Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on concerns expressed publicly by Axel Springer board member Martin Varsavsky over the coverage of Israel by Axel Springer subsidiary Politico, talk with Bret Stephens about the Trump administration’s approach to antisemitism and spotlight the new Amazon Prime series “House of David.” We also interview the parents of Israeli American hostage Omer Neutra, and cover a new Justice Department brief backing Jewish students at UCLA. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Elliott Abrams, Rep. Elise Stefanik and Knesset Member Sharren Haskel.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping an eye on further Houthi actions following the Iran-backed militia’s firing of a ballistic missile toward Israel yesterday. The missile — the first fired by the group in two months — triggered sirens across Israel’s Negev region. A senior Houthi official told Reuters earlier this week that the group would not “dial down” its actions in response to pressure from the U.S. or Iran.
- Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is continuing his trip in Israel, which began Sunday. Yesterday, he visited the Druze town of Majdal Shams, where 12 children were killed in a Hezbollah strike last July.
What You Should Know
March Madness is upon us, as millions of Americans are filling out their college basketball brackets and paying close attention to the annual NCAA basketball tournament, which tips off on Thursday.
One of the most fascinating elements to this year’s tournament is the presence of three Jewish coaches at three of the top college programs in the country, all with a good chance to win the national title, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
Bruce Pearl has coached the Auburn Tigers to the No. 1 overall seed in the country this year, with a dominant 28-5 record. He’s also been one of the most outspoken figures in sports on behalf of Israel and against antisemitism.
In 2022, Pearl took his Auburn team on a trip to Israel where they toured the Jewish state and faced off against Israeli teams.
Florida’s Todd Golden, who played under Pearl at the Maccabi Games, is one of the rising young coaching stars in the game. In three years with the Gators, he’s turned around the program to one of the leading contenders in the country, fueled by its fast-paced, high-flying offense.
And Duke’s Jon Scheyer, who was a star on the Blue Devils before playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2011 and 2012, has seen his team dominate the Atlantic Coast Conference this season and boast the top overall record (31-3) in the sport.
As it turns out, Florida and Duke also boast significant Jewish student populations at their schools.
Meanwhile, on the women’s side of the tournament, one of the top-seeded teams is USC, which is coached by Lindsay Gottlieb, a pathbreaking former assistant coach for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and an inductee into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California.
To add another degree of Jewish pride, one of the top players in the game is 7-foot Michigan forward Danny Wolf, a Jewish day school alum who had his bar mitzvah in Israel. A Yale transfer, Wolf led the Wolverines to a remarkable comeback season, winning the Big Ten Tournament championship and landing a No. 5 seed in the tournament.
To appreciate just how notable a season this is for Jews in men’s college basketball, there are currently 13 Jewish coaches overall in the game — nearly as many as the number of Jewish college coaches who have ever previously coached in the history of the game (17).
media matters
Axel Springer board member calls out Politico’s coverage of Israel
Israel’s decision to strike Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, ending a fragile ceasefire after negotiations to release the hostages held by the Palestinian terrorist group had effectively collapsed, has reignited a debate over media coverage of the conflict as it enters a new phase of escalation. Most notably, the widely read Beltway news outlet Politico is drawing particularly fierce criticism from an outspoken board member of its parent company, Axel Springer, the German publishing giant whose mission statement has long espoused support for Israel, among other so-called essentials reporters are expected to uphold in their coverage,Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Kickoff: Martin Varsavsky, a Jewish tech entrepreneur who is based in Madrid, Spain, took direct aim at Politico on Tuesday in an unusually critical social media comment about the site having run an article by the Associated Press emphasizing that Israel’s renewed airstrikes had, according to Hamas officials, killed “at least 200” Palestinians in Gaza. “I consider this article one-sided Hamas support,” Varsavsky, a longtime member of Axel Springer’s supervisory board, said on X. “It fails to mention that the airstrikes were aimed at eliminating top Hamas military and that Israel was successful at doing so. It also quotes casualty figures given by Hamas that are not believed to be accurate.”
Read the full story here.
center path
‘We should not have to forsake our liberalism to fight this battle’: Bret Stephens on Trump’s war on antisemitism
As President Donald Trump set his sights on Columbia University this month, pulling $400 million in federal funding and moving to deport a former graduate student who led last year’s anti-Israel encampment, predictably partisan responses emerged. The president’s detractors cried that he is mounting a full-scale attack on higher education and liberal values. His supporters cheered what they see as a president hell-bent on fighting campus antisemitism and progressive excess. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens sees merit in both views — and thinks taking the center path is actually very Jewish, he told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch in an interview Tuesday.
Fine line: The funding cuts to Columbia, where antisemitism has flourished since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, do not bother Stephens. But while Stephens may not be troubled by Trump’s targeting of Columbia as an institution, he thinks the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia graduate student of Palestinian descent who served as a lead negotiator for the encampment in talks with the university’s administration last spring, was a step too far. “We should not have to forsake our liberalism to fight this battle,” said Stephens.
Bonus: Stephens interviewed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), whose new book, Antisemitism in America: A Warning, came out this week, about partisan politicking over antisemitism. “A Jew stands up for his people regardless of the cost, and regardless of the politics of it,” Stephens wrote. “On this, Schumer has acquitted himself bravely.”
parental care
Parents of Omer Neutra criticize Israel’s renewed strikes on Hamas, say they threaten hostages
The parents of fallen Israeli American soldier Omer Neutra, whose body is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, denounced the Israeli government’s decision to resume the war against the terror group in the Strip, saying the move puts the remaining hostages in peril, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports.
Clear concerns: Speaking to journalists on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Ruderman Family Foundation’s annual conference at Haifa University, Ronen and Orna Neutra said that they did not believe that the strikes launched by Israel against Hamas in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning would pressure the terror group into releasing additional hostages. “There’s an understanding by the two governments — the American and the Israeli — that [renewed strikes] are the way to return the hostages. We are not at all convinced that this is the case,” Ronen Neutra said. “We know of 41 hostages who were killed in captivity, either from fire by our troops or by Hamas murdering them because the IDF was approaching,” Orna Neutra said. “The concerns of the hostage family are clear. The Israeli government has had 15 months of war to bring [the hostages] back in different ways, and in fact only the current deal has brought them back.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
witkoff worries
Republican national security experts critical of Witkoff’s role in Iran negotiations
Several leading former Republican national security officials voiced concerns about Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s ability to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran — while sounding deeply skeptical that the Islamic Republic would cooperate in halting its nuclear program, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
Iran issue: Speaking on a JINSA webinar on Tuesday, Elliott Abrams, former special representative for Iran during the first Trump administration, said “it looks as if he [President Donald Trump] plans to have Steve Witkoff do it [negotiate with Iran]. The problem is that Witkoff doesn’t really know anything about the details here. That is, if you think of [Witkoff] negotiating on Ukraine, that’s an easy problem compared to the Iranian nuclear question, which I would argue takes a lot more detailed expertise about what we want, what we should be demanding from Iran.” Moderated by Blaise Misztal, JINSA’s vice president for policy, the panel also featured Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy under President George W. Bush, and Steve Rademaker, formerly assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation in the George W. Bush administration.
weighing in
Justice Department files brief backing UCLA Jewish students, faculty in lawsuit
The Justice Department’s newly formed Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism filed a statement of interest in court on Monday night supporting Jewish students and a professor in their case alleging that the University of California Los Angeles permitted antisemitism on campus, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What it says: According to the suit, in the spring of 2024 UCLA violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by knowingly allowed members of an anti-Israel protest encampment to physically prevent students and faculty from accessing portions of the campus if they were wearing items that identified them as Jewish if they refused to denounce Israel. The filing comes as the task force is separately investigating the University of California system for Title VI violations. The brief filed on Monday marks the first time the federal government has filed a statement of interest in court to argue that a university should be held accountable for the campus antisemitism that has skyrocketed across the country since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
Read the full story here.
old testament tale
Amazon hit series ‘House of David’ portrays biblical King David as an ‘underdog’ with a ‘message of resilience’
American culture these days is awash with stories of succession (the Murdoch empire), family drama (the Kennedys) and power (President Donald Trump on social media donning a kingly crown). Now comes a biblical tale to rival today’s news cycle — the coming-of-age story of King David — an “underdog” who comes to rule over the “House of David.” The show’s creators, Christian filmmakers Jon Gunn and Jon Erwin, attribute the success of the series to the lessons King David’s story imparts to audiences about dealing with political rivalries and international conflicts. “Story is everything. ‘House of David’ brings to life one of the most compelling, dramatic and human stories in all of history — the rise of an underdog. I think audiences connect with that,” Gunn, the show’s executive producer, co-director and co-writer, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.
Producer’s perspective: “David’s story is timeless. He was a warrior, a poet, a flawed leader, a man after God’s own heart — yet deeply human. His rise, his failures and his redemption all speak to the weight of power,” said Gunn, who previously collaborated with Erwin on the 2023 faith-based film “Jesus Revolution.” The duo says they were inspired by shows such as “Game of Thrones” while creating their newest series, which has become the No. 2 most-watched on Prime Video since the eight-episode season premiered on Feb. 27.
Worthy Reads
No End in Sight:The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg posits that the collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was inevitable due to the incompatible end goals of Israel and Hamas — the elimination of the other. “But setting aside the interests and intentions of Hamas, Netanyahu, and Trump, the Gaza cease-fire was never going to hold for a more fundamental reason: Neither side is willing to tolerate the other’s continued existence. Hamas is sworn to Israel’s destruction. For decades, the terrorist group has plundered Gaza and sacrificed its people in pursuit of an unending messianic war to eliminate the Jewish state. Before October 7, Israelis dismissed this aspiration as unrealistic and believed that they were safe behind their high-tech border fence. After October 7, they no longer do. For Hamas, the conflict will not end until Israel is gone. For Israel, the conflict cannot end until Hamas is gone. Which means that though a new temporary cease-fire might still be struck in the coming days or weeks, the war will go on.” [TheAtlantic]
Lost Voice: In The Wall Street Journal, William Galston warns that the Trump administration’s defunding of Voice of America provides an opportunity for American adversaries to shape global public opinion. “Eliminating VOA’s Africa division would surrender the battle of ideas to Chinese and Russian propaganda outlets vying for influence in a region whose population is projected to double in the next 25 years. VOA is one of the few fact-based news sources reaching China. In moments of crisis, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, millions of Chinese have relied on VOA for the truthful accounts they can’t find in their own country’s media. VOA also works to counter the incessant disinformation war that China is waging against the U.S. No wonder state-run Chinese media celebrated the announcement that VOA’s journalists would no longer be permitted to do their jobs. Similarly, Iranian media and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s chief advisers gloated over the news that the Trump administration was gutting VOA, effectively suspending its broadcasts into Iran. Despite the Iranian government’s efforts to block these broadcasts, the Iranian audience for them has expanded dramatically in recent years. VOA’s Persian website had 223 million visits last year.” [WSJ]
Fresh Ideas for USAID: The New York Times’ Farah Stockman calls for a reimagining of U.S. foreign aid, amid a legal battle over the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID. “It’s early days in the effort to reimagine aid, but this much is clear: It should be leaner and less bureaucratic. It should be based on partnerships that respond to local needs, not pronouncements from Washington. And it will sometimes be fueled by private donations rather than taxpayer dollars. … The first step is acknowledging that the old system had flaws. To be sure, millions of lives were saved during famines and epidemics. But let’s be honest. USAID could be inefficient and wasteful. It’s hard to talk about that because such acknowledgments get misused as weapons against foreign aid, but building a better blueprint requires it. … USAID’s closure gut-punched everyone who works in this field, but inequities of the system remain. Big American organizations that got the most USAID funding are the best positioned to weather the storm. Some have had grants reinstated. Others are attracting foundation money. Local partners are the ones left struggling to explain to needy people why projects ended overnight.” [NYTimes]
Trump’s Own Deep State:The Dispatch’s Michael Warren raises concerns over “the new deep state” emerging in the second Trump administration, whose new hires’ approaches to foreign policy differ from the senior officials in the first Trump administration. “Multiple midcareer national security and foreign policy experts with years of experience on Capitol Hill or in the executive branch — Republicans in good standing who are not reflexive haters of the current president — have been denied posts in the Trump administration, I’m told, for reasons having little to do with whether they could provide sound advice or craft good policy. It has a lot to do with sweeping the old order aside. … When Republicans start talking up the foreign policy achievements of Trump’s first administration, there are a few greatest hits: The Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and several Gulf Arab states; the withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal; the killing of Qassem Suleimani, leader of Iran’s Quds force and a designated terrorist since 2005; and a renewed focus on the threat from China. What’s remarkable is that most of the advisers involved in those decisions, from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Avi Berkowitz, the young lawyer who led the Abraham Accords negotiations, are nowhere to be found in this administration.” [TheDispatch]
Word on the Street
The White House said following a call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are in agreement that Iran should not obtain nuclear capabilities…
Trump hosted a dinner last night at the White House with United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan…
The Justice Department and the FBI announced the creation of a joint task force to investigate the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
Rep Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N. will move forward on April 2, following the special elections the day prior to fill two House seats; Stefanik’s nomination had been held up over House Republicans’ slim majority in the lower chamber following the departures of National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized Trump for having “far too often tolerated all kinds of antisemitic things,” including his administration’s cutting of funding to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and staffing federal agencies with people “who believe in this Great Replacement theory”…
The government funding bill Congress passed last week includes $35 million in total additional funding for U.S.-Israel cooperative programs, including a $15 million increase for joint unmanned aerial systems programs as well as funding for a new emerging technology collaborative program…
Ben & Jerry’s filed a lawsuit against parent company Unilever alleging that its CEO was fired over tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever over the ice cream company’s political activism…
A Druze-Israeli man living in New York who survived the Nova music festival attack on Oct. 7, 2023, opened a kosher restaurant in Manhattan’s Garment District spotlighting his community’s cuisine…
U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy walked back comments accusing Israel of violating international law, after a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer contradicted Lammy’s claim; Lammy told Bloomberg on Tuesday that he “could have been clearer” in his comments…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the decline in public support in Israel for a resumption of fighting against Hamas in Gaza…
Israeli far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir was reappointed national security minister, after he decided to rejoin the government in light of the new military operation in the Gaza Strip…
Knesset member Sharren Haskel, who was born in Toronto, called on new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “to go and defend the Jewish community in Canada,” which Haskel said has been “targeted, attacked violently”…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the founders of Israeli startup Wiz, following the company’s acquisition by Google parent company Alphabet for $32 billion…
Turkish authorities detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, seen as a top rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan…
Former North Carolina state legislator Marshall Rauch, whose Rauch Industries was the world’s largest manufacturer of Christmas ornaments, died at 102…
Holocaust survivor Gyorgy Kun, who with his twin brother was the subject of Josef Mengele’s experiments at Auschwitz, died at 93…
Pic of the Day
Actress Gal Gadot and her family attended her Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the ceremony, Gadot explained why she uses her public platform to advocate for the release of the remaining 59 hostages in captivity in Gaza. “I am all about humanity,” she said, “and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages,” adding that despite the pushback she received from some parts of Hollywood, “when your compass is clear, your conscience is clean. I know what I’m advocating for, and I know what I wish for the world.”
Birthdays
Israeli politician, the daughter of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, she served as a member of the Knesset for three different political parties, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof turns 75…
Philanthropist, art collector and chairman emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies, Leonard A. Lauder turns 92… Chairman of the board of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East, he is the rabbi of Temple Israel of the Poconos, in Stroudsburg, Pa., Daniel M. Zucker turns 76… Former executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson turns 71… NYC-based real estate investor, he is one of three co-founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, Craig Hatkoff turns 71… Musician, composer, singer and songwriter, he was born in Buenos Aires and now lives in Jerusalem, Yehuda Julio Glantz turns 67… Actor, stand-up comedian and author, Fred Stoller turns 67… EVP of merchandising at American Signature Furniture, Steven D. Rabe turns 65… Writer, critic and author, he writes often about klezmer, Jewish music and Bob Dylan, Seth Rogovoy… Retired partner at Latham & Watkins, Jonathan R. Rod turns 65… Neurologist in Naples, Fla., Brian D. Wolff, MD… Former collegiate and professional tennis player, now first vice chair of Camp Ramah Darom, Stacey Schefflin Slomka turns 57… Dean of students at Reichman University, she was previously a member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Dr. Adi Koll turns 49… Online producer, writer and director, who together with his brother Rafi are known for their React video series, Benny Fine turns 44… Brazilian-born entrepreneur and angel investor, he is one of the co-founders of Facebook, Eduardo Luiz Saverin turns 43… Former director of North American staff at Taglit-Birthright Israel, Aaron Bock… Member of the New York City Council, Lincoln P. Restler turns 41… Founder of two lines of jewelry, the Brave Collection in 2012, and Zahava (Golden, in Hebrew) in 2018, Jessica Hendricks Yee… Line producer at NBCUniversal in NYC, Emma Gottlieb… Discus thrower, he represented the U.S. at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Samuel Harrison Mattis turns 31…
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