Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the implications of a potential cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah ahead of the Israeli security cabinet’s vote on the agreement and interview the Department of Education’s Catherine Lhamon about the Office for Civil Rights’ work tackling campus antisemitism. We look at the rightward shift underway in New York City as the mayoral race begins to take shape and report on a bipartisan effort from Congress calling on the Netherlands to address antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jared Kushner, Josh Kushner and Stephen Feinberg.
What We’re Watching
- White House advisor Brett McGurk is in Saudi Arabia today for meetings aimed at moving closer to a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
- Israel’s security cabinet will convene later today to vote on a cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah.
- The foreign ministers of the G7 countries are meeting in Rome in an effort to release a unified statement in response to last week’s decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. A source with knowledge of the matter told Jewish Insider that the State Department has joined Israel’s efforts to ensure the G7 opposes the warrants, emphasizing the sanctions that Congress may pass. “The Americans understand that they could be next” on the ICC’s agenda, the source said.
What You Should Know
As the New York City mayoral race shapes up amid a rightward shift across the city’s five boroughs, there’s a glaring disconnect between the reality of Gotham’s politics and the ideological disposition of the current cast of candidates. So far, nearly all of the announced candidates hail from the progressive wing of the party — save for the ethically embattled Mayor Eric Adams, whose prospects aren’t looking good.
Enter former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is eagerly looking to fill the pragmatic lane in the mayoral election, and is courting Jewish voters disillusioned with the party’s left-wing turn. Despite his personal baggage that led him to step down as governor, several Democratic strategists and Jewish leaders told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel that Cuomo is preparing to launch a mayoral campaign soon — and is already sounding like a candidate.
“It’s happening,” said one person familiar with Cuomo’s plans, noting that Cuomo’s team is setting up an independent expenditure group and reaching out to leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community, where he faces lingering resentment over targeted restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. “He’s really trying to pitch the moderates now,” the person told JI.
Early polling has shown that Cuomo, who resigned from office in 2021 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, would be a front-runner in the race. He would also be one of the few contenders with a staunch pro-Israel record — as several candidates have faced criticism from the Jewish community for anti-Israel rhetoric and insufficient concern over rising antisemitism.
On Sunday night, Cuomo, who has frequently stressed his support for Israel in its war with Hamas, delivered remarks at a dinner hosted by the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education in Manhattan, speaking about Israel and antisemitism. “This is the moment when true friends stand up shoulder to shoulder and fight for the state of Israel,” he said. “Antisemitism is not only wrong and immoral, it is illegal,” he added. “I signed the law.”
The field has continued to grow as Cuomo remains on the sidelines, with Michael Blake, a former state lawmaker from the Bronx, joining the primary to challenge embattled Mayor Eric Adams last week.
Blake, who once cast himself as a defender of Israel, is now facing criticism for social media commentary after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in which he espoused anti-Israel views, including accusations of genocide.
The primary could still expand as other names are floated. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), whose district covers the South Bronx, has been approached about a campaign — even as he indicates he is more seriously weighing a bid to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who replaced Cuomo.
In a statement to JI, Torres, a pro-Israel Democrat, said he had “made no final decision to seek executive office but, like every New Yorker, I am fed up with the pervasive incompetence that I see.”
“There is no state that saw a greater swing toward Donald Trump than New York — which, to me, is an indictment of incompetent governance in New York,” he added. “Both the state and the city have been fundamentally ineffective at combating antisemitism on college campuses. If I were the governor or the mayor, there would be no tolerance for campus antisemitism. None.”
cease-fire concerns
Israelis question if Lebanon cease-fire will keep them safe
Israel and Lebanon appeared to be hours away from a U.S.-brokered cease-fire on Tuesday, but Israeli politicians in both the coalition and opposition, as well as leaders of towns in northern Israel, are questioning whether the agreement will do enough to keep residents of the north safe. The Israeli security cabinet is expected to vote on the potential agreement on Tuesday evening. The deal is meant to institute a 60-day cease-fire, based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War but was violated by Hezbollah within weeks, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Points of concern: While Israel has inflicted far more damage on Hezbollah in this war than in 2006, killing hundreds of its top officers, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah, the Iran-backed terrorist group still has thousands of rockets and missiles and shot hundreds of them at Israel in recent days. In keeping with UNSCR 1701, the agreement requires Hezbollah to remain north of the Litani River, some 17 miles from the border with Israel. The Lebanese Armed Forces and the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) would, according to the deal, enter that area to stop Hezbollah from returning, even though they fell short of fulfilling that duty over the past 18 years.
education consternation
The Biden Education Department’s legacy on campus antisemitism
At the Department of Education, Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights, knows she won’t make it through her to-do list before the Biden administration leaves office in January. There’s a crisis of antisemitism on college campuses, and Lhamon sees it — and knows she’ll have to leave office with hate raging, and several dozen unresolved investigations examining campus antisemitism. “I am sick about the quantum of harm that I’m walking away from,” Lhamon told Jewish Insider in an interview last week.
By the numbers: In the waning days of her tenure — her second stint in the role, which she also held in the Obama administration — Lhamon wanted to make it known that progress has been achieved in her fight against antisemitism in educational institutions, even as some within the Jewish community have called for stronger, more decisive action. “We’ve resolved nearly three times as many cases with agreements as the last administration did in all four years, and we’ll secure more agreements in the remaining months that we have,” she said.
campus beat
Anti-Israel activists target Hillel as protester tactics turn more ‘blatantly antisemitic’
When anti-Israel activists at Columbia University disrupted an event last Thursday at the school’s Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life featuring Axios reporter Barak Ravid — calling out the Hillel’s Jewish benefactor Robert Kraft, for whom the building is named, by name and referring to Ravid, who is Israeli, as a “henchman of genocide” — the personal nature of the attacks caught the attention of antisemitism watchers, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Growing pattern: “We are continuing to see more of Hillel — and even sometimes Chabad on Campus and big Jewish donors — being cited by name,” Shira Goodman, vice president of advocacy and national affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, told JI. Goodman noted that calls for universities to defund or disassociate from Hillel intensified in the spring amid the anti-Israel encampment movement on campuses nationwide. “They try to hide it behind Israel, or the ‘Zionist entity,’ but they really are targeting the center of Jewish life on campus; places where students go to eat, pray and be with other students, not necessarily to engage in activities related to Israel. So it does seem, to us,” Goodman continued, “to be blatantly antisemitic.”
exclusive
Lawmakers urge ‘swift action’ from Dutch government in response to anti-Jewish attacks
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers urged the Dutch prime minister last week to take prompt action in response to the string of recent antisemitic attacks and mob violence in Amsterdam that followed a soccer match more than two weeks ago, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Call to action: In a new letter to Prime Minister Dick Schoof, the lawmakers requested information on “what concrete steps the [Dutch] government intends to take to protect Jewish people from further harm and to combat the rise of antisemitic rhetoric and violence,” demanding “immediate action” to protect Jews and to “send a clear message that such behavior will not and cannot be tolerated.” They described the attacks as “horrific but not unpredictable” and “the culmination of the failure of leaders and officials to confront antisemitism.”
in memoriam
Kushner brothers and their families pledge $2 million to Chabad of UAE as Jewish community reels after Rabbi Zvi Kogan killed
The families of Jared and Joshua Kushner pledged a total of $2 million to Chabad of the United Arab Emirates on Monday in memory of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, the 28-year-old Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary who was killed last week after being abducted in Dubai, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
Shocking aftermath: The donations from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, followed by Joshua Kushner and his wife, Karlie Kloss, come as the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates — and in the Arab world in general — reels from the aftermath of the killing, which has been condemned by Israeli officials as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act,” and by Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, as “an attack on our homeland, on our values and on our vision.” Jared Kushner’s announcement was made within hours of Kogan’s funeral in Kfar Chabad, Israel, on Monday night. “Let us come together from all faiths to pick up where Rabbi Kogan left off and bring his work, and the work of those building the UAE into a thriving destination of tolerance, bridge building and mutual benefit, to new heights,” Jared Kushner wrote on X.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
More: Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, met in Washington with UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, whom Lipstadt thanked “for his compassion and wisdom, and for his government’s decisive actions in the efforts to expose and hold accountable all the perpetrators of the heinous antisemitic murder of” Kogan.
Worthy Reads
Bibi’s Bind: In Foreign Affairs, Shalom Lipner, who spent 30 years working in the Prime Minister’s Office, posits that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to act smartly and strategically in winding down the country’s wars as the new Trump administration takes office. “Notwithstanding its battlefield triumphs, Israel faces genuine peril. Its ability to successfully end the current conflicts will depend heavily on how Netanyahu manages relations with the next U.S. president. Untethered to any considerations of reelection, Trump may be even more ready to follow his most transactional instincts. Netanyahu will need to walk a high wire, circumventing any grudges that Trump may still harbor and moving adeptly to bring their goals into alignment. Ironically, Netanyahu’s most formidable obstacle could prove to be the same right-wing parties that are keeping him in power … Netanyahu will have to read the tea leaves correctly. He needs to seize the moment and wind down Israel’s wars before they begin to cause more harm than good and — no less fatefully — create a rift with Trump. If Netanyahu can stand up to his coalition partners, he might still be able to end the conflicts and leave Trump the clean desk he asked for.” [ForeignAffairs]
Faith and the Military: In Newsweek, Ohr Torah Stone President Kenneth Brander seeks to dispel the notion that serving in the army is incompatible with observant Judaism, as Haredim continue to resist enlistment in the IDF. “Just the opposite; it is a religious mandate, codified in the works of Maimonides and expressly dictated by certain key phrases in the Bible that explain that participating in the defense of the State (indeed the defense of democracy) and one’s fellow human beings during an ongoing existential war, is a Jewish obligation. It is important to understand that questioning Israeli military service on the basis of religious law is a relatively new contention. When the nascent state of Israel was fighting its War of Independence, beginning in 1948, leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis and their students joined the efforts. As the Israeli historian Moshe Ehrenvald points out in a new book about this era, many of those who joined the fight did not believe in the importance of an independent modern state of Israel, as their secular Zionist counterparts did. In fact, some of these ultra-Orthodox fighters even opposed the creation of the state, saying that would only happen on God’s timeline. Yet they did recognize that Jewish lives were at risk, so they joined the military.” [Newsweek]
Word on the Street
President-elect Donald Trump is consideringTrae Stephens, a co-founder of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and investor Stephen Feinberg for deputy secretary of defense in his new administration…
The New York Times looks at the ties between Steve Witkoff, the incoming Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, and the sovereign wealth funds of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar…
A written review conducted by Trump’s lawyers of Boris Epshteyn found that the Trump aide had solicited consulting fees from individuals being considered for roles in the new administration…
The Democratic National Committee announced plans to hold leadership elections on Feb. 1…
A judge in New York overseeing a defamation lawsuit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations against a former employee ruled that the organization must turn over information about its funding sources…
Actor Paul Rudd hosted a screening of Tom Nesher’s “Come Closer,” Israel’s entry in the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards…
The New York Times examines the ways in which new school policies have lessened anti-Israel activity on college campuses…
Israel’s Cabinet voted unanimously to sanction Haaretz, weeks after publisher Amos Schocken criticized what he called Israel’s “cruel apartheid regime,” over the left-leaning publication’s critical coverage since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks last year…
An IDF soldier who was seriously wounded in the Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza more than a year ago died from his injuries…
The Washington Post’s editorial board slammed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alleging that the warrants “undermine the ICC’s credibility and give credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution”; the Post editorial board added that “the ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity”…
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded to the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants by suggesting that Netanyahu and Gallant instead receive death sentences…
Israel’s National Security Council raised its travel warning for citizens traveling to Thailand, citing “the emergence of a potential threat to Israelis” in the Southeast Asian country…
Blogger and digital publishing expert Mike Shatzkin died at 77…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon addressed a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East on Monday in New York.
Birthdays
Staff cartoonist for The New Yorker where she has published more than 1,000 cartoons, Roz Chast turns 70…
Holocaust refugee from Budapest, he founded a generic drug company in 1965 that he sold to Teva Pharmaceuticals 35 years later, University of Toronto’s pharmacy school bears his name, Leslie Dan turns 95… San Francisco-based venture capitalist, he is a founding partner of CMEA Capital, Formation 8 and Baruch Future Ventures, Thomas R. Baruch turns 86… Diplomat and author, he worked under Presidents Bush (41), Clinton and Obama on Middle East and Persian Gulf matters, in 2002 he co-founded a synagogue in Rockville, Md., Dennis B. Ross turns 76… Former national executive director of the Zionist Organization of America, Gary P. Ratner turns 76… Former member of the Illinois House of Representatives for 32 years, now a lobbyist, Louis I. Lang turns 75… U.S. senator from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito turns 71… Pulitzer Prize-winning author of nonfiction books based on his biological observations, he is a professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, Jonathan Weiner turns 71… Israel bureau chief and a senior editor for the Middle East at Bloomberg News, Ethan Samuel Bronner turns 70… Editor, journalist and publisher of Hebrew media for U.S.-based Israeli readers, he is the author of several books and award-winning screenplays, Meir Doron turns 70… Israeli reporter and writer, Ari Shavit turns 67… First Jewish governor of Delaware (2009-2017), now serving as U.S. ambassador to Italy, Jack Alan Markell turns 64… Mayor of Miami Beach from 2017 to 2023, prior to that he served in both houses of the Florida Legislature, Daniel Saul Gelber turns 64… District attorney-elect of Los Angeles County, he is taking office next week after defeating the incumbent George Gascón, Nathan Joseph Hochman turns 61… Former professional tennis player, Jay Berger turns 58… CEO and founder of Dansdeals, a credit card and travel blog, he is a fifth generation Clevelander, Daniel Eleff turns 40… Editor-in-Chief of W Magazine, Sara Anne Moonves turns 40… Software engineer at Regard, Benjamin Huebscher… Executive director of Agudath Israel of Ohio, Rabbi Eric “Yitz” Frank… Senior counselor at Palantir Technologies, Jordan Chandler Hirsch… Television and film actress, Anjelica Bette Fellini turns 30…
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