Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israel’s efforts to bolster its domestic weapons production and cover Meta’s planned introduction of a “community notes” feature to its platforms. We talk to former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley about his bid for chair of the Democratic National Committee and report on the Secure Community Network’s backing of Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Steve Witkoff, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Barak Hermann.
What We’re Watching
- Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s outgoing special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, is in Israel today and tomorrow for her final visit to the country before departing her position later this month.
- Incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to Doha, Qatar, to join the ongoing cease-fire and hostage-release talks. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Tony Blinken called for the talks to cross “over the finish line” before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month, as Hamas continued to stand by its demand that the war in Gaza fully end before it releases hostages.
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog will host a ceremony this evening at his residence in Jerusalem honoring seven Jewish communal leaders, as well as a former German minister. Among those being honored tonight are the World Jewish Congress’ Ronald Lauder; Julie Platt, the board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, Malcolm Hoenlein, the former executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; and Australian-Israeli philanthropist Sir Frank Lowy.
- We’re monitoring the evolving situation in Southern California, where wildfires stoked by high winds have devastated parts of the greater Los Angeles area, including Pasadena, where the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center was reportedly destroyed.
What You Should Know
In a hearing before the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee on Tuesday, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt acknowledged that the Jewish community had fallen short in its efforts to combat antisemitism, resulting in what he described as an “inferno” against the Jewish community in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.
In order to tackle the challenges, Greenblatt argued, the Jewish community must “adopt new strategies to experiment with creative tactics to study the results and scale what works.”
This morning in Tel Aviv, Greenblatt sat with Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss for a wide-ranging interview about combating antisemitism, Meta’s move toward a “Community Notes” feature for fact-checking and the incoming Trump administration. (Read more below on the reaction of Jewish groups to the move by Meta.)
On combating antisemitism in a post-Oct. 7 world: “I think if you’re not stepping back and rethinking, considering the facts, just the facts — how so many allies fled, or at least didn’t stand by us in the way you would have thought — just the fact that in the younger demographic there’s a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes than in the older segments of the population,” Greenblatt explained. “If you start to think about the fact that the Jewish community has been very supportive of diversity initiatives, and yet these initiatives, which are supposed to promote inclusion, actually result in the exclusion of Jews. So all of this, and the moment we’re in, leads me to say we have to step back and rethink and reconsider and have the humility to acknowledge it all wasn’t working the way that we hoped.”
On the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s recently announced public diplomacy efforts: “No. 1, it certainly requires resources to respond to the challenge. Let’s just acknowledge that, right? So the fact that they’re doing that, I think, is encouraging. Secondly, I think, in a prior time, the government of Israel — by the way, like most governments — would have focused entirely on traditional media. Yes, we need that. And we also need to acknowledge that influencers are the new sort of opinion-makers. Is there a previous foreign minister who sat down with influencers before? I find it hard to imagine. … A single influencer, or even a panel of them, isn’t going to solve the problem. We need to think in a holistic manner, and we need to apply the same kind of ingenuity and inventiveness that the State of Israel has done for different organs of the State of Israel, like the IDF, or like the Shabak, or like the Mossad, or like Startup Nation Central, to tackle this problem.”
On Meta’s plans to introduce Community Notes: “There’s questions about how it’s going to be implemented that I don’t think are necessarily understood. So I want to be clear — it may have great promise, and I’m excited to see how it plays out. On the other hand, these companies are some of the most technically capable, the most highly innovative and certainly the most profitable businesses in industry today, not just in tech, but across the board. The reality is that the issue of content moderation has never been invested in user-targeting or ad-serving, or video-streaming or these other areas where they’ve chosen to apply resources. So much of their talent and so much of their tech has gone toward other things and not toward this. So this function, I think, has been vastly under-resourced for a long time, and it’s not gotten the level of innovation applied to it as these other functions. I don’t think Community Notes is a panacea. I don’t think Community Notes is going to solve the problem.”
arms deal
Israel moves toward ‘armament independence’ after tensions with U.S. in last year
Israel is beginning to reduce its dependence on the U.S. for weapons after a year marked by repeated tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over the delivery of armaments for Israel to use in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The Israeli Defense Ministry moved to bolster domestic arms manufacturing this week, the day after a committee tasked with creating an overarching defense plan for Israel in the coming decade recommended that Israel attain “armament independence.”
Reducing reliance: The Defense Ministry signed two deals amounting to $275 million with Elbit Systems, an Israeli manufacturer, on Tuesday to provide the IDF with heavy bombs and to build a new facility for the production of raw materials. Heavy bombs are among the weaponry the U.S. delayed shipping to Israel amid the Biden administration’s pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. A growing faction of Democrats has recently voted to block or restrict transfers of weapons to Israel. The raw materials plant is meant to “reduce reliance on imported raw materials,” according to the Defense Ministry.
strong support
Secure Community Network backs Noem’s Homeland Security nomination
The Secure Community Network is endorsing South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security, a significant stamp of approval from the national Jewish community for Noem’s confirmation to the national security post, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. SCN provides security guidance, training and support to hundreds of Jewish organizations and institutions across the country and liaises between Jewish communal groups and federal law enforcement, making it a key player in Jewish communal security.
Track record: In letters to Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Gary Peters (D-MI), respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, SCN Chair Wendy Berger and CEO Michael Masters expressed strong support for Noem, a Republican, citing her record on protecting Jewish and other religious institutions. “There are few governors who have shown greater interest or been a stronger partner in building substantive relationships of trust between government and the faith-based community – and our Jewish community, in particular – to ensure the safety and security of the same, than Governor Noem,” the letters, obtained by JI, read.
meta move
Jewish groups warn that new Meta policies could worsen antisemitism
Jewish leaders warned on Tuesday that Meta’s new community-driven fact-checking system “will open the floodgates to content” that could target Jewish communities and individuals, calling the move a “step back” in the fight against rising antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. The warnings came in response to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement yesterday, just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, that the social media giant is ending its third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a community-driven system modeled after the Community Notes feature on Elon Musk’s X.
Learn from experience: “The introduction of Meta’s new Community Notes feature must be approached with great caution,” Yfat Barak-Cheney, executive director of the World Jewish Congress’ Technology and Human Rights Institute, told JI. “Platforms like X and Wikipedia, which employ similar user-driven concepts, have demonstrated how easily misinformation and disinformation can be manipulated, and put the onus on the vulnerable communities to report and correct information online.”
Read the full story here.
dem debate
O’Malley says DNC made right decision in rejecting anti-Israel speaker at convention, breaks with party chair rivals
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is now running to lead the Democratic National Committee, said he disagreed with two top rivals for the chair who have claimed the party made a strategic error in refusing to allow a representative of the “Uncommitted” movement to speak at its convention last summer, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Breaking with Ben and Ken: “I don’t believe the DNC made a mistake there,” O’Malley told JI on Tuesday, breaking with two state party chairs seen as leading contenders in the DNC race, Ben Wikler of Wisconsin and Ken Martin of Minnesota. “In fact, I think the DNC accommodated the desire for the uncommitted to have a forum — albeit it wasn’t at the podium or in prime time. But the purpose of the convention was to confirm and support the nominee.”
Read the full story here.
hostage talk
Trump Middle East envoy says he’s ‘really hopeful’ hostage deal will be struck by Inauguration Day
Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, said on Tuesday that he was “really hopeful” that they were “on the verge of a deal” to announce the return of the hostages by Inauguration Day. Witkoff made the comments while appearing alongside the president-elect at a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, expressing confidence to reporters that they would be able to secure the release of those still in Gaza before Trump took office on Jan. 20,Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What he said: “I think we’re making a lot of progress. I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha,” Witkoff said, referring to the Qatari capital where hostage-release and cease-fire talks are taking place. “But I think that we’ve had some really great progress and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president.”
Read the full story here.
gulf get-together
Israeli FM Sa’ar meets with Emirati counterpart in Abu Dhabi
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met on Tuesday with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The meeting was the first between Israeli and Emirati foreign ministers since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel and subsequent war. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer visited the UAE in November.
What they discussed: The Emirati Foreign Ministry said that “they discussed the latest developments in the region, particularly the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and the regional and international efforts aimed at achieving a sustainable ceasefire.” Sa’ar said the two “discussed regional developments as well as the bilateral relations between our countries.”
Worthy Reads
Misunderstanding Settler Colonialism: The Atlantic’s David Frum considers how the term “settler colonialism” has been misunderstood and misappropriated. “Settler-colonial is not intended purely, or even primarily, as a description of a particular path of social development. It is intended as a condemnation of the new societies that have been created by that path of development. And there is something very peculiar about this critique of Canada and elsewhere in the New World. Moral critique is always based on an implied moral alternative. When socialists denounce capitalist societies, they do so because they believe they possess a superior code for creating and distributing wealth. When Islamists attack secular societies, they do so because they believe they better understand God’s commands for how men and women should live. But what is the moral alternative offered by the critique of settler colonialism? Sooner or later, the Old World was going to discover the New. How might that encounter have gone differently in any remotely plausible way?” [TheAtlantic]
Trudeau’s Turn: Quilette’s Jonathan Kay, who ghostwrote Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2014 memoir, reflects on Trudeau’s leftward shift over the last decade. “The rise and fall of Justin Trudeau isn’t just the sad story of one politician, but a cautionary tale about the corrosive effects of social-justice dogma on mainstream politics. Trudeau’s main message — the title of his book, the basis of his appeal, the reason I agreed to help him — was that Canada is a great country and that Canadians should focus on their common goals and values. But the whole doctrinal basis of the (again, largely American-imported) social-justice movement he embraced is utterly incompatible with that unifying spirit — as it presents the divisions between races in stark, dystopian, unbridgeable terms. Forced to decide between these two mutually exclusive ideas, Trudeau picked the one that seemed more fashionable, completely betraying his previously articulated values in the process. Which Trudeau was the real one, Canadians asked themselves — the upbeat patriot who took office in 2015, or the joyless social-justice hypocrite lecturing them about their whiteness?” [Quilette]
The AI Anchor: The Associated Press’ Melanie Lidman spotlights Israeli news anchor Moshe Nussbaum, who is using AI technology to continue his on-air presence as he faces the debilitating effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). “‘It took me a few moments to absorb it and to understand that it is me speaking now,” Nussbaum told The Associated Press via text message. ‘Slowly, slowly, I’m understanding the incredible meaning of this device for everyone with disabilities, including me.’ Nussbaum will report his stories, and then write them up, using an AI program that has been trained to speak using Nussbaum’s voice. He will be filmed as if he were presenting, and his lips will be ‘technologically adjusted’ to match the words. People with speech disorders have used traditional text-to-speech technology for years, but those voices sound robotic and flat, and lack emotion. In contrast, AI technology is trained using recordings of a person’s voice — there are thousands of hours of Nussbaum speaking thanks to his lengthy career in TV and radio — and it can mimic their intonations and phrasing. Thrilled by the possibilities the technology affords him, Nussbaum said he is also worried about the ease with which the technology could be used by bad actors to spread fake news and falsehoods.” [AP]
Word on the Street
Confirmation hearings for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to be, respectively, secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the U.N., are slated for next Wednesday and Thursday…
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is pushing to hold confirmation hearings next week for former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for director of national intelligence and CIA director…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke to former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz yesterday; the two “discussed the gross miscarriage of justice in the weaponisation of legal proceedings against IDF soldiers in international institutions, together with ways through which Israel and the United States can cooperate to combat the warped phenomena,” according to a readout from Gantz…
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) raised $1.66 million for his gubernatorial bid since announcing a run in late November…
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is mulling a gubernatorial run in Florida after resigning from Congress last month…
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought forth by Haverford College students against the school; the suit accused the school’s administrators of not adequately addressing antisemitism on campus…
Israeli cyber companies raised $4 billion in 2024, more than doubling the amount brought in during 2023…
Ireland joined South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, weeks after Israel shuttered its embassy in the country amid fraying ties between Dublin and Jerusalem…
An Israeli government commission led by a former national security advisor recommended that Israel increase its military spending by approximately $30 billion over the next decade…
The IDF released footage of an interrogation of a Palestinian terrorist arrested during the IDF’s sweep of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza; the detainee confirmed that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups used the hospital for operations knowing that Israel was unlikely to directly target the facility…
Iran blasted French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent statement that Iran was the primary security threat in the Middle East, calling the claim “baseless,” a day after France’s Foreign Ministry raised concerns about the declining conditions of three French citizens detained in Iran, saying their conditions were akin to torture…
The U.N.’s High Commissioner on Human Rights said that Iran had executed more than 900 people in 2024, including dozens of women…
Iran released an Italian journalist it had detained last month, amid escalating tensions between Tehran and Rome…
Qatar is reportedly planning to provide an influx of funds to boost the salaries of Syrian civil servants and government employees…
President Joe Biden named Tom Kahn to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad…
Barak Hermann was named the next president and CEO of the JCC Association of America, and will assume the position in June…
Peter Yarrow, who found fame as part of the Peter, Paul and Mary folk trio, died at 86…
Christian Zionist activist Olga Meshoe Washington died on Monday…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Tuesday in Jerusalem with an international task force of representatives from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Austria and the U.K. to discuss the ongoing efforts to free the hostages in Gaza.
Birthdays
Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer, he is a professor of music composition at Yale, David Lang turns 68…
Sociologist at the American Enterprise Institute, Charles Murray turns 82… Senior U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Florida, now on inactive status, Alan Stephen Gold turns 81… Member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a guitarist and founding member of the Doors, Robby Krieger turns 79… Moscow-born classical pianist, living in the U.S. since 1987, Vladimir Feltsman turns 73… Founder and chief investment officer of Pzena Investment Management, Richard “Rich” Pzena turns 66… Israel’s ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Rafael Harpaz turns 63… Co-founder and co-owner of Pizza Shuttle in Milwaukee, Mark Gold… Violinist and composer best known for her klezmer music, Alicia Svigals turns 62… VP of wealth services at the Alera Group, he was an NFL tight end for the Bears and Vikings (1988-1994), Brent Novoselsky turns 59… Founder and president of D.C.-based Professionals in the City, Michael Karlan turns 57… Lobbyist, attorney, patron of contemporary art and philanthropist, Heather Miller Podesta turns 55… Former state senator in Maine, Justin Loring Alfond turns 50… Singer-songwriter, musician, and actress, she was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the indie rock band Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis turns 49… Former director of U.S. public policy programs for Meta/Facebook, now a partner in Lev Collective, Avra Siegel… Managing editor in the Nashville office of Vaco, Ross M. Schneiderman… Actor, screenwriter and director, Sam Levinson turns 40… Retired professional soccer player, he is now a partner in the Columbus, Ohio-based Main + High Investments, Ross Benjamin Friedman turns 33… Principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, Skylar Paley Brandt turns 32…
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