Daily Kickoff: Inside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago majlis
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago version of the Arab world’s majlis, and do a deep dive into how efforts to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act this year fell short. We cover the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to maintain control over the West Bank and report on a Maryland state senator’s dressing-down of Sen. Chris Van Hollen over his outspoken criticism of Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Gergen, David Axelrod and U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
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: Ireland’s chilly relations towards Israel turning more hostile; How Australia went from ‘goldene medina’ to ‘vitriol and vilification’ of Jews; and Israel’s culinary ambassador Eyal Shani doubles South Florida footprint with new kosher restaurant. Print the latest edition here.
Ed. note: While this is the last Daily Kickoff of 2024, make sure to check JewishInsider.com and follow us on WhatsApp and social media as we’ll be publishing stories throughout. The Daily Kickoff will return to your inbox on Thursday, Jan. 2. Happy New Year, Hanukkah and holidays!
What We’re Watching
- A delegation of senior U.S. officials including Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf; Daniel Rubinstein, a senior adviser in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs; and Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s hostage affairs envoy, is planning to travel to Syria in the coming days.
- This Sunday’s edition of CBS’ “60 Minutes” will feature a segment on the Israeli operation that targeted thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.
What You Should Know
What’s been taking place at George Mason University — just outside the nation’s capital in Northern Virginia — is an alarming reminder that turning a blind eye to rising antisemitism and pro-terror sloganeering could have deadly consequences, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
This semester alone, three GMU students have been expelled over their ties to terrorist groups. The most alarming case was revealed on Thursday night, after freshman Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan was charged with plotting a mass casualty attack at the Israel’s consulate in New York.
“Two options: lay havoc on them with an assault rifle or detonate a TATP [suicide] vest in the midst of them,” Hassan reportedly told an FBI agent posing as a terrorist sympathizer. The George Mason freshman faces one count of demonstrating how to manufacture an explosive with intent to murder internationally protected persons, which carries a maximum possible sentence of 20 years.
Hassan, an Egyptian national, was a ticking time bomb who was welcomed onto George Mason’s campus despite a record of terrorism sympathies. He had been interviewed (but not charged) by the FBI in 2022 for allegedly spreading Islamic State content online, and shared do-it-yourself video instructions for making a bomb that could be set off in a crowd for maximum lethality, according to the Washington Post.
The 18-year-old Hassan reportedly praised Osama bin Laden frequently on social media while boasting about the antisemitic and terrorist propaganda he was spreading, according to the Post.
The FBI had been tracking Hassan on George Mason’s campus, where he was pursuing an information technology major.
The university’s response to these alarming developments have been muted, while avoiding any mention of the suspect’s Islamist extremist sympathies. “As criminal proceedings progress, the university will take appropriate action on student code of conduct violations,” George Mason University president Gregory Washington wrote Thursday in a message to the campus community.
After the arrest was reported, George Mason law school professor Adam Mossoff divulged a shocking footnote to that hadn’t previously been reported: For the past year, a permanent police presence has been stationed on the school’s law school campus to protect two Jewish law school professors. “I have greater clarity now why this had to be done. It’s shameful that GMU has fostered an environment where this is needed for its profs,” Mossoff wrote on X.
Hassan isn’t the only George Mason student recently disciplined over ties to terrorism. As JI reported earlier this month, two sisters who served as leaders of the campus’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine were indefinitely suspended for vandalizing school property with anti-Israel slogans. A subsequent law enforcement search of their family home found pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah paraphernalia along with insignia calling for death to Jews.
To our surprise, most Virginia elected officials — with the notable exception of GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who said in a statement to JI that SJP poses a threat to the Jewish community in Virginia — don’t seem to be all that alarmed by the presence of pro-terror sympathizers on the prominent Virginia college campus.
If a GMU student’s terrorism plot designed to kill scores of Israelis and Jews doesn’t stir broader alarm from elected officials and university leaders and awaken some urgency within the Jewish community about the nature of these growing threats, it’s difficult to imagine what it would take to move the political needle.
mar-a-lago majlis
Trump brings the majlis to Mar-a-Lago
In the Persian Gulf region, Arab leaders have for millennia presided over a unique social tradition known as the majlis, derived from the Arabic term for “sitting room.” The loosely defined gatherings, which customarily take place in a home, have long been recognized as a primary meeting point where community members can go to resolve issues, ask for favors or simply cultivate relationships, among other things. In South Florida, close to the warm and coursing waters of the Gulf Stream, President-elect Donald Trump is now enacting what experts interpret as his own version of the majlis, as he continues to receive a procession of foreign leaders, business executives, media personalities, Cabinet picks and other visitors at his palatial Mar-a-Lago residence, where he has held court in the weeks leading up to his inauguration next month, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Holding court: Typically segregated by gender, the majlis, which UNESCO has recognized as an intangible cultural heritage, has functioned as a “place where men and women, royals and non-royals, gather to talk about multiple subjects, not just politics,” said Sean Foley, a professor of Middle East and Islamic history at Middle Tennessee State University. For the incoming president, the key word is no doubt “royal,” Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Iran envoy in Trump’s first term, suggested to JI. “Mar-a-Lago these days does resemble a modern royal majlis in many ways,” Abrams observed. “There’s a royal family. There is adulation of the ruler. People bring claims, grievances and pleadings, and they seek jobs and favors. There are lots of television sets showing the news. Admission to the majlis is widely sought and prestigious. Outside, it’s hot and sunny.” But, Abrams clarified, there are also some differences. For example? “Trump’s majlis has lots of women and golf shirts.”
is the aaa doa?
How the Antisemitism Awareness Act fell apart
Prospects looked promising earlier this year for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, bipartisan legislation that passed the House by a 320-91 vote in May, following shocking scenes of anti-Israel protests on college campuses. The bill was buoyed by advocacy from major American Jewish organizations amid a nationwide wave of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But the legislation ground to a halt in the Senate. With just days left in the congressional session and lawmakers now scrambling to avert an imminent government shutdown beginning tonight, it appears likely that the bill will be left on the cutting room floor, and Congress will conclude its business, in the worst period of antisemitism in decades, without passing any major new legislation on the issue.
What happened: After a lengthy delay in the Senate — which two sources attributed to concerns about Democratic divisions and another blamed on concerns about Republican amendments — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) attempted to add the bill to a must-pass legislative package. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) initially rejected the request, but later put forward a compromise offer to pair the bill with International Criminal Court sanctions, an effort which was unsuccessful. Now, advocates for the bill are assigning blame, with some saying responsibility rests on Schumer alone, while others say that there’s blame to be shared among Schumer and Johnson.
chris, crossed
Maryland state legislator blasts Van Hollen at JCRC breakfast
Maryland state Sen. Ben Kramer, a Democrat, blasted Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) at a breakfast organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington on Wednesday over his outspoken criticism towards Israel’s war in Gaza and votes to block some aid to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Can’t get no satisfaction: The speech, which Kramer told JI was well received by the audience, is another sign of the deep dissatisfaction in Maryland’s Jewish community with the state’s soon-to-be-senior senator over his approach to the war in the Middle East. Kramer told JI he’s been “very disheartened and disappointed” at how Van Hollen has approached the conflict, expressing particular outrage at comments from Van Hollen questioning whether Israel is fighting the war in Gaza in a just manner and the senator’s support for resolutions led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to stop some military aid shipments. “All that does, is simply provides support, moral support, if nothing else, to Iran and its proxies to keep prosecuting their military efforts against Israel, because they are succeeding in the propaganda war,” Kramer said.
Bonus: In the Washington Post, Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, pens a letter to the editor responding to an op-ed by Van Hollen earlier this month in which the senator criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
FIGHTING HATE
House Republicans call on Congress to cut off federal funding to universities that boycott Israel
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and top House Republicans called on Congress to cut off federal funding to universities that target Israel in an after-action report detailing the findings of their seven-month investigation into the surge of domestic antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
Report card: One of the 11 policy recommendations made to Congress, the White House and the universities themselves in the report, released on Tuesday, states that the House and Senate “should pass legislation removing Title IV eligibility from any university that boycotts or divests from Israel.” Such legislation would ban any university that boycotts Israel from receiving federal funding. Another recommendation calls on universities to “recognize that discrimination against ‘Zionists’ is an unacceptable antisemitic civil rights violation.” The report was authored by Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who chairs the House GOP Conference, and Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT), the vice chair of the conference.
west bank woes
The Palestinian Authority’s fight for survival in the West Bank — and its implications for Gaza
The Palestinian Authority’s attempt to assert itself in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad stronghold of Jenin for the past week is reviving debate in Israel over the PA’s potential involvement in administering post-war Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. In a rare crackdown, PA security forces killed a PIJ commander in Jenin on Saturday, and have been conducting ongoing operations to “restore order” since then, accusing the terrorist group of adopting an “ISIS approach” and planning an attack on Palestinian civilians. The operation comes amid efforts to crack down on Iran’s smuggling of weapons into the West Bank from Jordan in an attempt to destabilize the PA and spark attacks on Israel.
PA protection: “There are a number of things that need to be done immediately to maintain the stability of the PA right now, because it is in everyone’s interest that they remain strong,” an Israeli official told JI. “It’s a very critical time, because if the PA is weak or if these extremist factions do succeed in creating chaos in [the West Bank], then it could also further ignite the rest of that area, which is a big concern.” The official noted that there are many international players “who see the PA as the future,” yet few regional players other than Israel are paying attention to what is happening. “The alarm bells have not yet rung for those who also maintain a strong interest in keeping the PA going,” the official added.
Worthy Reads
Women’s Work: Bloomberg’s Alisa Odenheimer spotlights the IDF’s new all-female intelligence unit, the army’s first unit solely for religious women. “‘I always had a dream to enlist in a combat role, but I never thought it would actually happen,’ said Shira Winter, one of the new recruits. ‘Then the war came, and everything changed.’ Israel’s military has been stretched by a war that it has fought on multiple fronts, and that has dragged on more than a year. Forces are currently deployed in Gaza, Lebanon, and in the buffer zone with Syria, as well as in the West Bank and along the border with Jordan. … With about 170,000 active personnel out of a population of 10 million, Israel’s army is large by global standards. But even with hundreds of thousands of additional reservists it’s seen as too small to cope with the existential threats facing the country. ‘They really need more combat soldiers; you hear about it all the time,’ said Adva Bucholtz, another new recruit. ‘It seems to me that my service there would be significant.’” [Bloomberg]
Proxy Problem: The New Yorker’s Robin Wright looks at the collapse of Iran’s proxy network across the Middle East. “The international story of this year may be the collapse of Iran’s alliances. In Syria, the sadistic Assad dynasty, in power for more than a half century, has been ousted by Sunni rebels. (The Assads are members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of early Shiite Islam.) As the rebels advanced on Damascus, Tehran abruptly pulled out its Revolutionary Guards and Basij paramilitary forces, which had been deployed to prop up President Bashar al-Assad. ‘Some expect us to fight in place of the Syrian Army,’ the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps told Iranian media. ‘Is it logical for the I.R.G.C. and Basij forces to take on full responsibility while Syria’s Army merely observes?’ Several Iranian generals have been killed in Syria since 2014, the most recent one in November. Tehran also shuttered its Embassy and evacuated four thousand citizens on emergency flights.” [NewYorker]
Word on the Street
The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Iran and entities linked to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, including three ships involved in the transport of petrochemicals from Iran…
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the incoming Trump administration’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel, addressed the Israel-Hamas war and antisemitism at the One Israel Fund’s 30th anniversary gala in New York City last night, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy…
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) blasted the international community for having “shown nothing approaching the moral outrage that it reserves for Israel” following the discovery of a mass grave outside Damascus…
Bloomberg reports on former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt‘s efforts to buy TikTok from parent company ByteDance, which includes conversations with the Trump transition team over the possible sale…
Democratic Majority for Israel President Mark Mellman wrote to the 20 Democratic lawmakers who signed a letter calling for the U.S. to suspend offensive arms sales to Israel, calling the effort “misleading, counterproductive, and dangerous.” The letter accuses the lawmakers of misrepresenting the administration’s efforts and positions, ignoring Israel’s work to provide aid, ignoring aid theft in Gaza and ultimately “inviting Iran to attack the Jewish state”…
The Justice Department charged an Arizona man with making nearly 1,000 antisemitic phone calls to a New York City hotelier, his family and his employees…
Democratic political operative David Axelrod ended his long-running podcast, “The Axe Files,” with fellow Chicagoan and outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel as his final guest…
In a Boston Globe op-ed, the daughter of writer and political advisor David Gergen, who served in four presidential administrations, revealed that her father was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia…
New Jersey’s state Assembly and Senate both voted unanimously to pass legislation moving the date of the state’s 2025 primary, which falls on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot; Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to sign the bill into law…
The New York City Council passed legislation that will allow hundreds of private and religious schools to qualify for a safety program that would cover the costs of additional security guards on school property…
The Philadelphia School District reached a settlement with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after an investigation found that the district did not adequately address reports of antisemitism in its schools…
Police in Chicago released bodycam footage taken from the confrontation with an Illinois man who shot a Jewish man walking to synagogue last month…
Rabbi Jack Moline published his two-volume Different Chapter, Same Verse, a new collection of essays on every chapter of the Torah…
The New York Times reviews “The Brutalist,” a new film, starring Adrien Brody, about a Hungarian-Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust and attempted to rebuild his life in the U.S…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson, a member of Starmer’s Labour party, to be the U.K.’s ambassador to Washington…
Sweden’s aid minister said that Stockholm would cease its funding to UNRWA, and plans to send aid to Gaza through other agencies and organizations…
An Israeli man was indicted in a Jerusalem court on charges that he spied on behalf of Iran…
The Associated Press breaks down the remaining hurdles in Israel-Hamas cease-fire and hostage-release negotiations…
Following Iran’s cessation of crude oil shipments to Syria, the country’s largest oil refinery paused operations…
Turkey is mulling removing its sanctions on the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group in Syria that led the coalition that overthrew the Assad regime…
Pic of the Day
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely listened to U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis speak during a Hanukkah reception with members of the British Jewish community on Wednesday in London.
Birthdays
Producer of over 90 plays on and off Broadway for which she has won seven Pulitzer Prizes and ten Tony Awards, Daryl Roth turns 80 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Founder of an on-line children’s bookstore featuring titles in a variety of languages, Yona Eckstein… Former chair of the executive committee of the Jewish Federations of North America, Michael Gelman turns 80… Illusionist, magician, television personality and self-proclaimed psychic, Uri Geller turns 78… Television producer, he is the creator of the “Law & Order,” “Chicago” and “FBI” franchises, Richard Anthony (Dick) Wolf turns 78… Southern California resident, Carol Gene Berk… Owner of the Beverly Hilton Hotel and the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, Binyamin “Beny” Alagem turns 72… President of the University of Miami from 2015 until 2024, on New Years Day he will become the provost of UCLA, Julio Frenk turns 71… Flushing, N.Y., resident, Bob Lindenbaum… Educational advocate and strategist at the Melmed Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., until this past summer, Ricki Light… Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale since 2014, she is a professor of both philosophy and psychology, Tamar Szabó Gendler turns 59… Author of the 2019 book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, she writes the “Dear Therapist” column for The Atlantic, Lori Gottlieb turns 58… Retired IDF general and commander of the Israeli Air Force until 2022, Amikam Norkin turns 58… CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, Jeremy Burton… Swiss-born British philosopher and author, Alain de Botton turns 55… Former tight end for the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints, now a senior sales rep for Medtronic, Scott Lawrence Slutzker turns 52… Israeli-American television and film writer and producer, Ron Leshem turns 48… Actor, producer, screenwriter and comedian, known by his first and middle names, Jonah Hill Feldstein turns 41… Director of development for Hadassah Metro (NY, NJ, CT), Adam Wolfthal… Program and special initiatives director at Kirsh Philanthropies, Megan Nathan… Humor and fashion writer best known as Man Repeller, Leandra Medine Cohen turns 36… Israeli singer who performs Hebrew, English, Arabic and Spanish songs and covers, Ofir Ben Shitrit turns 29… Pitcher in the Houston Astros organization, he pitched for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Colton Gordon turns 26…
SATURDAY: Former chair of the NY Fed and a partner at Goldman Sachs, Stephen Friedman turns 87… Born in Auschwitz five weeks before liberation, she is one of only two babies born there known to have survived, Angela Orosz-Richt turns 80… Artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony, conductor, pianist and composer, Michael Tilson Thomas (family name was Thomashefsky) turns 80… Member of Knesset since 1999 for the Likud party, now serving as minister of tourism, Haim Katz turns 77… Director of the LA Initiative at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, he was a member of the LA County Board of Supervisors for 20 years following 20 years on the LA City Council, Zev Yaroslavsky turns 76… Film, television and voice actor, Barry Gordon turns 76… CEO of WndrCo and former CEO of DreamWorks Animation and chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg turns 74… Former member of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, where she became the first female Jewish minister in Australia, Marsha Rose Thomson turns 69… Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney, he is a behind-the-scenes fixture in the world of rap musicians, Drew O. Findling… Retired four-star general who served as chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, David L. Goldfein turns 65… U.S. secretary of the Treasury during almost all of the Trump 45 administration, Steven Mnuchin turns 62… Senior NFL insider for ESPN, Adam Schefter turns 58… Owner of Liberty Consultants in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, Cherie Velez… Former member of the Knesset for the Kulanu party, Rachel Azaria turns 47… President of France since 2017, Emmanuel Macron turns 47… Principal of Kona Media and Message, he is also the founder of Scriber, Brian Goldsmith… State scheduler for Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Laura Benbow turns 39… Israeli actor and fashion model, Michael Mario Lewis turns 37… Chief creative officer of Five Seasons Media, Josh Scheinblum… EVP in the financial services practice at Weber Shandwick, Julia Bloch Mellon… Assistant metro editor for the Boston Globe, Joshua Miller…
SUNDAY: Retired New York Supreme Court judge, Arthur J. Cooperman turns 91… Former president of the World Bank, U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. deputy secretary of defense and dean of JHU’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Paul Wolfowitz turns 81… NYC-based political consultant since 1969, ordained as a rabbi by Chabad in 2011, his early career included stints as a policeman, taxi driver and bounty hunter, Henry “Hank” Sheinkopf turns 75… Retired assistant principal from the Philadelphia school district, Elissa Siegel… Associate at Mersky, Jaffe & Associates, he was previously executive director of Big Tent Judaism and VP of the Wexner Heritage Foundation, Rabbi Kerry Olitzky turns 70… Rosh yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Michael Rosensweig turns 68… Retired Israeli brigadier general who then served as the national CEO of the Friends of the IDF, Yehiel Gozal turns 67… Senior managing director in the D.C. office of Newmark where she is responsible for investment sales and commercial leasing transactions, Lisa Benjamin… Former CFO of Enron Corporation, Andrew Fastow turns 63… Rabbi at Temple Sinai of Palm Desert, California, David Novak turns 62… Filmmaker, novelist, video game writer and comic book writer, David Samuel Goyer turns 59… NPR correspondent covering the State Department and Washington’s diplomatic corps, Michele Kelemen turns 57… Film and television actress, Dina Meyer turns 56… CEO of Next Titan Capital until four months ago, Michael Huttner… U.S. senator (R-TX), Ted Cruz turns 54… CEO of American Council of Young Political Leaders, Libby Rosenbaum… Contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and author of a best-selling book, James Kirchick turns 41… Writer and editor from New York City, Sofia Ergas Groopman… Business development representative at HiBob, Carly Korman Schlakman… Head of philanthropy and impact investment for EJF Philanthropies, Simone Friedman… Liberty Consultants’ Lisa Brazie… New York Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza and former Times of Israel Arab affairs correspondent, Aaron Boxerman…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
