Daily Kickoff: U.S. airlines facing mounting pressure to resume flights to Israel
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the increasing pressure on U.S. airlines to resume flights to Israel, and talk to outgoing Rep. Kathy Manning about the Jewish community’s concerns about antisemitism. We report on the death of President Jimmy Carter and spotlight a pair of special congressional elections in Florida. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Elad Strohmayer, San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie and Gal Gadot.
What We’re Watching
- We’re monitoring the developing situation in New Orleans, where authorities are investigating what is believed to have been a terror attack in the city’s French Quarter on Wednesday morning. More below.
- We’re also keeping an eye on the U.S. and Israeli responses to recent Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Israel, which sent Israelis into bomb shelters nearly nightly over the last two weeks. Israel has responded with limited strikes on Houthi facilities in Yemen, as well as on the country’s main airport in the capital of Sanaa. Earlier this week, U.S. forces conducted precision strikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa. More on the escalating situation between Israel and the Houthis here.
- Senior members of Syria’s new government, including Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, are in Saudi Arabia today for meetings with senior Saudi officials. The trip marks the first time a senior Syrian delegation has traveled abroad since the ouster of the Assad regime last month.
What You Should Know
The new year arrived with news of a terrorist attack in the United States. A man with Islamist sympathies drove a truck into a crowd in New Orleans on Wednesday morning, killing 15 and injuring dozens more, before he was fatally shot by police. The attacker, Shamsud Din Jabbar, was carrying an ISIS flag with him in his truck. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.
Jabbar, an Army veteran, recently converted to Islam and began behaving erratically, according to an account by his ex-wife’s current husband, moving into a rented home in a Muslim neighborhood north of Houston.
Police are also investigating whether there are links between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas yesterday morning, in which the driver was killed and seven others were injured.
The reminder that Islamic extremism remains a threat to the United States shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who lived through the 9/11 attacks and has paid any attention to the murderous ideology of the jihadists who threaten both Israel and America. At the rallies and encampments around the country since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, it’s evident that some of the same protesters denouncing Israel embrace parts of a radical ideology that threatens U.S. homeland security.
We noted last month that two of the anti-Israel student leaders at George Mason University who were expelled for vandalizing school property with antisemitic messages were found with pro-terror paraphernalia in their home calling for the death of Jews and America. A third student at the same college was charged with planning a terrorist attack against the Israeli consulate in New York City.
What’s most alarming is that many elected officials seem to have become numb to the degree of hate that’s become tolerated in the country. Many leading news outlets euphemized the ugly realities of the pro-Hezbollah and pro-Hamas sloganeering from anti-Israel activists. Influential politicians have generalized the episodes, and are all too reticent to call out Islamic extremism by name.
Indeed, last year provided plenty of examples of Americans becoming inured to increasing episodes of terrorist sympathizing, from pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah sloganeering at anti-Israel rallies, to calls for “Globalizing the Intifada” in radical circles.
Let’s hope that the ugly episode of terrorism in New Orleansis an isolated incident, and not a sign of growing Islamist radicalization on the homefront in the new year. We’ll learn more if Jabbar operated alone or had accomplices, as law enforcement officials indicated may be the case.
Either way, the terrorist attack serves as an uncomfortable reminder of the risk of indulging or excusing dangerous ideologies, instead of calling them out and working to defeat them — both at home and in the Middle East.
up in the air
Bipartisan chorus of officials call on U.S. airlines to restore service to Israel
For all but two brief periods in 2024, the major U.S. carriers — Delta, United and American — have not flown to Tel Aviv since the war in Gaza broke out, citing security concerns. El Al, now passengers’ only option for direct flights to and from America, doesn’t have enough planes to meet travelers’ demand, leading to crushingly high prices and flights that are often sold out weeks or months in advance. Travel to Israel from the U.S. (and vice versa) has become a headache, for everyone from frequent fliers to first-time visitors. At a meeting of United’s board of directors in early December, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said he has “no interest in returning to Tel Aviv only to pull out for a third time,” according to a source with knowledge of the conversation,Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
High-profile criticism: The U.S. airlines may not see themselves as part of the broader messaging war over Israel, nor are they likely to care that decisions affecting a fraction of their overall flights could have a big impact on tiny Israel. But the choice to suspend service to a country whose war against an Islamist terror group has coincided with a global rise in antisemitism and calls to boycott the Jewish state is seen by some as a de facto boycott, regardless of airline executives’ intentions. The U.S. airlines’ decision to maintain the pause on service to Tel Aviv has drawn high-profile critics from across the ideological spectrum. Tom Nides, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Biden administration, said the airlines need to “figure this out.”
Read the full story here.
in memoriam
Remembering President Jimmy Carter, Mideast peace broker and critic of Israel
Former President Jimmy Carter, who negotiated the Camp David Accords and 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt but who had a complex relationship with Israel in his post-White House years, died on Sunday at 100. A state legislator and naval officer who went on to serve one term as Georgia’s governor, Carter had not held federal office before his narrow win over President Gerald Ford in 1976. Carter’s administration was marked by high inflation and energy shortages at home and increasing instability abroad, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
Record on Israel: In September 1978, Carter convened Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the Camp David compound in Maryland for nearly two weeks of secretive talks that would result in a peace treaty between the two countries the following year. Begin and Sadat jointly won the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for what came to be known as the Camp David Accords. In his post-White House years, Carter was increasingly critical of Israel. He wrote dozens of books after leaving office, including, in 2006, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which generated criticism over its characterization of Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza. Three years later, he met with senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip during a trip to the region.
exit interview
Rep. Kathy Manning says Jews are feeling increasingly insecure in American life
In her two terms in Congress, Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) has risen to become the chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism and vice ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, roles that have put her at the center of work over the past year responding to spiking antisemitism in the United States and the global fallout from the Oct. 7 attacks. Speaking to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod last month as she prepared to cast some of her final votes in the House, Manning described this work as critical, especially working with the families of hostages being held in Gaza and “working to support the American Jewish community as it has been totally traumatized, not just by what happened in Israel, but by the explosion of antisemitism across the country and around the world.”
Downward trajectory: Manning said that the past decade has significantly changed the way American Jews perceive their place in American society. “I think if you had asked most Jews 10 years ago [if] were we safe in America, they would have laughed,” Manning said. “They would have said, ‘Of course, we’re safe in America. Jews are woven into every facet of American life. And not only has America been good for the Jews, but the Jews have been good for America.’” She said that has changed “little by little” since President-elect Donald Trump’s first election.
Read the full interview here.
spreading the word
Israel’s foreign minister is looking for a way to spend $150 million on public diplomacy
Dozens of influencers converged on the Israeli Foreign Ministry last week as Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was working on formulating a new public diplomacy, or hasbara, strategy for Israel. The ministry’s budget for public diplomacy in 2025 is expected to be $150 million — over 20 times what it was before the war in Gaza began in 2023, Jewish Insider‘s Lahav Harkov reports. Sa’ar insisted on the major budget increase when he and his United Right Party joined the governing coalition last month and he became foreign minister. At the time, Sa’ar said the budget would go toward “media campaigns abroad, in the foreign press, on social media, and more,” including “concentrated activity on U.S. campuses to change their attitude towards Israel and its policies.”
A little help from my friends: What he does not have yet is a plan for what to do with all of that money – and that’s where the influencers come in. Sa’ar and his deputy, Sharren Haskel, have been holding wide-ranging brainstorming sessions with different groups of people with experience in the public diplomacy field to get ideas. Participants range from people such as former government spokesman Eylon Levy, former IDF English-language spokesman and current Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Jonathan Conricus, Institute for National Security Studies fellow Ophir Dayan and StandWithUs Jerusalem Executive Director Michael Dickson to makeup YouTuber-turned-hasbara influencer Ashley Waxman-Bakshi, Israeli model Nataly Dadon and comedian Yohay Sponder.
special election preview
Jimmy Patronis, Randy Fine emerging as favorites to succeed Gaetz, Waltz
A pair of Republican departures from Florida’s congressional delegation is setting up primaries in two parts of the state, with local candidates clamoring for the seats vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL).
MAGA man: Voters in the 1st Congressional District, which covers the state’s western Panhandle and includes Pensacola, are expected to choose their next representative in the GOP primary set for Jan. 28, owing to a heavily conservative makeup, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. The general election to succeed Gaetz, who resigned last month while under consideration to be attorney general in the next administration, will be held at the beginning of April. While the primary has drawn several candidates, strategists agree that the front-runner is Jimmy Patronis, a Republican who recently resigned as Florida’s chief financial officer in order to run for the seat. In an interview with JI, Patronis, 52, cast himself as a loyal supporter of President-election Donald Trump’s MAGA vision, describing his victory as “a mandate” from voters, including Democrats, “who were tired of the wokeness, the foolishness and the environment that we had allowed our country to degrade into” during the Biden administration. Read the full interview here.
East-bound and up: On Florida’s east coast, state Sen. Randy Fine, an outspoken Jewish Republican and aggressive supporter of Israel with a history of inflammatory comments, announced his campaign for the state’s 6th Congressional District last month, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Fine, 50, is aiming to replace Waltz, who will leave the House later this month to become President-elect Donald Trump’s national security advisor. Fine entered the race with Trump’s endorsement — Trump announced he’d back Fine before he even announced his campaign. Fine has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel and helped lead a series of high-profile bills combating antisemitism in the Florida Statehouse, including codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and formalizing procedures for Jewish day schools to receive state security funding. Fine has also faced criticism and accusations of Islamophobia for his heated commentary on Israel-related issues. Read the full interview here.
report rescinded
USAID-backed report about famine in Gaza taken down after criticism from U.S. ambassador to Israel
A report from a U.S.-backed agency alleging that famine is advancing in northern Gaza was taken down last week after facing criticism from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. Lew stated that the report, published by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), relied on “inaccurate” information and called its publication “irresponsible,” Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this,” Lew wrote in a post on X.
Swift reaction: Hours after Lew’s statement — a rare public rebuke by a U.S. diplomat of an American agency — FEWS NET removed its report warning of famine in northern Gaza from the FEWS NET website, a USAID spokesperson told JI. “To address inaccuracies in the population data set, the FEWS NET Decision Support Team has taken down the December 23rd Gaza alert until further notice,” the USAID spokesperson said, acknowledging that the Gaza report had “methodological limitations based on the availability of data.”
Worthy Reads
The Tehran Test:The Free Press’ Jay Solomon considers how the incoming Trump administration, which comprises both Iran hawks and isolationists, may approach Tehran. “The question is what the White House will actually do come late January. As the president-elect prepares to take office, there’s a mounting debate inside the Trump administration and Republican Party about how aggressively to pursue Tehran and deliver a killer blow. … Many American, Israeli, and Arab intelligence officials had once believed the Axis of Resistance was virtually impregnable and that Assad had effectively won his 13-year war against largely Sunni rebels. But Israel’s actions over the past year have exposed how faulty these assessments were and forced a reevaluation of Tehran’s military capabilities. The primary question now being asked among Trump strategists is whether Iran, knowing its weakness, might accelerate its efforts to build an atomic bomb, or stand down.” [FreePress]
Deep Cleaning: In The New York Times, Ayelet Tsabari reflects on the ties between cleaning and trauma, against the backdrop of weeks spent working in the Israeli homes invaded by terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. “When I clean the houses at the edge of Israel’s border with Gaza, houses that have been looted, children’s rooms with bullet holes and shattered glass, Lego structures toppled over, safe rooms with ‘Peace Now’ stickers on their doors, I do my very best. I summon the cleaner in me, and I perform deep work: I clean with intention, with something akin to religious devotion. I scour nooks and crannies, scrub floors, polish windows, pick up cigarette butts left by the Hamas terrorists. I bleach kitchens and bathrooms: Here, again, bleach is a magic eraser of trauma, a renewer of things. The residents of these homes say that the work we’ve done in a few hours is equivalent to months of therapy. That before we cleaned, they could barely touch a glass, because everything felt violated, tainted. By the time we leave the kibbutzim, those homes that had been frozen by trauma are transformed; the air has shifted, eased. We clean, and it allows for new stories to take root.” [NYTimes]
Terror Ties: In The Wall Street Journal, David Adesnik and Bill Roggio caution that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani retains ties and sympathies to Al-Qaida. “It’s true that Mr. Jawlani has clashed with al-Qaeda-affiliated rivals and achieved effective autonomy while carving out his fiefdom in northwest Syria. But he remains committed to armed jihad and Islamic rule. To this day, several organizations within al Qaeda’s orbit operate under his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham banner. … Let’s hope Washington doesn’t rush to engage. Rather, it should wait and see whether the new government continues offering sanctuary to foreign terrorist organizations and surrenders the last of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons. Many questions remain: How will the new government treat the Syrian Kurdish forces working with U.S. troops to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State? Will Mr. Jawlani ally himself with Turkish proxies already fighting the Kurds? Will the Islamic government grant Christians and other minorities the same rights as Muslims? Will the men with guns let the Syrian people choose their government through a free and fair election? Or will Islamic rule mean another dictatorship?” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The Treasury Department announced sanctions on two groups, one from Russia and another from Iran, that attempted to interfere in U.S. elections through disinformation campaigns…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent surgery earlier this week to remove his prostate…
Netanyahu, who is expected to make a full recovery, is slated to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan, 20…
Speaking at his New Year’s Eve gala at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night, Trump warned that Hamas “better let the hostages come back soon,” amid reports that negotiations for their release have reached an impasse…
Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch (R-ID) toldThe Free Press, “I don’t think we need to finish [Iran] off. They’re finishing themselves off. They talk about it, but where’s the nuclear weapon? They could have had one a long time ago. … I think they are deterred”…
The Wall Street Journal looks at Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) effort to keep House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from retaining the speakership ahead of tomorrow’s vote…
President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of more than three dozen individuals on death row, with the exception of the Tree of Life shooter, the Boston Marathon bomber and the man who murdered parishioners at a South Carolina church…
The Justice Department charged a Florida man with planning an attack on the South Florida office of AIPAC…
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy officially moved the date of the state’s primaries later this year; the original date fell on the holiday of Shavuot…
The Ford Motor Co.said its X account had been “briefly compromised,” during which time the account posted several anti-Israel tweets, including one that labeled Israel a “terrorist state”…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie ahead of his swearing-in next week…
Katz’s Deli reached an agreement with the Justice Department to bring its facilities into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act…
Gal Gadot revealed that she had been diagnosed with a brain clot that required emergency surgery when she was eight months pregnant last year…
Businessman and i24News owner Patrick Drahi moved his official residence from Switzerland to Israel…
The Palestinian Authority halted the operations of Al Jazeera in the West Bank, citing the Qatar-owned media outlet’s dissemination of “inciting material,” as the PA works to fight Hamas in the territory…
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said at a convening of the U.N. Security Council that the Houthis in Yemen risked meeting a similar fate as Hezbollah and Hamas; the meeting was held to address the repeated Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Israel late last month…
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of the Likud party, resigned from the Knesset, slamming the government’s handling of Haredi conscription; Gallant, who was fired by Netanyahu in November, vowed in a message announcing his resignation that he “will be back”…
Elad Strohmayer, previously the spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington and director of congressional affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, was appointed as Israel’s next consul general in Chicago…
Israeli authorities charged a man from the town of Petah Tikva with spying for Iran; the man, identified as Alexander Granovsky, reportedly sent footage of sensitive Israeli sites to Iran…
Israeli researchers in the Jordan Valley discovered a trove of ancient coins believed to date from the time of Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus…
The Associated Press reports on Syria’s nine-member Jewish community, following restored access to Jewish sites around the country after the fall of the Assad regime last month…
The IDF confirmed it conducted a raid on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arms facility in northwestern Syria in September…
Iranian officials will meet with their counterparts from the U.K., France and Germany for nuclear talks on Jan. 13 in Geneva; the negotiators last met in November…
Nazi hunter and Holocaust survivor Josef Lewkowicz, whose efforts included tracking down concentration commandant Amon Göth, died at 98… Actress Linda Lavin, who won a Tony Award for “Broadway Bound” and two Golden Globes for “Alice,” died at 87… Dr. William Labov, a pioneer in the field of sociolinguistics, died at 97… Longtime New York Post editor Michael Hechtman died at 82… Rabbi Matthew Bellas, the lower school principal at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, died on Tuesday… Attorney David Rivkin, who worked in the presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, died at 68… Borscht Belt comic Dick Capridied at 93…
Pic of the Day
The grandparents of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander attended the final Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Kotel in Jerusalem on Wednesday night. The families of hostages Karina Arayev, Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz and Sasha Tropanov also participated in the ceremony.
Birthdays
Writer, artist, baseball player and coach, he was the bullpen coach for Team Israel at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Nate Fish turns 45…
Co-owner of The Wonderful Company, which operates POM, Fiji Water, Teleflora, Wonderful Pistachios and other businesses, Lynda Rae Resnick turns 82… Founder and CEO of Boston-based investment firm, Weiss Asset Management, Andrew M. Weiss turns 78… Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter for The New York Times, she went to jail to protect her source in the Valerie Plame matter, Judith Miller turns 77… Longtime journalist for The New York Times, also author of two books including a memoir about fighting cancer, Joyce Wadler turns 77… Prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2009 to 2010 and then minister of finance, Jan Fischer turns 74… President of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum until 2022, Alice M. Greenwald turns 73… Former CEO of Loews Corporation, who retired after 25 years in the role at the end of 2024, James Tisch turns 72… Cantor at Agudath Achim Synagogue in Shreveport, La., Neil Schwartz turns 72… Commissioner of Israel’s Civil Service Commission, he is a congregational rabbi in Haifa, he was previously the president of Bar-Ilan University, Daniel Hershkowitz turns 72… Former Israeli ambassador to Denmark and Sweden, Benny Dagan turns 68… Graduate of Yale Law School, she is of counsel at Shulman Rogers, Anita J. Finkelstein… President of the D.C.-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, he was a member of Congress (D-FL) until 2010, Robert Wexler turns 64… Actress best known for her role in the 1990s television series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” in 2016 she was elected president of SAG-AFTRA trade union, Gabrielle Carteris turns 64… Former financial advisor at Citi, First Manhattan and then Ally, Julia Beth Rabinowitz… Justice on the Supreme Court of Israel since 2012, she was previously dean of Tel Aviv University’s law school, Daphne Barak-Erez turns 60… Russian oligarch and founder of Basic Element, Oleg Deripaska turns 57… Executive director of The Charles Bronfman Prize, co-founder Momstamp and a co-founder of Ikar, Paulette Light… President of the Colorado State Senate until this past Tuesday, now term-limited, Stephen Fenberg turns 41… Film and television actress, Lauren Storm turns 38… VP of growth at the Consello Group, a financial services advisory, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Langer… Network analyst at the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Tandameshia “Kensi” Hastings… Founder and CEO of the women’s health-focused Briah Foundation, Sara Tancman…
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