Daily Kickoff: Yechiel Leiter tapped as next Israeli envoy to U.S.
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the developing situation in Amsterdam, where dozens of Israeli soccer fans were attacked last night. We look at the role that former Iran envoy Brian Hook is expected to play on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, report on concerns from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office regarding the potential issuance of ICC warrants during the lame duck session and do a deep dive on how the next administration is likely to approach campus antisemitism. We also cover the reported appointment of Israel’s next ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jason Greenblatt, Daniel Lurie and Josh Gad.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: How Trump will approach the Middle East in a second term; After Trump’s victory, what comes next for Jewish philanthropy?; ‘He didn’t do anything small,’ remembering Bernard Marcus, larger-than-life businessman and philanthropist. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re following the developing situation in Amsterdam, where Israeli soccer fans were subject to physical attacks following the Maccabi Tel Aviv-Ajax game. More below.
- Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the “Stand Together: Unity, Strength, Resilience” rally in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, which comes ahead of the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly.
- The Jewish Institute for National Security of America is hosting a web event this afternoon with the Council on Foreign Relations’ Elliott Abrams, former State Department official Gabriel Noronha and JINSA’s Michael Makovsky on the implications of the presidential election on the Middle East.
What You Should Know
European soccer games have long been fertile ground for antisemitism, with fans hurling slurs at teams with historically Jewish fan bases, like London’s Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax Amsterdam. But the assault on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam on Thursday evening went far beyond typical soccer hooliganism.
Assailants attacked Israeli fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team in the streets of Amsterdam after a game between the Israeli team and the local team Ajax – a Dutch acronym for Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs – in a series of attacks that Israeli and U.S. leaders are describing as a modern-day pogrom, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Marc Rod report.
As of Friday morning, three Israelis were unaccounted for, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and at least 10 injured, out of the roughly 3,000 Israeli fans who reportedly traveled to Amsterdam for the game.
Videos shared on social media showed Israelis being attacked, some reportedly with knives, clubs and vehicles, and attackers shouting anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian slogans. Though video circulated on social media of Israeli soccer fans chanting anti-Arab slogans and other videos showed Israelis taking down Palestinian flags from buildings, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli posted evidence suggesting that the attacks were premeditated, and targeted a hotel in which Israelis were staying, as well as a specific Maccabi fan serving in Israel’s Border Patrol.
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs said in a statement with Jewish community leaders that they were “shocked but not surprised,” and that “this was not hooliganism … People walked through the street with masks on, asking [people] if they are Jewish and then attacking them and throwing them into canals. That is Europe in 2024.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was sending planes to the Netherlands to evacuate Israeli citizens and demanded action by Dutch security forces.
The Israeli National Security Council instructed Israelis to stay in their hotel rooms and avoid going out into the street, to hide all signs of being Israeli or Jewish, and to return to Israel as soon as possible.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said in a post on X that these were “completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis. The perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted.” Five people were hospitalized and 62 arrested, according to Amsterdam police.
In a telephone conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander said, “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, blamed the attack on Muslims and wrote that the Netherlands had become the “Gaza of Europe,” calling to “arrest and deport the multicultural scum.” Read the full story here.
transition talk
Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team
As questions emerge about how President-elect Donald Trump will handle the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East during a second term, some pro-Israel foreign policy voices say they have been reassured by recent news reports that Brian Hook, a special envoy for Iran in the first Trump administration, is expected to lead the transition team at the State Department. In interviews with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel, several national security experts described Hook, 56, as a seasoned diplomat and staunch supporter of Israel who could help lay the initial groundwork and instill discipline to carry out Trump’s occasionally vague Middle East policy proposals, as he used mixed rhetoric in recent months.
Positive sign: “I couldn’t think of a better person to lead the transition team given Brian’s experience in senior roles at the State Department,” Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI on Thursday. “His role there suggests that we will be seeing highly qualified and competent people staffing the department who will implement the president’s policies of peace through strength.”
mideast matters
The limits of Biden’s lame duck foreign policy
Eight years ago, in his final days as a lame duck president, former President Barack Obama made a foreign policy decision that still gets Israeli officials’ blood boiling. Samantha Power, his ambassador to the United Nations, abstained from a December 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution demanding the immediate end to Israeli settlement construction that labeled parts of the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, as “occupied Palestinian territory.” Now, President Joe Biden finds himself facing a deadline for his ability to make a difference on the world stage. But unlike Obama, Biden is still dealing with major crises in the Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Priority list: “They are going to continue to explore any possible opening to get the hostages released,” said Dana Stroul, who served as the Pentagon’s top Middle East official for much of the Biden administration. But one caveat is that partners in the Middle East — even those who might share interests with the Biden administration — may want to wait until Trump is in office to actually seal the deal. “The actors in the region are familiar with Trump, have worked with him before, and are probably thinking about how far they can take things up to a certain line so that they can actually hand him wins starting on Jan. 21,” said Stroul.
Read the full story here for more about how the Biden administration might approach the United Nations and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in its final months.
deal or no deal
Congress skeptical of lame duck push for security deal with Saudi Arabia that leaves out Israel
A day before the election — somewhat overshadowed by the ensuing drama — a report in Axios claimed the Biden administration is making a final push for a scaled-back defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, which would include new security ties without sealing the long-sought normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Tea leaves: While it’s unclear if such an effort is still in play after the reelection of former President Donald Trump, the prospect of such a deal is being met with a chilly reception from some leaders on Capitol Hill. A more comprehensive deal also appears difficult to achieve in the few months remaining in the Biden administration, particularly with no resolution yet to the war in the Middle East, though some lawmakers continue to believe that a normalization deal in the lame duck session remains critical. Trump’s reelection could also shake up regional leaders’ approaches to the diplomatic efforts.
Read the full story here for comments from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK) and Peter Welch (D-VT) and Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).
top of mind
Netanyahu concerned ICC to issue arrest warrant before Trump takes office
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned that the International Criminal Court will issue a warrant for his arrest in the coming weeks, before President-elect Donald Trump enters office, and as Senate Democrats continue to hold up legislation sanctioning ICC officials, according to sources. Asked on Thursday about Netanyahu’s chief concerns about President Joe Biden’s remaining months in office, a Prime Minister’s Office official cited the ICC warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ahead of the possibility that the administration could allow the U.N. Security Council to pass resolutions pressuring Israel, as former President Barack Obama did, or potential moves to restrain Israel in the case of another attack from Iran, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
‘Dangerous’ actions: “As President Biden said, the ICC prosecutor’s actions are outrageous,” an Israeli Prime Minister’s Office official said. “They’re also dangerous, because they could compromise the soldiers of any democracies, and the ability of democracies to fight terrorism.” The official called the prosecutor’s petition for a warrant “troubling and peculiar,” and noted that ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan had promised a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators that he would not seek arrests before conducting an investigation in Israel. He did not arrive in Israel on the day he was scheduled to meet with senior Israeli officials and issued the request for warrants that day. “There needs to be more transparency,” the official said.
campus beat
Trump’s election puts greater pressure on universities to crack down on antisemitism
President-elect Donald Trump ran on a promise that, if reelected, U.S. universities would lose accreditation and federal support over the unprecedented level of antisemitism that has roiled campuses nationwide since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel. Following Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night — as well as Republicans winning control over the Senate and possibly the House — campus leaders who worked with Trump during his first term largely expressed relief that the likelihood of increased congressional investigations into universities over allegations of antisemitism will be “prominent on the agenda,” a contrast, they say, to how the Biden administration has handled campus antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
High expectations: “President Trump has spoken forcefully and repeatedly about campus antisemitism so we know that this is an issue that is going to be prominent on the agenda of the incoming administration,” Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and former U.S. assistant secretary of education in the Bush and Trump administrations, told JI. An example, Marcus said, is that Trump has been “very clear” about how he would deal with campus demonstrators who break the law and are not U.S. citizens. “I think we can expect to see responses there,” Marcus said.
coming to america
Yechiel Leiter, U.S.-born former Netanyahu aide, to be Israel’s next ambassador to Washington – Reports
Yechiel Leiter, a Scranton, Pa.-born former aide to Israeli Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, will be Israel’s next ambassador to the U.S. Leiter is expected to arrive in Washington in January, when Ambassador Mike Herzog’s term, which was extended from the end of this year to Jan. 20, concludes, Jewish Insider‘s Lahav Harkov reports.
Background: Leiter served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff when he was finance minister, and as an aide to Sharon in the Knesset and in the Education Ministry. More recently, Leiter has been affiliated with numerous right-leaning organizations in Israel, including the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Kohelet Forum. Leiter, a resident of the West Bank settlement Eli, grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Israel at age 18 to serve in the IDF. He is an ordained rabbi, has a doctorate in political philosophy and has written several books.
Worthy Reads
Center Stage: In Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls for bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill to address what he describes as President-elect Donald Trump’s “reckless” proposals. “Republicans had an exceptionally good night, taking the Senate and likely holding their narrow majority in the House, but their paper-thin majority should not be mistaken for a mandate. The challenges facing the country can only be tackled effectively with bipartisan compromise. One irony of the outcome is that, on almost every issue that voters identified as a priority, Trump’s proposals would likely make matters worse. The goal for Congress over the next four years should be persuading the president to avoid these bad ideas and offering him better alternatives. Trump himself should recognize that what plays in a campaign is often far different than what works in government.” [Bloomberg]
Ground Game Grounded?: Politico’s Christopher Cadelago and Holly Otterbein do a deep dive into the factors that contributed to Vice President Kamala Harris’ Election Day loss. “Even the advantages Harris’ team had long boasted about — its professional ground game versus Trump’s band of MAGA activists and billionaire rebels, along with Democrats’ perceived strength across the suburbs, were blunted. And inside the campaign, some elected officials and strategists had been warning that not only was their operation lagging, but it was being poorly run. Three weeks before Election Day in Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state, Jewish Democrats and their allies met behind closed doors with Harris officials in Pittsburgh, according to four people who attended or were briefed on the discussion. They said the surrogate operation was not up to snuff, a complaint echoed in other key states. They said the Pennsylvania team lacked relationships with key elected officials; that this mattered because it meant validators weren’t effectively being used to help persuade voters to support a candidate they barely knew.” [Politico]
Both Sides Now: The New York Times’ Katie Glueck looks at President-elect Donald Trump’s success in drawing support from both the Jewish and Muslim communities. “Even in an election marked by a reordering of the country’s traditional political teams, these strange bedfellows stand out. The two groups hold sharply divergent expectations for the president-elect. And both strongly pro-Israel voters and some of Mr. Trump’s Arab American backers are skeptical that his ascent this week is the start of a durable cross-ideological, interfaith coalition. For Mr. Trump, the question is whether he can keep both happy — or if he will even try. … It is not clear how substantively different Mr. Trump’s position on the war in Gaza will be from Mr. Biden’s. But in interviews throughout the campaign, Arab American and Muslim supporters said they were ready to take a chance on him anyway. Some were already aligned with the socially conservative views of the Republican Party. Many were nostalgic for the relative quiet of 2019.” [NYTimes]
Policy Predictions: In U.S. News, Jason Greenblatt, who served as Mideast envoy in the first Trump administration, predicts how a second Trump administration will approach the region. “I don’t speak for the president-elect, but I think the key to understanding his mindset towards the region is a May 2017 speech he gave in Riyadh, which I assisted with. In it, he foreshadowed his outreach to Saudi Arabia as a critical partner in the region. Speaking to hundreds of representatives and leaders from 54 countries across the Arab and Muslim world, Trump laid out a vision of peace in the region that began with a clear approach to the problem of terror and extremism. It was a departure from the Democrats’ tradition of being led by American diplomats with academic ideas about how to manage the problem. Middle Eastern nations, not the U.S., would have to take the lead to ensure that peace and prosperity reigns in the place of violence, Trump said in Riyadh seven years ago – and I would bet his outlook remains the same today. ‘The nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them,’ he said. ‘The nations of the Middle East will have to decide what kind of future they want for themselves.’” [USNews]
Word on the Street
U.S. officials are likely to postpone by one to two weeks the Nov. 13 deadline it had set last month for Israel to reach a series of benchmarks regarding the distribution of aid in Gaza; the extension comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant…
Massad Boulos, whose son is married to President-elect Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany and who has served as an advisor to Trump on Arab issues, said he is likely to travel to his native Lebanon in the coming weeks…
Trump tapped Susie Wiles, who unofficially served as the president-elect’s campaign manager, to serve as White House chief of staff; Wiles will be the first woman to hold the position…
Politico spotlights Trump transition team co-chairs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon…
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius considers the potential role Trump could play in efforts to wind down the wars in Israel and Ukraine…
Republican Dave McCormick was declared the winner of Pennsylvania’s Senate election over Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). Read JI’s story about McCormick’s outreach to Jewish voters here…
Democrat Laura Gillen was declared the winner of the race in New York’s 4th Congressional District, unseating freshman GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito…
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) announced he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and will undergo treatment while continuing to serve in Congress…
Daniel Lurie, an heir of the Levi Strauss family, won San Francisco’s mayoral race, ousting Mayor London Breed…
Police in Chicago charged two individuals with trespassing after the two entered a Chicago synagogue and damaged property…
A Jewish man on death row in Texas will get a new trial after an appeals court ruled that the man faced antisemitic bias by the judge who sentenced him to death for his role in a 2000 jailbreak that resulted in the death of a police officer…
Forbes interviews Josh Gad, Ben Berkowitz and Max Berkowitz about their new superhero comic series “The Writer”…
The Knesset passed a law permitting the deportation of relatives of Arab Israelis and residents of east Jerusalem who commit acts of terror; the legislation is likely to be struck down by Israel’s Supreme Court…
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the results of the U.S. election “do not matter” to Iran…
Pic of the Day
Members of the Jewish community in Los Angeles earlier this week buried hostage posters and artwork containing the images of victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks alongside damaged Torah scrolls and old prayerbooks at Temple Beth Am.
“Judaism directs us not to mourn forever; it was time to say a sacred farewell to some of the reminders of those we have lost,” explains Rabbi Hillary Chorny, cantor of Temple Beth Am. “Letting go is part of healing.”
Birthdays
French heiress, pediatrician, businesswoman and philanthropist, Léone-Noëlle Meyer turns 85 today…
FRIDAY: U.S. attorney for New Jersey, then a U.S. District Court judge, now a criminal defense attorney, Herbert Jay Stern turns 88… Actress, comedian and writer, she played the recurring role of Doris Klompus on “Seinfeld,” her solo theater shows include “Yenta Unplugged” and “The Yenta Cometh,” Annie Korzen turns 86… Former CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, he was a senior White House aide to President Bill Clinton, Ira C. Magaziner turns 77… Leader of the Sephardic baal teshuva movement in Israel, Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak turns 71… Senior managing director and global head of government relations for Blackstone, Wayne Berman turns 68… COO at Forsight, Michael Sosebee… Emirati businessman and developer of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, Mohamed Alabbar turns 68… Health care executive, venture capitalist and real estate developer, Daniel E. Straus turns 68… Financial consultant at Retirement Benefits Consulting, Michelle Feinberg Silverstein… Israel’s minister of defense until three days ago, Yoav Gallant turns 66… Television producer, she is the co-author of Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 book Lean In, Helen Vivian “Nell” Scovell turns 64… NYC area attorney, Charles “Chesky” Wertman… Principal at Lore Strategies, Laurie Moskowitz… Popular Israeli female vocalist in the Mizrahi music genre, Zehava Ben turns 56… Board member at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Allison Gingold… Sports journalist for TelevisaUnivision Deportes Network, he was born in Ashkelon, Israel, and has covered both the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, David Moshé Faitelson turns 56… Professional poker player and fashion designer, Beth Shak turns 55… Founder of Ayecha, Yavilah McCoy turns 52… Congregational rabbi in Paris and co-leader of the Liberal Jewish Movement of France, Delphine Horvilleur turns 50… CEO of Gold Star Financial Group, Daniel Milstein turns 49… Israeli singer, Lior Narkis turns 48… Deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, Mira Kogen Resnick turns 42… Director of high school affairs at the American Jewish Committee, Aaron Bregman… Principal at Bayit Consulting, Roei Eisenberg turns 37… Film and television actor, Jared Kusnitz turns 36… Consultant on media and strategic communications, Alana Weiner… Student at Johns Hopkins University in the Class of 2026, Cameron Elizabeth Fields… Allan Waxman…
SATURDAY: Israeli novelist and playwright, she is the mother of former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Shulamit Lapid turns 90… British businessman and philanthropist, formerly chairman of Lloyds Bank, Sir Maurice Victor Blank turns 82… Professional baseball manager in the minor leagues and college, he managed Team Israel in 2016 and 2017, Jerry Weinstein turns 81… Israeli war hero and longtime past member of the Knesset, Zevulun Orlev turns 79… Principal of Los Angeles-based PR and public affairs firm Cerrell Associates, Hal Dash… San Diego-based media developer, Daniel Ajzen… Mitchell Bedell… Former deputy national security advisor for President Trump, Charles Martin Kupperman turns 74… U.S. senator (D-Ohio) and chair of the Senate Banking Committee until his 18-year term ends in January, Sherrod Brown turns 72… Senior producer at NBC Nightly News, Joel Seidman… Political consultant and fundraiser, she founded “No Labels” in 2010, Nancy Jacobson turns 62… Executive director of Los Angeles-based Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project, Samara Hutman… Professor of journalism and media studies at Fordham University, Amy Beth Aronson turns 62… Partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis, Douglas C. Gessner… Partner at Covington & Burling specializing in export controls and sanctions, he was previously the assistant secretary of commerce for export administration during the Bush 43 administration, Peter Lichtenbaum turns 59… Chairman and CEO of Sky Harbour, he is an American-born Israeli fighter pilot and author of a 2018 book on the future of Judaism, Tal Keinan turns 55… Grammy Award-winning record producer specializing in comedy, Dan Schlissel turns 54… Founding CEO of OneTable, Aliza Kline… Associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court since 2015, despite being legally blind since birth as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, Richard H. Bernstein turns 50… Journalist and pioneering podcaster, he is the creator and host of “How I Built This” and “Wisdom from the Top,” Guy Raz turns 49… Israeli singer and actress, Maya Bouskilla turns 47… Co-founder and executive director of the States Project, he was elected the youngest member of the New York State Senate in 2008, serving until 2017, Daniel Squadron turns 45… COO at Orchestra, a PR and communications firm, David Levine… Singer, songwriter and rapper, Ari Benjamin Lesser turns 38… Chess grandmaster, he has 437,000 subscribers on YouTube, Daniel Naroditsky turns 29… Army JAG officer, Matthew Adam McCoy…
SUNDAY: Manager of the Decatur, Ga.-based Connect Hearing, Murray Kurtzberg… Former NBA player in the 1960s who became a lawyer and then a New York State judge, Barry D. Kramer turns 82… One of the four deans of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., one of the largest yeshivas in the world with more than 9,000 students, Rabbi Yerucham Olshin turns 81… Professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he is a co-founder of Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, Oliver B. Pollak turns 81… Former Reagan administration appointee at the Department of Agriculture, Howard Marks turns 80… Former CNN news anchor whose first day on the job was Sept. 11, 2001, Aaron Brown turns 76… Former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, Raphael J. Sonenshein turns 75… Journalist at Holaro and The Muck-Rake, after 30 years at CBS’s “60 Minutes,”Howard L. Rosenberg… Israeli journalist, Elli Wohlgelernter turns 71… Chief administrative officer at the Legacy Heritage Fund, Elaine Weitzman… ESPN’s longest-tenured SportsCenter anchor, Linda Cohn turns 65… Rabbi at Temple Beth Kodesh in Boynton Beach, Fla., Michael C. Simon… Professor at Bar-Ilan University, he is a social historian, Adam Ferziger turns 60… Senior rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, Ken Chasen turns 59… Former MLB right-fielder for 14 seasons, he founded Greenfly, a software firm for sports and entertainment organizations, Shawn Green turns 52… National security editor at the Washington Post, Benjamin Pauker… Co-founder in 2004 of Yelp, where he remains the CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman turns 47… Executive director of the Ruderman Family Foundation, Shira Menashe Ruderman turns 46… Chief investigative reporter at ABC News, Josh Margolin turns 45… Senior advisor on the public health team at Bloomberg Philanthropies, Jean B. Weinberg… YouTube personality with 350 million views, Josh Peck turns 38… Actress and producer, Zoey Francis Chaya Thompson Deutch turns 30…
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