Israel pivots on Gaza strategy after international blowback
Plus: TikTok hires a hate speech manager
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the mounting international pressure on Israel — including among some pro-Israel Democrats — to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the subsequent measures taken by Israel and how they are expected to impact diplomatic ties with European allies. We report on DoJ senior counsel Leo Terrell’s comments yesterday at the Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit and report on the new TikTok hire with professional roots in the Jewish world who was brought on board to tackle hate speech on the platform. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Ritchie Torres, Ofer Calderon and Penny Pritzker.
What We’re Watching
- Today in New York, France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a conference focused on reviving two-state solution talks. The gathering, initially scheduled for June, now comes days after French President Emmanuel Macron said he planned to recognize a Palestinian state at this year’s U.N. General Assembly. Macron is skipping the conference, but his foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, is expected to, per The Economist, “formally present” Paris’ U.N. plans. Barrot, for his part, attempted to meet with Jewish groups while in New York, but was shut down after Macron’s announcement last week. More below.
- The Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Summit continues today in Washington. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Leo Terrell, senior counsel at the Department of Justice, addressed the gathering of more than 600 students yesterday. More below.
- In North Carolina, former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, is expected to announce his bid for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). Cooper’s upcoming announcement comes as former Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) plans to step aside from the race and endorse Cooper, consolidating Democratic support around the former governor. On the GOP side, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley is expected to announce his bid for the seat in the coming days, setting up what is likely to be one of the most expensive Senate races of the upcoming cycle.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH ji’S melissa Weiss and Tamara zIEVE
In Israel’s effort to conduct a pressure campaign on Hamas to oust the terror group and release the remaining hostages held in Gaza, it has found itself instead on the receiving end of another global pressure campaign.
Facing mounting pressure amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel over the weekend announced a series of measures aimed at alleviating the widespread malnutrition and security issues in the enclave, including temporary ceasefires, aid airdrops, facilitating a massive increase in Gaza’s water supply and establishing designated humanitarian corridors — even as the IDF called claims of starvation in Gaza “a false campaign promoted by Hamas” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that there was starvation in Gaza.
The crisis hit a fever pitch over the weekend as opposition to Israel’s efforts and limits on aid — first put into place in March as a pressure tactic to push Hamas to release the remaining hostages — surged to the highest levels of government around the world.
Dozens of countries called for an end to the war, a restoration of the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the immediate release of the hostages. The shift in the political dynamic extended to Capitol Hill, where Democratic legislators, including many who have been strong supporters of Israel, expressed their concerns over Israel’s approach to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
SPEAKING UP
As humanitarian situation in Gaza worsens, pro-Israel Democrats express concern
Amid reports of a mounting hunger crisis in Gaza, some of Israel’s staunchest defenders in the Democratic Party are now calling for Israel to do more to get humanitarian aid to Gazans — a signal that deteriorating conditions in the enclave are shifting public opinion even among those firmly in the pro-Israel camp. In a series of Friday statements, two major pro-Israel Democratic groups and a top Jewish Democrat in Congress raised concerns about what Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) described as “undeniably dire” circumstances in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
A matter of responsibility: “Israel must take immediate action to ensure sufficient food gets into the territory and to the people in desperate need. The world must not turn a blind eye to the fact that children are starving because of this war,” Schneider said in a statement. “It is Israel’s responsibility, and within its capacity, to address and resolve the situation.” Democratic Majority for Israel CEO Brian Romick said Friday that even though Hamas has no interest in mitigating human suffering in Gaza, Israel still has a responsibility to help starving children. “Even as Hamas works to prolong this war and prevent food from getting to people in need, Israel — along with the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and the rest of the international community — must continue to work to get food to innocent children in Gaza,” Romick said in a statement.
TORRES’ TAKE
Ritchie Torres: Netanyahu has done ‘irreparable damage’ to relationship with Democrats
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a vocal Democratic supporter of Israel in Congress, said in an interview with journalist Chuck Todd on Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done “irreparable damage” to Israel’s relationship with and support among Democrats, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “If you’re a Democrat, and if you’re a Democrat of color and if you’re a Black Democrat, you take immense pride in Barack Obama. He represents one of the greatest achievements in politics. We take great pride in his presidency,” Torres said. “To see a foreign leader visibly disrespect him in the manner that Bibi Netanyahu did, I feel did irreparable damage to the relationship with the Democratic Party.” He also said that, despite his support for the Jewish state, he has “no real relationship” with the Israeli government.
Israel’s standing
‘Like Tylenol for a cancer patient:’ Israeli aid measures unlikely to allay European pressure
For European leaders who are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Jewish state’s moves to pause military activity to allow a freer flow of humanitarian aid and begin airdrops of aid are “steps in the right direction,” the German foreign minister said on Sunday. But the aid crisis is inextricably linked, observers say, to a much larger and even thornier issue — a deal to end the grinding 21-month war with Hamas and a release of the hostages. Until such a deal is struck, the pressure from Europe, and from some inside Israel, likely won’t ease. And it could worsen, with some experts warning that European sanctions on Israel aren’t out of the question, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Wider issue: Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, said that the aid airdrops are “a result of international pressure and not sudden altruism.” However, Shek said, they are “like Tylenol for a cancer patient. Surgery is needed, meaning the end of the war.” A spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he is “prepared to increase the pressure if progress [on a ceasefire and humanitarian aid] is not made.”
Red lines: A coalition of major American Jewish organizations refused an invitation on Friday to meet with Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs, after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the country will recognize a Palestinian state in September, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
COLUMBIA COMMITMENTS
Jewish leaders express cautious optimism over Trump administration settlement with Columbia
Jewish leaders on and off Columbia University’s campus praised the settlement reached last week between the university and the Trump administration to restore some $400 million in federal funding that was slashed in March due to the Ivy League’s record dealing with antisemitism. While some Jewish leaders, students and alumni are taking a wait-and-see-approach, others expressed cautious optimism that the deal could lead to a safer environment for Jewish students following nearly two years of antisemitic protests and disruptions on campus in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Positive perspective: “I am heartened to see the resolution agreement for several reasons,” Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel International, told JI last week. “It recognizes both the clear, egregious violations of the civil rights of Jewish students and staff at Columbia and Barnard [an affiliate of Columbia] during the past two academic years, and the concrete steps Columbia has recently pursued to address these issues.”
Reservations: Still, some said that key reforms are missing from the deal, which falls short of several demands initially made by the Trump administration. Among the demands were putting the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies department and the Center for Palestine Studies under the purview of a senior vice provost, who would be appointed by the university to supervise course material and non-tenure faculty hiring, as well as the formation of a presidential search committee to replace acting President Claire Shipman.
security surcharge
Antisemitism task force head Leo Terrell decries ‘Jewish tax’ in rising communal security costs
Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said he is intent on eliminating what he called “the Jewish tax” in an address on Sunday to hundreds of Jewish college students gathered for the Israel on Campus Coalition’s three-day annual leadership summit held in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What he said: “For those who don’t know what the Jewish tax is — for you to have this convention, for you to walk your child to a synagogue down the street — you have to pay for extra security,” said Terrell, who heads the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force. “It makes no sense. It’s unfair. It’s wrong. I find it offensive that it’s being allowed throughout this country. I’m doing everything I can to eliminate it.” Terrell’s comments came as the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced last month that it had awarded $94.4 million in security grant funding to a total of 512 Jewish organizations nationwide.
DEDICATED ROLE
TikTok hires new hate speech manager amid concerns over rising antisemitic content on the platform
TikTok recently hired a new hate speech manager with long-standing ties to the Jewish community, the company confirmed to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel, as the social media platform faces growing pressure to confront a sharp rise in antisemitic content. The streaming platform enlisted Erica Mindel, a former State Department contractor who worked for Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, to join TikTok’s global public policy and government affairs team.
Taking action: The hire comes as TikTok has drawn accusations that it has failed to address a spike in antisemitic and anti-Israel content in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and amid the ensuing war in Gaza. In her newly created role, Mindel will “develop and drive the company’s positions on hate speech,” seek to “influence legislative and regulatory frameworks” and “analyze hate speech trends,” with a particular focus on “antisemitic content,” among other duties cited in an official job description shared by TikTok.
Worthy Reads
Just Cause, Unjust Tactics: The New York Times’ Ross Douthat argues that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza — which he describes as “a war for a just cause” — is now being fought unjustly. “One can have a righteous cause, one’s foe can be wicked and brutal and primarily responsible for the conflict’s toll, and still — under any coherent theory of just war — there is an obligation to refrain from certain tactics if they create too much collateral damage, to mitigate certain predictable forms of civilian suffering and to have a strategy that makes the war’s outcome worth the cost. These are tests that Israel is failing.” [NYTimes]
RJC Rising: The Dispatch’s David Drucker explores the growing influence of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “Since Election Day 2024, the Republican Jewish Coalition has been telling anyone who will listen that Trump’s performance among Jewish voters was a historic success — due in no small part to the money and manpower invested by the RJC. There’s data to back that assertion up…To understand the real and consequential movement toward Trump by Jewish voters in 2024, you have to look under the hood, at the exit polls of battleground states and local precincts with significant populations of Jewish voters. That’s where Trump made his mark with a cohort usually elusive for Republicans; it’s what helped propel him past Harris in swing states that were quite close despite the president’s sweep.” [TheDispatch]
Art of the Steal: In AirMail, Ezra Chowaiki reflects on his dealings with forged looted artworks whose sellers wrongly claim them to be works that belonged to high-ranking Nazi officials. “Art dealers know the back of a painting is more important than its front. The back is where you trace the painting’s history, and the clues for each artwork in Jimmy’s collection were incredible, including incidental marks and labels on each painting, not to mention all those Nazi stamps. … In my years of meeting collectors, I’ve realized that many prefer the forbidden fruit. In its own perverse way, it just tastes a little sweeter. But beware: your perverse fascination with forbidden provenance — the back of the canvas — may keep you from examining a painting’s more obvious faults on the front.” [AirMail]
Word on the Street
Darren Beattie, who was fired from his role as a speechwriter in the first Trump administration over his ties to white nationalists, was tapped to serve as acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace in addition to his role as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that he believes Israel will be unable to negotiate an end to its war with Hamas and will have to do “what [the Allied forces] did in Tokyo and Berlin, take the place by force and start over again, presenting a better future for the Palestinians, hopefully having the Arabs take over the West Bank and Gaza”…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly favoring “a more comprehensive approach to end the war and free all the remaining hostages” after meeting with hostage families at the State Department on Friday…
A Palestinian boy referenced in images that went viral last week as a symbol of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was discovered to be suffering from a preexisting genetic muscle disorder…
A growing number of news organizations are calling on Israel to allow journalists access to the Gaza Strip…
The New York Times reports on speculation that funding for the refurbishment of the Qatari plane being gifted to the Trump administration is coming from funds allocated from a nuclear modernization program inside the Pentagon…
A White House official told The Wall Street Journal that it will use its recent settlement with Columbia University as a blueprint for its legal battles with other universities…
The New York Times spotlights former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker’s role as head of the Harvard Corporation, as both the Trump administration and the Corporation raise concerns about her continued leadership and involvement…
Minnesota Democratic activist Latonya Reeves, a member of the Democratic National Committee, is mulling a primary challenge to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)…
French authorities are investigating the circumstances behind the removal last week of several dozen French Jewish campers and camp staffers from a Vueling flight amid claims from the group that it was deplaned because the campers were Jewish; Vueling has denied the allegations and said the group was removed due to the unruly behavior of some of the campers prior to takeoff…
The New York Times looks at the impact of Iran’s deepening water crisis amid record-setting heat and energy shortages around the country…
Mathematician-turned-singer Tom Lehrer, whose satirical tunes from the 1950s and ‘60s gained new audiences when Cameron Mackintosh compiled Lehrer’s music into the 1980 revue “Tomfoolery,” died at 97…
Pic of the Day
Ofer Calderon (right), who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 484 days, cycled yesterday alongside Israel-Premier Tech team owner and philanthropist Sylvan Adams in the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. On the 100th day of the hostages’ captivity, Adams led a global cycling event in their honor and promised that when Calderson would be released, he would ride alongside him at the Tour de France.
Birthdays
Jerusalem-born actor with more than 30 movie and television roles in the U.S., Ori Pfeffer turns 50…
Survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a teen, he emigrated to Israel and became an artist, Yehuda Bacon turns 96… Chicago radio news personality, from 1973 to 2013 he was a television news anchor in Chicago, Walter David Jacobson turns 88… U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan until 2006, then U.S. attorney general for the last 14 months of the Bush 43 administration, now of counsel at the international law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, Michael Mukasey turns 84… Swedish industrialist, chairman of the Nobel Foundation (manager of the Nobel Prize) from 2005 to 2013, Marcus Storch Ph.D. turns 83… In 1986 she became the first woman in the IDF to hold the rank of brigadier general, she then served as a member of Knesset, and now serves on multiple for-profit and nonprofit boards, Amira Dotan turns 78… Oldest active quarterback, he also manages football teams in Baltimore and Jerusalem, Joe Pollak turns 75… President of the Council on Foreign Relations for 20 years until he retired in 2023, Richard N. Haass turns 74… Tel Aviv-born real estate developer, restorer of historic buildings in downtown Los Angeles, Izek Shomof turns 66… Partner and managing director of Meadow Lane Advisors, Marty Friedman… French-Israeli hairdresser and entrepreneur, Michel Mercier turns 64… Sports executive, attorney and former president of basketball operations for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, David Kahn turns 64… American schoolteacher, wrongfully detained by Russia in 2022, he was released in the early weeks of the Trump 47 administration, Marc Hilliard Fogel turns 64… Talent booker, publicist and television and radio personality in Atlanta, Mara Davis turns 56… Tech entrepreneur who has invested in more than 100 startups, New York Times bestselling author, Joshua M. “Josh” Linkner turns 55… Co-founder of 23andMe, she recently regained control of the company, Anne Wojcicki turns 52… Actress and reality show personality, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren turns 51… Deputy CEO at UpStart, Jennifer Lew Goldstone… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of California, Leondra Kruger turns 49… Israeli journalist and former member of the Knesset, Ksenia Svetlova turns 48… Managing partner at Altitude Ventures, a health-care venture capital firm, he is a former White House liaison to the Jewish community, Jay Zeidman… Senior reporter at Bloomberg News, Laura Nahmias… CEO and CTO at Diagnostic Robotics in Jerusalem, Kira Radinsky Ph.D. turns 39… VP of player personnel at MLB’s Miami Marlins, Samuel Mondry-Cohen… Administrator at Lehigh Valley Homecare in Allentown, Pa., Menachem (Mark) Perl… Actor and producer who stars in the CBS series “Ghosts,” Asher Chazen Grodman turns 38… National narrative enterprise reporter at The Washington Post, Ruby Cramer… Larry Gordon…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
