Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on King Abdullah’s meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House yesterday, and look at the conversations taking shape around the next Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel. We also look at a pair of new polls of American Jewish attitudes toward antisemitism and report on how campuses are adjusting their responses to Students for Justice in Palestine activity. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Brett McGurk, Marc Fogel and Salman Rushdie.
What We’re Watching
- The Senate is slated to vote this morning on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to be director of national intelligence, after a snowstorm that hit Washington last night postponed what was supposed to be an evening vote.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee is hosting a roundtable this morning with the families of some of the American hostages still being held in Gaza.
- Elsewhere on Capitol Hill this morning, the House Education & Workforce Committee is marking up the DETERRENT Act, legislation that tightens reporting requirements for foreign donations to colleges and universities.
- At the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to take the stage this afternoon. The confab concludes midday tomorrow, following appearances by Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay is also slated to speak tomorrow. Earlier today, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke in conversation with Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
What You Should Know
The cease-fire between Israel and Hamasappears to be on the brink of collapse, after Israel joined with President Donald Trump in setting a Saturday deadline for Hamas to release all the hostages, whose fate hangs in the balance, Jewish Insider senior political correspondent Lahav Harkov reports.
Trump, who first suggested earlier this week that Hamas release the remaining 76 hostages or Israel should “let hell break out,” doubled down on his comments in a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah II following their White House meeting yesterday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added his support for Trump’s deadline in an address of his own from Jerusalem later in the day. Read more on Netanyahu’s comments here.
The messages from Jerusalem and Washington indicate that, during Netanyahu’s White House visit last week, the Israeli prime minister convinced Trump that it would be better to extend phase one of the deal and release the rest of the hostages in order to avoid the demands of phase two of the deal, which include further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a commitment to end the war before Hamas is fully defeated.
But they also seem to signal that Trump took things farther than Netanyahu would have: Israel initially demanded that only the nine living hostages remaining in phase one be returned this week and did not threaten “hell,” but rather to suspend further negotiations if nine hostages are not released by Saturday. Then, Netanyahu upgraded the threat to “intense fighting” and noted that the IDF was amassing troops around Gaza. And finally, a senior Israeli source upped the demand to all the hostages.
The mixed messages reflect the reported dynamic within Israel’s security cabinet meeting yesterday, where some Likud ministers and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who threatened to pull his Religious Zionist party out of the coalition if the war does not resume after phase one of the deal – fully supported Trump’s rhetoric and called on Israel to adopt it. But security officials like Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar argued that an ultimatum would be counterproductive and further endanger the remaining hostages.
Netanyahu said in an interview from Washington last week that he believes Israel can achieve all of its war aims – defeating Hamas and ensuring it will no longer be a threat to Israel, as well as freeing all of the hostages. But as the latest developments have shown, as long as Hamas shrewdly and cruelly uses the hostages as leverage, Israel’s goals are at the very least in tension with each other.
abdullah’s anxiety
Jordan’s Abdullah walks tightrope in Washington over Trump’s Gaza relocation plan
Jordan’s King Abdullah II walked a fine line in his White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, offering some minor concessions toward Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan and other Arab states, while not completely acceding to the White House’s demands, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Difficult balance: Abdullah said in brief remarks with Trump that Jordan and other Arab and Muslim countries would put forward a unified proposal for Gaza. He also pledged to take in 2,000 Palestinian children from Gaza including some requiring medical treatment, but did not address Trump’s broader push. He didn’t comment on U.S. aid to the kingdom, which is still paused and which Trump has threatened to continue withholding if Jordan does not go along with his Gaza plan. Amman is heavily dependent on U.S. military, economic and humanitarian support. But Abdullah said in a subsequent statement that he had “reaffirmed Jordan’s firm stance against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Read the full story here.
cracking down
Universities toughen penalties against SJP, antisemitic activity on campus
A recent crackdown on Students for Justice in Palestine and its affiliated groups at universities including Bowdoin University, Columbia University and the University of Michigan are the latest indication that university administrators are approaching antisemitic incidents with a new seriousness since the Trump administration issued executive orders aimed at deterring campus antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Campus leaders react: Several campus leaders welcomed the shift. For too long “there were no consequences,” said Mark Yudof, chair of the Academic Engagement Network and the former president of the University of California system. “The new Trump administration is very serious and I’ve told [certain universities] they are in jeopardy.” Even with the recent investigation and suspension at Columbia, the university’s Hillel director, Brian Cohen, noted that other university investigations remain open, such as ones against students involved with the encampments and the takeover of Hamilton Hall last April. “These cases should have been resolved months ago, and many of the students involved in those cases remain on campus and continue to break university rules.”
LOOKING AHEAD
U.S., Israel should begin thinking about next MOU, analysts say
DANIEL SLIM/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The current 10-year, $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel, which provides $3.8 billion in military aid and missile-defense funding to Israel annually, is set to run out in 2028. But some policy analysts say that now is the time for Washington and Jerusalem to begin thinking about what the next MOU should entail, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Troublesome issue: Some voices on the anti-Israel right, who have advocated for a decreased U.S. role in the Middle East and a pullback on U.S. aid to Israel generally, have taken prominent roles within the Defense Department, and could potentially influence the talks. A Republican senator, speaking on condition of anonymity, told JI that several GOP lawmakers planned to keep a close eye on MOU negotiations to ensure that those hires don’t influence MOU talks. “It’s on our radar, big time,” the senator said. “We’re engaged on this.”
Read the full story here.
survey says
AJC poll: American Jews hold negative views over Democratic Party’s handling of antisemitism
A sizable majority of American Jews disapprove of how the Democratic Party is handling antisemitism, according to a new American Jewish Committee survey of Jewish attitudes towards antisemitism. Despite most Jews identifying as Democrats, slightly more viewed the GOP’s handling of antisemitism favorably, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.
Broad dissatisfaction: The survey, released on Wednesday and conducted by SSRS between Oct. 8 and Nov. 29, 2024, found broad dissatisfaction in how all institutions were dealing with antisemitism. The poll found 39% of respondents approved of the Democrats’ response to antisemitism, including 41% of Jewish Democrats, while 59% of those surveyed disapproved. Just under half of American Jews (45%) backed the GOP’s handling of antisemitism. Forty percent approved of the federal government’s response, while 42% approved of Congress’ legislative reaction to the issue.
Read the full story here.
majority opinion
American Jews overwhelmingly reject JVP, poll finds
The majority of American Jews strongly reject anti-Zionist groups — and consider them antisemitic — according to a new study shared exclusively with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen. The poll, commissioned by The Jewish Majority, found that Jewish Americans overwhelmingly oppose the protest tactics used by Jewish Voice for Peace against the war in Gaza, despite the group’s claims that it represents the Jewish community and the central role it played in last spring’s campus anti-Israel demonstrations.
Findings: Seventy-five percent of respondents said that protests blocking traffic are unacceptable, while 60% said the same about demonstrating at the homes of government officials. The survey did not ask specifically about encampments or anti-Israel slogans at the protests. The survey also found that 85% of those polled believe Hamas wants to commit genocide against Jews and Israel. Seventy percent said that anti-Zionist movements are antisemitic by definition.
Worthy Reads
The End of Hamas Rule: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens writes that regardless of the progression of cease-fire talks, Hamas must be removed from power. “Anyone who thinks that Hamas can be allowed to continue to torture Israelis, tyrannize Palestinians and remain the ruling power in Gaza, free to someday set fire to the region again, needs to be disabused of the idea. That goes especially for Arab states like Qatar and Egypt that depend on U.S. protection and largess even as they have harbored Hamas leaders or failed to stop the group from arming itself to the teeth before Oct. 7. … The hostages are in grave danger whether the six-week truce continues or the war restarts. Gazan civilians, treated for too long as human shields by Hamas, remain at risk no matter what happens. But what hasn’t worked, and what can’t, is expecting Hamas to behave as anything other than the barbaric terror group that it is. Trump may be wrong about many things, but he’s right about this: This horror show of Hamas must end now.” [NYTimes]
Defang the U.N.: In The Wall Street Journal, Eugene Kontorovich suggests that the U.S. pull its funding from the United Nations and a range of its subsidiary agencies. “The Trump administration can also cut U.S. contributions to the U.N. peacekeeping system. Peacekeeping is one of the biggest parts of the U.N.’s budget, and the U.S. pays the lion’s share. Unlike other U.N. programs, peacekeeping operations must be regularly reauthorized by the U.N. Security Council, and the U.S. can veto them. Missions to be vetoed should include the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which has shielded Hezbollah, and the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, whose function has been made moot by U.S. recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. Peacekeeping is the jewel in the crown of the U.N. system, evoking nostalgia for the original vision of the U.N. as an army that stops bad guys around the world. Starting by canceling a few of these missions may be one of the few ways the Trump administration could show the secretariat that there will be consequences for failing to reform.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Speaking in the Oval Office yesterday, Elon Musk walked back a claim made last week that the Biden administration had allocated $50 million for contraception in Gaza; Musk acknowledged that the aid was sent to the province of Gaza in Mozambique, which has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world…
President Donald Trump is slated to address the Saudi-organized FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami next Wednesday…
Joshua Lobel, Wayne Berman, Sander Gerber and Jeremy Katz were among those named to Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board on Tuesday…
Brett McGurk, who served as the National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa during the Biden administration, is joining the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center as a senior fellow…
Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced a bill to prohibit any federal funding or cooperation with the International Criminal Court and to prevent any use of U.S. economic support funding to support the Palestinian Authority…
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cotton, Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced a resolution declaring that “Hamas cannot be allowed to retain any political and military control in the Gaza Strip”…
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations CEO William Daroff wrote to the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee raising “serious concerns” about the nomination of Elbridge Colby to be undersecretary of defense for policy…
Jason Greenblatt, who served as Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration, shares his view of the current White House’s approach to the Middle East and its recent proposals in a podcast interview with the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs’ Dan Diker…
U.S. citizen Marc Fogel, a teacher who had been detained in Russia for more than three years, was released yesterday; Fogel returned to the U.S. with Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, and met with President Donald Trump upon his return…
A candidate to lead Michigan’s state Democratic Party is facing criticism for comments made last week in which he said that the party “is not the Jewish party”…
Writer Salman Rushdie testified yesterday in the trial of the man accused of attempting to murder him at an event in western New York in 2022…
A Jewish woman who had been fired by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is suing the artist, alleging she was let go after he sent her offensive text messages, including one that read “Heil Hitler”…
The online shopping platform Shopify removed T-shirts emblazoned with a swastika that had been sold by West on his website…
Two Australian health-care workers were placed on leave pending an investigation following the publication of a video in which the two threatened to kill Israeli patients, one of them bragging that he had already done so…
The family of hostage Omri Miran received a sign of life from the 46-year-old, who was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Oct. 7; a recently released hostage said upon his repatriation to Israel that he had been held with Miran through July…
Another repatriated hostage confirmed that Yosef-Chaim Ohana, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, is also alive in captivity…
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago would be “an absolutely fantastic place if you want to resettle millions of people there”…
Hezbollah announced that the public funeral for former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September, will take place Feb. 23 in Lebanon…
The United Nations said that a World Food Programme staffer who had been detained by the Houthis in Yemen died in custody…
Pic of the Day
King Charles met with U.K. Chief Imam Dr Sayed Razawi (left) and U.K. Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis (right) at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday following the signing of the Muslim-Jewish Reconciliation Accords in London.
Birthdays
Israeli actress, best known as ADA Samantha Maroun on “Law & Order,” Odelya Halevi turns 36…
Commercial director in the Inglewood and Beverly Hills offices of Keller Williams Realty, Gary Aminoff turns 88… Best-selling author, Judy Sussman Blume turns 87… Physician and public intellectual, he is a dean at Shalem College in Jerusalem and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, Leon Richard Kass turns 86… Former prime minister of Israel, highly decorated IDF soldier and general, Ehud Barak turns 83… Periodontist in Newark, Del., Barry S. Kayne, DDS… Economist, physicist, legal scholar and libertarian theorist, his father was Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, David D. Friedman turns 80… Computer genius, author, inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil turns 77… Grandmother of Aryeh, Gabby, Alex and Daniella, among others, Esther Dickman… Former president of Disney-ABC Television Group, Ben Sherwood turns 61… President and general counsel at The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Alyza Lewin… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Brett M. Kavanaugh turns 60… Film director, producer and screenwriter, Darren Aronofsky turns 56… Comic book author and illustrator, Judd Winick turns 55… Actress known for her voice work in animation, websites and video games, Tara Lyn Charendoff Strong turns 52… Comedian, actor, podcaster, writer and producer, Ari Shaffir turns 51… Principal deputy national security advisor throughout the Biden administration, Jon Finer turns 49… Deputy director for external affairs and communications at the Troy, Mich.-based Kresge Foundation, Christine M. Jacobs… Former MLB player, he is now the program director and owner of London, Ontario-based Centrefield Sports, Adam Stern turns 45… Columnist for The Wall Street Journal for 17 years through this past December, Rachel Feintzeig… Deputy solicitor general of New Jersey, he previously clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Michael Zuckerman… New York regional director for the American Jewish Committee, Joshua Kramer… Syndicated political columnist and senior editor-at-large for Newsweek, Josh Hammer turns 36… Senior advisor in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs at the State Department during the Biden administration, Megan Apper… Counsel in the international trade group at Crowell & Moring, Jeremy Iloulian… PR and communications manager at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Anna Miroff…
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