The group bankrolling pro-Hamas protests in NYC
Plus, Deborah Lipstadt on Saudi's shift
Add JewishInsider on Google👋 Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the significant increase in funding to the organizers of a recent pro-Hamas protest near a synagogue in Queens, and talk to former antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt about the potential global implications of Saudi Arabia’s pivot toward Islamism and away from moderation. We interview Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, a Republican mounting a congressional bid in the blue district currently represented by Rep. Jared Moskowitz, and cover a new Anti-Defamation League report on how AI models are identifying and suppressing antisemitic content. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jessica Tisch, Douglas Murray and Rabbi Motti Seligson.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI 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
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio is testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning about the Trump administration’s actions in and plans for Venezuela following the arrest of former President Nicolás Maduro.
- In the afternoon, Rubio will meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the State Department. The meeting between Rubio and Machado comes as Reuters reports that U.S. intelligence is questioning whether the country’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, will acquiesce to the Trump administration’s demands that Caracas cut ties with U.S. adversaries.
- In Washington tonight, the Kennedy Center is holding a one-day showing of “October 7: In Their Own Words,” a play whose script comes from testimonies of survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. Read our interview with playwrights Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney here.
- New York City’s Center for Jewish History is hosting a panel discussion this evening about contemporary antisemitism, related to the The Routledge History of Antisemitism, featuring the book’s co-editor, Mark Weitzman, and contributors Susannah Heschel and Maurice Samuels.
- The Jewish Federation Los Angeles will remove the yellow ribbon that was painted on the side of its building — the largest such display in the country, according to the organization — this afternoon in recognition of the return of all 255 hostages to Israel this week.
- In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding talks today with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a day after the Syrian leader spoke by phone with President Donald Trump, who praised Damascus’ efforts to take control over Kurdish-held areas of the country.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
A major chapter has ended in the war that began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with the burial of Ran Gvili, the final hostage whose remains were returned earlier this week from Gaza and buried today in his southern Israel hometown of Meitar.
Yet thousands of Israelis continue to be called up for reserve duty and the final aim of the Gaza war — disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza — has yet to be achieved.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, President Donald Trump said that “many countries say we really want to” disarm Hamas, and his advisor Jared Kushner presented the administration’s plan for the next steps in Gaza, which include the destruction of “heavy weapons, tunnels, military infrastructure, weapons production facilities and munitions” in Gaza in the next 100 days. Under the plan, only members of the police appointed by the Palestinian technocratic committee would be able to hold weapons, but Hamas is reportedly seeking to have 10,000 of its members, whom Israel regards as terrorists, remain in the police force.
At the same time, Kushner’s slide deck was much more focused on the “New Gaza,” complete with Dubai-esque futuristic skyscrapers, than it was on the details of how to get Hamas to give up its weapons. “There is no Plan B,” Kushner said regarding Gaza’s future.
In Jerusalem and in Washington, officials expressed skepticism about the prospect of Hamas voluntarily relinquishing its weapons, and whether the International Stabilization Force described in the Gaza ceasefire deal will be up to the task of confiscating those weapons.They view Israeli military action in the Hamas-controlled half of Gaza as the likely scenario.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who sits on the Security Cabinet, told Kan Bet radio that while Israel is heaving “a great sign of relief with the return of the hero Ran Gvili … the central thing in stage two [of the Gaza ceasefire] is disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called in a post on X for Trump to “allow Israel to finish the job,” saying that “as to Hamas, nothing has changed. … They don’t seek peace. They only seek destruction. … This has gone on too long.”
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Anti-Israel group organizing protests outside NYC synagogues gets cash windfall
The group behind a pro-Hamas demonstration near a Queens synagogue earlier this month and a series of other events targeting Jewish religious institutions has deep pockets — and deep roots, which crisscross the country and link it to various extremist cells — according to publicly available tax filings, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Paper trail: The demonstrators who broke into chants of “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here” outside Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills — and triggered outrage over New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s belated condemnation — were affiliated with an outfit known by multiple names: Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL), Al-Awda (Arabic for “the return”) and Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC). But official filings with state and federal authorities reveal that the groups are different monikers of a single nonprofit operation, one whose revenue has exploded in recent years: from just $44,789 in 2022 to $451,903 in 2024, the most recent period for which filings are available.
RIYADH REFLECTIONS
Saudi pivot could have implications on antisemitism globally, Lipstadt contends
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the former U.S. envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Tuesday that she’s concerned by the increased pace of antisemitic rhetoric coming from Saudi Arabia, and warned that an extended change of course by Riyadh could have implications on the spread of antisemitism globally.
Real pivot or momentary detour: Lipstadt, who began in the role in May 2022, said that she saw the Saudi government initially very open to addressing antisemitism, but less willing to work with her toward the end of her term, which finished in January 2025. She said that the situation has appeared to deteriorate further since then. “If this is a real pivot, and not just a momentary detour, it’ll be very disappointing,” Lipstadt said. If that’s the case, “then it’s very disturbing because there was a chance for a change in the culture and in the atmosphere of the Middle East.”
Bonus: In The New York Post, Lipstadt and Noa Tishby, previously the Israeli envoy for combatting antisemitism, warn that “[t]oday’s antisemitism has shifted from a hatred of Jews, per se, to Israel-related Jewish hate.”
ALLIANCE UNRAVELS
Lindsey Graham slams Saudi Arabia for attack on UAE, silence on Syrian assault against Kurds
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called on Saudi Arabia to end what he described as its “attack on the United Arab Emirates” and slammed the country’s silence regarding the Syrian government’s campaign against the Kurds, demanding the kingdom use its influence to “keep the region from falling further into chaos,” Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. Graham made the comments in a post Tuesday morning on X, hours after announcing his plans to introduce legislation this week imposing sanctions on any government or group involved in targeting Kurdish forces in Syria. Syrian government forces have recently led a campaign against the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, resulting in the loss of SDF control over parts of the country’s territory.
What he said: “As previously stated, I am trying to work with the administration and regional partners to prevent a bloodbath in Syria against our Kurdish allies,” Graham wrote. “It is now time for the region to change their ways and man up for decency. To Saudi Arabia: I have tried to work hard to chart a new path for relations between your country, the United States and the region,” he continued. “I have tremendous respect for many of the changes that have been embraced. However, the Kingdom’s attack on the United Arab Emirates and their silence regarding the Syrian government’s constant assault on the Kurds has to change.”
FLORIDA FIGHT
Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, a Republican, hopes shift to right will push him to victory against Moskowitz
As he aims to unseat pro-Israel stalwart Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Republican Boca Raton, Fla., Mayor Scott Singer is hoping that the region’s conservative shifts will help propel him to victory, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he’s saying: Singer said he’s running for Congress because he “love[s] public service” and he sees the country at a “critical point … where we can go back to the failed policies of four years ago or continue to advance the gains that President Trump has made,” and he wants to help push Trump’s agenda forward. That includes Trump’s Middle East policy, which Singer lauded. Asked how he plans to flip the traditionally Democratic district, Singer emphasized his three-decade history of public service in the region, and said that he’s “seen a renewed enthusiasm and resurgence in terms of conservative, common-sense policies, as the Democratic Party has grown more and more left” — particularly among Jewish voters.
AI EVALUATION
ADL rates Anthropic’s Claude best AI model at detecting antisemitism
Anthropic’s artificial intelligence system is strongest at detecting bias against Jews and Israel compared to its competitors, according to an evaluation of the leading large language models published by the Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday. In its first-ever AI index, the ADL evaluated how six models responded to antisemitic and extremist content, based on more than 25,000 LLM chats, 37 topical sub-categories and assessments conducted by both human and AI evaluators, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Breakdown: The index broke antisemitism into subcategories: “anti-Jewish,” which includes classic antisemitic tropes, as well as “anti-Zionist,” which analyzes antisemitism that targets Zionists or Zionism. Another category, “extremist,” looked at how LLMs engage with biases, narratives and conspiracy theories, which sometimes overlap with antisemitism. Models were generally better at identifying and discrediting tropes such as “Jews control the media” than anti-Zionist content or extremist theories. The index assessed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, the Chinese model DeepSeek, Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok and Meta’s Llama.
FACLTY FURY
Emory University faculty leader outraged over departure of Iran security official’s daughter
After a doctor who is the daughter of a senior Iranian government official departed from Emory University’s medical school, the professor who serves as head of Emory’s faculty leadership council criticized the school for letting her go, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned. Noelle McAfee, a professor in Emory’s philosophy department, sent a scathing e-mail to the university and School of Medicine faculty expressing concern that the school’s dismissal of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of the secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security, was a politically motivated firing.
Details: McAfee, who was arrested in April 2024 for her participation in a campus anti-Israel encampment, said faculty members have expressed to her that Ardeshir-Larijani’s departure is “an act of unbecoming of our tolerant, free, academic community.” “It’s extremely disappointing to see that our leadership here at Emory are consistently caving to political pressure and never taking the side of faculty,” McAfee wrote, quoting an anonymous faculty member, expressing concern that Ardeshir-Larijani, whose father is responsible for the Islamic Republic’s national security, didn’t receive due process.
Worthy Reads
‘Never Again’ Tested in Iran: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens weighs the White House’s options in Iran against the backdrop of a climbing death toll from the country’s anti-government protests and previous assurances from the Trump administration that it would come to the defense of the demonstrators. “So it’s left to the United States to impose meaningful consequences on the Iranian regime for one of the worst atrocities of this century. Donald Trump told Axios Monday that the Iranians ‘want to make a deal’ that would forestall a military strike. … Do we really want to live in a world in which people like Mohseni-Ejei, the judicial leader, can terrorize people with utter impunity? Have decades of vowing ‘Never again’ — this Tuesday marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz — taught us nothing more than to offer pro forma condemnations when thousands of protesters are gunned down by modern-day Einsatzgruppen?” [NYTimes]
Endgame for Bibi?: In The Wall Street Journal, William Galston talks to Israeli American writer Yossi Klein Halevi about Iran, Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chances in this year’s election. “Public-opinion surveys suggest that Mr. Netanyahu’s effort to evade responsibility for the national-security failings that made possible the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, has shored up support in his base but not persuaded the voters who will determine the next majority. Most Israelis don’t trust him. If elections were held tomorrow, his coalition would lose. … Mr. Klein Halevi says that Mr. Netanyahu has run out of Houdini-like escapes from political peril and will soon be forced out of office. I hope he’s right. Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election this year would convince many Americans — including American Jews — that the Israel they’ve long cherished has given way to a new Israeli majority that they can neither understand nor support.” [WSJ]
Road to Damascus: In The Washington Post, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raises concerns about the Trump administration’s support for Damascus following recent moves by Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to wrest control of Kurdish-held areas from the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces. “Make no mistake: These developments could precipitate a major crisis, not just for minority groups such as the Druze and the Kurds, but for the entire region. If unchecked, we could soon see mass displacement, ethnic cleansing and the possible reemergence of ISIS as a powerful player inside Syria and a global terrorist threat. … If the U.S. doesn’t act fast, the achievements of the first Trump term could be reversed just as the president stands on the verge of realizing his goal of a new era of peace in the Middle East.” [WashPost]
What Gvili’s Return Means: In his Substack “Between Us,” Nadav Eyal considers the political implications of Israel’s retrieval of the body of the final hostage in Gaza. “The return of the last fallen soldier allows the parties to move forward in Gaza. First and foremost, this involves opening the Rafah Crossing, followed by the possibility of further IDF withdrawal from the Strip. At the same time, a technocratic Palestinian government is expected to begin administering the Strip. President Trump has repeatedly made clear — including this week — that Hamas must be disarmed. Israel will not want to carry out any withdrawal before a genuine process of dismantling Hamas begins. … The return of the last fallen Israeli is deeply meaningful, but any Israeli government will struggle to accept any reality in which an armed Hamas continues to rule Gaza, even from behind the scenes.” [BetweenUs]
Word on the Street
The U.S. military is planning to conduct a multiday air exercise in the Middle East amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, and as the U.S. moves military assets to the Gulf…
A draft resolution by President Donald Trump’s newly formed Board of Peace that was obtained by The New York Times lays out the group’s operations and gives the president significant say in the naming of senior officials who will oversee the reconstruction and administration of the Gaza Strip; the draft, dated last week, had not been signed by Trump…
Trump warned on his Truth Social site that U.S. aid to Iraq would cease if Nouri al-Maliki was selected to be the country’s next prime minister, citing differences in ideology and policies between Washington and the Shiite politician, who previously served as prime minister from 2006-2014…
Queen Rania of Jordan shared photos from her meeting with Second Lady Usha Vance during her trip to Washington earlier this week…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that three of the 14 Iranians deported from the U.S. earlier this week had been members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; the three men are all believed to have illegally crossed the U.S.’ southern border in late 2024…
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch affixed a mezuzah to the doorframe of her office at One Police Plaza, saying that the decision to do so was “a small but meaningful symbol of faith and resilience”…
The Pulitzer Board named a Harvard professor who alleged a month after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks that Israelis were “the most powerful people on the planet doubling down on their evil, deranged state-sponsored terror”…
The University of Denver announced the creation of an endowed fellowship in Holocaust and antisemitism studies that will be housed in the school’s Center for Judaic Studies…
The Isle of Man formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism…
The Washington Post spotlights the efforts of Czech tour guide Jiri Kluc to gather and preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors around the world…
Police in Azerbaijan arrested three men linked to the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State who are suspected of plotting an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Baku…
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that he will not allow Saudi airspace to be used for military operations against Tehran, a day after the United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Ministry said the country’s airspace could not be used for military action against Iran…
A media outlet for the Iranian judiciary said Iran had executed a man charged with spying on behalf of Israel…
The Iranian rial reached a new record low of 1.5 million to $1…
Yeshiva University announced the appointment of writer Douglas Murray to be the school’s inaugural President’s Professor of Practice…
Dan Rothem is joining Israel Policy Forum as senior policy analyst; he was previously a senior researcher at Tachlith—The Institute for Israeli Policy and CEO of Commanders for Israel’s Security…
Rabbi Motti Seligson, the media director for Chabad-Lubavich, and his wife, Shterni, welcomed a baby boy…
Pic of the Day
Former Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot (second from right) was among the former hostages to attend a ceremony Tuesday night in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to mark the stopping of the clock that has kept the time since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks following the IDF’s retrieval of the body of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza.
Birthdays
Actress and singer, known for her role as Ashlyn Caswell in the Disney+ series “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” Julia Lester turns 26…
Inventor of many percussion instruments used in Latin and jazz music, Martin Cohen turns 87… Longtime Baltimore-area dentist now living in Jupiter, Fla., Joel Irwin Goldberg, DDS… Former chair of the political science department of the Hebrew University, Avraham Diskin turns 79… 26th national president of Hadassah, she served from 2016 through 2019, now chair of Hadassah’s magazine, Ellen Hershkin… U.S. senator (D-NH), Jeanne Shaheen turns 79… Attorney and lobbyist, Kenneth Levine… Rabbi emeritus of Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Congregation in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Steven Carr Reuben… Chairman and founder of London-based ICM Stellar Sports, Jonathan Ian Barnett turns 76… Model, actress and singer, Barbi Benton turns 76… Elayne Z. Wolf… Former senior U.S. district judge for the Central District of California, now serving as a mediator and arbitrator at JAMS, Dean Douglas Pregerson turns 75… Freelance writer, she is a 2009 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Reba Carmel… NYC-based advisor and investor focusing on fintech, blockchain and emerging technologies, Donna Redel turns 73… Composer and distinguished professor at UCLA’s school of music, Richard Danielpour turns 70… Former chairman of the board of the ZOA and a retired assistant clinical professor of neurology at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Alan Mazurek turns 70… Assistant vice provost and executive director at the UCLA Center for Community Engagement, Shalom David Staub… Angel investor and mentor for growing companies, Mark N. Schwartz… Retired after 14 years as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly, she is active in the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County, Amy H. Handlin turns 70… Rabbi at Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs, Calif., David James Lazar turns 69… Executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Robert B. Satloff turns 64… Businessman, he is the chairman of Genesis Philanthropy Group, Gennady Gazin turns 61… Founder and CEO of Boca Raton-based Lyons Capital LLC, Jason Lyons… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Amy Coney Barrett turns 54… SVP at Weber Shandwick, Ariel Bashi… Israeli theatre and movie actress, Adi Bielski turns 44… Managing director at PJT Partners, Max Heller… Vice president at Goldman Sachs, Perry Bloch… Israeli windsurfer, she won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Sharon Kantor turns 23…
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