Pastor running for Congress alleged Israeli ‘apartheid’ on Oct. 8
Plus, can Saudi keep its $1 trillion pledge to Trump?
Add JewishInsider on Google👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on a sermon blasting Israeli “apartheid” given the day after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks by a Texas pastor now running for Congress, and talk to former Rep. Elaine Luria about her bid for her old Virginia congressional seat. We have the scoop on a call from a bipartisan group of senators for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “surge resources” to restore internet access in Iran, and look at how Saudi Arabia’s economic challenges are sowing doubt that it can maintain its fiscal commitments to the U.S. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Masih Alinejad, Amir Tibon and Carl Kaplan.
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
- Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman is in Washington today and tomorrow to meet with senior Trump administration officials as the White House weighs strikes on Iran. Earlier this week, White House officials met with Israeli military intelligence chief Gen. Shlomi Binder in Washington, who briefed the administration on intelligence regarding Iran.
- The Hudson Institute is hosting a briefing with Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg on the Trump administration’s AI-focused Pax Silica initiative. During Helberg’s trip to the Middle East earlier this month, he participated in signing ceremonies with officials from Israel, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which have all joined the pact in recent months.
- Elsewhere in Washington, Gov. Josh Shapiro is speaking about his new memoir, Where We Keep the Light, at the Sixth and I Synagogue.
- More than two dozen European foreign ministers are meeting today in Brussels to discuss the potential designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization, as well as to move forward with the implementation of sanctions on Iranian entities in response to the Islamic Republic’s crackdowns on protesters in recent weeks. France, which had previously expressed reluctance to designate the IRGC, yesterday reversed its opposition to the designation — which will require a unanimous vote to be implemented.
- Ahead of the meeting, Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA) led a bipartisan group of legislators urging the EU to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
A week after President Donald Trump took office for the first time in 2017, the White House ignited a political and media firestorm by releasing a statement commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day that failed to mention Jews.
The omission was covered in major media outlets including CNN and Politico; the Anti-Defamation League called it “puzzling and troubling.”
Nearly a decade later, Trump released another Holocaust Remembrance Day post this week, with a far more specific message: “Today, we pay respect to the blessed memories of the millions of Jewish people, who were murdered at the hands of the Nazi Regime and its collaborators during the Holocaust,” the statement read, “as well as the Slavs and the Roma, people with disabilities, religious leaders, persons targeted based on their sexual orientation, and political prisoners who were also targeted for systematic slaughter.”
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance’s post commemorating the day, which marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz by Allied Forces, did not mention Jews or antisemitism, leading political rivals on the left to pounce. (Democratic Majority for Israel called it “indefensible.”)
But despite the visibility of Vance’s tweet — which his defenders pointed out included pictures of him and his wife at Dachau, standing in front of a sign that said “Never again” in Yiddish — he was far from the only politician that failed to mention the fact that the Holocaust targeted Jews. Among them were: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA), both of whom pledged to remember the victims of the Holocaust without referring to Nazis’ targeting of Jews.
Multiple presenters at the U.K.’s BBC also failed to mention Jews in their coverage of Holocaust Remembrance Day — drawing backlash and a subsequent apology from the national broadcaster.
Does it matter that these politicians or media don’t reference Jews if they are still highlighting the significance of the Holocaust? It’s possible to argue that, definitionally, the Holocaust was about Jews, so one could assume that any reference to the Holocaust is itself a reference to the killing of Jews and the antisemitism that led to it.
“If I talk about the potato famine, do I have to say Irish? How many other potato famines were there?” asked Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian who served as President Joe Biden’s antisemitism envoy. “But this is part of a greater whole in an age of rising antisemitism.”
For years, Americans’ knowledge of basic facts about the Holocaust has been declining, particularly as fewer Holocaust survivors are alive each year to share their stories. A 2023 survey conducted by the Claims Conference found that 21% of Americans believed that 2 million Jews or fewer were killed. Eight percent of Americans, and 15% of 18- to 29-year-olds, said the number of Jews who were killed during the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated.
RAMMING ATTACK
Driver repeatedly crashes car into Chabad Lubavitch HQ; no injuries reported
A man drove a Honda Accord sedan “intentionally and repeatedly” into an entryway of the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed. The NYPD responded to an 8:46 911 call on Wednesday at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, the home and center of leadership of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, now a major spiritual, symbolic and organizational hub for Chabad. No persons were injured in the incident, captured on video, and police took the driver into custody, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Under investigation: “We’re grateful to the Almighty that no one was hurt,” said Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad, adding that damage initially appeared limited. “It houses one of the most significant synagogues in the Jewish world.” Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch went to the scene in the hours following the incident, and a Chabad source told JI that the White House reached out and reported that it was monitoring the situation. Tisch said at a press conference outside 770 later Wednesday night that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime and that the NYPD bomb squad had searched the vehicle, finding no explosive devices. Chabad’s social media editor, Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, whose son was in the synagogue at the time of the incident, said, “Antisemitism does not appear to be a factor in this.”
PATOR’S POLEMIC
Contender to succeed Jasmine Crockett blasted Israeli ‘apartheid’ in sermon on Oct. 8
Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, the longtime pastor at the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas who is running to replace Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in her Dallas-area House seat, delivered an anti-Israel polemic from the pulpit on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ attack on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, and has a record of other anti-Israel comments since then.
Notable quotable: “The Palestinians, who don’t have the weaponry of Israel, the Palestinians don’t have the financial backing from the United States that Israel has, and so they throw their rocks and shoot their arrows, and Israel is able to bomb them and kill them,” Haynes said. “Watch in the news a disparity between Palestinians being killed and Israelis being killed,” he continued. “It is totally unfair, but this country is going to stand on the side of apartheid because that’s its track record. It stood by apartheid in South Africa, because it created apartheid in this country.”
COMEBACK BID
Moderate Democrat faces off against anti-Israel challengers in suburban Chicago battleground
As she launches a bid to reclaim her seat in the House, former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) said that she wants to help lead the effort to push back against anti-Israel voices in the Democratic Party, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What she’s saying: “Having more people like me who are willing to speak up on that issue, in support of maintaining security assistance through the memorandum of understanding and continuing to maintain a strong relationship with Israel is important,” Luria said, adding that she wants to be a “leader” among new members and former colleagues “to show that the support [for Israel] remains strong.” Luria also said that she’d support any action necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but warned that the administration had overstated the efficacy of its strikes last summer.
exclusive
Senators urge Rubio to ‘surge resources’ to support Iranian internet freedom
A bipartisan group of senators wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urging him to “surge resources to quickly enable critical internet freedom support” to protesters in Iran, noting funding cuts that have stretched resources for such programs thin, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “Today, many of the NGOs and technology providers that maintain these tools are facing closure due to funding cuts and more importantly, fewer Iranian citizens can share their videos and messages with the world and each other,” the letter warns. “Without the continuous operation of internet freedom programming carried out by the State Department and Open Technology Fund, millions of Iranians will lose their last secure window and voice to the outside world.”
State of play: Rubio said at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the Iranian regime is historically weak due to serious economic troubles, but also said that Tehran’s violent crackdown on protesters has appeared to have successfully quelled the demonstrations that have swept the country in recent weeks.
CASH CRUNCH
Saudi Arabia’s economic challenges raise doubts about commitments to U.S.
Saudi Arabia’s growing economic struggles have raised doubts among foreign policy experts about whether Riyadh can fulfill its sweeping monetary commitments to the United States. During Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House last November, the crown prince pledged to increase his country’s investments in the U.S. to nearly $1 trillion, committing funds to projects spanning artificial intelligence, energy, defense and infrastructure. But the kingdom is now facing significant financial strain, driven by persistently low oil prices and the immense funding demands of its domestic development agenda, including Saudi Vision 2030, a major government initiative taken on a decade ago to diversify Saudi’s economy, society and culture, which has since been downsized, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Oil issue: “It’s an economic challenge, and frankly, crisis is a word which works for it,” said Simon Henderson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The Saudi economy requires $100 barrels of oil, and although the price of oil has gone up a bit in recent days, it’s still low and way short of $100.” Henderson emphasized that while Saudi Arabia remains a wealthy country due to its hydrocarbon reserves, declining revenue has forced the government to scale back or cancel marquee projects.
Bonus: Former Masters’ champion Patrick Reed announced he is departing the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and rejoining the PGA Tour, following formerly top-ranked golfer Brooks Koepka, who is returning to the PGA Tour following his departure from LIV earlier this month. The Saudi-backed golf league is now planning to sell minority stakes in its teams.
ON THE AGENDA
White House religious liberty commission to hold first antisemitism hearing next month
The White House’s Religious Liberty Commission, which was formed by President Donald Trump last spring, plans to hold its first hearing focused specifically on antisemitism next month. The daylong public hearing will be held on Feb. 9 at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, and members of the public are able to testify, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In the room: Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, an Orthodox rabbi from New York, is the only Jewish member of the commission, but its advisory board includes four other rabbis, all of whom are Orthodox: Tikvah Fund CEO Rabbi Mark Gottlieb; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the Coalition for Jewish Values’ executive vice president; Princeton Chabad Rabbi Eitan Webb; and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel. Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, is a legal advisor to the commission. The commission is chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican.
IHRA adopted: The Chicago City Council unanimously voted to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into the city’s declaration of human rights this week, an effort spearheaded by two local university students with no prior political experience, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Worthy Reads
Ran’s Home, Grief Lingers: In The Free Press, Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflects on the repatriation of the body of Ran Gvili as she continues to mourn the death of her son, Hersh, who was killed by Hamas in 2024. “On Day 843, Ran Gvili’s body was returned to his family. In a bag. I know the experience of having a child returned that way. For me, when Hersh came home, it was not a happy day. At all. It changed the rest of my life forever, and every day is sodden with grief and pain. So it was confusing for me yesterday to receive many messages telling me how happy I must be. But as more and more texts and emails swam to me, I began to understand the messages were because this specific agonizing mission, to get every hostage home, has concluded. … But for us bereaved families, the eternal hurdle is figuring out how to wake up each morning with part of our souls elsewhere. It is doable, because millions of people around the world do it every day. But sadly, this lazy-eight infinity symbol does not end for us; it keeps looping.” [FreePress]
Past is Prologue: In The Washington Post, photographer David Burnett, who covered the 1979 revolution in Iran, reflects on the Islamic Republic’s “full-circle” moment as those who led the fall of the shah nearly half a century ago now find themselves the targets of the country’s anti-government protests. “The protesters of the revolution have become the regime. But the street terror is the same. During the revolution, long before the internet and cellphones, demonstrators and the military alike relied on telephones and the occasional radio to spread word amid the chaos. In the 2020s, word of a protest can spread instantly — unless the internet is cut and the cell network has been shut down. … Now, almost a half-century later, a volatile and angry country ponders where things go from here. The revolutionaries have turned gray, but judging by the deadly serious way they are reacting to the uprising of a new generation, I imagine they still recognize the approach of change when they see it.” [WashPost]
New Regional Rivalry: In Foreign Policy, Firas Maksad posits that two new regional alliances are forming in the Middle East: a moderate grouping led by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and an Islamic coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan. “Tehran is no longer a principal actor shaping the region’s strategic trajectory. Instead, the Middle East is entering a new phase defined by competition between two emerging blocs: an Abrahamic and an Islamic coalition. How this rivalry evolves—rather than Iran’s next move—will do more to determine the region’s future and the U.S. role in it.” [FP]
Qatar on the Quad: In The Wall Street Journal, Ken Marcus, the founder of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, raises concerns about the degree to which Qatari influence is playing a role in hiring decisions at American universities, citing a recent lawsuit by Jewish student Yael Canaan at Carnegie Mellon University that alleged she was the target of antisemitism. “Qatari interests in particular contributed to the salary of Elizabeth Rosemeyer, the university’s assistant vice provost for DEI and Title IX coordinator. In light of Qatari investments, Carnegie Mellon was required to ‘consult’ with the Qatar Foundation before hiring her. … At least three other DEI-related officials at Carnegie Mellon involved in Ms. Canaan’s complaints of antisemitism had work-related visits to Qatar, according to the December court order. These included Wanda Heading-Grant, the chief diversity officer, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when she was asked about Ms. Canaan’s complaint. Ms. Arscott also worked in Qatar for a time and received funding from Qatar.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The White House is continuing to weigh the possibility of military strikes targeting Iran, as Tehran threatened to hit the “heart of Tel Aviv” if the U.S. were to mount an attack…
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is speaking in Saudi Arabia this week at the Real Estate Future Forum, met on Wednesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh…
The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, whose campus was destroyed in last January’s Eaton fires, is suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility company’s negligence failed to follow security protocols that would have mitigated the spread of the fire…
A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in an assassination plot targeting Iranian dissident and activist Masih Alinejad…
Gamma co-founder Larry Jackson met with Black and Jewish employees of the record label prior to signing Kanye West, also known as Ye, to discuss the rapper’s history of antisemitic and racist comments…
Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow on Wednesday with Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia, and Rabbi Alexander Borodaon, president of the Federation of Communities…
A new report published by UNESCO found that three-quarters of the more than 2,000 teachers in the European Union who responded to a survey from the agency said that they had encountered antisemitism in the classroom, including 61% of respondents who said that Holocaust denial or distortion had been present among students…
A day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pope Leo XIV, speaking to a group of Italian visitors to the Holy See, called for “a world without any more antisemitism, prejudice, oppression or persecution of any human being”…
The Palestinian Authority reportedly paid $200 million in salaries in 2025 to terrorists who committed attacks against Israelis, as well as their families, despite a pledge from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last year to end the PA’s “pay-for-slay” program…
Israel’s Knesset approved the first of three readings of the government’s 2026 budget; if the budget is not passed by the end of March, the Knesset will dissolve, sending the country to elections…
Israeli journalist Amir Tibon was awarded this year’s Wingate Prize for his book, The Gates of Gaza, which recounts his family’s experiences surviving the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
The IDF accepted Hamas’ estimate that approximately 71,000 people were killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war…
Airlines operating under the Lufthansa group are extending their cancellation of night flights to and from Israel through Feb. 3 due to ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran…
Bloomberg spotlights the “sprawling investment empire” of Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of and possible successor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose business dealings are conducted by Iranian businessman Ali Ansari…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the split in Washington over the White House’s support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa following his takeover of Kurdish-held areas of the country, where the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces had been a key component of the U.S.’ strategy to counter ISIS…
Deann Forman was named the executive director of the JCC Association of America’s Center for Innovation and Impact…
Carl Kaplan, the founder and managing director of Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, is retiring more than three decades after founding the organization…
Pic of the Day
Shira Gvili mourned at the casket of her brother, slain IDF soldier Ran Gvili, at his funeral in Meitar, Israel, yesterday, two days after his body was recovered by the IDF in a cemetery in the Gaza Strip. Gvili was killed in battle on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was brought to the enclave, where it remained after every other living and dead hostage was repatriated to Israel.
Birthdays
Israeli multi-platinum record producer and songwriter specializing in pop, hip-hop, dance and electronic music, Yonatan “Johnny” Goldstein turns 35…
Rabbi, mohel and public speaker, he is the author of the best-selling Maggid series, Rabbi Paysach Krohn turns 81… Author and first woman ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso turns 79… Singer-songwriter, he is a two-time gold medal winner in the Maccabiah Games (1985 and 1989) in fast-pitch softball, Steve March-Tormé turns 73… Regional director in Houston for the American Jewish Committee, Randall Czarlinsky… Louisiana resident, Jerry Keller… CEO of the Westchester Jewish Council, Elliot Forchheimer… Senior writer for JCCs of North America, a.k.a. Jane the Writer, Jane E. Herman… Actress known for her role as Amy MacDougall-Barone on the TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Monica Horan turns 63… Former member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 2003 and 2013, Ruhama Avraham turns 62… Physician and an author of four New York Times best-selling books, he is a professor of medicine and engineering at USC, as well as a CBS News contributor, Dr. David Agus turns 61… Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-WI), Paul Ryan turns 56… Robyn Cooke Bash… Writer and occasional Bollywood film actor, he is known for his writing of the popular Jewish children’s comic book series “Mendy and the Golem,” Matt Brandstein turns 54… Israeli documentary filmmaker, photojournalist and film producer, winner of two Emmy Awards, Oren Rosenfeld turns 50… Chief impact officer at The Conduit, Denielle Sachs… Former president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, now a D.C.-based philanthropic consultant, Kari Dunn Saratovsky… Israeli actress, model and television host, Yael Bar Zohar turns 46… Former chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, Laura Rosenberger turns 46… Ethiopian-born Israeli fashion model and actress, Esti Mamo turns 43… Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, Yasha Moz… U.S. Representative (D-MA) since 2021, Jacob Daniel “Jake” Auchincloss turns 38… Mayor of Holyoke, Mass., for nine years starting at age 22, he is now the town manager of Provincetown, Alex Morse turns 37… Associate software engineer at BlackRock, Martha Baumgarten… Swimmer for Israel at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, Andrea “Andi” Murez turns 34…
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