Bibi’s high-stakes meeting with Trump over Gaza deal
Plus, Adams’ withdrawal from NYC race may be too late
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview today’s White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and report on Netanyahu’s meeting with a group of pro-Israel influencers on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. We talk to New York City politicos about Mayor Eric Adams’ decision last night to drop his reelection bid, and have the scoop on new congressional legislation that would allow the U.S. to send seized Iranian weapons to U.S. allies. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ronald Lauder, Safra Catz and Bob Iger.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- All eyes are on Washington today ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 11 a.m. at the White House. Following the meeting, which comes a day after Trump said that an end to the war was in sight, the two will sit for lunch before holding a joint press conference at 1:15 ET. More below.
- U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is slated to travel to Egypt this week for talks with senior officials, including Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, in Cairo.
- We’re also tracking the mayoral race in New York City, following Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement on Sunday that he was dropping his reelection bid. Adams was lagging well behind in polls, and much of his support is likely to move to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. More below.
- In Tenafly, N.J., Edan Alexander and his family will participate in a ceremony to name a street in the former Israeli American hostage’s honor. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is slated to deliver remarks.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads into his meeting with President Donald Trump today, the key question is what kind of Gaza ceasefire plan he will agree to — and how Hamas will respond.
“We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday, ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu. “ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!! President DJT.”
Netanyahu was more circumspect. “I hope we can make it a go because we want to free our hostages,” he told Fox News on Sunday.
“He won’t say no to Trump,” a source in the prime minister’s delegation said. But what Netanyahu has been saying is something like, “yes, but.”
While Trump clearly would like to make a big announcement at the end of Netanyahu’s White House meeting, having repeatedly said in public that the war will soon end, he has left out the specifics.
A version of the plan that Trump shared with Arab leaders has leaked, but the administration has not made it public or talked much about specific goals beyond ending the war and freeing the hostages. Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who held Witkoff’s role in the first Trump administration, met with Netanyahu twice in New York and again in Washington, quietly working out the details.
Among the elements of the plan Trump shared with a group of Arab countries at the U.N. General Assembly last week are that the war would end and Hamas would release the 48 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive, within 48 hours of the ceasefire taking effect. In exchange, Israel would release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences for serious acts of terror. Israel would not occupy or annex Gaza, and would gradually withdraw from territory.
BOWING OUT
Eric Adams’ campaign suspension may come too late to block Mamdani’s path to victory, observers say
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ decision on Sunday to drop out of his race for reelection was met with a mix of tempered hope and continued resignation among political consultants and Jewish community leaders who have long been waiting for an opening to block Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner and Democratic nominee. In choosing to suspend his campaign for a second term with just five weeks remaining until the Nov. 4 election, Adams, the scandal-scarred mayor who had been running as an independent, may not offer the escape hatch that many Mamdani critics have been hoping for, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
State of play: Adams will remain on the ballot because the deadline to change it has passed. And Curtis Sliwa, the GOP nominee polling ahead of Adams, reiterated on Sunday that he will stay in the race, rejecting calls for him to step aside and help to clear the field for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who is also running as an independent after badly losing the June Democratic primary. But some critics of Mamdani suggested that the consolidated field could now move previously reluctant donors to invest in a late-stage effort to help bolster Cuomo. “Sentiment among some major donors had been that unless the field started to narrow, they were going to keep their powder relatively dry,” Jake Dilemani, a Democratic strategist who was involved in Cuomo’s primary bid, told JI. “With Adams out, that dynamic starts to change, pressure will mount on Sliwa to drop his bid, and dollars will follow.
INFLUENCER INSIGHTS
TikTok sale could be ‘consequential’ for Israel, Jews, Netanyahu tells influencers
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed hope on Friday that the sale of TikTok to a joint venture partially owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison would be completed. “Weapons change over time,” Netanyahu told a group of pro-Israel influencers in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. “You can’t fight today with swords and you can’t fight with cavalry. …You have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield, and one of the most important ones is social media,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
TikTok talk: Netanyahu called the sale of TikTok “the most important purchase happening,” adding, “I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential.” Following a law requiring TikTok’s owner, the China-based ByteDance, to sell the app’s U.S. operations or be banned over security concerns, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week authorizing a new company to buy over much of TikTok’s U.S. business. The company started by Oracle – owned by longtime Netanyahu friend and Trump ally Larry Ellison – Silver Lake and UAE-based MGX, will control a 45% stake in TikTok’s operations stateside. Oracle would oversee security operations, and Trump said that Ellison’s company is “playing a very big part.” China has yet to say it has changed laws needed for the deal to be completed, but Trump said that Beijing approved it.
Why it matters: Antisemitism has been an ongoing concern about TikTok for years and fears that antisemitic content was spreading unchecked on the platform increased after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel two years ago, when Jewish content creators asserted that they were facing a barrage of hate and that the company was not doing enough to protect them.
‘CHURCHILLIAN’ VS. ‘SHAMEFUL AND DANGEROUS’
High praise, harsh criticism and resounding quiet: Jewish orgs react to Netanyahu’s UNGA remarks
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning, he addressed his remarks to a wide audience: not only to the international delegates before him — a comparatively sparse crowd after over a hundred representatives walked out as he approached the podium — and the larger audience watching his speech, primarily in Israel where it was broadcast by local news channels, but also Hamas leadership and fighters and the remaining hostages in Gaza as well after the Israeli military set up speakers around and inside the Strip. American Jewish organizations — another key audience for the speech — have been largely silent on his remarks, with only a few groups reacting to it, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports.
Sound of silence: The Jewish Federations of North America, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Israel Policy Forum and World Jewish Congress did not issue statements following the speech, and a representative from the AJC declined a request for comment on Netanyahu’s remarks. The Zionist Organization of America issued a statement describing Netanyahu’s remarks as “Churchillian” and applauding the prime minister for slamming the countries that recognized a Palestinian state. AIPAC live-tweeted several segments of the speech on X but did not make a statement of its own, while J Street posted a critique of Netanyahu and his choice of message as “shameful and dangerous.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
What he said: In Netanyahu’s address to the UNGA, he painted a picture of a nation abandoned by its allies, who he said had caved to “radical Islamist constituencies and antisemitic mobs.” Netanyahu began with a victory lap, hailing Israel’s military successes against Hezbollah, Iran and even Hamas over the past year. But much of the speech was defensive in nature, relying on rhetoric he has invoked frequently over the last two years, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
ON THE HILL
47 House progressives sign Khanna letter calling for Palestinian statehood
A total of 47 progressive House Democrats signed onto a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), calling for the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state on the heels of similar moves by European allies last week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: “It has long been acknowledged by much of the international community and previous U.S. administrations of both major political parties that a Palestinian state recognized as a full and equal member of the community of nations is necessary to fulfill the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and ensure the state of Israel’s survival as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people,” the letter, which was first reported on by JI, reads.
EXCLUSIVE
House lawmakers introduce bill to send seized Iranian weapons to U.S. allies
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Jefferson Shreve (R-IN) and Rich McCormick (R-GA) are set to introduce legislation on Monday allowing the U.S. to send seized Iranian weaponry to U.S. allies. The bill is the House version of the Seized Iranian Arms Transfer Authorization (SEIZE) Act introduced last month in the Senate by Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What it does: The SEIZE Act would allow the U.S. to quickly distribute to U.S. partners any weapons or other materiel confiscated by the U.S. in transit from Iran to its Houthi proxies in Yemen, by treating any seized weapons as part of the U.S.’ own stockpiles and authorizing the president to use Washington’s drawdown authority to distribute such weapons to U.S. partners.
DISCRIMINATION 101
Cornell suspends professor who excluded Israeli student from class on Gaza
Cornell University placed a professor with a history of anti-Israel activism on leave this week following his attempt to exclude an Israeli student from participating in his course on Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned. A Cornell spokesperson told JI that “a complaint was filed” against Eric Cheyfitz, a professor of American studies and humane letters, “who admitted to actions that violated federal civil rights laws and fell short of the university’s expectations for student interactions.”
Details: “Based on the findings of this investigation, the faculty member is not teaching this semester and significant disciplinary action is being recommended,” the spokesperson said. A source familiar with the course told JI that Cheyfitz informed the Israeli student that he was not welcome in the class. Cheyfitz did not respond to a request for comment from JI. Cheyfitz, who is Jewish, was previously involved with Cornell’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and has served as a faculty advisor to the campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. He began teaching the course, titled “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance,” last spring semester.
Elsewhere on the campus beat: As UCLA works to restore $500 million in federal grant funding cut by the Trump administration earlier this year, the university’s chancellor, Julio Frenk, said on Thursday that there are three principles the campus must “safeguard” amid its negotiations with the government. “We need to assure that there’s no government interference in who we hire, who we admit and what we teach or do research on,” Frenk told radio talk show host Larry Mantle.
Worthy Reads
Rahm’s Run?: The Wall Street Journal’s John McCormick shadowed Rahm Emanuel as the former U.S. ambassador to Japan appeared at an Iowa Democratic Party event in Des Moines amid speculation that he could mount a 2028 presidential bid. “While he wasn’t technically campaigning, it was the first time the famously combative Emanuel had made a high-profile retail political appearance on his own behalf for the better part of a decade. It felt at times a bit like watching a professional athlete return to the arena after an extended absence. The game has changed significantly since the 65-year-old was last a candidate in 2018, with the explosion of social media and viral videos in politics. Emanuel made frequent mentions of political and policy wins he helped presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama achieve, as well as his own in Chicago. But gone were his recent criticisms of his party’s brand as ‘toxic’ and ‘weak and woke.’” [WSJ]
Trump, Bibi and the Endgame: In The Washington Post, Dennis Ross weighs in on the Trump administration’s proposal to end the war between Israel and Hamas. “An Arab force may not come in with the mandate to kill Hamas members, but it will come in with a mission of protecting the population. … That said, there needs to be a genuine commitment by the interim administration, largely led by key Arab states, to implement disarmament. A wink and a nod won’t cut it. There must be a similar commitment, with a real mechanism, to ensure an end to the smuggling that Hamas used to build its military and tunnel infrastructure. Trump will remain the key player. He will have to hold the interim administration’s feet to the fire to make sure the disarmament commitments are actually carried out — and also be prepared to support Israeli responses if Hamas begins to reemerge. But first, he will have to insist that the Netanyahu government end the war and withdraw.” [WashPost]
Lit Crit: In Arc Magazine, Alexander Nazarayan considers the increasing politicization of the LitHub magazine, which has drifted to the ideological left in recent years. “But in becoming more overtly political, LitHub has also alienated some readers and writers, turned off by its increasingly leftward slant, which sits uneasily next to traditional literary content. That lean has become especially pronounced since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, leading the writer Lisa Smith Siegel to call its newsletter ‘a daily delivery of anti-semitism in your email box.’ On topics such as free speech and gender politics (including, inevitably, l’affaire Rowling), LitHub has embraced positions well to the left of the mainstream — though arguably not so far to the left of the industry it covers. You can still find LitHub posts about how Substack is a font of right-wing propaganda, the kind of Biden-era stance that most outlets, and writers, have dialed (or walked) back in the current moment, for better or worse.” [ArcMag]
Word on the Street
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
The U.N. Security Council voted down a proposal from China and Russia to delay the reimposition of snapback sanctions on Iran until April; the sanctions went back into effect Friday night…
The New York Times looks at the effort by Alex Witkoff to secure business deals with Qatar and other Gulf nations as his father, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, engages with Doha and the region in his official capacity…
The Free Press spoke to government ethics experts about the move by former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Timmy Davis to become president and partner at the Doha-backed Irth Capital Management, which was co-founded and is chaired by a member of Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family. State Department ethics rules require a one-year cooling-off period for high-level diplomatic officials, preventing them from lobbying for foreign governments after their service ends…
Electronic Arts is in talks with a group that includes Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners over a $50 billion deal that would see the video game company go private…
The Wall Street Journal goes behind the scenes of the decision by Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger, to briefly take Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air following the talk show host’s comments about the death of Charlie Kirk…
Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who lost her House seat last year following a primary challenge from Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO), is expected to announce a challenge to Bell as soon as next week…
Jewish Insider has learned that Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, the anti-Israel speaker for whom the Uncommitted movement pushed for a speaking slot at last year’s Democratic National Convention, is expected to soon launch a gubernatorial campaign…
Oracle CEO Safra Catz announced last week that sheis stepping down after 11 years in the role and 26 years at the company…
More than 200 Northwestern University students who refused to watch mandatory antisemitism awareness videos were barred from enrolling in classes for the fall semester…
The Trump administration launched an investigation into the handling of antisemitism at the nearly two dozen schools in the California State University System…
A U.K. court threw out a terrorism charge against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap who had displayed a Hezbollah flag at a concert last year, citing the failure by prosecutors to meet a filing deadline…
Organizers of the Giro dell’Emilia cycling race announced that Israel Premier Tech would not be permitted to participate in an upcoming race in Italy, citing concerns over the potential for anti-Israel protests…
Iran’s intelligence service attempted to recruit hundreds of Israeli citizens over the weekend through phone calls originating from an unknown number…
Iran claimed to have executed “one of the most important spies for Israel” amid a broader crackdown following the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June…
U.S. citizen Amir Amiry, who had been detained in Afghanistan for nine months, was freed on Sunday following what the State Department said was months of negotiations led by the U.S. and Qatar…
The U.N. said that 1 million Syrians who were displaced or fled since the start of the country’s civil war in 2012 have returned…
Aron Bell, the youngest brother in the Bielski family that hid more than 1,000 Jews in the forests of Belarus during the Holocaust, died at 98… Adman Neil Kraft, who was behind some of Barneys New York, Esprit and Calvin Klein’s most notable campaigns, died at 67… Attorney Jerome Cohen, a pioneer in the study of Chinese law, died at 95…
Pic of the Day
Former Israeli hostages Agam Berger, Naama Levy and Karina Arayev participated in Selichot services at the Western Wall on Saturday night in Jerusalem.
Birthdays
Tony Award-winning actor and singer, Roger Bart turns 63…
Holocaust survivor, later a psychologist and a specialist in the treatment of PTSD, she is the author of two international bestsellers, Edith Eva Eger turns 98… Mathematician and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hillel “Harry” Furstenberg turns 90… President of New York University from 2002-2015, he is the author of Baseball as a Road To God, John Edward Sexton turns 83… Israeli author, translator, journalist and restaurant critic, Avital Inbar turns 81… Retired CEO of Southern California-based LinQuest Corporation, he is a board member at Temple Sinai, Leon Biederman Ph.D…. Former member of the Knesset, he serves as the executive director of Beit El Yeshiva and as chairman of Arutz Sheva, Ya’akov Dov “Katzele” Katz turns 74… CEO at Chain Link Services and past treasurer of the Board of Trustees of JFNA, Harold Gernsbacher… Professor of sociology at the University of London, and the academic director and CEO of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, David Hirsh turns 58… Composer and pianist, he is the winner of the 2020 Azrieli Foundation Prize for Jewish Music, Yitzhak Yedid turns 54… Governor of Delaware since early this year, Matthew Stephen Meyer turns 54… Strategic consultant at 2048 Ventures, following 21 years in senior positions at AIPAC, Brian Shankman… Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s office of global affairs, Aviva Rosenthal… City controller of Philadelphia until 2022, Rebecca Rhynhart turns 51… YouTube-based yoga instructor with more than 1.6 billion views, Adriene Mishler turns 41… Program manager at New York State Homes & Community Renewal, Aron Chilewich… Research director at D.C.-based S-3 Group, Shawn Pasternak… Film and television actress best known for her role in the ABC comedy “The Neighbors,” Clara Mamet turns 31… CEO of the Center for Jewish History, Rio Daniel…
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