Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Sen. Dave McCormick about his first few months in office, and look at how Sen. Roger Marshall’s once-antagonistic position on Qatar has evolved following his vocal defense of Doha during a congressional hearing last week. We also report on Harvard’s dismissal of two of the heads of its Middle Eastern studies program, and report on how the Trump administration’s widespread cuts to federal programs have slashed $13 million in State Department grants for Israeli institutions. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gideon Sa’ar, Alex Edelman and Jessica Tisch.
What We’re Watching
- The Paley Center for Media in New York is hosting a discussion tonight on how social media can be used to fight antisemitism. Speakers on the panel, moderated by CNN’s Bianna Golodryga, include ATTN: founder Matthew Segal; author and content creator Hen Mazzig; activist Hannah Bronfman and Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation Executive Director Maria Zalewska.
- We’re keeping an eye on efforts to reach a new ceasefire and hostage-release deal, after Hamas reportedly accepted a joint Qatari-Egyptian proposal, with Israel and the U.S. offering a counter-proposal.
What You Should Know
For those paying attention to the campus space, Friday afternoon was less of a news dump and more of a total downpour.
First came the news that Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, was resigning after nine months on the job. Armstrong will be replaced by Board of Trustees Co-Chair Claire Shipman, who has already come under scrutiny by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Armstrong’s resignation came days after the university reached an agreement with the Trump administration to move toward restoring the $400 million cut by the government over Columbia’s handling of antisemitism, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
Then came reports that Harvard University had earlier in the week removed two of the heads of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. (Read more from JI’s Haley Cohen here.)
Elsewhere in New England, Yale University fired an associate research scholar over her failure to cooperate with administrators attempting to address allegations that she had direct ties to the terrorist group Samidoun.
And on the West Coast, UCLA “indefinitely” banned its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The campus saw violent clashes at its encampment last spring.
It’s a markedly different situation than what we saw on college campuses last academic year, when encampments spread like wildfire after anti-Israel campus activists saw Columbia administrators acquiesce to protesters’ demands and refuse to force the encampment to come down. The protesters, having received an inch, took a mile — eventually staging a takeover of a campus administrative building that ended with a police raid.
The situation at Columbia became so severe last spring that the Biden administration issued a statement condemning the “violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community” as “blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous.”
A year later, the new administration has taken a more proactive — and aggressive — approach.
In its first two months, the Trump administration has made good on its promised actions targeting the campus space, which have included the cessation of funding and termination of university grants; the opening of dozens of investigations into allegations of campus antisemitism; the cancellation of visas for foreign students alleged to have supported terror groups; and efforts toward dismantling the Department of Education.
With the Trump administration’s sweeping changes, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, as we see schools, following the example of Columbia, begin to take harder positions against anti-Israel activists on campus — ostensibly to keep from becoming the president’s next target.
In late February, one month into the Trump administration, we gave the lay of the campus space. Reflecting on the situation on campus at Columbia during the spring 2024 semester — the site of the first campus anti-Israel encampment — we wrote that the encampment and the Columbia administration’s response to it “served as the catalyst for the explosion of anti-Israel activity that spread across college campuses over the course of the spring semester,” and suggested that the school could again set the course for how the semester will play out across the country.
One month later, that assessment has begun to materialize.
senator sitdown
McCormick emerges as vocal advocate for Jewish voters in the Senate
Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) is planning to visit Israel as part of a congressional delegation sometime in late May, he revealed to Jewish Insider. The freshman senator announced his plans when he sat down with JI’s Emily Jacobs in his Senate office late last week for a wide-ranging discussion about his first few months in office. McCormick offered thoughts during the conversation on his relationships with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Gov. Josh Shapiro, also a Democrat, first-term legislative priorities and his advocacy on issues important to the Jewish community.
Trip talk: “We’re planning a CODEL, a limited CODEL in May to go to Israel and to go to the region. We haven’t quite figured out the schedule, but obviously, Israel will be central to that. Dina [McCormick Powell] and I went to Israel in January, after the horror of Oct. 7, and this will be a good chance to go back,” McCormick told JI, referencing his trip in the months following Hamas’ October 2023 attack.
Bonus: McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, discussed their new book, Who Believed in You: How purposeful mentorship changes the world, on the latest episode of Dan Senor’s “Call Me Back” podcast.
shake-up in cambridge
Harvard cleans house at Middle Eastern studies department
Two heads of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies were let go from their roles last Wednesday amid intensive scrutiny of the field from congressional leaders and the Trump administration. The center’s director and professor of Turkish studies, Cemal Kafadar, and its associate director, history professor Rosie Bsheer, were both removed from their posts, The Harvard Crimson reported on Friday. Global health professor Salmaan Keshavjee — the center’s interim director while Kafadar was on leave — will remain in his position, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Background: A 2024 report from the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance took aim at the center for broadcasting the view that “the Palestinian people are innocent victims of Jewish (white) oppression and that known terrorist groups are simply ‘political movements.’” The report stated that Kafadar and Bsheer, who both will remain in their faculty positions, curated a list of roughly 60 resources for students with the express purpose to “offer analyses and histories of expulsion, occupation, settler colonialism, forced evictions, home demolitions, and annexation that situate the current struggle as part of the ongoing Nakba of 1948 and in relation to the Naksa of 1967.” An anonymous student quoted in the report singled out Kafadar for allegedly telling his students to attend pro-Palestinian teach-ins.
defending doha
Inside Sen. Roger Marshall’s curious 180 on Qatar
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) turned heads on Thursday with his aggressive defense of Qatar during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on campus antisemitism — comments that stand in stark contrast to his characterization in 2019 of Qatar as a supporter of terrorism whose relationship with the United States should be reviewed, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he’s saying: At Thursday’s hearing, questioning witness Charles Asher Small, the director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, Marshall lauded Qatar as a strong ally for helping to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas and for helping to evacuate U.S. allies from Afghanistan in 2021. Asked about the senator’s about-face, Marshall spokesperson Emily Flower told J, “Consistent with both President Trump’s Administration and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Senator Marshall agrees that Qatar has proven itself to be a strong ally to the United States in the Middle East over the last several years.”
friend of foe
Trump reiterates support for controversial Kuwait ambassador nominee at White House iftar dinner
At an iftar dinner at the White House last Thursday night, President Donald Trump praised Muslim Americans for supporting him in the November election and heaped praise on Amer Ghalib, mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and Trump’s controversial nominee for ambassador to Kuwait. “He’s done a great job as mayor, and he’s done a great job with his support of us,” Trump said of Ghalib. “You’re going to have a great time with Kuwait, wonderful people, and it’s a great place, so congratulations.” Ghalib, who was born in Yemen and became the first Muslim mayor of Hamtramck as a Democrat, was one of a handful of prominent Michigan Muslim leaders to endorse Trump in the 2024 election, tapping into many Muslims’ frustration with the Biden administration’s support of Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Mideast views: In May 2024, Ghalib supported a city council measure in Hamtramck proclaiming support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which pledged that the city would “refrain investment in the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.” Shortly after the Hamas attacks, in December 2023, Ghalib supported another city council measure to rename a main Hamtramck street to Palestine Avenue. The resolution stated that “the Mayor and City Council acknowledge the profound impact of the recent and ongoing events,” quoting a death toll touted by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry “compris[ed] mostly of completely innocent women and children.” Ghalib has also cast doubt on the stories of rape that occurred by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7.
terror payments
Israeli FM warns world: Don’t buy Palestinian claim ‘pay for slay’ ended
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has been warning his counterparts not to believe the Palestinian Authority’s claim that it ended its payments to terrorists and their families, his office confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Sunday. When Sa’ar met with European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas last month, he showed her a video of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a Fatah Revolutionary Council in which he said of those who carry out terror attacks against Israelis: “Even if we only have one cent left, it will be for the prisoners and martyrs … They are more precious than all of us combined.”
The small print: Abbas’ comments, which were reported by JI, referred to the PA’s “Martyrs’ Fund,” nicknamed “pay for slay” by its critics. The PA has paid monthly salaries to terrorists in prison and the families of terrorists killed by Israel for decades, paying over $1 billion from 2018-2024. The PA announced on Feb. 10 that Abbas was “revoking the [laws] … related to the system of paying financial allowances to the families of prisoners, martyrs and the wounded.” While there were news reports that the “pay for slay” policy was ending as a gesture to President Donald Trump, a closer read of the announcement indicated that it was a change in the payment system, which would be taken over by the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment, which is “managed by a board of trustees appointed by the president.” The PA previously adopted a similar accounting trick in 2014, amid Western pressure to stop paying terrorists.
Bonus: Writing for Fox News’ website, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley calls on the Supreme Court to uphold a law allowing American victims of terror and their families to sue the terrorist entities behind their attacks, and presses Congress to pass the PLO and PA Terror Payments Accountability Act.
money matters
State Department foreign aid cuts slashed $13 million in Israel grants
The Trump administration’s widespread cuts to programs at the State Department slashed $13 million in grants for Israeli institutions, mostly targeting agricultural, scientific and medical research programs with Israeli institutions, according to a new spreadsheet showing canceled State Department programs shared with Congress and first reported by Politico last week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the grants: The cuts, covering nearly 40 separate grants, mostly impacted Israeli universities and research institutions. A large majority of the grants were focused on agricultural research projects such as crop resilience and water issues. Others were focused on subjects like desalination, wastewater treatment and health-care issues such as combating bird flu. While the spreadsheet does not make clear which accounts funded the research in question, the U.S. has long backed cooperative research programs between American and Israeli institutions under the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD), Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) program and the Binational Science Foundation (BSF), decades-old programs with strong bipartisan support.
Worthy Reads
Embracing Dissent at Cornell: In The New York Times, Cornell’s new president, Michael Kotlikoff, reflects on a recent on-campus event about the Middle East peace process featuring former Israeli, American and Palestinian officials that was disrupted by anti-Israel protesters. “If Cornell were a business, we might have called the event a failure: The news coverage displayed only the disruption, and ignored the rest. Fortunately for our students, Cornell is not a business. We are a university. And universities, despite rapidly escalating political, legal and financial risks, cannot afford to cede the space of public discourse and the free exchange of ideas. … The impact of our universities derives in no small part from their ability to equip students with the skills to evaluate evidence critically, consider issues from multiple perspectives, participate meaningfully in the exchange of ideas, and grapple with the difficult and the complex — in short, to participate fully and capably in a modern democracy.” [NYTimes]
Taking It to the Streets: In The Washington Post, Gazan attorney Moumen Al-Natour, who has been targeted for his organizing activities against Hamas, explains why thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets of Gaza in recent days to protest the terrorist group. “The message of our movement is clear: The people of Gaza want to live, so Hamas must go, the hostages taken from Israel must be released, and this war must then finally come to an end. … If we fail to remove Hamas now, then I fear that I will never know another time without Hamas in charge of my life. Whether I am killed by an Israeli missile or a Hamas bullet, I refuse to die without trying to be free again. We Palestinians deserve the right to choose our own future. When this war is over, some will want to stay in Gaza and rebuild, while others will want the chance to leave. Some will want to continue the struggle against Israel, but many others like myself hope to find a new way forward for us and our families. None of these choices are possible as long as Hamas remains in power. That is why it must finally go. If our movement succeeds, not only will it end this war — but it will also prevent the next one.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to travel to Saudi Arabia in May; the visit will be the president’s first international trip of his second term…
Trump cautioned Iran on Friday that “bad, bad things” would happen if Tehran and Washington do not reach a new agreement on Iran’s nuclear program; on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected Trump’s overture to engage in direct talks……
Politico interviews Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who is expected to announce a bid for governor of Colorado in the coming weeks; Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, is unable to run for reelection under a law prohibiting the state’s governor from serving more than two consecutive terms…
In a New York Times op-ed, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) warns that a Russian victory over Ukraine would “embolden other authoritarian regimes — such as China, Iran and North Korea — to take similar aggressive actions against their neighbors”…
The House Education and Workforce Committee wrote to Barnard, Bowdoin, Pomona and Sarah Lawrence Colleges and Northwestern University requesting information on their responses to antisemitism on campus…
Thirty-four House and Senate Democrats led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote to the administration demanding the release of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk and requesting information about other detentions of visa holders over their anti-Israel activity…
More than 50 House Democrats introduced legislation to restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that works with Palestinians…
Jewish voters in New Jersey received mailers from a group calling itself the Florence Avenue Initiative that accused Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), who is mounting a bid for governor, of taking anti-Israel positions…
Houston’s second-oldest Jewish cemetery was vandalized last week, with costs of the damages estimated to be upwards of $10,000…
Following the weekend’s Elite Eight wins by Auburn, Duke, University of Houston and the University of Florida, three of the NCAA’s Jewish coaches — Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Florida’s Todd Golden and Duke’s Jon Scheyer — are heading to the Final Four this coming weekend…
Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners’ assets grew from $3 billion in 2024 to $4.8 billion, bolstered by commitments from the UAE-based Lunate and the Qatar Investment Authority…
The New York Times interviewed comedian Alex Edelman about watching a staged version of his one-man play “Just For Us” — performed by another actor…
The Working Families Party endorsed four of the Democratic mayoral candidates challenging Mayor Eric Adams in this year’s primary; the group is backing Comptroller Brad Lander, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in an effort to block former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is leading in polls…
After interviewing Jessica Tisch, The Wall Street Journal’s Tunku Varadarajan posits that the NYPD commissioner “offers a template for governance” that could serve as a reference point for Democratic officials in other major cities…
An Orthodox Jewish pedestrian and two of her children were killed when two cars collided between the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Gravesend and Midwood, sending one of the cars into the crosswalk and the path of the family…
A French court found Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, guilty of embezzlement and sentenced her to four years in prison; the verdict bars Le Pen from running in elections in the next five years…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s antisemitism advisor said that the BBC had refused multiple offers of antisemitism training in recent years…
The U.K.’s Tate Britain art museum is returning a 17th-century Henry Gibbs painting to the great-grandchildren of a Belgian-Jewish man whose collection was looted by the Nazis in 1940…
Hamas released a video of hostage Elkana Bohbot, one of the remaining 59 hostages in Gaza; days earlier, the terror group had released a video of Bohbot and fellow hostage Yosef Haim Ohana…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named former Israeli Navy Commander Eli Sharvit to succeed Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, who was dismissed by Netanyahu earlier this month…
Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, both senior aides to Netanyahu, were arrested in connection with the growing “Qatargate” scandal in which Israeli government officials are accused of having illicit ties with Doha…
Former Israeli hostage Amit Soussana is one of eight women being honored with the State Department’s International Women of Courage Award…
The Wall Street Journal visited the Jenin camp with the IDF as Israeli forces aim to clear the area of extremist elements…
Israeli forces responded to a missile fired from Lebanon late last week; the strike on Beirut was the first major Israeli airstrike since the implementation of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November…
The U.S. moved several long-range stealth B-2 bombers to an American base in the Indian Ocean that is within striking distance of both Yemen and Iran…
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed 23 ministers to a new transitional government, three months after overthrowing the Assad regime…
Former Huffington Post reporter Daniel Marans is joining the New York City mayoral campaign of Whitney Tilson, a Democrat entering the crowded primary field of challengers seeking to unseat Mayor Eric Adams…
Aaron Weinberg and Gil Thompson have been named co-executive directors of the Congressional Jewish Caucus by co-chairs Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL); they will both remain personal office staffers of their respective members…
Daniel Sugarman, the director of public affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews, is joining the U.K.’s Jewish News as deputy editor…
Video of the Day
CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired a segment Sunday night focused on Israeli hostages, interviewing released hostages Yarden Bibas, Tal Shoham and Israeli American Keith Siegel.The network also included an interview with Siegel, his wife, Aviva, and former hostage Agam Berger in its “60 Minutes Overtime” segment.
Birthdays
Democratic congressman from Massachusetts for 32 years, named co-sponsor of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, Barnett “Barney” Frank turns 85…
Music producer, band leader of the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert turns 90… New York Times best-selling novelist, poet and social activist, Marge Piercy turns 89… U.S. senator (D-VT) for 48 years until 2023, Patrick Leahy turns 85… Former syndicated talk radio host on 400+ stations and conservative political commentator under the name Michael Savage, he is also a best-selling author and nutritionist under his real name, Michael Alan Weiner turns 83… U.S. Sen. (I-ME) Angus King turns 81… Comedian, actor and professional poker player, he played the named teacher in the 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter,” Gabe Kaplan turns 80… Retired professor of special education at Long Island University, Joel E. Mittler… Emmy Award-winning movie and television actress, best known for her role in the sitcom “Cheers” for 11 seasons, Rhea Jo Perlman turns 77… Russian ice dancing coach and former competitive ice dancer, now living in Stamford, Conn., Natalia Dubova turns 77… Chairman of Apple, Inc. since 2011 and CEO of Calico (an Alphabet R&D biotech venture), Arthur D. Levinson turns 75… New Jersey attorney, Steven L. Sacks-Wilner… Scottsdale, Ariz., resident, David L. Freedman… Chairman of Danaher Corporation, he owns a 20% stake in the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, Steven M. Rales turns 74… Israeli singer and songwriter, Ehud Banai turns 72… Former vice-chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, David Breakstone, Ph.D. turns 72… Author and advertising executive, Joseph Alden Reiman turns 72… President at the Detroit-based Nemer Property Group, Larry Nemer… Rabbi of Kehillas Ohr Somayach and lecturer at Ohr Somayach Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz turns 71… Equestrian and 10-time American Grand Prix Association Rider of the Year, she is a 2009 inductee into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Margie Goldstein-Engle turns 67… Emmy Award-winning writer and producer (“24,” “Homeland” and “Tyrant”), Howard Gordon turns 64… Consultant for synagogues and teacher at Bruriah High School in Elizabeth, N.J., Judah E. Isaacs… Two-term mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn., until 2021, he is now a special representative for broadband in the U.S. Commerce Department, Andy Berke turns 57… Former child actor, now an attorney and celebrity brand consultant, Josh Saviano turns 49… Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jewish community of Turkey, Menachem Mendel Chitrik turns 48… Chief legal correspondent at MSNBC, Ari Naftali Melber turns 45… Footballer for Beitar Jerusalem, who has also played for Chelsea, Manchester City and West Ham United in the English Premier League, Tal Ben Haim turns 43… Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and former CMO of Tinder, Justin Mateen turns 39… British-French journalist and author, he is a political advisor to the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Ben Judah turns 37… Jerusalem-born 2010 contestant on “America’s Next Top Model,” she went on to join the IDF, Esther Petrack turns 33… Agency partnerships lead at Samsung, Howie Keenan… Ice hockey defenseman, last week he signed an eight-year, $72 million contract extension with the Washington Capitals, Jakob Chychrun turns 27… Talmudic scholar Avigdor Neuberger… John Jacobson…
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