Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the unfolding situation around a leak in the U.S. intelligence community of alleged Israeli plans to strike Iran and look at what the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week means for the trajectory of the Israel-Hamas war. We also have the exclusive on a push from Rep. Josh Gottheimer to pass legislation redesignating the Houthis as a Foreign Terror Organization, talk to Elliott Abrams about his new book on American Jewry and cover Sen. Ted Cruz’s threat to defund the United Nations if the Palestinian Authority moves forward with an effort to boot Israel from the global body. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Eugene Vindman, Jeff Yass and IDF Col. Ehsan Daqsa.
What We’re Watching
- Vice President Kamala Harris is focused on outreach to anti-Trump Republican voters as she embarks on a campaign swing Monday with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) through Chester County, Pa.; Oakland County, Mich.; and Waukesha County, Wis. Harris and Cheney will appear with conservative radio host Charlie Sykes and former GOP operative Sarah Longwell.
- The White House’s Amos Hochstein is in Beirut today in an effort to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Hochstein’s visit comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented to the White House Israel’s conditions for ending the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
- Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), John Rutherford (R-FL), Ed Case (D-HI) and Mark Alford (R-MO) are in Israel today for a one-day CODEL. Cole and DeLauro hold the top positions on the House Appropriations Committee.
- The annual Eradicate Hate Summit kicks off today in Pittsburgh. White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Foundation to Combat Antisemitism President Tara Levine will deliver today’s keynotes.
- This evening, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is hosting “The Abraham Accords: Past, Present, and Future,” with a panel discussion hosted by Jordan Hirsch that will feature former United States Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy Dina Powell McCormick, former White House Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon.
What You Should Know
The U.S. is conducting an investigation into how alleged intelligence documents detailing plans for an Israeli strike on Iran were leaked to an Iranian Telegram channel, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
The leak’s revelation, first reported by Axios over the weekend, triggered bipartisan condemnation from Capitol Hill, with legislators calling for a full investigation into the leak, which included the release of classified documents that detailed a potential Israeli plan to retaliate against Iran for its Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the leak “very concerning” during a weekend appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” while Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), told JI’s Marc Rod that he had requested a briefing on the situation. More here on the response from the Hill.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer told JI’s Lahav Harkov that Israel is in a position in which it “is fighting a war it didn’t start or want… and anytime they do anything the administration goes apoplectic.”
“It’s bizarro world,” Schanzer added. “The U.S. is not forceful in curbing Iran’s malign activity, but it is sanctioning elements in Israel and leaking information. They’re fine with targeted sanctions and missile defense… Is that going to stop Iran’s campaign of aggression? I don’t think so.”
The leak underscores tensions in the Biden administration over the White House’s relationship with Israel as the war in Gaza — and with an array of Iranian proxies and Tehran itself — enters its second year, just weeks before the U.S. election.
Compounding concerns over the relationship between the administration and Jerusalem are comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail over the weekend, when Harris responded to an anti-Israel protester alleging Israel was committing genocide by saying, “What he’s talking about, it’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice.”
A Harris campaign official told JI that the protester’s allegation of genocide was “not the view of the Biden administration or the vice president,” but did not clarify what Harris meant was “real.”
Taken separately, the incidents could be seen respectively as a gaffe and an instance of dissent within the administration. But the series of events over the weekend is likely to deepen concerns among Jewish voters over how a potential Harris administration would address issues related to Israel. A former U.S. diplomat told JI yesterday that support for Israel in the Biden administration is centered among a handful of senior officials, none of whom are expected to retain their posts in a Harris White House.
what’s next
After death of Sinwar, ‘day-after’ obstacles in Gaza remain
The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week did not end the war in Gaza, but it is a potent symbol of a new phase, in which the terrorist group is mostly defeated and resorting to guerrilla warfare to continue its attacks against Israel. And as large-scale fighting appears to be winding down in the enclave, the question of who will govern Gaza after the war is more relevant than ever, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Unlocking collaboration: Israel hopes to work with friendly Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to help stabilize and deradicalize Gaza. Some experts say Sinwar’s death will help start that process, while others said it remains unlikely regardless of Hamas’ decapitation. An Israeli official told Jewish Insider that Sinwar’s death “lowered barriers” among Arab states, for whom Hamas’ continued grip on Gaza was the main obstacle to their involvement in reconstruction and deradicalization efforts. But while “the killing of Sinwar is a great opportunity for a lot of changes,” there are a lot of factors that need to be considered before Gulf states would get involved, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs’ Yaara Segal said, including “how Israel will act after killing Sinwar.”
Read the full story here, and see our previous coverage of the attack that killed Sinwar, the Biden administration response and the reaction from hostage families and Israeli officials.
exclusive
Gottheimer urges Senate to pass Houthi terrorist designation legislation
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) urged the Senate earlier this month to pass legislation — already passed by the House earlier this year with bipartisan support — redesignating the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Gottheimer highlighted that the administration has declined to take such action on its own, a situation he said necessitates congressional intervention.
Calling for action: In a Monday letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Gottheimer said, “In recent months, the Houthis, as part of Iran’s Axis of Evil, have escalated their attacks, launching drones and ballistic missiles directly at Israel… Despite this escalation, the State Department reaffirmed their decision to not reimpose the FTO designation on the Houthis. This is deeply troubling, and underscores the need for Congressional action.”
huntington beach headache
California GOP candidate Scott Baugh campaigned with antisemitic local official
Scott Baugh, the Republican nominee running in California’s Orange County-based 47th Congressional District, campaigned with and touts an endorsement from a local official with a history of antisemitism and affiliations with a series of well-known far-right extremists, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Baugh, the minority leader in the California Assembly, is running against Dave Min to replace Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA).
Background: The OC Weekly reported in 2018 that Gracey Van Der Mark, then an appointed city finance commissioner, had joined with a group of well-known neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far right activists to interrupt an anti-racism workshop, posting videos from that workshop on her YouTube channel. In since-deleted comments below that video, Van Der Mark stated, about the event, “This meeting was being ran by the elderly Jewish people who were in there” and “The colored people were there doing what the elderly Jewish people instructed them to do,” the OC Weekly reported. She denied, at the time, any antisemitic or racist intent. Van Der Mark’s now-deleted YouTube channel also featured a playlist entitled “Holocaust hoax?” which included a series of antisemitic videos, at least one of which contained Holocaust revisionism, the paper reported.
book shelf
In new book, Elliott Abrams calls for rebuilding Jewish community
Elliott Abrams, the conservative former diplomat who now serves as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, began writing his new book, If You Will It: Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood for the 21st Century, before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. But the project grew increasingly urgent, he said, amid an uptick in antisemitic activity in the wake of the massacre and ensuing war in Gaza just over a year ago this month. “There has been a lot more visible antisemitism in the last year, and when I started writing the book, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to antisemitism because it didn’t seem that there was much,” he explained in a recent interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel.
Breaking it down: “Pew divides into Jews by religion and Jews of no religion, and I guess what I would say to those American Jews is, it’s not going to work — unless you do something more than that,” Abrams explained. “Growing up in a country that’s 98% non-Jewish, unless you act, your children and grandchildren are going to disappear as Jews. In Israel, it’s possible to do this. That is, you can be totally secular and sure that your children are going to marry Jews and your grandchildren are going to be Jewish. You cannot do that in America. It’s not going to work. And if you care, then you’ve got to give your children some immersive Jewish experiences where they have a chance to live as Jews among Jews — and if it isn’t school, then it ought to be camp or it ought to be Israel.”
cruz control
Ted Cruz threatens to defund U.N. if Palestinians succeed with Israel expulsion effort
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is circulating a letter among colleagues on Capitol Hill warning of a swift and harsh U.S. reaction if the Palestinian Authority is successful in its effort to suspend or expel Israel from the United Nations, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Strategy of deterrence: The letter, which will be sent to Secretary of State Tony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield this week, lays out what “the consequences of such an action are likely to be, especially for America’s relationships with the UN and the Palestinians,” and urges the ambassador to “use all available resources to deter the PLO from taking that action.”
Worthy Reads
Hamas on the Quad: In The New York Times, Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s law school, calls on university administrators to respond to students who praise Hamas and its attacks against Israel. “As I listen to my Jewish students and their reaction to celebrations of Hamas, I have no doubt that they perceive a hostile environment. They do not feel comfortable walking across a plaza in the middle of campus where a sign says, ‘Israel deserves 10,000 October 7ths.’ They understandably fear that the celebration of violence can too easily lead to violence. I understand the reluctance of university officials to speak out or take other actions. It is easier to do nothing than to say something that will upset some campus constituencies. But silence, too, is a message. And it is more. In the eyes of the law, doing nothing can be viewed as deliberate indifference, which violates Title VI and can lead to action by the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education.” [NYTimes]
BY(Jew): The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins interviews Jake Retzlaff, the Jewish star quarterback leading Brigham Young University toward an undefeated season. “Retzlaff’s experience took on a new dimension after the October 7 attacks on Israel last year. As campuses across America erupted in protests over the war in Gaza, and as many of those protests curdled into virulent anti-Semitism, Retzlaff was struck by how different his classmates seemed from the people in viral video clips hurling epithets at Jewish students. He suspected that the secularism that dominated those other campuses played a part. ‘I’d love to ask them about their faith,’ Retzlaff told me of the protesters. ‘What are the odds that they’re faithful at all? I’d bet you they’re not.’ For all the inconvenience and occasional awkwardness that BYU’s deep religious culture might cause him, Retzlaff believes it’s allowed his fellow students to see his Judaism not as a marker of political identity but as a faith that warrants respect, even reverence.” [TheAtlantic]
Sinwar’s Real Sickness: The Jewish Journal’s David Suissa considers the spiritual toxicity driving Yahya Sinwar’s actions. “I’ve always had this weird fascination with the simple fact that all human beings share the same organs; that a terrorist has the same beating heart as a virtuous human being who aims only to do good. We all share the same pancreas, blood vessels, lungs, liver, kidneys and intestines. Our acts may differ, but inside we’re made of the same stuff. The Hamas murderers who rampaged through Israeli homes on Oct. 7 were using the same eyes and ears as the terrified victims who heard their sounds and saw the killing reach them. What guides our acts is one organ – our brains – and how we choose to nourish those brains. Nourish them with pure hatred and a desire to destroy and a massacre like Oct. 7 will seem perfectly appropriate. The real tumor inside Sinwar wasn’t a physical one. It was a spiritual tumor that invaded his brain cells and turned him into an evil force with a callous disregard for human life, both Jewish and Palestinian.” [JewishJournal]
Word on the Street
A new poll of Jewish voters commissioned by the conservative Manhattan Institute found Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump, 67-31%. Orthodox Jews favored Trump by 18 points (59-41%), Conservative Jews favored Harris by 14 points (56-42%), while Reform Jews overwhelmingly backed Harris by 53 points (75-22%)…
On Friday, Trump visited a new campaign office in Hamtramck, Mich., one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities, and was joined there by Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed him…
Speaking at an event on Sunday for Jewish voters in Michigan, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff said it was “vexing” that “any Jew supports Trump”…
The Trump campaign is in talks with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley over the possibility of Haley joining Trump on the campaign trail in the lead-up to Election Day…
CNN anchor Jake Tapper highlighted the terrorism-justifying rhetoric of Omar Siblani, an Arab-American newspaper publisher in Michigan who has praised Hamas and Hezbollah and previously met with public officials (including Biden administration officials in February 2024)…
At a Northern Virginia synagogue, Democratic congressional candidate Eugene Vindman avoided talking about his role in Trump’s impeachment. Vindman is locked in a close race against Republican Derrick Anderson, even as the swing district favored President Joe Biden in 2020…
In a recent Zoom event, Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick praised the “strength and moral courage” of former gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who has faced criticism over his ties to far-right figures…
Harvard University saw a 15% drop in donations following last year’s Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks amid growing alumni concern over the school’s handling of antisemitism on the Cambridge campus…
Meanwhile, Harvard’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer condemned antisemitic stickers placed around campus that replaced the Star of David in the Israeli flag with a swastika; the school’s police department is investigating…
Officials at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University dismantled sukkahs that were erected by each campus’ chapter of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace group without proper permitting and in violation of the schools’ rules on erecting structures on campus…
Columbia University barred professor Shai Davidai from campus, alleging that the Israeli professor had harassed university employees…
The Department of Justice indicted two Sudanese brothers for their roles in a cyberattack targeting Israel’s early warning systems on the day of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks…
The Financial Times looks at how Susquehanna International Group co-founder Jeff Yass’ approach to trading has reshaped Wall Street…
Lufthansa will pay a $4 million fine over a 2022 incident in which more than 100 Jewish passengers were denied boarding on a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest after several Jewish passengers on a flight from New York to Frankfurt allegedly refused to comply with the airline’s COVID-19 mask policies…
A member of the Park Slope Co-op in Brooklyn, N.Y., filed a complaint with the state’s Human Rights Division, alleging that some Jewish members of the collective faced harassment over their opposition to a boycott of Israeli products…
The New York Times spotlights the ways in which the descendants of Holocaust survivors are working their family history into art, film and media..
The Shoah Foundation hosted its 30th anniversary gala last week in New York, featuring a performance by Bruce Springsteen and appearances by Meryl Streep and Whoopi Goldberg…
A survivor of the Nova music festival attack on Oct. 7 died by suicide; her family blamed the government for failing to provide adequate mental health resources to survivors of the attacks…
A senior U.S. official said that the Biden administration will not consider an arms embargo on Israel…
The New York Times’ Bret Stephens posits that Yahya Sinwar’s death opens up an opportunity to move the Gaza Strip away from fanatical rule…
Israel’s Air Force conducted strikes targeting Hezbollah financial institutions in Lebanon, shortly before White House senior envoy Amos Hochstein was set to arrive in Beirut…
A Hezbollah drone targeting the Caesarea home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to cause serious damage when it struck the prime minister’s private home; Netanyahu and his family were not at the residence at the time of the strike…
The Wall Street Journal assesses the impact of Israel’s killing of Yahya Sinwar and strategic targeting of top Iranian proxies…
IDF Col. Ehsan Daqsa was killed during operations in northern Gaza; Daqsa, a member of Israel’s Druze community, was one of the highest-ranking officers to be killed since the start of the war…
U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey accused of orchestrating a coup from his residence in Pennsylvania, died at 83…
Classical music producer and violinist Adam Abeshouse, who won the Grammy for classical music producing in 2000, died at 63…
Former Chanel President and COO Arie Kopelman died at 86…
Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer, who as a teenager escaped Nazi Europe and would go on to co-found the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, died at 98…
Attendees at a Sukkot celebration on Sunday at the D.C.-area home of publicist Steve Rabinowitz and grassroots consultant Laurie Moskowitz included Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, Deputy Antisemitism Envoy Aaron Keyak; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Dan Shapiro; the State Department’s Mike Jacobson; Dan Arbell, the former deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington; the Hudson Institute’s Ken Weinstein; Helaine Greenfeld, formerly the acting assistant attorney general at the Justice Department; D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau; Aviva Kempner; Ken Goldstein, former longtime House Budget Committee Staff Director Tom Kahn (who was celebrating his birthday on Sunday); Stacy Burdett; SKDK’s Jill Zuckman and Karen Olick; and Accenture Managing Director Avi Goldgraber. The event was catered by Vered Guttman…
Pic of the Day
Thousands gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday for the Cohanim prayer said annually during the Sukkot holiday.
Birthdays
Prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu turns 75…
Emmy Award-winning reality courtroom personality, “Judge Judy,” Judith Sheindlin turns 82… News anchor who worked for 36 years in Philadelphia, and author of three books on the Beatles, Larry Kane (born Lawrence Kanowitz) turns 82… Professor of Hebrew literature and philosophy at Harvard University, Shaye J. D. Cohen turns 76… Beverly Hills resident, she is a national executive committee member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Terri Smooke… Novelist, screenwriter, journalist and film producer, Amy Laura Ephron turns 72… Cardiologist and medical director at the Center for Women’s Health at the NYU Langone Medical Center, Nieca Goldberg, MD turns 67… Legislative director for Massachusetts state Sen. Jo Comerford until one month ago, Brian Rosman… Managing principal and chief investment officer at Penso Advisors, Ari Bergmann Ph.D. turns 63… Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, he was born and raised in a Sephardic family in Thessaloniki, Greece, Albert Bourla turns 63… Austin-based commercial insurance consultant, Mitchell B. Davis… President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, David L. Bernstein turns 58… Emmy Award-winning television producer best known for her work on “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock,” Marci Klein turns 57… Folk and folk-rock musician, he serves as the treasurer of The William Davidson Foundation, Ethan Daniel Davidson turns 55… EVP and editorial director at U.S. News & World Report, Dafna Linzer turns 54… U.S. senator (R-NC) since 2023, Ted Budd turns 53… Classical composer and pianist, Lera Auerbach turns 51… Until earlier this month, acting administrator at HHS’s Administration for Community Living, now a professor at GWU, Alison Barkoff… Mayor of Phoenix, Kate Widland Gallego turns 43… Israeli musician, model and actress, Ninet Tayeb turns 41… Occupational therapist, Yael Hindy Applebaum… Joshua Sayles… Dori Tenenbaum… Consultant for nonprofits, Dan Hazony… Manager of marketing and communications at the Union for Reform Judaism, Eliana Rudee… Actress, model and writer, Hari Nef turns 32… Internal medicine resident at Maimonides Hospital in NYC, Stuart “Shimmy” Jesin…
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