalty of 30 days in prison. Nessel said that she is only charging those who attempted to block the officers from clearing the encampment, and is pursuing felony charges against those who “physically placed their hands or bodies against police” or “physically obstructed an arrest.”
Worthy Reads
Repatriation Wars:The Free Press’ Matti Friedman reports on the effort to identify a 1,400-year old Jewish text that originated from Afghanistan as he takes a broader look at questions around the repatriation of looted antiquities. “The idea that the modern Arab-Muslim dictatorship in Egypt, for example, has an automatic claim to 3,000-year-old treasures of the non-Arab and non-Muslim pharaohs is not straightforward. And these civilizational treasures can often be better cared for elsewhere: The national museums of Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan, for example, have all been looted in the wars and revolutions of the twenty-first century. … Today, you’re most likely to meet Afghan Jews in Israel or Queens, New York. For them, a manuscript kept in Washington, D.C., is accessible, while one in Afghanistan is not. I asked [Lenny] Wolfe, the collector and dealer, what he thought. ‘Material culture, prima facie, belongs in the place where it was created and found,’ he said. ‘More than that it belongs to the people who sincerely care for it. Therefore, it should not be repatriated.’” [FreePress]
End of Hostilities: The Washington Post’s Jason Willick observes the similarities between Vice President Kamala Harris’ position on the Israel-Hamas war and former President Donald Trump’s stance on the war between Russia and Ukraine. “Tuesday’s presidential debate underscored that when it comes to the wars in the Middle East and Europe in which the United States is a key player, the candidates are mirror images. Their shared willingness to push for deals with bad actors shows the bipartisan appetite for retrenchment in foreign policy. But their different regional emphases show how the parties’ strategic impulses are diverging … Harris said Trump would ‘give up’ on Ukraine. But Trump talks about the war in Eastern Europe in much the same way Harris talks about the war in the Middle East: As a tragic excess that should be wound down, not won. The U.S. interest, both candidates seem to believe, is in stopping a war involving an American ally — not in the American ally achieving its war objectives.” [WashPost]
How the War is Won: In Foreign Affairs, Assaf Orion, a Liz and Mony Rueven international fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, considers how Israel could win a wider regional war. “To contain this broader threat, Israel can no longer rely on raw military strength alone. It must use all the various tools of national power as well as the help of allies and partners— perhaps even of a coalition of forces. Such support would make it possible for Israel to mitigate some of its vulnerabilities, including by offsetting combined enemy resources and compensating for the lack of strategic depth. The potential of a coalition approach was forcefully demonstrated by Israel and its partners’ resounding defeat of Iran’s missile and drone attack in mid-April. At the center of such a coalition must be the United States, which leads the security architecture of the Middle East alongside like-minded countries and regional partners. Israel’s relations with neighboring countries will also greatly benefit from normalization with Saudi Arabia, but such a step would require significant progress on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Nonetheless, Israel’s strategic relationship with Washington is and must remain a central pillar of its national security. In the event of a large-scale regional war, this relationship will be even more critical.” [ForeignAffairs]
No Light at the End of the Tunnel: The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon reflects on the national and global impact of the IDF footage of the tunnel in which six hostages were held and executed last month. “A nation deeply divided over how to free the hostages – by an agreement that would include giving in to some of Hamas’s demands or by continued military pressure – viewed the same grisly video and came to opposite conclusions. Those in favor of a hostage deal under almost any circumstances saw the video and used it to support their argument about why such an agreement is needed immediately. The video, they said, just shows how horribly the hostages are suffering, and that everything needs to be done to reach a negotiated agreement, free them, and relieve them of that torture. Those opposed to letting Hamas dictate the terms of a deal and believing that only more military pressure would ultimately free the hostages saw the video as support for their position: how could a deal be made with terrorists who executed six starving hostages in cold blood after holding them in inhuman conditions for nearly a year?” [JPost]
Word on the Street
The U.S. plans to provide Egypt with the full $1.3 billion allotted for the country for the first time since the White House began diverting some of the designated funding over Cairo’s human rights violations several years ago…
Bedminster, the New Jersey golf club owned by former President Donald Trump, twice hosted a man convicted for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot who has an extensive history of making antisemitic comments; last month, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was given an award at the club for his commitment to “God, family and country”…
Trump ruled out the possibility of a second debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting that Harris’ support for another debate was a sign she had lost; “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH,’” Trump posted on his TruthSocial site…
Russia, China and Iran are reportedly preparing efforts to influence the upcoming U.S. presidential election…
Bloomberg looks at how the Harris campaign is utilizing Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff in its outreach to Jewish donors…
A super PAC that appears to have Republican ties is airing antisemitic campaign ads about Emhoff, targeting Muslim American and Arab American voters in Michigan…
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) endorsed former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, in the Maryland Senate race…
Federal officials are preparing charges over Iran’s efforts to hack the Trump campaign earlier this summer…
Laura Gillen, the Democrat challenging Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) in New York’s 4th Congressional District, called on his campaign to condemn a recent mailer from the New York Republican State Committee that pictures George Soros pouring money over Gillen’s head…
The mayor of Palo Alto, Calif., and other local elected officials withdrew from a multifaith 9/11 memorial vigil after the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined as a co-sponsor…
Chapman University’s board of trustees announced it will not divest from the university’s investments in companies with ties to Israel, saying the school prioritizes “financial decisions based on risk and return”…
Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein pledged $1.5 million to upgrade the Jewish Museum of Maryland…
Author Robert Caro reflects on the 50th anniversary of the publication of his book The Power Broker, about New York City planner Robert Moses…
Yossi Sariel, the head of the IDF’s elite 8200 unit, resigned over the government’s failure to prevent the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks; Sariel is the second senior military official to resign following the attacks…
The IDFannounced the collapse of Hamas’ Rafah brigade…
Israeli and Western officials confirmed that Israel carried out a commando raid near Syria’s border with Lebanon that destroyed a Hezbollah missile-production site; Israel and the U.S. said that the underground site was constructed by Iran…
Iran summoned the heads of the U.K., French, German and Dutch embassies after those countries spoke out against the recent transfer of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia; the U.K., France and Germany issued new sanctions against Iranian entities earlier this week in response to the weapons transfer…
Pic of the Day
Members of Ukraine’s Jewish community mourn Ukrainian serviceman Matisyahu Anton Samborskiy yesterday at the Central Synagogue in Kyiv, Ukraine. Samborskiy, the son of the chief rabbi of Ukraine, was killed during fighting on the front line in the Donetsk region.
Birthdays
Senior editor and elections analyst at Cook Political Report focused on the U.S. House of Representatives and redistricting, David Nathan Wasserman turns 40…
FRIDAY: Retired motion picture editor, Avrum Fine… Columnist, author and etiquette authority known as Miss Manners, Judith Perlman Martin turns 86… Chairman of global brokerage at CBRE, Stephen Siegel turns 80… Folk artist, photographer and writer focused on European Jewish history, Jill Culiner turns 79… Retired after 57 years as a D.C. reporter for many print and broadcast media, Richard Pollock… CEO of the Democratic Majority for Israel, Mark S. Mellman turns 69… Ice dancer, who, with her partner Michael Seibert, won five straight U.S. Figure Skating Championships between 1981 and 1985, Judy Blumberg turns 67… Founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, he is the author of 16 books, Rafael Medoff turns 65… Executive director of Aspen Digital, part of the Aspen Institute, Vivian Schiller… Senior lecturer in Talmud at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Rabbi Chaim Kosman… Comedian known as “Roastmaster General” for his Comedy Central celebrity roasts, Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz turns 59… Attorney general of North Carolina, and candidate to become N.C.’s next governor in this year’s election, Joshua Stein turns 58… Member of the Los Angeles City Council, Robert J. Blumenfield turns 57… Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel and president of its U.S.-based support organization, Friends of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer turns 51… Israel’s minister of health, he is a member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Uriel Menachem Buso turns 51… Regional director in the D.C. regional office of the Anti-Defamation League, Meredith Mirman Weisel… Former nine-year member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Jonathan Singer turns 45… Advocacy strategist with experience in opinion research, Gary Ritterstein… Founder and president of Reshet Capital, a boutique investment firm, Betty Grinstein… Director at Finsbury Glover Hering, Walter Suskind… Policy associate at Hadassah, Sierra DeCrosta… Senior software engineer at Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan Chase, David Behmoaras… Managing director at Page Four Media, Noa Silverstein…
SATURDAY: Actor, writer and director, Walter Koenig turns 88… Basketball coach enshrined in the Hall of Fame, Lawrence Harvey (Larry) Brown turns 84… Executive chairman of MDC Holdings and prominent philanthropist, Larry A. Mizel turns 82… Partner at San Diego-based CaseyGerry, a specialist in mass torts, Frederick A. Schenk turns 71… Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava turns 69… Plastic surgeon and television personality, Dr. Terry Dubrow turns 66… Chairman and chief investment officer of The Electrum Group, he is the world’s largest private collector of Rembrandt paintings, Thomas Scott Kaplan turns 62… Founder of Mindchat Research, Amy Kauffman… Founder of Vermont-based Kidrobot, a retailer of art toys, apparel and accessories, and Ello, an ad-free social network, Paul Budnitz turns 57… British secretary of state for defence until two months ago, he was a national president of BBYO, Grant Shapps turns 56… President of Strauss Media Strategies, during the Clinton administration he became the first-ever White House radio director, Richard Strauss turns 55… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ketanji Brown Jackson turns 54… Managing director at Gasthalter, Mark A. Semer… Comedian, television actor, writer and producer, Elon Gold turns 54… Managing partner of Berke Farah LLP, his clients include SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, Elliot S. Berke… Former senior White House reporter for Bloomberg, Jennifer Jacobs… CEO of San Francisco-based Jewish LearningWorks, Dana Sheanin… Guest booking producer at CNN’s “Inside Politics with Dana Bash,” Courtney Cohen Flantzer… Governor of Florida and former 2024 POTUS candidate, Ron DeSantis turns 46… Israeli-American actress, Hani Furstenberg turns 45… Artist, photographer and educator, Marisa Scheinfeld turns 44… Staff writer at The Atlantic, Russell Berman… Co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive Indivisible movement, Leah Greenberg… Los Angeles-based attorney working as a contracts supervisor at MarketCast, Roxana Pourshalimi… New York Times reporter focused on in-depth profiles, Matt Flegenheimer… EVP at Voyager Global Mobility, Jeremy Moskowitz… Founder and owner of ARA Capital, a British firm with holdings in e-commerce and energy, Arkadiy Abramovich turns 31… MSW candidate at Yeshiva University, Julia Savel… Artistic gymnast, she represented Israel at the 2020 (Tokyo) and 2024 (Paris) Summer Olympics, Lihie Raz turns 21…
SUNDAY: Founder and former CEO of Elektra Records, he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jac Holzman turns 93… Professor at the Hebrew University and a leading scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Emanuel Tov turns 83… Chief rabbi of Migdal HaEmek, known as the “Disco Rabbi,” Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman turns 78… Professor emerita of education at Boston University’s Wheelock College, Diane Elizabeth Levin turns 77… NYC-based composer and multi-instrument musician, Ned Rothenberg turns 68… Business litigator in the Miami office of Gunster, Aron U. Raskas… Film executive, she produced “The Hunger Games” film series, Nina Jacobson turns 59… Managing partner and chief technology officer at Differential Ventures in Philadelphia, David Magerman turns 56… NPR’s media correspondent, David Folkenflik turns 55… Actor, best known for his roles on “Sports Night” and “The Good Wife,” Josh Charles turns 53… Comedian, writer and actress, Kira Soltanovich turns 51… VP of leadership at the Anti-Defamation League, Deborah Leipzig… Chicago public schoolteacher, event organizer and fundraiser, Shayla Rosen… Author and longtime education correspondent at NPR, Anya Kamenetz turns 44… Data scientist, economist and author of the 2017 New York Times bestseller Everybody Lies, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz turns 42… Model and Israeli beauty queen titleholder, Yael Markovich turns 40… Partner in CHW Strategic Advisors and CEO of Harmon Face Values, Jonah Raskas… Tomer Zvi Elias… Chief strategy officer at PW Communications, Amanda Bresler… Reporter at The New York Times, Eliza Shapiro… Singer and actress, she was the 2009 winner of the Israeli version of “A Star is Born,” Roni Dalumi turns 33… Beauty pageant titleholder, she was crowned Miss Israel 2012, Shani Hazan turns 32…
