Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we break down the latest Gallup poll on American attitudes toward Israel, and look at Ron Dermer’s assignment to lead Israel’s negotiating team and the efforts to reach an agreement on a second phase of a cease-fire deal. We also report on bipartisan consensus over potential sanctions relief for the new Syrian government, and cover last night’s violent anti-Israel demonstration at Barnard College. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Harmeet Dhillon, Rabbi Abba Cohen, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Rep. Brian Mast.
What We’re Watching
- U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in Washington today, where he is slated to meet with President Donald Trump in the early afternoon.
- An Israeli delegation is expected to travel to Cairo today to continue hostage-release and cease-fire talks, following a directive from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- The Senate Homeland Security Committee is holding a business meeting this morning on the nomination of Troy Edgar to be deputy secretary of Homeland Security.
- Later this morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a classified briefing on global nuclear and missile threats.
- Andrew Cuomo could make a decision about running for New York City mayor as soon as tonight, as the former governor discusses a potential bid with his family and close advisors. Meanwhile, a group of Cuomo allies on Wednesday launched a super PAC, Fix the City, backing his potential candidacy.
What You Should Know
Israel’s favorability rating in the United States has dipped to its lowest level since 2000, according to a new Gallup survey, an outcome mainly driven by the increasing number of Democrats holding negative views of the Jewish state in the aftermath of its war against Hamas, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
The Gallup survey, conducted between Feb. 3-16, still found a clear majority (54%) of Americans viewing Israel favorably, with 36% viewing the country unfavorably. But in a February 2023 Gallup survey— eight months before Hamas’ terrorist attack on Oct. 7 — Israel’s favorability rating stood at 68%.
The partisan gap in perception of Israel is higher than that of any other country, with 83% of Republicans viewing the Jewish state favorably, while just 33% of Democrats feel the same. Among independents, a 48% plurality views Israel favorably. In 2014, 74% of Democrats and 68% of independents viewed Israel favorably.
The 50 points separating Republicans’ and Democrats’ positivity toward Israel is significantly higher than the prior record gap of 30 points measured last year. Indeed, the Democrats’ favorability score towards Israel has dropped 14 points in just the last year.
Now, Democratic voters have a decidedly more favorable view towards the Palestinian territories (45%) than Israel. The Gallup analysis of the data speculates that President Donald Trump’s strong support for the Jewish state has only intensified partisanship on the issue.
The Gallup survey is the latest finding suggesting that the Democratic Party’s ties to the priorities that many Jewish voters care about may be fraying, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and calls by some Democrats to halt arms sales to Israel. An American Jewish Committee survey released this month found that Jewish voters, still a solidly Democratic voting bloc, viewed the Republican Party’s handling of antisemitism better than the Democrats’ handling of the issue.
A majority of elected Democrats, however, still express support for Israel, and the influence of left-wing activists within the party may be diminishing in the wake of the Democrats’ defeat in the 2024 elections.
Israel could typically rely on widespread bipartisan support but that’s become more challenging as a result of an intensifying political polarization — a dynamic that’s extended to foreign affairs. Support for Ukraine, as it defends itself against Russia’s invasion, has also split increasingly along partisan lines, with more Democrats supporting the U.S. ally (84%) than Republicans (54%).
close confidante
With Dermer, Netanyahu seeks a negotiator he can trust
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer — his elusive close political confidante and advisor — as the head of Israel’s hostage negotiations team touched off a political controversy in the country that underscores why Netanyahu selected him for the role. By putting Dermer at the helm of the sensitive talks — which are set to continue today — Netanyahu ensured the negotiations are led by someone he trusts to align the Israeli team with the prime minister’s position: that the war against Hamas in Gaza cannot end unless his definition of “total victory” is achieved and the terror group is removed from power. The prime minister also hopes to plug the incessant leaks that have plagued the process, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
New admin, new negotiator: Dermer’s new position was leaked to the press earlier this month when Netanyahu was in Washington, but it became official last week. Dermer entered the negotiations as the first phase of the cease-fire and hostage-release deal was winding down, with the clock ticking to secure an agreement on phase two. Dermer arrived in Washington days later for meetings with President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff. A source with knowledge of the issue, who was granted anonymity to discuss the delicate situation, said that Netanyahu appointed a new lead negotiator “because this is a different negotiation with a new president of the U.S. The Biden deal is no longer valid. [The Trump administration] is backing Israel on everything, and I think that puts things in a different position. The Biden administration wasn’t backing us; they wanted a cease-fire. They didn’t care if Hamas remained in Gaza.”
Read the full story here.
Damascus dealings
Washington coalesces around cautious sanctions relief for new Syrian government
Lawmakers are coalescing around the prospect of cautious sanctions relief for Syria, conditioned on its compliance with key benchmarks, even as the Israeli government publicly remains deeply skeptical of the new Syrian leadership, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle told JI this week, and said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing earlier this month, that they back a policy of phased sanctions relief based on Syria’s compliance with specific conditions set by the U.S. Jewish groups said that any sanctions policy changes should be made carefully. But Israeli leaders have recently taken a frosty or outright hostile posture toward the new Syrian regime, skeptical of the purported changes in the onetime jihadi leaders. Many policy analysts in Washington are backing the same approach supported by U.S. lawmakers. It’s not clear yet what strategy the Trump administration plans to pursue.
Read the full story here including comments by Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and James Lankford (R-OK) as well as FDD’s David Adesnik and The Washington Institute’s Dana Stroul.
Behind the scenes: The recent delegation of Syrian-American Jewish community members to Syria was assisted by the Syria Emergency Task Force, a U.S. group that is pushing for the lifting of sanctions on Syria.
territorial term
Mast directs Foreign Affairs Committee to refer to West Bank as Judea and Samaria
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) instructed committee staff to refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in all official documents and communications going forward, stating that Congress should “recognize Israel’s rightful claim to the cradle of Jewish civilization,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Growing chorus: The directive echoes legislation recently reintroduced in both chambers of Congress and the establishment of a new Friends of Judea and Samara caucus on the Hill, reflecting growing interest among some conservative lawmakers in recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the territory. A group of Republican lawmakers also explicitly called for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank in a letter earlier this week.
campus chaos
Anti-Israel protesters physically assault Barnard College staff in university building takeover
A Barnard College staff member was assaulted and sent to the hospital on Wednesday evening by masked anti-Israel demonstrators who stormed the college’s main administrative building and remained there for several hours, chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “intifada revolution,” a spokesperson for the university confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.
What happened: “Earlier today, a small group of masked protesters forcibly entered Milbank Hall and physically assaulted a Barnard employee, sending them to the hospital,” Barnard spokesperson Robin Levine told JI. “They encouraged others to enter campus without identification, showing blatant disregard for the safety of our community.” Levine said that the university has made “multiple good-faith efforts to deescalate.” She said, “Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters — just as we meet with all members of our community — on one simple condition: remove their masks. They refused. We have also offered mediation.”
Safety concerns elsewhere: Citing “possible concerns or threats to the community,” American University in Washington abruptly canceled a Students for Justice in Palestine event titled “Debunking Zionist Lies Workshop.”
antisemitism in focus
Harmeet Dhillon pledges to combat campus antisemitism at Senate confirmation hearing
Harmeet Dhillon, a former lawyer for President Donald Trump and his nominee to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, pledged at her confirmation hearing on Wednesday to confront antisemitism on college campuses if confirmed, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “We’ve seen antisemitism sweep the nation, and it is very problematic that many people of the Jewish faith are barred by professors and fellow students from access to the classroom,” Dhillon said. “In addition to race, I would see religious discrimination and other forms of discrimination on campus as an appropriate target for the Civil Rights Division.” The comments suggest that the Trump administration may see an expanded role for the Department of Justice in combating campus antisemitism, a portfolio that was largely handled by the Department of Education’s own Office for Civil Rights during the Biden administration.
Doctor’s downfall: The University of Florida is investigating a senior member of its medical school faculty after dozens of his anti-Zionist social media posts were unearthed by Jewish Insider, a spokesperson for the university confirmed to JI’s Gabby Deutch.
considered cash
JLens launches pro-Israel fund on New York Stock Exchange
With the launch on Thursday of a new stock fund from JLens, individual investors will, for the first time, be able to invest in companies on the New York Stock Exchange that support Israel and combat antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned. Under the ticker symbol “TOV” — the Hebrew word for “good” — investors will have access to the JLens 500 Jewish Advocacy U.S. Index, which comprises the 500 largest U.S. public companies and screens out companies whose activities do not align with Jewish values, including supporting the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, according to the investor advocacy organization.
Unique investment opportunity: JLens was acquired by the Anti-Defamation League in 2022. Several U.S. Jewish organizations — including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Atlanta Jewish Foundation and Jewish Community Partners (Memphis) — have committed to invest over $100 million in seed capital to launch the new fund. The initiative is groundbreaking in that individuals, not just federations or other communal organizations, can invest, Ari Hoffnung, JLens’ managing director and ADL’s senior advisor on corporate advocacy, told JI. “Until now there’s been institutional investment vehicles,” Hofnung said. “These have minimums of $1 million and above, which is fine for a federation which has an endowment of $100 million, but most regular investors don’t have $1 million or more to put into this.”
Worthy Reads
AI in the Desert: The Wall Street Journal’s Eliot Brown and Berber Jin profile Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor known as “the spy sheikh” who chairs two of Abu Dhabi’s wealth funds and who is investing heavily in the field of artificial intelligence. “Even in an AI world awash in funds, Tahnoon stands out. While many are plunging tens of billions of dollars into concentrated areas — SoftBank is making a huge bet on OpenAI and the tech giants are heaving money at data centers — Tahnoon is planning to spread more money broadly around the fledgling sector than almost anyone else. … His strategy is to use his cash and influence not only to enable the U.A.E. and Abu Dhabi to profit from the rise of AI, but to make the U.A.E. a global hub for the technology. Seeing enormous global demand for years to come, his vision is that chip plants, data centers and local AI companies will build a post-oil economic future for the tiny-but-powerful emirate a 90 minute drive from Dubai — and for the country overall.” [WSJ]
Hotel for Healing: In The Telegraph, Nicole Lampert visits the private hotel where recently freed hostages and their loved ones can stay following their release from Gaza as they undergo rehabilitation and reentry into Israeli society. “The hotel has a special dining room for the hostages where each family has their own table and they can choose when to eat – giving the hostages choice is a huge part of their rehabilitation. On Friday nights, the beginning of the Sabbath, a tradition has begun where all the families eat together. … It is a sort of halfway house where they can continue their recovery – with physiotherapists, psychologists, nutritionists and all manner of other specialists – in privacy, alongside other people who understand exactly what they are going through.” [Telegraph]
Identity (Politics) Crisis: In The Atlantic, Josh Barro raises concerns about the Democratic Party’s continued focus on identity politics despite its losses in the 2024 elections. “These people don’t have good intentions; they have a worldview that is wrong, and they need to be stopped. And although DEI-speak can and does make Democrats seem weird and out of touch, that’s not the main problem with it. The big problem with the approach [Pete] Buttigieg rightly complains about — and that [Malcolm] Kenyatta and [David] Hogg exemplify — is that it entails a strong set of mistaken moral commitments. These have led the party to take unpopular positions on crime, immigration, and education, among other issues. … It’s a worldview that obsessively categorizes people by their demographic characteristics, ranks them according to how ‘marginalized’ (and therefore important) they are because of those characteristics, and favors or disfavors them accordingly. The holders of this worldview then compound their errors by looking to progressive pressure groups as a barometer of the preferences of the ‘marginalized’ population groups they purport to represent. That is, they decide that some people are more important than others, and then they don’t even correctly assess the desires of the people they have decided are most important.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Israel confirmed the identities of four bodies that were repatriated from Gaza overnight as being hostages Ohad Yahalomi, Tsachi Idan, Itzik Elgarat and Shlomo Mantzur; the government said that Mantzur was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body brought to Gaza, while the other three men had been killed in captivity…
In a Truth Social post, President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed…four bodies came in today…We got a lot of hostages back, but it’s very sad what happened to those people…This is a vicious group of people, and Israel’s going to have to decide what they’re doing”…
The Trump administration announced plans to end more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and will cut $60 billion in U.S. foreign aid more generally…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the “special government employees,” including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who simultaneously work in the Trump administration and in the private sector, without having to cease their non-administration work or disclose potential conflicts of interest…
Former Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who served as chair of the House Financial Services Committee, is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a senior advisor…
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) will make a decision in April about whether to enter the Senate race to succeed Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who is stepping down at the end of his term next year…
The City University of New York removed a job posting for a Palestinian studies professor, following a directive from Gov. Kathy Hochul; the job description, for a position at New York’s Hunter College, said the school was looking to hire a “historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality”…
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against Harvard by 10 of the school’s alumni who alleged that the university’s poor handling of what they called “rampant” antisemitism on the campus had devalued their diplomas…
More than 3,500 mental health professionals signed onto a letter to the leadership of the American Psychological Association raising concerns about “virulent antisemitism” within the association…
A recording of a six-song set Bob Dylan played at Greenwich Village’s Gaslight Cafe in 1961 is up for auction, along with other items from Dylan’s early years…
A far-left Canadian website listed the names of dozens of Jewish Canadians who have served in the IDF…
Charlotte Moore, the chief content officer at the BBC, is departing the broadcaster to join Left Bank Pictures and its parent company, Sony…
An Australian nurse who appeared in a video earlier this month saying she would not treat Israeli patients was charged with several federal offenses, including threatening violence to a particular group; if convicted on all charges, Sarah Abu Lebdeh could face up to 22 years in prison…
A new report from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog found that Iran has increased its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium by more than 50% in the last three months; the International Atomic Energy Agency report said that the increase gives Tehran the ability to produce six nuclear weapons…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Israel could deploy its “military option” against Iran should Tehran keep working toward nuclear capabilities…
Arie Dana, who previously served as chief of staff to former Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), is joining the Republican Jewish Coalition as deputy director of government affairs/director of executive branch relations…
Agudath Israel of America announced the upcoming retirement of Rabbi Abba Cohen, the organization’s vice president for government affairs and its longtime Washington office director…
Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, known for her roles in “Harriet the Spy” and “Gossip Girl,” died at 39…
Pic of the Day
The Empire State Building was lit in orange on Wednesday night to honor the memories of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were laid to rest yesterday after being released from captivity in Gaza, where they were murdered at the hands of their captors.
Birthdays
Film and television actor, he starred as FBI Agent Stan Beeman on the FX series “The Americans,” Noah Emmerich turns 60…
Performance artist and filmmaker, she is a professor emerita at the University of California, San Diego, Eleanor Antin turns 90… Writer and illustrator of children’s books, Uri Shulevitz turns 90… Investor and trader, he is the chair of Juilliard, vice chair of Lincoln Center and on the board of the Metropolitan Opera, Bruce Kovner turns 80… Haverford, Pa.-based attorney, mediator and arbitrator, Judith Meyer… NYC-based real estate developer, Michael Gervis… Professor of physics at MIT, Alan Harvey Guth turns 78… Member of the British House of Lords, she is a retired rabbi and the chair of University College London Hospitals, Baroness Julia Neuberger turns 75… Historian, syndicated columnist, investigative journalist and talk show host, Edwin Black turns 75… U.S. senator (D-NH), Maggie Hassan turns 67… Stand-up comedian, Wendy Liebman turns 64… Suzanne “Suzy” Appelbaum… Writer and producer for television and film, David Krinsky turns 62… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, David S. Waren… Founder of Spanx, she is also a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, Sara Blakely turns 54… Founder and executive director of Toldot Yisrael, Aryeh Halivni turns 52… Director of Georgetown University’s journalism program, Rebecca Sinderbrand… Singer-songwriter, composer and prayer leader, Sam Benjamin “Shir Yaakov” Feinstein-Feit turns 47… Finance minister of Israel, he is the leader of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich turns 45… Named as president of baseball operations for the St. Louis Cardinals to take effect following the 2025 season, Chaim Bloom turns 42… Senior counsel at WilmerHale, he is a former Obama White House aide where he was one of the originators of the White House Seder, Eric P. Lesser turns 40… Video journalist for The Daily Wire, Kassy Akiva… Alana Berkowitz..
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