Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s canceled trip to Washington today. We talk to the Treasury Department about the status of Iranian funds that have been frozen since Oct. 7 and cover the State Department’s response to Israeli efforts to degrade Hezbollah in Lebanon. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Ritchie Torres, Lily Ebert and former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
What We’re Watching
- President Joe Biden will hold a rescheduled High Holidays call with the Jewish community this afternoon at 2:15 ET; the call had initially been scheduled for last Tuesday, but was postponed as Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel shortly before the call was slated to start.
- Following today’s call, Biden will meet with Irish leader Simon Harris. The meeting comes two weeks after Irish President Michael Higgins alleged that Israel had leaked details of communications between Dublin and Tehran, despite Iran’s embassy in Ireland having posted Higgins’ letter welcoming new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
- Shari Redstone is scheduled to address the Adweek conference at 11 a.m. today in New York. Puck reported last night that Redstone, who holds a controlling share in CBS parent company Paramount Global, is expected to address her frustration over CBS executives’ recent handling of an interview with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.
- The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is holding a conversation with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) this evening. The event comes amid concerns by Pittsburgh’s Jewish community over a statement on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, signed by the city’s mayor and Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), which failed to mention Hamas. More below.
What You Should Know
A trip to Washington by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, slated to begin today, was called off by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hours before Gallant’s flight was set to depart amid tensions between Jerusalem and the Biden administration over plans for a response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel last week, Jewish Insider‘s Lahav Harkov reports.
A condition for Gallant to visit the Pentagon is for the cabinet to authorize Israel’s next military actions. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s invitation was widely viewed in Israel as an attempt to soften Israel’s strike on Iran, after President Joe Biden expressed opposition to an attack on nuclear facilities or oil fields. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reportedly told Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer that the U.S. expects “clarity and transparency” about Israel’s planned attack on Iran. A Biden administration official told JI’s Gabby Deutch, “we continue to have conversations with the Israelis about it. The president said so, they have a right to respond here.”
The lack of advance warning from Israel about recent military actions raised concerns in the Biden administration. According to The Wall Street Journal, when Gallant called Austin to tell him about the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary of defense responded: “Excuse me, what did you say?” At the same time, the Biden administration has repeatedly leaked Israel’s plans – such as its ground incursion into Lebanon – to the media in the last year, which Israeli officials view as hindering it in a way that puts IDF troops in danger.
The other condition Netanyahu set is for Biden to call him, which he has not done since Aug. 21. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that “there will be a call shortly, soon,” and Israeli media reported that the call would take place today. Jean-Pierre noted the leaders’ “decades-long relationship” and that their conversations are “very honest; it’s very frank and that will continue.”
That honesty and frankness included Biden saying “Bibi, what the f***?,” according to War, a new book by Bob Woodward. The expletive came in response to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, for which Israel has not taken responsibility. Biden also told the prime minister: “Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” and that Israel is increasingly being perceived as “a rogue actor.” The veteran journalist also wrote that Biden told his advisers that Netanyahu was a “f***ing liar,” as are “18 out of 19 people who work for him,” and called the prime minister a “son of a bitch” and a “bad f***ing guy” who cares “only about himself.”
money matters
U.S. officials say $6 billion in Iranian funds in Qatar remain frozen
U.S. officials are disputing Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s claim this week to have reached a “good understanding” with the Qatari government about $6 billion in Iranian funds moved to a Qatari bank as part of a hostage deal with the United States last year, which the U.S. froze after Oct. 7, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: “The funds remain restricted, and we have strong assurances from our partners that they are not now moving,” a Treasury Department spokesperson told JI. “Along with our partners in Qatar and the interagency, we will continue to monitor these accounts closely.” A State Department spokesperson told JI that Iran has not accessed or spent any of the $6 billion. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, told JI that he has “received assurances from the Treasury Department that the funds are frozen” — though he said Pezeshkian’s comments “underscore the importance” of passing legislation he is sponsoring to permanently lock down the funds.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC).
u.s. backing
Biden administration supports Israeli efforts to ‘degrade Hezbollah’s infrastructure’
The Biden administration supports Israel’s stepped-up attacks on Hezbollah, the State Department’s top spokesperson said on Tuesday, suggesting that the three-week cease-fire the U.S. introduced in late September is no longer feasible as Israel seeks to push Hezbollah away from its northern border, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Back to 1701: “We do support Israel launching these incursions to degrade Hezbollah’s infrastructure so ultimately we can get a diplomatic resolution that allows 1701 to finally be fully implemented,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. He was referring to the unenforced diplomatic agreement that ended the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war with promises — and with which Hezbollah failed to comply — that the Iran-backed terror group would move north of Lebanon’s Litani River.
scoop
Walz to attend fundraiser with Jewish Democrats in D.C.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will appear at an exclusive reception for members of the Jewish community next week, the first campaign fundraiser geared toward Jewish Americans that Walz has done since Vice President Kamala Harris named him as her running mate in August, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Matthew Kassel. The Harris Victory Fund event, geared toward high-dollar donors, has a minimum contribution of $5,000.
Schmoozefest: With less than a month until Election Day, the fundraiser offers Walz a chance to schmooze with key Jewish donors directly and answer questions about his record. Walz has faced scrutiny from some Jewish communal activists for saying anti-Israel activists affiliated with the Uncommitted movement were “speaking out for all the right reasons,” and for a handful of appearances during his tenure as governor with an imam who has shared antisemitic posts on social media.
Threat assessment: Vice President Kamala Harris described Iran as America’s greatest adversary, calling it an “obvious” choice in an interview with “60 Minutes,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran. Iran has American blood on its hands,” Harris said. “This attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles. What we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power — that is one of my highest priorities, and that must be.”
pittsburgh problem
Dem divisions in Pennsylvania over offensive Oct. 7 statement
Democratic tensions over Israel are intensifying in Pittsburgh just weeks before the November election in a crucial swing state, with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) issuing a rare rebuke of three top public officials whose joint statement on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks was widely condemned as offensive in the local Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What they said: The statement from Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato was accused by Jewish leaders and elected officials of equivocating over the attacks while blaming Israel for the massacre as well as a widening war in the Middle East. “Over the past year, we’ve seen how continued escalation, a lack of diplomacy and a drive for power by right-wing leaders have pushed the region to the brink of regional war,” the elected officials wrote in their statement, which made no mention of Hamas. “This violence did not start on Oct. 7,” they added, “but it can end now if we all commit to peace and diplomacy.”
Mixed messages: A GOP-linked super PAC is running a new slate of contradictory ads this week casting Vice President Kamala Harris as both hostile and friendly to Israel — in an apparent effort to selectively target Arab and Jewish swing voters in key battleground states, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
peach state play
Torres headlines Jewish outreach event for Harris in Georgia
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) traveled to Georgia on Tuesday to headline a Jewish outreach event for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign in the critical swing state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the event: The event was purportedly the first time a Democratic presidential campaign has held a dedicated Jewish outreach event in Atlanta. Ensuring support among the state’s Jewish community of around 100,000 could be critical to a Harris victory; President Joe Biden won the state by less than 12,000 votes. “People really wanted to know, they wanted to feel comfortable — or know if they could feel comfortable — voting for Harris related to Israel and Jewish issues,” Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch said. “And the rousing applause at the end made it seem that the message was conveyed that she is the best for Israel… and for Jewish issues in the United States.”
Bonus: Torres condemned Andrew Makadsi, the creative director of Beyonce’s Parkwood Entertainment, for a social media post glorifying an anti-Israel activist who attempted self-immolation.
call to action
McMaster urges consideration of U.S. strikes on Iran
Former Trump White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said yesterday that the U.S. should consider military strikes against Iran’s key military programs, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Target list: The former national security adviser, speaking on Tuesday at an Atlantic Council event moderated by NBC correspondent Courtney Kube, said that the U.S. should consider wiping out drone and missile factories inside Iran. Hearkening back to the mid-1990s, he said the U.S. should give serious consideration to military strikes against Iran’s nuclear program. “The objective can’t be like an emotional, cathartic, ‘I feel better now because we struck Iran,’” McMaster said. “It should be to impose costs on Iran to go far beyond anything that they factored in.”
Word of warning: Former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata warned this week that his country’s national security was being negatively impacted by Israel becoming an increasingly partisan issue in the United States. He also said that Israel needs to consider the long-term impacts to the U.S.-Israel relationship before taking significant military action against Iran without U.S. support, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
campus beat
Brown University facing pressure to cancel board vote on Israel divestment
Amid pressure from Brown University students who demonstrated on the campus green last spring against the war in Gaza, the university’s trustees are slated to vote next week on whether to divest from companies with ties to Israel. The upcoming vote would make Brown one of the first major research universities to vote on a board-sponsored proposal to boycott companies with ties to the Jewish state, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Background: The divestment vote, scheduled for Oct. 17, 10 days after the first anniversary of Hamas’ massacre in southern Israel, comes as a result of an agreement in April between Brown University President Christina Paxson and members of the Brown Divest Coalition to take down an anti-Israel encampment that was set up on the campus’ Main Green for six days. One of the students’ central demands was a divestment vote. The Rhode Island school was among the handful of universities nationwide to offer concessions to demonstrators rather than call in law enforcement to break up encampments. As the vote approaches, Brown University leaders have faced significant pushback — including the resignation of one former Brown trustee, Joseph Edelman, the CEO of the hedge fund Perceptive Advisors, who condemned the Brown Corporation’s “stunning failure of moral leadership.”
Worthy Reads
What an Israeli Win Would Mean:The New York Times’ Bret Stephens suggests that an Israeli victory over Iran and its terror proxies would not just benefit the region, but provide stability to an increasingly unstable world. “The world had better hope that Israel wins its wars against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and their masters in Tehran. By ‘wins,’ I mean that Israel inflicts such costs on its enemies’ capacity to wage war that they accept that their interests, irrespective of their desires, are no longer served by fighting. … We are living in a world that increasingly resembles the 1930s, when cunning and aggressive dictatorships united against debilitated, inward-looking, risk-averse democracies. Today’s dictatorships also know how to smell weakness. We would all be safer if, in the Middle East, they finally learned the taste of defeat.” [NYTimes]
Hatred, Then and Now: In The Hill, Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt recalls the antisemitism he experienced growing up in Moscow as he voices concern over the antisemitism experienced by his congregants in New York City. “Do we allocate synagogue resources to fund a teen holiday program or hire another security guard to prevent a shooting at services? How much more do you need to charge for Sabbath Dinner in order to cover security? How much of an antisemitism tax is warranted to be able to attend synagogue? These are painful questions to answer. My congregation pays for armed guards every Sabbath and invests deeply in keeping our community safe. Most communities have added security fees to their membership dues. But we shouldn’t have to. No New Yorker or American should have to purchase their peace of mind or pay for their sense of security. I thought I’d left the fear and anguish of being a vulnerable Jew in Russia. But as I watch my congregants walking into our synagogue flanked by NYPD officers with guns, I catch my breath, as my mother did, back in Moscow. That scared intake of air is the most un-American sound I know.” [TheHill]
Sinwar’s Radicalism: The Wall Street Journal’s Summer Said and Rory Jones report on Yahya Sinwar’s elevation within Hamas following the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in July, and look at his more radical approach to fighting Israel. “When Sinwar became Hamas’s top leader in August, he had the backing of its armed wing. His elevation reflected a view among some members that more conciliatory figures within Hamas had failed to achieve much, according to people who study the group. Sinwar’s plan appears to be to try to survive Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza and emerge from hiding to claim leadership of the Palestinian cause, with an ultimate goal of eliminating Israel. Arab mediators involved in trying to negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza describe Sinwar discussing the war, and his role in it, in increasingly grandiose terms. Following the 40-day Islamic period of mourning for Haniyeh, Sinwar sent letters in his name to Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and others who have supported Hamas. Hamas is prepared for a long war of attrition to break Israel’s will, he wrote in one letter viewed by the Journal.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reacted to an X post by Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who tweeted “thank u next” in response to Israel’s killing of the successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last month; Gallant posted, “working on it” in response to Fetterman’s tweet…
A senior Iranian official told Gulf states that Tehran would find it “unacceptable” if those countries let the U.S. or Israel use their airspace for attacks on Iran…
At least five people were wounded in a stabbing attack today in the Israeli city of Hadera, near Haifa…
Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport saw a 43% drop in commercial passenger traffic in the first nine months of 2024, as many airlines canceled routes to and from Israel…
Organizers of the “Uncommitted” movement are dissuading supporters from voting for former President Donald Trump…
Jewish officials in North Carolina, as well as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, are facing a deluge of antisemitic harassment and threats in the wake of Hurricane Helene; much of the antisemitic invective has targeted Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer and Jaclyn Rothenberg, FEMA’s director of public affairs…
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said earlier this month in a meeting with AIPAC supporters that a future Trump administration would consider revoking the accreditations of universities that allow campus anti-Israel protests…
Tufts University suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine over repeated violations of school policies…
The University of Pennsylvania is looking to hire a project manager to implement the recommendations drafted by the school’s antisemitism task force as well as its Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community…
Palestinian-American author Rashid Khalidi is retiring from Columbia University, which he joined in 2003 and where he was the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies…
The head of the U.K.’s MI5 said Iran and Russia were behind a “staggering rise” in assassination attempts on U.K. soil, noting nearly two dozen foiled Iranian plots since 2022…
Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert, whose experiences during and after the Holocaust garnered international attention through the efforts of her great-grandson Dov Forman, died at 100…
Pic of the Day
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), third from left, and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), fourth from left, met earlier this week in Jerusalem with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, and Mordechai (Soli) Eliav, head of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.
Birthdays
Musician and singer, the protégé of her late father, singer-songwriter Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Neshama Carlebach turns 50…
Founder, executive chairman, and now retired CEO of C-SPAN, Brian Lamb turns 83… Retired federal government manager and analyst, Charles “Chuck” Miller… Associate professor of Jewish history at the University of Maryland, Bernard Dov Cooperman turns 78… Burbank, Calif., resident, Richard Marpet… U.S. ambassador to Canada during the Obama administration, Ambassador David Jacobson turns 73… Commissioner of Major League Soccer since 1999, Don Garber turns 67… VNOC engineer at Avaya, David Gerstman… Director of Jewish learning at the Brandeis School of San Francisco, Debby Arzt-Mor… Managing director and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and co-chair of DMFI, Todd Richman… Best-selling author and motivational speaker, his 2010 TED Talk about leadership is one of the most popular talks of all time, Simon Sinek turns 51… Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshivas Elimelech following 17 years as rabbi at Ohev Shalom Synagogue in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld turns 50… Member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, Karin Elharar Hartstein turns 47… VP for Jewish education at Hillel International, Rabbi Benjamin Berger… Partner at Left Hook Strategy, Justin Barasky… CEO at Denver-based energy firm Nexus BSP, he was the national board chair of Moishe House until 2022, Ben Lusher… Director of state and international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, David Meyerson… Stand-up comedian and Emmy Award-winning television writer, Ian Karmel turns 40… VP of portfolio management for LEO Impact Capital, Lily Goldstein… Counsel in O’Melveny’s NYC office, he was an executive assistant and advance associate in the Obama White House, David Cohen… Physical therapist in Montreal, Chaya Notik… Head of corporate communications at L’Oréal, Jason Kaplan turns 34… Manager of corporate communications at Apple, Julia Schechter… Senior associate at JP Morgan Payments, Daniel Rubin… Senior in-stock manager at Amazon in NYC, Kayla Levinson Segal… Security coordinator of Kibbutz Nir Am on Oct. 7, 2023, now an Israeli heroine because her team killed 25 terrorists and the kibbutz suffered no casualties, Inbal Rabin-Lieberman turns 26… Foil fencer, he won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics (Tokyo) and an individual bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics (Paris), Nick Itkin turns 25…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
