Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we sit down with former Rep. Anthony Weiner to discuss his potential reentry into politics and profile Jackson Township, N.J., Councilman Mordechai Burnstein, the first Orthodox Jewish member of the council. We talk to Mark Isakowitz about his new role as chief of staff to Sen.-elect Dave McCormick and spotlight U.K. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Ric Grenell and David Cone.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping a close eye on cease-fire and hostage-release talks, following reports that Hamas has conceded on key terms of a proposed agreement — that Israeli troops would be permitted to remain in Gaza during the cease-fire and that it would provide a list of hostages who would be released if a deal is reached.
- White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is in Israel today for meetings aimed at moving forward in the talks, while Secretary of State Tony Blinken is in Jordan for conversations about the evolving situation in Syria.
What You Should Know
The days since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been marked by constant action by the IDF to secure Israel’s north, capturing the peak of Mount Hermon and striking Syrian weapons stockpiles to ensure that strategic weapons will not reach the hands of rebels who may seek to harm the Jewish state.
That activity stands in sharp contrast to Israel’s approach to Syria over more than a decade, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak predicted a speedy downfall for Assad, calling it a “blessing” for the Middle East.
But as the war continued over years, Israel seemed to take more of a “better the devil you know” approach to Damascus. Israel provided medicine and humanitarian aid to the Kurds and to Syrian refugees, building a field hospital on the border between the countries and treating over 600 Syrian children in Israel — but also made clear that it was not going to pick a side.
Israel even inadvertently played a role in propping up Assad. When Assad used chemical weapons on his own people, crossing a line set by then-President Barack Obama, Israel provided the ladder Washington used to climb down from its threats to attack, suggesting that Russia, which maintained good relations with Assad, assume responsibility for destroying the chemical weapons — which would also eliminate what had been a decades-long strategic threat to Israel. The approach provided legitimacy for broader Russian involvement, which Moscow took advantage of, deploying its military in Syria for years — though Yossi Kuperwasser, a former Israeli official who helped incept the plan, argued to JI this week that Russia did what it wanted regardless of the chemical weapons agreement.
In the “war between wars” that went on for over a decade, Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria – but only at Iranian and Hezbollah targets (though it also struck Syrian military anti-aircraft installations when fired upon).
Yet the moment Assad fell, the reaction in Israel was overwhelmingly positive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “great opportunity” and “the direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters.” On social media, many Israelis were no less than euphoric, and jokes and memes about skiing from the peak of Mount Hermon abounded.
In that same statement, Netanyahu mentioned that he ordered the IDF to enter the buffer zone between Israel and Syria to ensure the border’s security. The Israeli Air Force and Navy struck missile ships, anti-aircraft batteries and weapons production sites. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Israel bombed sites where chemical weapons were stored.
That after over a decade of great caution, Israel struck hundreds of targets in a few days indicates that the reality shaping up in Syria is still fraught with risk for the Jewish state — despite the feeling that Assad’s fall means, as Netanyahu put it this week, “absolute victory … is, today, becoming reality.”
Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani said he “has no intentions to enter wars in the future” and primarily wanted to rid Syria of Iran and Hezbollah, and Netanyahu says that Israel “wants relations with the new regime in Syria.” That could be cause for optimism, but with an Al-Qaida offshoot militia near its borders, Israel is not taking any chances.
Exclusive
Anthony Weiner mulls political comeback in New York
Late last week, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 for sharing sexually inappropriate online messages and was later imprisoned for sexting a minor, formally filed to explore a campaign for the New York City Council, where his political career began in the early 1990s before he ascended to the House for seven terms. He has not yet confirmed if he will ultimately choose to run for the Council seat but in his first extensive comments to a media outlet on his newfound political ambitions, Weiner told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel he believes that reckoning with his personal experiences could be channeled to productive use as a public servant rather than disqualifying him from civic life.
New York needs: For the last several years, “I’ve scratched the itch in different ways,” Weiner said, working as the chief executive of a kitchen countertop company in his native borough of Brooklyn and now hosting a radio show on WABC, “but for the most part, living life as a civilian.” He feels that New York City politics is in need of a reset after last month’s election, when President-elect Donald Trump outperformed every GOP nominee in nearly three decades while drawing pronounced support from working-class voters who had long been a dependable part of the Democratic coalition. “I kind of sensed this ennui that we saw in the results,” he said. “This general sense that there’s just not a great connection between what politicians are saying and doing in this city and the challenges that regular people are facing — it just seemed like this huge gulf had emerged.”
Elsewhere in NYC: Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is officially launching his campaign for New York City comptroller today, he said in an announcement shared with JI. Levine, a Jewish Democrat, touted endorsements from several prominent local elected officials, including Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn’s borough president. “We’re facing a dual crisis of affordability and confidence in government,” Levine said, pledging to be “a watchdog for taxpayers.”
Across the pond
Leader of U.K. Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch showcases her pro-Israel bona fides
Kemi Badenoch grew up in 1980s Lagos, Nigeria, a world away culturally, politically and economically from Israel. But when it comes to the Jewish state, the new leader of U.K.’s Conservative Party and the first Black woman to head a major political party in England, feels Israel “in her kishkes,” attests the man she has tapped as shadow attorney general, Lord David Wolfson. “She sees Israel for what it is, which is a democratic, pluralist state with Western values, with an independent judiciary and fighting to maintain that society in a very tough neighborhood,” Wolfson told Lianne Kolirin, reporting for Jewish Insider.
D.C. visit: Badenoch was in Washington recently to attend the 2024 conference of the International Democracy Union (IDU), whose tagline is “the global movement of the center right.” A vocal critic of “wokeism” — or as she referred to it in her speech, “progressive authoritarianism” — she also spoke of her hopes for working with the future U.S. government. She said that the “right to protest is used as a cover to carry out intimidation,” highlighting incidents around the world where posters of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have been ripped down. While in the U.S., she met with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who posted a picture of himself and Badenoch on Sunday. “Great to see the leader of the UK conservatives, @KemiBadenoch during her trip to the US. We discussed many topics, but I was unable to persuade her that coffee is much better than tea. Cheers, Kemi!” Vance posted on X.
Jackson first
From Shabbat surveillance to city council: The rise of an Orthodox GOP activist in New Jersey
When Mordechai Burnstein moved to Jackson Township, N.J., in 2015, his was just the third Orthodox Jewish family to settle in their neighborhood; now, he estimates there are more than 350 Orthodox families living there. Last month, he became the first Orthodox Jew ever elected to the town council, a major victory for the leader of a once-marginalized community, boosted by reported record voter turnout. Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch talked to Burnstein this week about his path from fighting discriminatory laws to receiving the support of a mayor who once spurned the local Jewish community.
Looking forward: In the past two years, Jackson has settled civil rights suits with both the New Jersey attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding local policies that targeted Jewish residents. But Burnstein says it’s time to close that shameful chapter. “The story really is that there were speed bumps, but we’re going to live in the present and the future. We have to, as a community, as Americans, learn how to learn from people’s mistakes, but move on. You can’t always be living with those scars,” said Burnstein, who has served on the council since he was appointed to fill a term-limited vacancy last year.
Read the full interview here.
Hate watch
Gov. Youngkin says Students for Justice in Palestine poses ‘a clear and present threat to Jewish students and the Jewish community in Virginia’
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin warned that the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine “pose[s] a clear and present threat to Jewish students and the Jewish community in Virginia,” in a statement to Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen on Tuesday. The comment from Youngkin, a Republican, follows a police search into the family home of George Mason University SJP leaders, where officers found firearms, scores of ammunition and pro-terror materials, including Hamas and Hezbollah flags and signs that read “death to America” and “death to Jews.”
Standout comment: Youngkin’s comment contrasted with prominent Democrats in the state, who have either remained silent or had muted reactions. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told JI that the situation is “a matter for local law enforcement and George Mason University. The incident is very concerning and raises a lot of questions about the search, particularly the discovery of weapons and whether they posed a danger to students and the community. I have confidence that the police will get to the bottom of the situation and I will continue to monitor for more developments.” Other Virginia Democrats did not respond to multiple requests for comment from JI about the incident, including Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor, and Reps. Don Beyer and Gerry Connolly, as well as Sen. Mark Warner. Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican candidate in the state’s gubernatorial race, also did not respond to request for comment. Rep.-elect Eugene Vindman (D-VA) declined to comment.
Read the full story here.
Google to capitol
Mark Isakowitz on his new role as Sen.-elect McCormick’s chief of staff
Mark Isakowitz, Google’s top lobbyist who was tapped by Sen.-elect Dave McCormick (R-PA) this week as his chief of staff, says his future boss’s “commitment to Israel and defending the Jewish people at a perilous time” was part of what moved him to accept the new role. McCormick announced on Tuesday that Isakowitz, who previously served as former Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) chief of staff, will return to Capitol Hill to run his new office. The incoming senator praised Isakowitz in a statement as “an expert at bringing people together to deliver results for the American people,” touting his work with Portman on President-elect Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Isakowitz’s reasons: Speaking to JI about his decision to leave K Street for the Senate, Isakowitz said the potential for McCormick to be a “high-impact” senator “was palpable for me, and that’s why I’m excited to do this.” Isakowitz noted, “I’m the child of two Holocaust survivors who couldn’t have imagined they’d have a child working near the dome of the Capitol. I’ve always had the view that these opportunities are precious. If you have a chance to do them for the right people, you should go for it.”
Education consternation
Jewish leaders outraged after independent school conference featured radical anti-Israel rhetoric
Jewish leaders expressed “deep concern” in a letter on Wednesday to the president of the National Association of Independent Schools — a group that counts more than 100 Jewish day schools as members — after the association held a recent conference where several speakers accused Israel of genocide and spread anti-Israel rhetoric, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. At the NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC), held last week in Denver, “a Jewish student stated that he and his peers ‘felt so targeted, so unsafe, that we tucked our Magen Davids in our shirts and walked out as those around us glared and whispered,’” according to the letter.
Keynote concerns: In addition, keynote speaker Dr. Suzanne Barakat, an assistant clinical professor at the School of Medicine and executive director of the University of California, San Francisco Health and Human Rights Initiative, defined Zionism as when “some European Jews decided that the solution to solving antisemitism in Europe and Russia was the establishment of a state in Palestine,” the letter states.
Worthy Reads
McConnell’s Warning: The Financial Times’ Alex Rogers interviews Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) about his concerns over the future of the party as the longtime GOP leader prepares to leave GOP leadership at the end of the year. “A pivotal politician in a tumultuous time, McConnell earned power and used it to shift the country to the right during his 17-year tenure. He won races across the country, raised more than $1bn to boost his colleagues and negotiated trillion-dollar-plus bills, including the aid that lifted the country out of the pandemic. He became enormously influential and broadly unpopular, making enemies among Democrats for blocking judicial nominations to the Supreme Court and among Republicans for his occasional, sharp criticisms of Donald Trump. With the latter preparing to return to the White House next month, the veteran lawmaker issues a warning from America’s past. ‘We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before WWII,’ he says. ‘Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.’ … McConnell has been [a] Kentucky senator since 1985. Having committed to serving the final two years of his term, he intends to spend the time pushing back against the increasingly isolationist elements of today’s GOP. ‘The cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war,’ he says, reeling off the figures to prove it.” [FT]
A Hostage Family’s Hope: For Fox News, Moshe Emilio Lavi, whose brother-in-law, Omri Miran, is a hostage in Gaza, suggests that GOP control of the White House, Senate and House could break the diplomatic stalemate and allow for the remaining hostages to be freed. “[President Joe Biden’s administration] worked diligently, especially for the American hostages, and his leadership has left an indelible mark on the international response to the crisis. However, deep divisions within his party hamstrung his ability to pressure all sides effectively. Progressive voices critical of Israeli policy complicated U.S.-Israeli coordination, while a lack of unified strategy and urgency limited the administration’s engagement with Hamas’ backers. Now, with Trump’s return, the game has changed. His alignment with Netanyahu and his hawkish stance on Iran makes it possible to align U.S. and Israeli priorities in a way that was more challenging under the previous administration. Moreover, a Republican Congress can provide the unified legislative support needed to back bold executive actions, from increased military aid for Israel to sanctions or diplomatic maneuvers targeting Hamas’ sponsors. … For families like mine, this is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of life and death. We need leadership that can break through the impasse and deliver results. If the Republican trifecta can provide Israel with the guarantees it needs and compel Hamas’ sponsors to act, then this moment must not be wasted.” [FoxNews]
Word on the Street
President-elect Donald Trump is mulling Ric Grenell, who served in the first Trump administration as acting director of national intelligence, for the role of Iran envoy in the next administration…
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), Trump’s pick for national security advisor, vowed a “huge shift” back to the maximum-pressure campaign the Trump administration undertook against Iran in its first term…
Meta made a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund, after opting against making similar donations to Trump’s 2017 inaugural fund and President Joe Biden’s fund four years later…
The Pentagon rejected a claim from Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) that an Iranian “mothership” had positioned itself off the East Coast and was launching drones that have been seen in northern New Jersey for several weeks…
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to maintain close U.S.-Israel cooperation on issues related to Syria…
A district court judge in Virginia ordered that the CIA analyst accused of leaking classified information regarding Israeli plans to conduct a military strike on Iran be held until trial, overruling a lower court’s decision to release the man until his trial date…
The House passed the final version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act by a 280-140 vote…
Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said that the Democratic Party needs to abandon “identity politics” to succeed in the future, and discussed her strategy to appeal to both Jewish and Muslim voters in Michigan during a web event with the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
A new report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations found a spike in antisemitic hate crimes in 2023…
CNN reports on an effort to recover and repatriate thousands of books looted by the Nazis from European Jewish communities during WWII…
Former Yankees pitcher David Cone celebrated his son’s bar mitzvah over the weekend…
The Telegraph reviews I Will Come Back For You, a compendium of letters and diary entries written by a German-Jewish man who escaped Nazi Europe, joined the British army and located his parents in Theresienstadt at the end of the war…
Arsenal football club is investigating a series of antisemitic social media posts on a now-deleted account believed to belong to an Arsenal employee…
Reuters looks at Iran’s effort to recruit dozens of Israelis to spy on behalf of the Islamic Republic…
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed the U.S. and Israel for the ouster of the Assad regime in Syria, in his first public address since rebel forces overthrew the government in Damascus on Sunday…
Politico interviewed Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin about the evolving situation in Syria and Israel’s efforts to defend against potential threats from the rebel forces that have taken over the country…
A bipartisan group of senators gathered in the Kennedy Caucus Room on Wednesday to call for a crackdown on Iranian aggression and demand a free and democratic Iran at a luncheon hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The U.K., France and Germany told the EU they are prepared to trigger snapback sanctions on Iran if necessary…
France called on Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria and to respect Syria’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”…
A 12-year-old boy was killed and several others were wounded in a terrorist shooting attack on a bus traveling to Jerusalem from Gush Etzion in the West Bank…
TPG co-founder David Bondermandied at 82…
Israeli singer Korin Allaldied at 67…
Pic of the Day
Hostage Aid Worldwide celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of Alan Gross (second from right, with his wife, Judy) from Cuban prison at an event on Tuesday night at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Birthdays
Two-term congressman starting in 2007 (D-WI), he is a physician who founded four allergy clinics, Steven Leslie Kagen, M.D. turns 75…
Attorney, political operative, lobbyist, author and television commentator, Lanny Davis turns 79… Chairman of Full Stop Management which represents recording artists, Irving Azoff turns 77… 2007 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, he is a professor at Harvard University, Eric Stark Maskin turns 74… Member of the rock band Grand Funk Railroad from 2000 until last year, Bruce Kulick turns 71… Professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Richard J. Davidson turns 63… Associated Press science writer and adjunct professor at NYU’s academic center in Washington, Seth Borenstein… Israeli-born real estate developer active in Los Angeles, partner in Linear City Development, Yuval Bar-Zemer turns 62… CEO at Chicago-based Next Realty, he is a member of JFNA’s domestic policy and government affairs council, Andrew S. Hochberg… Afternoon anchor on the Fox Business Network, Elizabeth Kate “Liz” Claman turns 61… Rabbi of the Bet Israel community in Zagreb, Croatia, Kotel Dadon turns 57… Israeli scientist and entrepreneur, he is the founder and chief technology officer at Vaxa Impact Nutrition, Isaac Berzin turns 57… Minnesota secretary of state, he was first elected in 2014 and then re-elected in 2018 and 2022, Steve Simon turns 55… Israeli celebrity chef, Moshe Aharon “Moshik” Roth turns 53… Actress, game show host and neuroscientist, she played the role of neuroscientist Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory,” Mayim Chaya Bialik turns 49… MSW candidate at the University of Denver and freelance PR consultant, Sarah R. Horowitz… Freelance field producer for ABC News, Rebecca “Becky” Perlow… Professor of marketing at the University of Chicago’s Booth School, Abigail Sussman turns 42… One-half of the duo known for their YouTube channel h3h3Productions with 1.3 billion views, Hila Hakmon Klein turns 37… Israeli Olympic long-distance runner, she ran the marathon for Israel at the Paris Olympics last year, Lonah Chemtai Salpeter turns 36… Managing director at Narrative Strategies DC, David Pasch… Brazilian mixed martial artist, Neiman Gracie Stambowsky turns 36… Senior advisor for policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS for America program, Jeffrey S. Goldstein… Co-founder and senior advisor of The Next 50, Zak Malamed turns 31… Film and television actor, Lucas Jade Zumann turns 24… Founding national campaign director for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, he was a presidential appointee to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council from 2008-2013, Joseph Brodecki…
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