Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the legal considerations around the Trump administration’s effort to deport a green card holder who was a key figure in last year’s anti-Israel Columbia University protests, and report on how New York City’s mayoral candidates are responding to the deportation effort. We also have a profile of new Federal Acquisition Service head Josh Gruenbaum and report on Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s comments on the recent mass killings in Syria. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Masih Alinejad, Keith Siegel and Massad Boulos.
What We’re Watching
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz are in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, today for talks with senior Ukrainian officials. More below.
- Middle East envoy Steve Wikoff is in Abu Dhabi today, where he is meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. Witkoff is expected to travel on to Doha tonight and to Russia later this week.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a markup on legislation to combat Hezbollah’s activities in Latin America.
- Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur will give the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA tonight focused on “The New Middle East.”
- Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin is in the U.S. this week. The Irish leader was slated to meet with Jewish groups later this week in Washington. Jewish Insider can confirm that the meeting, initially scheduled for Friday, is now canceled.
What You Should Know
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting today with senior Ukrainian officials in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss efforts to end Kyiv’s three-year war with Russia. With the flurry of diplomatic traffic between Arab capitals, it would be easy to look past the Saudis’ role in the meetings. With Jeddah serving as the backdrop to the high-stakes talks, the Saudi government’s role should not be overlooked, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss writes.
With tensions rising between the Trump administration and major European powers — highlighted by their recent divergence on countering Russia in its aggressive military campaign against Ukraine — the Saudi city is serving as an attractive neutral ground for the talks between Rubio’s delegation, which includes National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and top aides to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Geographically, Saudi Arabia has less of a personal stake in the outcome of the war. But Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a forward-looking vision for his country, outlined in his Vision 2030 project — and an eye for opportunity, sensing the Trump administration’s frustration with Europe (as evidenced by Vice President J.D. Vance’s address to the Munich Security Conference).
“They see becoming this global power to solve problems very much in keeping with Vision 2030 and helping them continue to become a major world power,” Jason Greenblatt, who served as the White House’s Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration, told JI last night.
Saudi Arabia’s hosting of this week’s talks underscores the degree of frustration that President Donald Trump feels with Europe. “I’m sure they’re taking a cue from Trump that Europe is out and the GCC is in,” Greenblatt said, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council. “They also recognize that Trump is angry, annoyed and frustrated with Europe, and he likes the Saudis, so they think they could play a good role and be a stage for him to try to make his deals for world stability. I believe they can.”
The rift between Europe and the U.S. stands to benefit Doha, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. The fact of the matter is that the Middle East looks drastically different than it did seven years ago — and that’s not just because of the war that has crippled the Iranian axis over the last year and a half.
Qatar’s role in the Gulf has been dramatically reshaped, first by its restoration of ties with the GCC countries in 2021, which severed relations four years earlier over Doha’s ties to Muslim extremists, and then by its hosting of the World Cup, which brought global attention, capital and tourism to the country. As a longtime sponsor of Hamas, Qatar has played a key role in the negotiations that have taken place since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks — the other major conflict in which the U.S. is pushing a resolution.
And Saudi Arabia, which candidate Joe Biden pledged in 2020 to make a “pariah” state over its 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, is now playing host to the talks to wind down one of the globe’s biggest conflicts.
It’s a reminder of how fast the winds of change can move through the region — leaving both opportunity and risk on the table for those who seek to shape its future.
controversial case
Legal questions hang over Trump efforts to deport anti-Israel Columbia graduate with green card
President Donald Trump’s move to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate who was an organizer of last year’s anti-Israel encampment on campus, escalates Trump’s long-standing commitment to deport foreign students who support terrorism, which he made a priority in a January executive order on combating antisemitism. While Khalil, a 30-year-old who grew up in Syria but is of Palestinian descent, first came to the U.S. on a student visa, he now has a green card. As a lawful permanent legal resident, Khalil has a stronger claim to due process protections than he would as a foreign national in the U.S. on a time-bound student visa — which has raised questions for some legal experts about the legality of Trump’s move to arrest and deport Khalil, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Constitutional questions: “I consider myself on the right, and I wouldn’t have any objection to student visa action,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former Republican Department of Homeland Security official and a national security lawyer. “Maybe this guy shouldn’t have gotten a green card in the first instance. But he’s got one now, and that means he has rights.” Central to the issue is a debate over whether Khalil’s activism, as one of the encampment’s lead negotiators and an advocate for divestment from Israel, should be considered free speech, protected by the First Amendment, or whether it should be viewed as support for terrorism.
Hill reaction: Left-wing Democratic lawmakers condemned the Trump administration’s decision to detain Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was a leader in anti-Israel campus protests, while several pro-Israel Democrats were taking a wait-and-see approach, underscoring the scourge of campus antisemitism while also acknowledging the need for due process, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
taking a pass
Cuomo declines to weigh in on ICE arrest of anti-Israel Columbia activist
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is so far staying silent with regard to the arrest by federal agents on Sunday of a Palestinian student activist who played a leading role in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last year — as several primary rivals for New York City mayor condemn the move. A spokesperson for Cuomo, a Democrat who announced his mayoral bid a week ago, did not return requests for comment from Jewish Insider on Monday. He has otherwise declined to publicly address the matter, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Different approaches: Cuomo’s hesitation to weigh in on the politically charged issue suggests that Cuomo — who has been courting Jewish and pro-Israel voters — is taking a cautious approach to the Trump administration’s polarizing crackdown on campus protests even as he indicates that combating rising antisemitism is among his top priorities. Cuomo’s opponents in the June primary election, meanwhile, have almost unanimously denounced the arrest as a violation of due process and called for the release of Mahmoud Khalil — a green card holder who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents days after the Trump administration said it would slash $400 million in federal funding from Columbia over the university’s handling of alleged antisemitic protests.
Read the full story here.
told you so
Israeli FM: Alawite massacre shows Israel took the right approach to Syria
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar defended Israel’s cautious approach to the new Syrian government and its leader, former Al-Qaida member Ahmed al-Sharaa, in a Knesset speech on Monday, citing the regime’s mass killings of members of the country’s Alawite minority over the weekend, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Sa’ar noted that on a recent trip to Brussels, he had warned his European counterparts that the new Syrian government, led by Al-Sharaa, who previously was known as Mohammed Al-Jolani, “is not a democratically elected regime but rather a Jihadist group that ruled the Idlib enclave and seized additional territories in Syria by force, including the capital, Damascus.”
Weekend flare-up: “I warned my colleagues about the sweet talk of Al-Jolani and his men and cautioned against acts of revenge and violence against the Alawite minority, as well as their intention to annihilate the Kurdish autonomy,” Sa’ar said. Syrian security forces reportedly massacred 830 Alawite Syrians on Friday and Saturday. The Alawite sect, to which deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belonged, is about 10% of Syria’s population. Al-Sharaa said his regime will hold anyone who killed civilians accountable, but also blamed “remnants of the foreign regime” whom he said were “trying to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war.”
Read the full story here.
Bonus: Damascus and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces inked an agreement to bring the Kurdish forces under Syrian government control.
An unexpected avenue
The private equity investor using the federal bureaucracy to tackle antisemitism
Josh Gruenbaum knows that almost no one has ever heard of the Federal Acquisition Service, the federal agency that he left a high-profile job at private equity giant KKR to run, and he’s OK with that. He sees the agency that oversees procurement and contracting for the entire federal government as a good place to go for someone who enjoys the intricacies of financial systems and agrees with Elon Musk’s vision of government efficiency. It is also, as Gruenbaum has been pleased to discover, an unexpected avenue for fighting antisemitism — because as Gruenbaum told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch, why should the federal government enter into lucrative contracts with partners who are out of step with the Trump administration’s priorities?
Contracts contested: “If it’s a privilege to do business with the federal government, you better be acting in the fashion that this administration and the American people have voted in, in terms of what a good counter-party looks like,” Gruenbaum, who has used his perch atop a wonky agency to gain a spot on the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force, said in an interview on Thursday. “This administration does not tolerate hate in the form of antisemitism. So I think the way you translate that to contracts and grants is you look at, well, what sort of partner should this federal government be doing business with?”
Read the full interview here.
election season
More slates, more voters, more at stake as polls open for the 39th World Zionist Congress
Voting began yesterday for the American seats in the 39th World Zionist Congress, as various parties, denominations and ideologies vie for control of a budget of more than $1 billion a year, for official positions in the “National Institutions” and for the authority and standing that come with them, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports. Americans make up roughly a third of the overall World Zionist Congress, which next convenes in October; Israelis — represented by parties whose number of delegates is determined by their representation in the Knesset — make up another third and Jews from the rest of the world make up the final third.
Large turnout expected: According to Hebert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement, which is administering the elections, this year is on track to see the largest number of voters since the process moved to being an open election some 35 years ago. Voting runs through May 4. “There’s 21 slates running now, which is significantly more than the 15 slates that ran last time. There are 2,900 candidates among those slates. Last time, overall they were about 1,800,” Block told eJP. “In terms of the number of people who are pre-registered [to vote] because they were running as a candidate or signing a petition, we have about 11,000 now and were at about 4,000 or 5,000 at this point before the election opened last time.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
Boehler’s Bungle:Commentary’s Seth Mandel raises concerns about White House hostage envoy Adam Boehler’s approach to his recent meetings with Hamas and subsequent appearances on the Sunday shows in which he touted the possibilities of a detente with the terror group. “Boehler spent the weekend doing TV interviews, and in each one he sounds like an overexcited tourist who thinks the past few weeks in his life have been just so cool. It isn’t entirely clear why Boehler is even here, given the previous inexperienced envoy Steve Witkoff’s very public role in the first month of the administration as Washington’s man at the table. … Boehler appears to have offered Hamas a pathway to remaining in Gaza after the war without releasing the remaining Israeli hostages…though he insists that isn’t his goal. Still, whatever Boehler thinks he might have done is irrelevant because what he has actually done is offer Hamas the option of restoring the pre-October 7 status quo with minor adjustments. Or at least, he has given Hamas reason to believe that option is on the table. In so doing, this Donald Trump ‘apprentice’ has already done damage to the cause of bringing the hostages home as soon as is humanly possible. He would have been the first one fired at the end of the first episode of his season of ‘The Apprentice’ for what he’s done.” [Commentary]
The ‘Day After,’ Still Elusive: The New York Times’ Patrick Kingsley looks at the challenges facing negotiators seeking to find a resolution to end the Israel-Hamas war. “Each plan contains something unacceptable to either Israel or Hamas, or to the Arab countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia who some hope will fund and partially oversee Gaza’s future. ‘The devil is in the details, and none of the details in these plans make any sense,’ said Thomas R. Nides, a former United States ambassador to Israel. ‘Israel and Hamas have fundamentally opposed positions, while parts of the Arab plan are unacceptable to Israel, and vice versa. I’m all for people suggesting new ideas, but it is very hard for anyone to find common ground unless the dynamics change significantly.’ The central challenge is that Israel wants a Hamas-free Gaza whereas the group still seeks to retain its military wing, which led the October 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the war.” [NYTimes]
Green Card Blues: The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn weighs in on the detention and potential green card revocation of a former Columbia student who was involved in the campus’ anti-Israel protests. “The administration’s recent actions are likely to take the courts some time to untangle. If Columbia doesn’t come to an agreement with Mr. Trump on the $400 million he wants to cut, the courts will probably have to weigh in. At the same time, Mr. Khalil and his allies will defend his green card. ‘So I bet what will happen,’ says Berkeley law professor John Yoo, ‘is that even though the immigration law says the alien students can be deported, there will be a district judge somewhere who says that the president cannot use that power to punish people based on their First Amendment-protected beliefs and speech. But the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold the law.’ These ‘protests’ weren’t really about speech. If all the ‘protesters’ had done was stand outside waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans, no one would be talking about deportation.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is expected to name Massoud Boulos, whose son is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany, as special envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo…
Asked about hostage envoy Adam Boehler’s comments over the weekend about his direct talks with Hamas, which have inflamed Israeli leaders, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI, “This moment calls for extraordinary delicacy and deftness, so people should be careful about what they say”; other senators who spoke to JI said they weren’t aware of Boehler’s comments…
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced the Make Gaza Great Again Act to sanction foreign leaders that reject requests from the United States to take in Palestinians displaced from Gaza, and to revoke major non-NATO ally status from and suspend aid to such states, as applicable…
Trump said he plans to “lead the charge” to primary Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) over the Kentucky Republican’s refusal to back the GOP’s government spending bill…
Jury selection began in the trial of two men accused of plotting, on orders from Tehran, to kill Iranian dissident writer Masih Alinejad…
A Justice Department official who oversees the issuance of pardons was fired a day after she refused to back the restoration of gun rights for actor Mel Gibson, which he lost following a 2011 conviction for domestic violence…
The Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s dismissal of an art restitution case brought forward by the descendants of a German Jewish art collector whose Camille Pissarro painting, now worth tens of millions of dollars, was looted by the Nazis; the family of Lilly Cassirer has waged a decades-long legal battle against a Spanish museum for the return of the work…
The Department of Education warned dozens of universities they could face funding cuts over those schools’ handling of antisemitism on campus; the department notified 60 schools of the investigations that could cause schools to lose their federal funding…
Harvard University is implementing a hiring freeze, with President Alan Garber saying the move is to give the school “financial flexibility until we better understand how changes in federal policy will take shape”…
The chancellor of UCLA announced a new campus-wide plan to address antisemitism, weeks after the Department of Justice included the California school on its list of campuses it plans to visit to investigate claims of antisemitism…
The Washington Post will overhaul its newsroom structure, with plans to separate its politics desk from its national desk, and to consolidate other sections of the newspaper; columnist Ruth Marcus announced she was departing the newspaper after editors spiked a column she had written about the Post’s plans to limit the views in its opinion section…
The second in a series of interviews conducted by Dan Senor with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is now live; in the episode, Gallant talks about the efforts of the Israeli government to bring all the hostages in Gaza home…
The New York Times reviews Yiddish novelist Chaim Grade’s Sons and Daughters, which captured Jewish life in prewar Eastern Europe; the work was set to be translated and published following Grade’s death, but was held up in a yearslong legal battle between his surviving wife and publishers…
The Atlantic does a deep dive into kosher salt’s evolution from novel spice to kitchen staple…
Police in India’s Karnataka state are investigating the alleged sexual assault of an Israeli tourist and her Indian host in what appeared to be a random attack…
Former Israeli antisemitism envoy Noa Tishby posits in the New York Daily News that efforts to attack and delegitimize Israel have not borne positive outcomes for the Palestinians…
Israel called on U.N. agencies and other aid groups to take over the work and projects conducted by UNRWA, after the agency that works with Palestinians was banned from operating in Israeli territory over its ties to Hamas…
Russia, China and Iranbegan annual joint naval exercises on Monday in the Gulf of Oman…
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signaled Tehran’s willingness to engage in limited talks with the U.S. about the Iranian nuclear program…
Pic of the Day
Recently released Israeli-American hostage Keith Siegel, who was freed by Hamas last month, visited his home in Kfar Aza in southern Israel on Monday for the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. Siegel and his daughter Shir stood in front of a poster of the last two hostages from Kfar Aza, brothers Gali and Ziv Berman.
Birthdays
Film producer, director and writer, Jerry Gordon Zucker turns 75…
Pioneering investor in high-tech startups, he was the chairman of Compaq Computer for 18 years, Benjamin “Ben” M. Rosen turns 92… Professor emeritus at Princeton University whose research focused upon the Cairo Geniza and Jewish life in Muslim countries, Mark R. Cohen turns 82… Doctor of nursing practice, Hermine Jan Warren… Retired office administrator at Creative Wealth Management in Islandia, N.Y., Glenda Kresh… Culinary writer, television host and novelist, Steven Raichlen turns 72… Suzanne Dreyfus… Composer and conductor, he has composed the music for nearly 100 feature films, David Louis Newman turns 71… Co-owner of One Oak Vineyard in Sonoma, Laura Zimmerman… Chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment and head of MHR Fund Management, Mark Rachesky turns 66… President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan turns 64… CEO of The Carlyle Group, Harvey M. Schwartz turns 61… Managing director of Rockefeller Capital Management, Alexandra Lebenthal turns 61… College physician at Stony Brook University, internal medicine specialist, Richard E. Tuckman, MD turns 60… CEO of Weiss Public Affairs, Amy Weiss… President of JCS International, Michal Grayevsky… Singer-songwriter, she also promotes an eponymous line of eyeglasses, Lisa Loeb turns 57… Keyboardist for the rock band Foo Fighters, Rami Jaffee turns 56… Technology executive and data scientist, Jon Cohen… CEO of Campus Apartments and a limited partner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, David J. Adelman turns 53… Chief of staff at American Friends of Magen David Adom, Daniel Kochavi… United States District Court judge based in Atlanta since 2019, Judge Steven Daniel Grimberg turns 51… Israeli singer-songwriter and pianist who has twice been recognized as Israel’s Singer of the Year, Keren Peles Toor turns 46… Film, theater and television actress, Lucy Chet DeVito turns 42… Managing director at Ridgewood Energy, an energy-focused private equity firm, Samuel J. Lissner… CEO of Flow Carbon, Dana Stern Gibber… Financial advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors, Lev Beltser… Assistant director of Ramah Sports Camp, Ayala Wasser… Director of the Israel office at Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, Richard Pater… Principal and chief strategist at MCS Group, Sharon Polansky… Founder and editor-in-chief of Upward News, Ari David…
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