Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on calls from a majority of the Chicago City Council as well as the city’s Jewish leaders for the president of the Chicago Board of Education to resign over antisemitic social media posts, look at how former President Donald Trump is speaking about the Middle East in the final days of the election as he appeals to Arab American voters in Michigan and talk to experts about Israel’s plans to wind down its war in Lebanon. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Lee Yaron, Jeff Lurie and former President Bill Clinton.
What We’re Watching
- Former President Donald Trump will join conservative commentator Tucker Carlson tonight at a campaign event in Glendale, Ariz.
- Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Reno, Nev., and Las Vegas today, where she will share the stage with Jennifer Lopez and Mexican band Maná. Harris will also hold a rally in Phoenix, where Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte will perform.
- White House senior officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk are in Israel today for discussions aimed at winding down the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Hochstein was in Beirut for meetings with Lebanese officials.
- CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla is also in Israel today for meetings with senior Israeli defense officials.
- CIA Director Bill Burns is in Cairo today, following talks in Qatar earlier this week aimed at securing a brief cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of a small number of hostages.
- The Future Investment Initiative Institute wraps up today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Scheduled speakers today include Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, Andreessen Horowitz’s Benjamin Horowitz, LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff, sbe’s Sam Nazarian and Gopuff’s Yakir Gola.
What You Should Know
See no evil, hear no evil.
That’s the apparent mindset of two law enforcement agencies, ensconced in progressive jurisdictions in Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, towards what look to fair-minded observers like antisemitic crimes, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
In Chicago last weekend, an Orthodox Jewish man walking to synagogue was shot by a Muslim young man in a heavily Jewish neighborhood. The man later reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he was being apprehended by police. Despite the nature of the crime, the police are still not deeming it a hate crime.
The Chicago Police Department also failed to mention in its news release detailing the charges any indication of the victim’s Jewish identity, despite being an identifiable Orthodox Jew, according to several Jewish groups.
Notably, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department Larry Snelling said Monday (in a scoop from JI’s Haley Cohen) that he was hesitant to immediately label the shooting as a hate crime because doing so would lead to the police department being “accused of focusing hate toward the Muslim faith, without that proof.”
Adding to the blind spot, the belated statement from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson about the crime failed to mention that the victim was Jewish and walking to synagogue, fully erasing key circumstances surrounding the heinous attack. The Chicago JCRC, in a sign of growing frustration with the mayor, asked: “What will it take for you to acknowledge the Jewish community?”
Even Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of the highest-ranking Jewish officials in the country, took his time to react to the apparent antisemitic attack. Four days after the shooting occurred — and two days after Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff cited the incident as an example of rising antisemitism — Pritzker put out a statement calling for a complete and thorough investigation of whether the shooting should be charged as a hate crime. (Relatedly, Pritzker expressed minimal outrage over antisemitic, pro-Hamas remarks made by Rev. Mitchell Johnson, the president of the Chicago Board of Education, even as a majority of the Chicago City Council has called for his resignation.)
The degree to which these political leaders, law enforcement and even the local media are downplaying the apparent antisemitic nature of the crime is shocking — but it’s part of a growing pattern where crimes against Jews don’t seem to merit the same degree of attention or scrutiny as other minority groups.
And it’s not the only recent example of the antisemitic motives of a high-profile crime getting overlooked. One of the big political stories this week was the arson of two ballot drop boxes in Vancouver, Wash., and Portland, Ore., which destroyed hundreds of ballots in a closely contested congressional race. Two days later, we’re now learning that devices were found at both scenes emblazoned with the words “Free Gaza.”
As The New York Times reported, “investigators are trying to determine if the perpetrator was actually a pro-Palestinian activist or someone using that prominent cause to sow discord.” The paper also, euphemistically, acknowledges the “political sensitivity” of declaring the case motivated by anti-Israel animus and antisemitism.
It shouldn’t be politically sensitive to declare antisemitism when it rears its ugly head, but that’s increasingly the case — especially in deep-blue jurisdictions where far-left activism is increasingly a part of some local governments.
contradictory language
Trump sends mixed messages on Mideast policy in final days of campaign
With just days left in the presidential race, the Trump campaign is honing its closing pitch to voters — and employing contradictory language to appeal simultaneously to traditionally hawkish pro-Israel Republicans, America First isolationists and Muslim and Arab American voters disillusioned with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ approach to the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Tick-tock: While Trump has touted the pro-Israel record of his first term, he has also repeatedly stated that he thinks Israel’s war with Hamas and Hezbollah needs to end quickly. According to The Times of Israel, Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if he wins, he wants the war to be over by the time he takes office in January.
pressure on pritzker
Gov. Pritzker gives school board president benefit of doubt for antisemitic, pro-Hamas remarks
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker expressed concern on Wednesday about antisemitic remarks made by Rev. Mitchell Johnson, the president of the Chicago Board of Education, but stopped short of saying Johnson should resign, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “If you’re asking whether I condone the remarks that were made, I do not,” Pritzker said at a press conference. Johnson’s comments were first reported by JI.
Council call: Twenty-six aldermen on the Chicago City Council are calling for Rev. Johnson to resign from his position as president of the Chicago Board of Education due to his lengthy history of making antisemitic remarks online. “We call on Rev. Johnson to apologize and step down from his position immediately,” the 26 aldermen, representing more than half of the body’s members, wrote in a joint letter. Read the full story here.
Digging in: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared his support for Rev. Johnson on Wednesday, giving the embattled Board of Education president a lifeline. Mayor Johnson said Rev. Johnson “has expressed sorrow and is seeking atonement,” but major Jewish groups in Chicago said he had not contacted them. Read more here.
Bonus: Chicago Magazine interviews Alderperson Debra Silverstein, who led the call for Johnson’s resignation, about the antisemitism she has experienced as an elected official and her concerns about Mayor Johnson’s handling of key issues for the Jewish community.
coffee shop chaos
Father and son kicked kicked out of Oakland cafe over Star of David hat
A Jewish resident of Oakland, Calif., and his 5-year-old son appeared on video being harassed and forcibly removed from a local cafe by its anti-Israel owner over the weekend for wearing a hat that brandished a Star of David, drawing condemnation from local Jewish leaders as well as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
‘Violent hat’: Video of the incident, which began circulating online on Tuesday, shows Abdulrahim Harara, the owner of Jerusalem Coffee House in North Oakland, speaking to Jonathan Hirsch and his son over the former’s hat, which has a Jewish star emblazoned on the front. Harara said that Hirsch’s cap was “a violent hat, and you need to leave,” as Hirsch’s 5-year-old son began crying. Harara, whose family is from Gaza and who has used his establishment’s menu to honor terrorists such as the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, said that he wasn’t asking Hirsch to leave because his hat had a Jewish symbol, but then repeatedly asked if he was a Zionist.
copper state candidate
Amish Shah receives pro-Israel plaudits in campaign against Rep. Dave Schweikert
In an Arizona swing district home to a sizable Jewish community, Amish Shah, a former state lawmaker, is mounting a formidable challenge to Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), who is among the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection. Shah, who served in the Arizona state legislature for five years before launching his congressional bid, remains somewhat unknown to Jewish community members in northeastern Phoenix and Scottsdale — who make up nearly 9% of the district and could be decisive in a close race that Democrats are eyeing to regain the majority, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Israel position: Shah’s supporters describe him as a committed ally of the Jewish community and a reliable defender of Israel, which he visited in 2019 as a state legislator on a trip that “helped shape” his “world view,” he said in a Middle East policy paper written this past spring. “He’s a strong pro-Israel candidate” and “extremely open to the Jewish community,” Aaron Lieberman, a Jewish Democrat in Phoenix who served with Shah in the Arizona Legislature and joined him on the trip to Israel, said in an interview with JI on Wednesday. “I saw it in the Statehouse, where he voted with us on any issue that came up,” he elaborated, calling Shah a “pragmatic” lawmaker dedicated to passing bipartisan legislation.
war worries
Skepticism as Israeli officials indicate war with Lebanon is nearing end
Israel’s political, diplomatic and military establishments indicated this week that they are ready to bring the war in Lebanon to a close and reach a diplomatic agreement, but the ability to enforce a cease-fire remains in doubt as drones and rockets continue to fall in northern Israel. With Special Envoy Amos Hochstein and Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk arriving in Israel on Thursday to negotiate an end to the fighting in Lebanon and security arrangements that would allow over 60,000 Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting this week with cabinet ministers and military top brass to discuss a possible diplomatic agreement, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Official assessments: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the security cabinet, said in a briefing on Wednesday that he believes the wars in Gaza and Lebanon will wind down to a much lower intensity by the end of 2024 or at worst early 2025; therefore he is not planning a “war budget” for 2025, a spokesman for the minister confirmed to JI. The assessment from the IDF Northern Command is that the army has neared the completion of its mission to destroy Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure near the border with Israel, with senior officers viewing this as the right time for Israel to start moving towards a diplomatic arrangement, according to Walla.
Remaining concerns: Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, expressed concern to JI that Israel’s demands may not be enough to secure Israel’s north. “There is no way we can return to Oct. 6 or that Hezbollah can be rehabilitated,” Zehavi, who lives nine kilometers [5.5 miles] from the border with Lebanon, said. “We have to create all the systems possible to prevent that, whether Israeli, international or both.”
Campaign outreach: Former President Donald Trump sent an open letter to Lebanese Americans vowing to “stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon” and secure “a lasting peace” in the Middle East if elected to a second term next week, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
book shelf
In new book, Lee Yaron tells Israel’s story through intimate accounts of Oct. 7 victims
Just a few weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, Haaretz journalist Lee Yaron began gathering testimonies from the massacres and learning the personal stories of their victims. Having been thousands of miles away on the day of the attacks, at Columbia University where the Israeli reporter was on a fellowship, Yaron seized the only tool she felt she had to help the victims — to tell their stories thoroughly and faithfully and ensure they are remembered, she told Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve.
Zooming in to zoom out: In her book, 10/7: 100 Human Stories, which was released in September, Yaron digs deep into the experiences and histories of more than 100 civilians — spanning the gamut of Israeli society as well as foreign victims — through interviews with survivors, the bereaved and first responders. Interwoven through the personal stories Yaron, 30, provides Jewish and Israeli historical background as well as political analysis. “I wanted the book to be a way to understand — not just to get to know the victims — but understand Israel and the history of the conflict better,” Yaron said.
Worthy Reads
Closed Book: In The New York Times, Deborah Harris and Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs respond to the recent open letter calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural and literary institutions. “You cannot solve a problem by looking at only one part of the equation. You cannot understand the terrible tragedy of this place if you read only the literature of one side. You cannot advocate Palestinian rights by excluding and alienating the people who would fight for them from the only battleground where they might be won. Targeting the Israeli publishing industry as if we have the power to negotiate a cease-fire deal or depose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a gesture of foolish acrimony that contradicts the very thing literature is supposed to do. If you believe that books have the power to change hearts and minds, why wouldn’t you try to use that power constructively instead of engaging in a boycott, to take advantage of cultural institutions to argue your case on behalf of the Palestinians?” [NYTimes]
Transition Tactics: Politico’s Adam Cancryn and Jasper Goodman look at how Vice President Kamala Harris is structuring her transition team, which will assist in staffing a Harris White House should she win next week’s presidential election. “Biden built a massive transition apparatus, recruiting scores of allies to revitalize a federal bureaucracy demoralized by the Trump administration and help respond to a once-in-a-century public health crisis then raging out of control. He telegraphed his top appointees well in advance of the election, bringing on a range of staffers and even some political rivals in an effort to unify the party following a contentious Democratic primary. …Harris, by contrast, does not need to respond to an urgent crisis, and would be taking over an administration already staffed with members of her own party and largely aligned on her policy priorities. As a result, she is relying on a far smaller operation that’s expected to proceed more deliberately, according to a dozen Democrats familiar with the matter, most of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the internal preparations.” [Politico]
Nuke Talk: In The Atlantic, the Atlantic Council’s Uri Friedman considers how Israel’s successes over Hamas and Hezbollah and its recent attack on Iranian military facilities could affect Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. “Now that Israel has demonstrated its superiority over Iran’s proxies and conventional weapons — and degraded both in the process — Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may decide to pursue a bomb in a risky attempt to salvage some measure of national security. He won’t have far to go. The program has made major advances since 2018, when the U.S. withdrew from its multilateral nuclear agreement with the regime, which now has enough near-weapons-grade uranium to produce several bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This already gives the country considerable leverage, but ‘there is a risk Khamenei decides that in this environment, a nuclear threshold won’t cut it, and Iran needs nuclear weapons,’ Eric Brewer, a nonproliferation expert at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, told me.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is running an ad targeting Jewish voters in Pennsylvania in response to a similar ad being run by the Trump campaign; in the minute-long video, filmed in the same Philadelphia diner as the Trump ad, former Republican and Democratic elected officials tout Harris’ candidacy and support for Israel…
Former President Bill Clinton stumped for Harris in Michigan, where he said that if elected, Harris “will try to negotiate an end to the violence, an end to the killing” in the Middle East; speaking about the residents of Israel’s south, Clinton said: “If you live in one of those kibbutzim in Israel, next to Gaza, where people there were the most pro-two-state solution, and Hamas butchered them…what would you do if it were your family?”…
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, will not make a bid for the top GOP Senate spot being vacated by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)…
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) slammed the recent move by ILGA World, a global LGBTQ movement, to nix a bid by an Israeli LGBTQ organization to host an upcoming international summit; Khanna said the decision “marginalizes progressive voices within Israel”…
Time interviewed Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt about her work since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and accompanying surge in global antisemitism…
On Jonah Platt‘s new podcast, “Being Jewish,” CNN commentator Van Jones says the Palestinian cause “has been hijacked by a Nazi organization called Hamas.” …
Federal prosecutors charged two people with vandalizing the office building housing the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and a Chabad synagogue in the city over the summer…
A San Francisco jury acquitted a rideshare driver accused of committing a hate crime by an Israeli man at San Francisco International Airport weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks; the driver reportedly asked the man, who was his passenger, if he was Israeli before punching him…
Reuven Kasten, whose father, Stan Kasten, is president and partial owner of the L.A. Dodgers, was spotted at the Ohel, the gravesite of the Lubavitcher rebbe in Queens, ahead of the Dodgers World Series win last night over the New York Yankees…
Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeff Lurie is in talks to sell a minority stake in the team to the family of Amkor’s Susan Kim; Lurie has held a controlling stake in the team since 1994…
The New York Times interviewed actor Brandon Uranowitz ahead of the opening of the City Center revival of “Ragtime,” three decades after Uranowitz was not invited to join the show’s Broadway cast after a successful Toronto premiere…
A Paris court ruled that the upcoming Euronaval arms exhibition cannot exclude Israeli firms from participating, weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the ban…
Israeli high-tech leaders frustrated by the lack of available direct flights between the U.S. and Israel following the decision by all American airlines to pause their direct flights to Ben Gurion Airport are in discussions to establish a seasonal route offering several direct flights a week to the U.S. from January through March…
Israeli authoritiesarrested a husband and wife from the central Israeli city of Lod on charges of spying for Iran; the couple was allegedly recruited as part of a broader effort by Tehran to recruit immigrants from the Caucasus region to engage in espionage on behalf of the Islamic Republic…
Pic of the Day
Several hundred Chicago residents participated in a rally on Wednesday night in West Rogers Park calling for the shooting on Saturday of an Orthodox Jewish man to be charged as a hate crime. Attendees also walked to the site of the shooting on Pratt Ave.
Birthdays
Film and television director and producer, Ruben Fleischer turns 50…
Actor Ron Rifkin turns 85… British historian, born in Baghdad, emeritus professor of International Relations at Oxford, Avraham “Avi” Shlaim turns 79… CEO of Feld Entertainment, which operates the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice, Kenneth Feld turns 76… Co-founder and co-chairman of Heritage Auctions, James L. Halperin turns 72… Author, historian and writer-at-large for the U.K.-based Prospect Magazine, Sam Tanenhaus turns 69… Staff writer for The New Yorker, her 1998 book was made into the award-winning movie “Adaptation,” Susan Orlean turns 69… Managing partner of Arel Capital, Richard G. Leibovitch turns 61… PAC director at AIPAC, Marilyn Rosenthal… British lawyer who has served as CEO of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and COO of World ORT, Marc Jonathan (Jon) Benjamin turns 60… Former MLB pitcher, now a managing director at Rockefeller Capital Management in Boca Raton, Steven Allen Rosenberg turns 60… Founding partner at Lanx Management, former president of AIPAC and past chairman of the Orthodox Union, Howard E. (Tzvi) Friedman turns 59… Director of development for Foundation for Jewish Camp until this past April, he defined his role as a “gelt-shlepper,” Corey Cutler… Chief brand and innovation officer of Ralph Lauren, David Lauren turns 53… Founder and CEO of MercadoLibre, the eBay and Amazon of Latin America, Marcos Eduardo Galperin turns 53… Film, television and theater actor, Assaf Cohen turns 52… Professor, attorney, author, political columnist and poet, Seth Abramson turns 48… Member of the California State Assembly since 2016, Marc Berman turns 44… Actor who rose to prominence in the “American Pie” film series, Eddie Kaye Thomas turns 44… CEO at Clarasight, he is the founder of Pencils of Promise, Adam Braun… Rabbi and outreach coordinator at the Leffell Lower School in White Plains, N.Y., she is the founder of Midrash Manicures, combining Jewish education and creative nail art, Yael Buechler turns 39… Global strategy and capability development contractor at PwC, Spencer Herbst… Director of institutional advancement at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, Masha Shollar… Wheelchair basketball player and social media personality, Peter Berry turns 23…
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