Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from the Halifax International Security Forum, where we speak to Democratic defense advisor Michèle Flournoy, Sen. Jim Risch, Israeli human rights lawyer Cochav Elkayam-Levy andHIAS CEO Mark Hetfield. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff, we highlight a bipartisan, bicameral bill that seeks to crack down on Iranian criminal activity in the U.S., and report on a letter signed by more than 50 Jewish groups blasting Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for voting to block tranches of U.S. aid to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Scott Bessent, state Sen. Randy Fine and Santa Ono.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on the possibility of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that’s reportedly close to fruition between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Several Israeli media outlets are reporting that a deal is not final, but that Jerusalem has agreed to the main principles of an agreement. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning to reject the deal, calling it a “big mistake.”
- Dan Shapiro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, is in Israel and met with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz this morning in the first meeting between Katz and a senior U.S. defense official since Katz assumed the role. The meeting dealt with many aspects of U.S.-Israel defense cooperation, but also focused on the Lebanon cease-fire deal, which Biden administration officials believe is days away from completion.
- Netanyahu rejected France’s continued involvement in the potential cease-fire and its monitoring mechanism after Paris said it would honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron reached a compromise on the matter over the weekend, but Netanyahu is holding out for a stronger, public statement from France. More details to come on this scoop from Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov.
- Emirati authorities arrested three suspects in the United Arab Emirates in connection with the murder of Israeli-Moldovan citizen and a Chabad emissary in the UAE, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was murdered after being abducted in Dubai on Thursday. The Emirati Interior Ministry published pictures earlier today of the three suspects, all from Uzbekistan.
- UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba released a statement mourning Kogan and stating, “Zvi Kogan’s murder was more than a crime in the UAE – it was a crime against the UAE. It was an attack on our homeland, on our values and on our vision.”
- U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson Sean Savett condemned the murder as a “horrific crime against all those who stand for peace, tolerance, & coexistence. It was an assault as well on UAE & its rejection of violent extremism.”
What You Should Know
The impending return of President-elect Donald Trump to the global scene loomed large over this weekend’s Halifax International Security Forum (HFX), a three-day defense-focused confab on the windswept, rainy shores of Nova Scotia, Jewish Insider senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch reports.
In the opening session on Friday, HFX President Peter Van Praagh addressed the elephant in the room: “Over the course of the past two weeks, it seems like every one of you in this room called me to ask who was coming from the incoming Trump administration,” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe some of you in this room will go into government.”
It was a long-winded, slightly awkward way of saying that no one from Trump’s orbit would be in attendance at the conference, which drew 300 participants from more than 60 democratic nations.
Instead, the speeches and panel discussions talked around Trump. They touted the importance of maintaining strong support for Ukraine, a message geared — sometimes implicitly, sometimes very explicitly — at convincing Trump to stand by the embattled Eastern European nation as Putin’s war approaches the three-year mark. In one session, former Ukrainian parliamentarian Hanna Hopko handed Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) a shirt that said, “Make Russia small again.”
Attendees from Europe and Canada seemed less shell-shocked than in 2016, when Trump’s victory stunned America’s allies. Now, they knew to prepare for the possibility. “In 2016 in Europe, many, or most, could not imagine that Trump is elected. Now it was one of two feasible scenarios, and we prepared for both,” said Tobias Lindner, state minister in Germany’s Foreign Ministry.
The Middle East was not a large focus of the conference’s agenda. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told JI he had not talked to other participants about the International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but said Washington’s message to Canada and European allies thinking of complying with the warrants is clear.
“People need to understand we’re serious about these sanctions, and if someone does engage in enforcing the warrant, thus enforcing action against Netanyahu, they easily could be the target of a third-party sanction,” said Risch.
When asked by JI about whether Germany will enforce the warrants, Lindner said he would not speculate — but suggested it is a possibility.
“Germany is committed to the ICC decisions, and Germany is committed to the rule of law, and anything else is speculation,” Lindner said. Read the full report from Halifax.
While in Halifax, JI talked to … HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield about why a Jewish refugee group came to a defense conference … Israeli human rights lawyer Cochav Elkayam-Levy about the new term she coined to describe the atrocities of Oct. 7 … Democratic defense advisor Michèle Flournoy about whether there’s a difference between U.S. sales of defensive vs. offensive weapons to Israel … Sen. Risch about two of Trump’s most controversial national security nominees. More below.
on the hill
Bipartisan, bicameral bill aims to crack down on Iranian criminal activity in the U.S.
A new bipartisan, bicameral bill seeks to respond to criminal activity in the United States organized by the Iranian regime by increasing the criminal penalties for those who commit or attempt certain crimes on behalf of foreign adversaries, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the effort: The DETERRENCE Act, led by Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate and Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) in the House, comes after years of Iranian regime efforts, employing U.S.-based criminals, to assassinate former President Donald Trump, members of his administration and Iranian-American dissidents.
pointing the finger
Top Democratic defense advisor blames Israel’s predicament on Netanyahu
One year ago, former senior Pentagon official Michèle Flournoy signed onto a letter standing by President Joe Biden’s support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Now, Flournoy, who served as under secretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration, fears that Israel’s conduct in Gaza during its more than yearlong war against Hamas has weakened its standing in the world. It’s a problem she blames chiefly on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Long-term worries: “You may win the battle but lose the war. Israel is losing political support and its moral standing around the world, and I worry about it. Support for Israel has always been strongly bipartisan, and that’s starting to crumble,” Flournoy told JI on Sunday in an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum. “I really worry about that for long-term security.”
heard in halifax
Risch holds off on backing Gabbard, Hegseth for Cabinet posts
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to commit to supporting two of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees: former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for intelligence chief, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary. “Ask me this question again after the hearings,” Risch told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Saturday in an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum. “These appointments by the president are constrained by the advice and consent of the Senate. The Senate takes that seriously, and we vet these.”
Rubio remarks: Those remarks stand in contrast to comments Risch made a day earlier about Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Trump’s pick for secretary of state, on a panel alongside Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who will be the Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat. “I’m enthusiastic about Marco, and we’re going to do our best, and Jeanne and I have talked about this, we’re going to do our best to have him confirmed as secretary of state on the same day as the president is inaugurated,” Risch said.
feeling the heat
More than 50 Jewish groups blast Sens. Ossoff and Warnock for votes against Israel aid
A coalition of more than 50 synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish organizations in the Atlanta area joined a letter blasting Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) for voting to block tranches of U.S. aid to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Community relations: The letter is a sign of the growing Jewish backlash against both Democratic senators for their votes earlier this week, which could pose an electoral hurdle, particularly for Ossoff, who will be up for reelection in 2026. “As your constituents, we are deeply disappointed by your support of Sen. [Bernie] Sanders’ [I-VT] efforts to block weapons transfers to Israel,” the organizations, led by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said. Ossoff is the only Democratic senator from a state that President-elect Donald Trump carried in 2024 who is up for reelection in 2026 and voted for any of the resolutions to block aid.
conflicting accounts
Netanyahu: Claim, made by Trump, about Israeli withdrawal from Soleimani assassination ‘false’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that the accusation that Israel pulled out at the last minute from the plan to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020, leaving the U.S. to do it alone — after Soleimani had for years been a main target of Israel’s — was “false.” A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office in response to a host of accusations made against Netanyahu in a Channel 12 investigation that featured a comment by President-elect Donald Trump on the matter said “the claim about Soleimani is false.” The statement provided no further details on this matter, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve reports.
Recap: The Channel 12 report about “what Netanyahu knew before Oct. 7 — the warnings about Hamas, the assassinations that weren’t approved and the Iran issue,” replayed a televised comment made by Trump during a campaign rally last year — days after the Oct.7 Hamas terror attacks. During the rally, Trump said, “I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down … but we did the job ourselves, and it was absolute precision, magnificent, beautiful job. And then Bibi tried to take credit for it. That didn’t make me feel too good. But that’s all right.”
Worthy Reads
Changes in Attitude: Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write about the presence of onetime liberals in President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed second-term Cabinet: “Lost in the noise of Trump’s most controversial picks is the simple, undebatable fact that this might be the most ideologically diverse cabinet of modern times. Trump’s Cabinet increasingly resembles a European-style coalition government, staffed with a dizzying array of ideological rivals united — for now — by a grand MAGA vision. The team represents the Trump worldview: Traditional conservatism is dead — and its biggest, lifelong advocates neutered to the point of irrelevance…In just under a decade, Trump, once a donor to Democrats, has transformed the GOP of George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney into a populist party with radically different views on trade, immigration and spending.” [Axios]
Word on the Street
President-elect Donald Trump tapped hedge fund executive Scott Bessent to serve as his Treasury secretary, a move that was greeted positively on Wall Street and a sign that the incoming president will prioritize economic and market stability over scoring political points…
Trump endorsed Florida state Sen. Randy Fine, who is Jewish, to succeed Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) in Congress. Waltz was tapped as Trump’s national security advisor, and will soon be resigning his seat…
Former New York state Assemblyman Michael Blake, a former Obama aide and onetime vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced his candidacy for the New York City mayoral race on Sunday. Since Oct. 7, he has posted anti-Israel commentary on his social media…
An Israeli airstrike conducted on Saturday without warning on a central Beirut building killed at least 20 people and wounded scores more, according to Lebanese officials. Israeli sources said the strike was an unsuccessful attempt to kill top Hezbollah commander Muhammad Haydar…
Hezbollah launched some 250 rockets into Israel yesterday, setting off air-raid sirens in central and northern Israel…
Hamas announced on Saturday that a female Israeli hostage had been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. The IDF said it was investigating the claim…
A gunman opened fire near the Israeli Embassy in Amman yesterday and was shot dead by Jordanian police…
Anti-Israel and anti-NATO rioters smashed windows, clashed with police and set fire to vehicles in Montreal on Friday night. “What we saw on the streets of Montreal last night was appalling. Acts of antisemitism, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on X…
Israeli food company Strauss Group announced plans to divest half of its stake from hummus maker Sabra to PepsiCo for $244 million…
Twelve percent of French people think it would be good for the country if Jews left France, according to a new survey conducted by Ipsos on the subject of antisemitism…
Melissa Byrne, a former organizer for Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign, proposed harassing No Labels founder Nancy Jacobson and her husband, pollster Mark Penn, outside their home as part of a plan to discourage a third-party presidential campaign…
Memphis police are investigating the murder of an Israeli locksmith as a possible terror attack…
After pushback from the Jewish community, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers distanced itself from a speaker with a history of antisemitic remarks after initially promoting University of Minnesota teaching assistant Taher Herzallah to speak at a recent seminar called “being an educator in a time of war & genocide…”
University of Michigan President Santa Ono visited the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Detroit alongside Josh Kadden, CEO of the Nova Exhibit, and several students…
Russia is duping Yemeni men into fighting in its war against Ukraine, bringing them over assisted by a Houthi-linked company with promises of employment and citizenship, before sending them to the front lines, according to a Financial Times report…
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, ordered a “significant collection” of “new and advanced” centrifuges after the IAEA censured Tehran for failure to cooperate with its inspectors…
In a lighthearted piece, JTA explores the “Joshmentum” in the U.S., as three Jewish leaders named Josh will be governors after Josh Stein assumes his new role in North Carolina in January, sharing both name and title with Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Hawaii’s Josh Green…
The Wall Street Journal explores the ties between Trump commerce secretary pick Howard Lutnick and Tether, a cryptocurrency firm under investigation by the Treasury and Justice departments…
On the “Ray Hanania Radio Show,” Arab American businessman Ned Fawaz urged Arab and Muslim communities to opt for engagement with the Trump administration in place of the boycott strategy they adopted during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term…
Pic of the Day
Released hostages Raz Ben Ami and Gabriela Leimberg (left); Michel Illouz, father of the late Guy Illouz whose body is held in Gaza; released hostage Danielle Aloni; and Yifat Zailer, cousin of hostage Shiri Bibas, spoke yesterday at an event marking one year since the first and only hostage deal took place for the release of hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Birthdays
Writer, lawyer, actor and economic commentator, Ben Stein turns 80…
President and CEO of the American Council for Capital Formation, Mark A. Bloomfield turns 75… Comic book writer and novelist, Christopher S. Claremont turns 74… Israeli scholar of Arab culture and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, Mordechai Kedar turns 72… Obstetrician and gynecologist, he is a past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, Norman Ravski, MD turns 71… Beverly Hills commercial real estate investor, Albert Ahobim… Retired men’s college basketball coach with 615 career wins, he won coach of the year honors four times in two different conferences, Ben Braun turns 71… Historian at Tel Aviv U, focused upon religious phenomena in the Middle Ages, he is also president of the Ruppin Academic Center in Israel, Aviad Kleinberg turns 67… Director of the Chabad House in Johannesburg, Rabbi David Masinter turns 65… Retired senior research scientist at ExxonMobil and editor of Rav J.B. Soloveitchik’s commentary to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur machzorim, Arnold Lustiger… Israeli fashion and wedding dress designer, her reality TV show airs in over 145 countries worldwide, Pnina Tornai turns 62… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, he was the editor-in-chief at the Israel Hayom newspaper, Boaz Bismuth turns 60… Actress, comedian, entertainer and past member of the Tel Aviv-Yafo City Council, Orna Banai turns 58… CEO of the Israeli American Council, he was the U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism during the Trump 45 administration, Elan Carr turns 57… Founder and former managing director at Beacon Global Strategies LLC, he was the deputy assistant secretary of state for strategic communications under Hillary Clinton, Philippe Reines turns 55… Attorney and former member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2003 until 2011, Adam Hasner turns 55… Strategic communications manager at the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Lauren Sueskind Theodore… Judge of the U.S. District Court for Maryland, Julie Rebecca Rubin turns 52… Former member of both houses of the South Dakota legislature, now a bail bondsman and a teacher at Congregation Beth Shalom in Sioux City, Iowa, Daniel Isaac Lederman turns 52… Vice chair and commissioner at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission until this past August, Keith Sonderling turns 42… Executive editor at Jewish Insider, Melissa Weiss turns 38… Deputy Washington editor and democracy editor for the Guardian, Kira Lerner… Bitcoin advocate and podcast host, Charles “Charlie” Shrem IV turns 35…
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