Daily Kickoff: Spotlight on Pennsylvania
Good Wednesday morning.
Ed note: In observance of the Sukkot holiday, which begins this evening, the Daily Kickoff will be back in your inbox on Monday. Chag sameach!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we detail an advancing Palestinian effort to freeze Israel out of the U.N. General Assembly and report on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick for the next Israeli ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. We also cover yesterday’s threat by the U.S. to cut military assistance to Israel if it doesn’t increase humanitarian aid to Gaza as well as a tense exchange between Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron. We also highlight the Treasury Department’s decision to designate Samidoun as a “sham charity” and spotlight the Washington GOP matchup between Rep. Dan Newhouse and Jerrod Sessler. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Elon Musk, Larry Hogan and Robert Kraft.
What We’re Watching
- Vice President Kamala Harris sits down tonight with Fox News’ Bret Baier for her first interview on the network. The full interview will air on “Special Report” at 6 p.m. ET.
- Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, and Melissa Rogers, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will deliver remarks in a sukkah at the USDA People’s Garden today at 12 p.m. ET.
What You Should Know
Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have spent much of this week campaigning in Pennsylvania, which is looking like the biggest bellwether on the presidential map.
And while many pundits are poring over the often-contradictory public polling, examining the political fundamentals of the swing state are just as instructive, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
With a race this close, even small shifts among critical constituencies can make an outsized difference. The big concern for Democrats, according to conversations with party strategists, is that Trump is positioned to make notable inroads with four groups: 1) Black men in Philadelphia; 2) working-class Hispanic voters ; 3) Catholic voters who uniquely connected with President Joe Biden over shared values; 4) Jewish voters concerned about the depth of Harris’ support for Israel.
The concern for Republicans is that any incremental gains among certain demographics could be overwhelmed by a decisive Harris landslide in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs. Biden carried suburban voters in Pennsylvania by 10 points (54-44%) over Trump in 2020, according to the AP/Fox News voter analysis, and Harris is hoping to expand on that advantage.
Pennsylvania is a microcosm of the political realignment that’s taking place across the country. Democrats are dominating with college-educated professionals, but at the expense of losing ground with working-class voters of all backgrounds. Republicans are becoming a little more multiracial, while Democrats are becoming more elite.
It’s not a coincidence that former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) recently headlined an event in suburban Philadelphia featuring several former female Trump staffers who are now backing Harris. It’s a play for the Nikki Haley primary voters — mainly anti-Trump Republicans who have all but left their old party in its Trumpian iteration.
And it’s no surprise that Trump has deployed African American surrogates for voter outreach in Philadelphia, held a rally in the heart of the city at Temple University and dispatched Hispanic entertainers to get-out-the vote in cities with significant Latino constituencies.
Harris’ late decision to do her first formal interview on Fox News today — along with reporting that she’s considering an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is very popular with independent-minded men — is a sign of how she’s scrambling to shore up support with groups outside her comfort zone.
On Fox News, she’s hoping to persuade a slice of center-right voters who are uncomfortable with Trump that she’s no longer the progressive that she’s been for much of her political career. The point of a potential Rogan appearance would be to prevent further losses with the blue-collar voting bloc alienated from today’s Democratic Party.
The changed Democratic coalition requires Democrats to make inroads with Trump-skeptical Republicans while also holding onto Trump-curious independents. Neither are in Harris’ comfort zone.
The winner of Pennsylvania, then, may be the candidate who does just enough to win over their fiercest skeptics in a state where every vote will matter come November.
isolation effort
Palestinian bid to expel Israel from U.N. General Assembly moving forward
A Palestinian Authority initiative to expel Israel from the United Nations General Assembly is making headway, four sources familiar with the matter told Jewish Insider. The PA is considering a path used to suspend South Africa from the General Assembly in 1974, by denying the apartheid regime the diplomatic credentials to represent the country. Doing so would bypass the U.N. Security Council, with the motion going to the U.N.’s Credentials Committee, likely in December, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Lahav Harkov report.
Actions and consequences: While the U.S. and many European countries are likely to oppose the motion, and Russia may do so as well out of a concern that the same tactic could be used against them, the Palestinians still have an automatic majority in the General Assembly, an Israeli diplomatic source said. Israel is likely to place severe sanctions on the PA should it pursue such a move, the source added. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has been briefed on the matter by U.N, and Israeli officials, warned that there would be significant consequences if the Israelis were kicked out of the body. “If the Palestinians succeed in suspending Israel from the United Nations General Assembly, they may well end up disintegrating the U.S.-Palestinian Authority relationship and triggering a full reevaluation of U.S. participation in and funding of all parts of the United Nations,” Cruz told JI.
Read the full story here.
Bonus: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council Michèle Taylor called out U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese for evoking the Nazis in a post about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. “Antisemitism has no place at the UN, especially from those tasked with promoting human rights,” Taylor said.
Abu Dhabi posting
UAE not pleased with Netanyahu political appointee as ambassador – sources
The United Arab Emirates’ leadership is unhappy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s choice of an envoy to Abu Dhabi, sources in Israel familiar with the matter said following former Ambassador Amir Hayek’s departure last week. Netanyahu planned to use the Abu Dhabi post for one of his few political appointees to diplomatic positions, submitting Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Yossi Shelley’s name to the Civil Service Administration in July. Shelley was a businessman, a Likud candidate for mayor of Beersheva and the Likud director-general before Netanyahu appointed him as ambassador to Brazil in 2016. He developed a close relationship with former Brazilian President Jair Balsonaro, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Background: Shelley has a history of gaffes. During his time as ambassador, he had a falling out with the Brazilian Jewish community, arguing that its criticism of Balsonaro damaged Israel-Brazil relations. After his return to Israel, a Brazilian woman accused Shelley of sexual harassment. Shelley’s appointment is only in the early stages of the process within Israel. Yet multiple sources involved in the UAE-Israel relationship, including before the countries normalized ties in 2020, told JI there has been dissatisfaction in Abu Dhabi with the choice of Shelley since it became public. “They feel like they’re being treated like the diplomatic dustbin,” one source said. “They don’t want Bibi’s rejects who he doesn’t want in the Prime Minister’s Office anymore. The UAE sees what’s going on.”
under pressure
State Department, Pentagon threaten military aid to Israel over Gaza
The Biden administration has threatened to cut weapons shipments if Israel doesn’t supply additional humanitarian aid to Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote a letter Monday to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer demanding Israel address the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza by expediting the delivery of aid — or face the possibility of losing military assistance.
What they said: “We are now writing to underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory,” Blinken and Austin wrote in the letter, dated Oct. 13, in which they noted that September was the month in which less humanitarian aid reached Gaza than any other in the past year. Meanwhile in a phone call, French President Emmanuel Macron pressed Netanyahu for a cease-fire in Lebanon, which the Israeli prime minister made clear was untenable — and that a return to previous unenforced international arrangements would not suffice.
Reaction: AIPAC said in a statement that the move threatening to cut off military aid undermines U.S. interests and sends a “dangerous message” to enemies of Israel and the U.S. “No military has confronted a war environment like Gaza, and Israel routinely takes unprecedented steps to preserve and safeguard Palestinian lives, including broadcasting its moves and giving up the element of surprise,” the group said.
follow the money
Treasury Department designates anti-Israel group Samidoun as ‘sham charity’ with ties to terrorism
The Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it had designated the radical anti-Israel group Samidoun as a “sham charity” operating as a key international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — which the U.S. has long identified as a foreign terrorist organization. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that PFLP — which operates in the West Bank and Gaza — has used Samidoun as a front group in order to “maintain” its fundraising in Europe and North America, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Joint action: In addition to Samidoun, formally known as the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Treasury Department also said that it had added Khaled Barakat — an PFLP leader and Canadian citizen — to its list of specially designated nationals, noting that his “fundraising and recruitment efforts support the PFLP’s terrorist activity against Israel.” The action was announced in conjunction with Canada, which said on Tuesday it had designated Samidoun — based in Vancouver, British Columbia — as a “terrorist entity” under its criminal code.
American ties: The Free Beaconflags ties between Samidoun and anti-Israel student groups, specifically with the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, which invited Samidoun leaders to give a lecture on “Palestinian resistance.”
republican matchup
Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse faces isolationist Jerrod Sessler in intra-GOP fight
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), one of two remaining House Republicans who backed former President Donald Trump’s impeachment, is at risk of losing to Trump-backed, isolationist Republican Jerrod Sessler in next month’s general election, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the challenger: Sessler is a vocal skeptic of U.S. foreign engagement, including appearing hesitant about U.S. aid to Israel in its current form. Asked in a local news interview about efforts to condition U.S. aid to Israel, Sessler didn’t address the issue of conditions but said, “Congressional leaders should be focus[ed] on protecting Americans first. They should work from the agreement that we will only spend the money that we have and no more,” Sessler said. “When we do provide foreign aid, it should be collateralized.” But he’s also offered frequent support for Israel during and before his campaign, as well as condemned a two-state solution as unworkable. Sessler’s campaign also has an account on Gab, the far-right social media platform popular with antisemites and white supremacists, linked on his campaign website.
Read the full story here.
under fire
AOC calls for U.S. arms embargo on Israel, but ends up on defensive against far left
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called on Monday for the U.S. to impose an arms embargo on Israel amid a renewed Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But that call appeared to largely elicit further backlash from the far left, leaving Ocasio-Cortez on the defensive.
What she said: “The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X. “This is a genocide of Palestinians. The US must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now.” Ocasio-Cortez, already among the lawmakers most critical of Israel’s operations against Hamas and Hezbollah, has been under pressure from far-left Israel opponents for months who have accused her of being insufficiently vocal against Israel, as well as from supporters of Israel. But her comments appear to be doing little to appease the far left.
Under the radar: A recently created Republican super PAC behind a slate of inflammatory ads targeting Vice President Kamala Harris’ Israel record has been exclusively funded by a political advocacy group called Building America’s Future, according to federal campaign finance filings released on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. Building America’s Future, a political nonprofit, is not required to disclose its donors, but one notable financial supporter has been Elon Musk, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
Worthy Reads
Left Behind: Semafor’s Dave Weigel writes about the electorate’s sharp shift to the right over the last four years — and how progressives plan to reorganize after the November election: “For the last year, much of the activist left’s energy has been consumed by opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza. In 2016 and 2020, it had presidential primary challengers to channel its ideas ambitions through; in 2024, it didn’t. Watching Harris and the party now, progressives have veered between worry that Democrats will fail to excite base voters, anxiety about their influence in the next administration, and optimism that they can have the conversation again in January.” [Semafor]
Simple Twist of Faith: For The Wall Street Journal, Gregory Zuckerman spoke with American Jews who have embraced their religion and Israel, sometimes for the first time, since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks — as some 43% of American Jews say they are more engaged in Jewish life than before the attacks. “In the last year there has been a 26% rise in participation in Jewish student unions, which are student-run clubs for teenagers in public schools, to more than 18,000 students, according to NCSY, a Jewish youth organization. Seventy-six new clubs have been launched, and the organization has fielded dozens of requests for new clubs at schools that are hours from the nearest Jewish community. Giving to Jewish National Fund-USA, which supports various causes in Israel, is up 66%, including 52,000 new donors, compared with the previous year. Nearly 4,000 Americans have registered for trips the organization runs to volunteer in Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks. Demand has increased for tefillin, the black leather boxes worn by Jewish men during morning prayers; mezuzot, which Jews affix to doorposts; and Shabbat candles, says Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The Trump campaign has been “deeply unnerved” by two “assassination attempts and the Iranian threats and hacking — and how the American security apparatus has responded,” according to The New York Times. Trump campaign officials, in particular, are frustrated that national security officials aren’t taking Iranian threats more seriously.” …
Former President Donald Trump has reportedly asked people close to him why President Joe Biden hasn’t threatened Iran that the country will be “blown to smithereens” if they dare attack him…
Michelle Obama has yet to make an official appearance on the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris, which sources familiar say is due to Obama’s concerns about security following two assassination attempts against former President Trump…
Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson and Dick Uihlein donated a combined $220 million into super PACs supporting Trump in the third fundraising quarter, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission…
Adelson has contributed $100 million to her super PAC to elect Trump, making Adelson the largest individual donor to a presidential super PAC this cycle…
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby has been mostly absent from White House press briefings over the last couple of months at the behest of National White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, according to Axios…
Former Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman endorsed Harris for president in a Times of Israel column…
Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Dave McCormick called on his opponent, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), to revoke his endorsement of Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA). “He hasn’t had the courage to stand up to his own party and an avowed antisemite,” McCormick said during a debate against his challenger yesterday…
At last night’s Texas Senate debate between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), both candidates offered support for Israel, but Cruz offered more stalwart support. “Our position should be that America stands unshakably with Israel,” the senator said…
Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm is endorsing four new House candidates: Peter Barca in Wisconsin’s 1st District, Herb Conaway in New Jersey’s 3rd, Missy Cotter Smasal in Virginia’s 2nd and Whitney Fox in Florida’s 13th. “As Israel continues to fight a multifront defensive war, these candidates have been clear that in Congress they will ensure that America always has Israel’s back,” DMFI PAC Chairman Mark Mellman said in a statement to JI…
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the Republican running in the competitive Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), said on Tuesday that he would try to work with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on matters where they share common ground. Still, he emphasized that he and Maryland’s junior senator are worlds apart on the issue of support for Israel, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft shared in a “The Breakfast Club” interview on Friday that he made a “strong donation” to Trump’s inauguration but that he distanced himself from Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights CBS News President Wendy McMahon as she navigates internal tensions and external pressures over issues of objectivity and fairness in the network’s newsroom…
Israel conducted strikes on a Hezbollah underground weapons cache in Beirut overnight after a pause in IDF action in the capital after the U.S. pushed for a halt of Israeli military activity there…
Many Palestinians are ignoring Israeli orders to evacuate parts of northern Gaza amid its operations against Hamas, due to fear and exhaustion, The Wall Street Journal reports…
The German airline Lufthansa was fined $4 million by the U.S. Department of Transportation over allegations it discriminated against a group of Jewish passengers…
Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anitsemitism released a report on Monday flagging a dramatic increase in antisemitism in Canada since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks…
Former KKK leader David Duke endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein in the upcoming presidential election, pointing to her position on Israel…
France has banned Israeli companies from participating in the Euronaval defense expo next month…
Pic of the Day
A sukkah was built on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which is deployed in the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region, arranged by Chabad-Lubavitch representative and Lt. Yehoshua Rubin, who is the chaplain for Carrier Air Wing Nine.
Birthdays
Israeli attorney, chairman of Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball, Shimon Mizrahi turns 85…
Retired CFO of Amtrak, Midway Airlines and Airlines Reporting Corporation, Alfred Samuel Altschul turns 85… National President of the ZOA, Morton A. Klein turns 77… Film director, producer, screenwriter and creator of “The Naked Gun” franchise, David Zucker turns 77… Professor of economics at Smith College and author of 24 books, Andrew S. Zimbalist turns 77… Director of strategy in the policy and government affairs department at AIPAC, Dr. Marvin C. Feuer… Novelist, short story writer and essayist, Elinor Lipman turns 74… Executive director of Clark University Hillel, Jeff Narod… Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 1999, David Linsky turns 67… Bestselling French novelist, one of whose books was made into Steven Spielberg’s “Just like Heaven,” Marc Levy turns 63… President of the American Academy in Berlin, he was the coordinator for counterterrorism during the Obama administration, Daniel Benjamin turns 63… Otolaryngologist who also specializes in facial and reconstructive surgery, he is married to Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Biden, Howard David Krein, M.D. turns 58… Senior partner at Battery Ventures Israel’s office, Scott Tobin… Attorney in Port St. Lucie, Fla., he served in the Florida House of Representatives, Adam M. Fetterman turns 54… Actress Kala Lynne Savage turns 46… Retired basketball player for the Seattle Storm of the Women’s National Basketball Association, she has five Olympic gold medals, Sue Bird turns 44… Founder and CEO at Social Studies, Inc., Brandon Jared Perlman… Four-time U.S. Army light-middleweight boxing champion, he boxed with a Star of David on his trunks, Boyd “Rainmaker” Melson turns 43… Product management lead at The Washington Post, Jason Langsner… West Coast regional director at Foundation for Jewish Camp, Margalit C. Rosenthal… Deputy director of operations at NYC Health + Hospitals, Avi Fink… Senior director of communications at Mark43, Devora Kaye… Business analyst at LWF Group, Sam Ginsberg…
