Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on last night’s deadly Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli army base and a move by the Pentagon over the weekend to aid Israel against a potential future Iranian attack. We also spotlight the controversy surrounding the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther” to counter antisemitism and report on a new resolution by Rep. Ritchie Torres blasting Tucker Carlson for hosting a Holocaust denier on his podcast. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Paul McCartney, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and Sue Altman, and Omer Neutra.
What We’re Watching
- Both presidential candidates today will be in Pennsylvania, which is emerging as the most consequential state on the political map. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Erie, Pa., for a rally in the evening.
- Former President Donald Trump will be holding a town hall in Montgomery County, Pa., in the evening at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Fairgrounds.
- CFR’s Steven A. Cook will join New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens at the 92Y Center for Culture and Arts at 7:30 p.m. ET this evening for a discussion about U.S. foreign policy on the Middle East.
What You Should Know
Four Israeli soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack last night on an IDF Golani Brigade training base near the city of Binyamina in northern Israel.
Two drones were fired from Lebanon and were detected by the Israeli army; one was shot down, however, the other disappeared from the radar and made it past Israeli defenses, striking a dining hall on the base that was full of soldiers eating dinner, unaware of the incoming “kamikaze” UAV, which detonated on impact. Hezbollah said the attack was retaliation for Israeli strikes that targeted a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut on Thursday and killed 22 people.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement, “We will investigate the incident — how a drone infiltrates, with no alert, and strikes here at the base. We have been dealing with the drone threat since the beginning of the war. We must provide better defense … our role is to better protect our soldiers and the citizens of the state of Israel.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said this morning that Israel is “concentrating significant efforts in developing solutions to address the threat of UAV attacks.”
The U.S. had reportedly asked Israel last week to stop striking in Beirut, according to Israeli media, which was reinforced by comments made over the weekend by special envoy Amos Hochstein to Lebanese media. “We have a continued campaign of bombing in Beirut. It needs to stop,” Hochstein said. Israeli news channel Kan reported last night that Israel’s political echelon instructed the military not to fire in Beirut as of Thursday evening, but The Times of Israel cited an Israeli official denying that the army is restricted from conducting strikes in the Lebanese capital. (The Israeli military has not conducted airstrikes in Beirut since Thursday night.)
President Joe Biden also urged Israel to stop firing at United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) positions following two incidents in which peacekeepers were wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday called on U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to evacuate U.N. peacekeepers from southern Lebanon to get them out of harm’s way, following a third incident in which UNIFIL bases were hit by IDF fire. Hezbollah frequently launches rockets and missiles at Israeli communities and troops from positions near UNFIL posts.
Vice President Kamala Harris called on Israel to facilitate the flow of more aid into the Gaza Strip, following a U.N. report that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks. COGAT, the Israeli agency tasked with distributing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, said in a statement on Wednesday that “Israel has not halted the entry or coordination of humanitarian aid” in the north of the Strip.
Meanwhile, as Israel’s retaliation for the Iranian missile attack earlier this month looms, the Pentagon announced yesterday that it will send a Thermal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery — a defense system that can shoot down as many as 72 ballistic missiles — along with a crew of about 100 troops to operate it, to defend Israel from a response to Israel’s retaliation, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. A THAAD battery was also deployed to the region last year after the Oct. 7 attacks.
“This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” the Pentagon stated.
While an Israeli security cabinet meeting ended inconclusively over the weekend, the Biden administration reportedly thinks that Israel is close to choosing its target, likely a military or energy infrastructure site, and not nuclear facilities.
Biden has spoken out against Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites, such that the removal of those targets and the THAAD deployment may have been the results of recent phone calls between Biden and Netanyahu, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gallant.
For U.S. troops to operate THAADs on the ground in Israel is “no small request,” David Makovsky, director of the Program on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote. “This could take days to deploy, suggesting Israeli strike at Iran [is] not imminent.”
antisemitism task force
Heritage Foundation struggles to find partners in fight against antisemitism
On the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, one of the most venerable conservative think tanks in Washington announced a major effort to combat antisemitism. The Heritage Foundation touted what it dubbed “Project Esther” as a “national strategy to counter antisemitism,” meant to be a conservative counterweight to the Biden administration’s antisemitism national strategy released in May 2023. The strategy trains its eye exclusively on antisemitism emanating from left-wing, anti-Zionist spaces. Its authors described the report to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch as a serious conservative effort to address antisemitism and to demonstrate that fighting antisemitism is a priority for the conservative movement.
Behind the scenes: But Heritage’s tactics, including criticizing the White House document that several nonpartisan Jewish organizations had a hand in writing and purposely spurning those groups in the “Project Esther” task force, have antagonized some would-be allies. Soon after the report was released, several high-profile organizations that Heritage claimed were affiliated with the project — including Christians United for Israel and World Jewish Congress — distanced themselves from it.
tucker trouble
Ritchie Torres resolution blasts Tucker Carlson, Holocaust revisionist guest
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a new resolution on Friday blasting Tucker Carlson for hosting Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper on his online show last month. Carlson’s interview with Cooper became a high-profile issue in the presidential race, given former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) ongoing associations with Carlson, and their refusals to condemn Carlson. Torres’ resolution could bring new attention to the situation — which has faded from headlines — in the final weeks of the presidential race, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
‘Selective outrage’: Torres’ resolution, which currently does not have any co-sponsors, accuses Carlson and Cooper of “perpetuating harmful falsehoods, fostering antisemitism and undermining the fight against hate and bigotry.” It offers strong condemnations of both men. Torres said he introduced the resolution because he said that too many on the right have been silent about Carlson and Cooper. He condemned what he described as “selective outrage” about antisemitism only when it comes from the opposite political camp.
N.J. RACE
Kean, Altman trade barbs, lean into support for Israel, Jewish community at debate
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and Democratic challenger Sue Altman sparred over Israel policy and antisemitism at their first and only debate on Sunday night, rehashing attacks and jabs each has been deploying on the campaign trail, trying to characterize each other as too extreme for the moderate district, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Support for Israel: Both candidates cast themselves as strong defenders of Israel and fighters of antisemitism and sought to raise doubts about their opponents’ records. New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which they’re vying to represent, includes a significant Jewish population. Early in the debate, Altman — the former leader of the left-wing Working Families Party in new Jersey — highlighted her support for Israel as a key rupture between herself and the Working Families Party, which supports anti-Israel policies at the national level. Kean nevertheless hit Altman on the issue several times throughout the debate, accusing her of supporting the WFP’s positions because she did not publicly disavow it while she was working for the group.
Read the full story here.
explainer
Israel’s red-blue line: Why is the Litani River so crucial in the war against Hezbollah?
The Litani River, which separates southern Lebanon from the rest of the country, has loomed large in discussions of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. For months, Israel warned Hezbollah’s leaders that they must withdraw to the north of the Litani, and in recent weeks, the IDF has alerted Lebanese civilians that they should not travel south of the river. Though the IDF has struck Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, far north of the Litani, the river remains a convenient shorthand, both as a natural feature signifying southern Lebanon, and as an important diplomatic line consistently crossed by Hezbollah for nearly two decades, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Background: The Litani River is Lebanon’s longest river and a major water source for the country. It mostly runs north to south, but part of the river runs from east to west towards the Mediterranean Sea, in parallel to the border between Israel’s Upper Galilee region and southern Lebanon. The section parallel to the Israel-Lebanon border, also known as the Blue Line, is about 17 miles north of Israel. The population south of the Litani is 75% Shia Muslim, making it a Hezbollah stronghold, while the other 25% are Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian. The Litani served as a stand-in for southern Lebanon in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, ending the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and creating a buffer zone – in theory.
amazon watch
In video, Amazon exec wears necklace with a map of Israel with a Palestinian flag across it
In a video promoting an upcoming Amazon Web Services’ event in Las Vegas, Ruba Borno, AWS’ vice president of Global Specialists and Partner Organizations, wore a necklace with a map of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with a Palestinian flag across it. News of the necklace worn by a high-ranking official comes as the company continues to downplay that an AWS employee, Sasha Troufanov, has been held hostage by Hamas for over a year, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Symbolic jewelry: Such erasure of Israel is common in Palestinian textbooks. It evokes the popular chant at anti-Israel protests “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” regarded by many as a call for genocide of the Jews in Israel. An Amazon spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about the executive’s anti-Israel jewelry. Borno was born in Kuwait, where there was a sizable Palestinian refugee community between Israel’s War of Independence and the first Gulf War, and fled to the U.S. in 1990. Her parents are Palestinian.
Update: By Monday, Amazon had deleted the post, but JI retains screenshots of the original video.
radical chic
Ta-Nehisi Coates questions whether he would have participated in Oct. 7 attack
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of a controversial new book largely focused on Israel, is facing widespread criticism for admitting that he may have participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks if he had been born in Gaza. “I grow up under that oppression and that poverty and the wall comes down, am I also strong enough or even constructed in such a way where I say this is too far? I don’t know that I am,” he said in an interview with Trevor Noah released on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What he said: Coates, 49, said he had not “said this out loud” but that he had thought “about it a lot.” He continued, “ls there room in the world, and I don’t think there is right now, I actually don’t think there is, to have genuine, genuine horror at what happened on Oct. 7, to feel like there really isn’t a world in which, or reason, that I can apprehend — I’m not Palestinian, I’m Ta-Nehisi Coates — that I can apprehend for justifying anything like that,” he told Noah. “And yet, understanding at the same time that things have histories, that they happen in the course of events.”
Worthy Reads
Unidentified Objects: The Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Lubold, Lara Seligman and Aruna Viswanatha delve into the mystery behind at least a dozen drones that flew over sensitive U.S. national security sites in December. “Over 17 days, the drones arrived at dusk, flew off and circled back. Some shone small lights, making them look like a constellation moving in the night sky—or a science-fiction movie, Kelly said, “‘Close Encounters at Langley.’” They also were nearly impossible to track, vanishing each night despite a wealth of resources deployed to catch them. Gen. Glen VanHerck, at the time commander of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said drones had for years been spotted flying around defense installations. But the nightly drone swarms over Langley, he said, were unlike any past incursion.” [WSJ]
The Harris Doctrine: The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos examines Vice President Kamala Harris’ views on foreign policy in a new profile. “On the Middle East, as in other areas of foreign policy, Harris hopes to be seen as a skeptical heir to Biden and Obama — ideologically similar but hardened by their mistakes. Phil Gordon, Harris’s national-security adviser, opposes attempts at regime change but has argued for the finite use of force; he faulted Obama for not bombing Syria after Bashar al-Assad crossed Obama’s “red line” by using chemical weapons. Compared with Biden, who has known Benjamin Netanyahu for nearly half a century, Harris has treated the Israeli Prime Minister coolly. (Asked on “60 Minutes” if he was a “close ally,” Harris suggested that the more important alliance was “between the American people and the Israeli people.”) And, unlike Biden, she does not typically see the great global challenge as democracy versus dictatorship; democracy is too wounded in Israel, Turkey, and other U.S. allies to sustain the distinction. Instead, with a lawyer’s eye, she tends to criticize violations of the law, such as China’s seizure of territory in the South China Sea. She also talks of forming closer ties among traditional allies in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, where China and Russia have increased their influence.” [New Yorker]
The Stakes for Obama: CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere explores what former President Barack Obama has at stake in the upcoming presidential election: “Former President Obama no longer thinks he can get to the people locked in with Trump. He’s just hoping to help find enough votes in enough states to counter them. If the vice president wins, Obama will feel vindicated … But a thought has circulated among several people close to the former president: If Trump wins, Obama might be seen as the aberration in the history of American politics, rather than Trump and his nativist authoritarianism.” [CNN]
Massacres, Then and Now: In The Wall Street Journal, Dominic Green reviews Yardena Schwartz’s book Ghosts of a Holy War, which draws a “direct line” between the 1929 Hebron massacre and the Oct. 7 terror attacks. “The conflict is often explained as a particularly vicious real-estate dispute or a struggle between modern nationalists. Such disagreements can be resolved by compromise, so this explanation appeals to outsiders, atheists and the conflict-averse. Yet the Jewish victims of 1929 were not Zionists or anti-Arab. They were anti-Zionist yeshiva students or members of an ancient Sephardic population that, like their Arab neighbors, had yet to assume a modern political identity. Similarly, the victims of 2023 were not settlers. They were the kind of Israelis most likely to favor compromise and cohabitation: kibbutzniks, peace activists, leftists and Arab Israelis.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
At a Trump Tower dinner with some of the wealthiest figures in the Republican Party, former President Donald Trump complained about a lack of financial support from top Republican donors who had mostly backed other GOP candidates in the 2024 primary — and also expressed frustration about the number of Jewish voters still backing Kamala Harris despite his record of support for Israel…
A new NBC News survey finds Harris and Trump tied at 48-48% nationally, down from Harris’ five-point lead in the poll last month. Nine percent of respondents said that the presidential candidate’s position on Israel’s military conflict against Hamas and Hezbollah was such a significant issue that it would determine their vote.
Trump boasts a 15-point lead (48-33%) in the seven most-competitive battleground states over which candidate is seen as best qualified to handle the Israeli-Hamas war, according to new Wall Street Journal polling…
Politicoreports that Iran has a hit list of former Trump national security advisors that it’s looking to assassinate. National security officials detailed “hacking and digital surveillance efforts against the former officials and their family members, a drumbeat of personal FBI warnings about new threats from Iran and increasingly tense discussions about how to protect individuals amid ongoing plots.”…
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke out against antisemitism on American college campuses, pledging in a Friday virtual event before Yom Kippur to “do everything in my power to combat antisemitism whenever and wherever we see it,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports…
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff broke the Yom Kippur fast in Philadelphia with comedian Alex Edelman and songwriter Benj Pasek on Saturday evening ahead of his 60th birthday on Sunday…
Israel’s military shared documents with media that appear to show financial and military support provided by Iran to Hamas before the Oct. 7 terror attacks. One proposed attack, according to the Washington Post: A 9/11-style attack in Tel Aviv against the tallest skyscrapers in Israel…
Several people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike that hit tents housing displaced Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, according to Palestinian reports. The IDF said Hamas had operated a command-and-control center inside the compound to plan and execute attacks against Israeli soldiers…
A deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland that could give Ethiopia rights to naval and commercial port facilities on the Red Sea is stoking concerns surrounding militant violence in the region, The Wall Street Journal reports. “Western officials believe Yemen-based Houthi militants, who have been launching missiles at shipping in the Red Sea in a purported show of support for Palestinians in Gaza, have made contact with al-Shabaab.” …
Options trader Jeff Yass, real-estate developer Harlan Crow and investor Len Blavatnik are among the billionaires who, disenchanted with elite colleges, are donating to the new University of Austin whose stated mission is the “fearless pursuit of truth”…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights booming skilled-trade businesses such as plumbing and HVAC, which private-equity firms are pouring money into. “Everybody and their uncle owns an HVAC business in the private-equity space today,” says Adam Hanover, chairman of Redwood Services…
On Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the TV host explains the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Chappell Roan and other anti-Israel celebrities…
Beatles legend Paul McCartney was photographed attending Yom Kippur services at a synagogue in Santiago, Chile…
Pic of the Day
Hundreds gathered in New York City’s Central Park yesterday to mark Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra’s 23rd birthday, together with his parents and the parents of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, and demand the release of all the hostages held in Gaza.
Birthdays
Fashion designer and business executive, Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lifshitz) turns 85…
Retired Yale professor and pediatric surgeon, he is the author of many books including Matzo Balls for Breakfast: And Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish, Bernie S. Siegel turns 92… Emeritus professor of history at the University of London, Shula Eta Winokur Marks turns 86… Former Major League Baseball player for the Reds, Mets, Cubs and Athletics, Art Shamsky turns 83… Former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, co-founder and a vice chairman of the Promontory Interfinancial Network, Princeton professor, Alan Blinder turns 79… International trade attorney who held senior posts in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Ira Shapiro turns 77… Author, political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Norman Ornstein turns 76… Former member of Congress (D-NJ-9) where he served for 16 years until 2013, Steven Richard Rothman turns 72… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-OR-1), Suzanne Bonamici turns 70… President and founder of Extell Development Company, Gary Barnett turns 69… Fashion designer, Isaac Mizrahi turns 63… President emeritus of Lakewood’s Beth Medrash Govoha, the largest yeshiva in the U.S., Rabbi Aaron Kotler turns 61… Sports radio host, his talk show was syndicated by CBS Sports Radio, now Infinity Sports Network, Jim Rome turns 60… SVP of international affairs for the ADL until 2022, Sharon Nazarian, Ph.D…. Partner and co-chairman for North America at FGS, Michael Feldman turns 56… Member of the Georgia House of Representatives, Esther Dina Feuer Panitch turns 53… President and co-founder of the R Street Institute, Eli Lehrer… Writer of The Tech Friend at The Washington Post, Shira Ovide… Director of corporate civic responsibility and elections at Microsoft, David Leichtman… Executive director of the Colorado office of economic development and international trade, Eve S. Lieberman… Creative director and curator, now serving as VP of programming and experience at Summit, Samantha Katz turns 39… Independent fundraising and nonprofit consultant, Chana Yemini… Actress and singer, best known for playing the role of Gertrude “Gert” Yorkes in the Hulu original series Runaways, Ariela Barer turns 26… Defenseman for the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, he won the 2024 award as the NHL’s best defenseman, Quinn Hughes turns 25… Entrepreneur and sneaker reseller, known as Benjamin Kickz or the Sneaker Don, Benjamin Kapelushnik turns 25… Marsha Grossman… Jason Epstein…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
