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.