PACs pack NJ-11 primary
Plus, a look at Google’s Al Jazeera partnership
Add JewishInsider on Google👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how super PAC spending is affecting high-profile congressional races in New Jersey and Illinois, and profile Anat Ashkenazi, the Israeli-American CFO of Alphabet. We talk to national security experts about Google’s recently announced AI partnership with Al Jazeera, and report on concerns expressed by Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador for religious freedom, about the potential genocide of Syrian minorities if Damascus is not constrained. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Phylisa Wisdom, Menachem Rosensaft and Keith and Aviva Siegel.
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
- White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are wrapping up two days of meetings in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, focused on the Russia-Ukraine war, and will likely depart to Oman ahead of talks with Iran tomorrow. The White House had threatened to walk away from the meeting, initially planned for Turkey, over a series of last-minute Iranian demands, including the change of venue and limiting the scope to Tehran’s nuclear program. The talks, which are viewed in Israel with deep skepticism, are for now back on following the urging of some Arab states for Washington to remain at the table. More below.
- Israel’s Security Cabinet is convening today at 4 p.m. local time.
- It’s primary day in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. Voters are heading to the polls today to cast their ballots to choose the successor to fill now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s House seat. AIPAC’s super PAC United Democracy Project has spent upwards of $2 million in the district on ads targeting former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) following his leftward shift on foreign policy. More below.
- The Hudson Institute is hosting a sit-down this afternoon with State Department antisemitism envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.
- Civic Spirit and the The Jewish Education Project are hosting a daylong summit today in New York focused on civic education in Jewish day schools and American Jewish identity.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
It didn’t take long – just over two hours, to be precise – between the news of the apparent collapse of talks between the U.S. and Iran and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s announcement on X that they were back on: “Nuclear talks with the United States are scheduled to be held in Muscat on about 10 am Friday.” Anonymous American sources then confirmed to various media that negotiations were set to take place, after leaders of Arab and Muslim countries urged the Trump administration to give them a chance, despite Iran’s prevarications.
Still, Araghchi’s statement alludes to one of the major reasons that the talks were, briefly, called off: Are they only “nuclear talks” or are they about a range of malign behavior by the Islamic Republic?
The Iranian answer to that question is clear, but the Trump administration sent mixed messages.
President Donald Trump’s interview yesterday with NBC provides few clues. The president expressed support for the protesters against the Iranian regime, saying “we’ve had their back.”
Yet, in a bit of revisionist history, Trump portrayed his recent threats to Iran as being solely about the nuclear file: “They were thinking of starting a new [nuclear] site in a different part of the country. We found out about it and said, ‘you do that, we’re going to do very bad things to you,'” Trump said. He didn’t mention ballistic missiles in the interview.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, specified that “as far as the topics [of negotiations] and what the agenda needs to be, I think that in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles, that includes the sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region, that includes the nuclear program and that includes the treatment of their own people.”
“Beyond that,” Rubio said, “the president retains a number of options as to how to respond to [the violent crackdown on protesters] and future events.”
Vice President JD Vance told Megyn Kelly that stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was the main concern: “In a perfect world, would I love it if a bunch of freedom-loving Iranians… had a government that was much more friendly to the United States of America? Would that be a good thing? Absolutely.”
“But fundamentally,” he added, “the president has been focused … on this question of ensuring that they don’t get a nuclear weapon. .. I feel 100% confident that even if the Iranians were rushing toward a nuclear weapon, they couldn’t get one during the Trump administration. But we’re not thinking about the next three years; we’re thinking about the next 30 years.”
Malinowski’s minefield
Pro-Israel spending complicating Malinowski’s path to victory in New Jersey special election
A major infusion of pro-Israel funding for attacks on former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) has complicated Malinowski’s path to victory in the Thursday special election primary for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District — though political analysts and members of the local Jewish community still see Malinowski as the likely favorite and say the precise impact of the anti-Malinowski attacks remains to be seen, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: Malinowski has been the target of over $2.3 million in ads funded by the AIPAC-linked United Democracy Project, which have hit Malinowski for a 2019 vote for Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding and stock trading while in office. Though it hasn’t formally endorsed her or run any messaging supporting her, AIPAC is widely believed to be backing former Lt. Gov Tahesha Way. Most local observers agreed that Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, who has deep institutional ties in New Jersey Democratic politics, is in the strongest position against Malinowski, but Way and progressive activist and Israel critic Analilia Mejia, who has mobilized a series of prominent national progressive endorsers, also have pathways to victory.
CHICAGO SHAKEUP
Major ad buys boost moderates facing anti-Israel challengers in Chicago-area House races
A pair of well-financed groups, whose origin is currently unknown, is set to begin running ads boosting moderate pro-Israel candidates in a series of open House seats in Chicago, each of whom is facing off against vocal anti-Israel opponents, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Going deeper: The ads — being run by newly formed super PACs Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now — boost state Sen. Laura Fine, running in the 9th Congressional District, former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL), running in the 8th District and Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, running in the 2nd District. The ad buys for the two groups add up to millions of dollars across the three races. The ads, which do not focus on Israel policy, are widely rumored to be connected to the United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC.
NEW GIG
Mamdani picks progressive Jewish leader Phylisa Wisdom to head Office to Combat Antisemitism
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani selected Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the progressive Zionist group New York Jewish Agenda and a critic of yeshiva education, to helm the city’s Office to Combat AntiSemitism. Jewish Insider first reported in January that the administration was considering Wisdom for the job. But a source also told JI earlier this week that her past work as director of development and government affairs at Young Advocates for Fair Education (Yaffed) — which criticizes the quality of secular education in Hasidic schools — had initially given the mayor’s team some pause. Mamdani had sought the support of the Satmar Hasidic community during his campaign, JI’s Will Bredderman reports.
Wisdom’s vision: In a conversation with JI last month, Wisdom sketched what she described as a “comprehensive strategy” that the office, which former Mayor Eric Adams established in May 2025, could pursue. The antisemitism office could be “coordinating between long-standing offices and agencies tasked with combating hate, and input from the diversity of New York’s Jewish community,” she said, outlining broad steps.
New York nominee: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has selected former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her running mate in her reelection race this year — a pick that provoked both applause and consternation among leaders of the state’s Jewish community.
AI AMBITION
Alphabet’s AI bet shows early returns under Israeli-American CFO Anat Ashkenazi
Anat Ashkenazi has presided over a tremendous amount of growth in the five years she has spent as chief financial officer at two different Fortune 500 companies — first the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, and now the tech behemoth Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Eli Lilly debuted the weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound in 2022 and 2023, respectively, which drove substantial sales growth for the company after Ashkenazi became CFO in 2021. Then Ashkenazi moved to Alphabet in 2024, steering the company’s finances through massive investments in AI that are beginning to power a growth boost for the company. Alphabet announced in its fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday that its annual revenue passed $400 billion for the first time, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Ashkenazi’s ethos: Much of Ashkenazi’s success is her commitment to keeping her head down and doing the work of helping companies grow. “Whether an organization is going through tremendous success and growth, or challenging times, the CFO should anchor the organization back to its core mission and values and chart the course forward,” she said in a 2023 interview.
TECH TROUBLES
Google’s AI partnership with Al Jazeera raises concerns among national security experts
A recently announced AI partnership between Google and Al Jazeera, the Qatar-backed media network, is raising concerns among some national security experts who say the arrangement helps to legitimize a state-controlled news organization long criticized for its sympathetic coverage of Hamas and hostility to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. The agreement, announced in December, allows Al Jazeera to use Google Cloud as its main technology provider powering the network’s newly launched AI initiative, known internally as “The Core,” according to a press release.
Details: Though vaguely characterized, the collaboration will help Al Jazeera produce editorial content that draws on Google’s AI platforms including Gemini, a major component driving a key program called “AJ-LLM,” which the network describes as its “editorial brain.” The effort, which uses a large language model built on Al Jazeera’s archives, is among several so-called “pillars” of the media company’s AI project seeking to embed the technology in its workflow and output. Some experts are warning that Google’s new partnership will help lend a sheen of institutional credibility to a channel that hasfaced accusations of spreading misinformation in service of promoting Qatar’s preferred narrative on a range of sensitive topics including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
DAMASCUS WARNING
Former U.S. religious freedom ambassador warns of genocide of Syrian minorities
Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom and a former GOP senator from Kansas, warned Wednesday that, unless Syrian minority groups are allowed to maintain their own security forces, they face a likely genocide by government-aligned forces, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “The new administration in Syria is purging religious minorities, threatening and killing them,” Brownback said at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “These groups must be allowed to maintain their own security forces, or I guarantee you today, a genocide will happen in Syria like happened in Iraq to the Yazidis and Christians.” The stark warning is a repudiation of the policies of the new Syrian government led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa and largely backed by the U.S., which had pushed for full integration of minority-led forces into the Syrian military.
Worthy Reads
Decision Time: The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen weighs the risks of President Donald Trump backing away from action on Iran. “There are risks to military action in Iran, just as there were risks to the military action in Venezuela. We take the success of the Venezuelan operation for granted today, but it could easily have gone sideways: A helicopter could have crashed, Americans could have been killed, and U.S. forces could have failed to achieve their objective. Deposing the Maduro regime by force was a bold and courageous decision. And deposing the Iranian regime by force will require similar presidential courage. Though a weakened Iran cannot stop the U.S. military, it could inflict damage on both the United States and Israel. In Venezuela, Trump concluded that the risks of inaction outweighed the risks of action. That is doubly true for Iran.” [WashPost]
For Whom the Toll Tolls: In The New York Times, Scott Anderson considers what the range in death tolls from Iran’s recent crackdown says about Tehran’s treatment of protesters. “In conventional wars, combatants often minimize their own casualty figures while exaggerating those of their enemy to bolster morale and suggest victory is close. In internal insurrections like what we have witnessed in Iran, this formula tends to be reversed, with the state lowballing casualty numbers — no government wants to be seen as indiscriminately slaughtering its citizens — and dissidents raising them to provoke outrage. The current Iranian regime has the dubious distinction of having traveled both sides of the street. … Whatever the final number proves to be, it may have carried out one of the worst state-sanctioned massacres of unarmed civilians anywhere in nearly a half century in order to survive.” [NYTimes]
After Charlie Kirk: The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg reflects on how the death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk has “destabilized the entire Trump coalition,” calling Kirk “a pivotal person” who had held the movement together. “In doing so, the killer helped unshackle dark forces — chief among them anti-Semitism — that now threaten to overtake the conservative movement. … On one level, this conflict is about Jews and Israel. But on another, this debate is downstream from something much bigger: a power struggle over who will define and control the MAGA movement once Trump is gone. By painting rivals as tools of the Jews, hard-right influencers such as Carlson and Bannon hope to delegitimize the competition not by besting their ideas, but by slurring their loyalties and identity.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced on Tuesday that he had drafted legislation designating the Polisario Front, the militant group that claims sovereignty over parts of the Western Sahara, as a foreign terrorist organization and will formally introduce it “if there’s no change in their behavior,”Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports….
Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) introduced the Internet Reach and Access Now (IRAN) Act, requiring the administration to implement, and periodically update, a strategy to promote internet access for Iranian civilians…
A small group of lawmakers received a redacted copy of a classified whistleblower complaint made against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; an investigation into the complaint had for months been stalled over the DNI’s refusal to share the information with Congress…
Federal prosecutors filed four additional terrorism-related charges against the Chicago man accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last year…
The World Jewish Congress’ Menachem Rosensaft is calling on the Alliance for Downtown New York, which maintains hundreds of commemorative markers on the sidewalks of Manhattan’s Lower Broadway, not to replace the marker honoring former French Prime Minister and Nazi collaborator Pierre Laval, which had been damaged and become a tripping hazard before its temporary removal…
PEN America walked back its condemnation of protests targeting an Israeli comedian whose Los Angeles shows were canceled; PEN America had previously condemned the “profound violation of free expression” the protests had caused Guy Hochman, but said in a follow-up statement days later that it “decided to withdraw this statement” and “remain[s] committed to open and respectful dialogue about the divisions that arise in the course of defending free expression”…
Less than half of Israelis support joining an American strike on Iran if Israel is not directly attacked, a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute found this week, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
The Washington Post laid off a third of its newsroom staff, including its entire Middle East bureau, some staffers from which had faced criticism for repeated instances of biased, sloppy and inaccurate reporting…
The New York Times’ culture critic reflects on the state of “Jewish comedy” amid increasing antisemitism and a more polarized political climate, especially on issues related to Israel…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher spotlights the PRECEDE Foundation’s efforts to educate the Ashkenazi community about potentially lifesaving early detection for pancreatic cancer, which Ashkenazi Jews are significantly predisposed to…
Jewish leaders in Manchester, England, are warning Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to “focus on soccer” following comments he made about “the genocide in Palestine”; “We have repeatedly asked for prominent individuals to be mindful about the words they use given how Jewish people have had to endure attacks across the globe,” a statement by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester read…
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is eliminating the federal positions of antisemitism envoy and Islamophobia envoy, replacing both roles with a newly created advisory council to combat hate…
Australia is preparing a system to “grade” universities on their handling of a range of issues relating to antisemitism as part of a broader plan from the office of Canberra’s antisemitism envoy that was fast-tracked following the terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December…
The brother of Shin Bet head David Zini and two others were indicted on charges of trafficking cigarettes into the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war against Hamas…
Pic of the Day
First Lady Melania Trump welcomed freed Israeli hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel to the White House on Wednesday, one year after Aviva met the first lady for the first time and pleaded for help securing her husband’s release, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Birthdays
Team USA ice dancer from 2014-2019, now a clinical research coordinator associate at Stanford Medicine, Eliana Gropman turns 25…
Former member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and the United Torah Judaism alliance, Shmuel “Shmelka” Halpert turns 87… Former member of the Virginia Senate for 44 years, Richard Lawrence “Dick” Saslaw turns 86… Director, screenwriter and producer of movies and television, Michael Kenneth Mann turns 83… Outfielder from 1965-1974 for the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves, later in his career he served in the Astros’ front office, Norm Miller turns 80… Israeli engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, he holds more than 800 patents and applications, and is a founding partner of Rainbow Medical, an operational investment company, Yossi Gross turns 79… Actor, singer, voice actor, puppeteer and comedian, best known as the voice of Jafar in Disney’s “Aladdin” franchise, Jonathan Freeman turns 76… Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, he wrote a 2015 essay entitled “The Making of a Libertarian, Contrarian, Nonobservant, but Self-Identified Jew,” Randy E. Barnett turns 74… Founder and CEO of a company representing 200 hotels globally, he is the owner of Luxe Hotels, Efrem Harkham turns 70… Board chair of Jewish leadership organization M2 and a member of the board of governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Linda Adler Hurwitz… Ellen Braun… Movie, television and stage actress, writer, producer and director, Jennifer Jason Leigh (family name was Morozoff) turns 64… Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of Napa Valley, Niles Elliot Goldstein… Former member of the New York state Assembly, now a New York City Council member, Harvey David Epstein turns 59… Canadian environmental activist, Tzeporah Berman turns 57… Educator, writer, columnist, lecturer, public speaker and pro-Israel activist, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki… Baltimore-area sommelier, he curates kosher food and wine events and researches synagogue history, Dr. Kenneth S. Friedman turns 53… Member of the New York City Council from 2014-2021, now a NYC attorney, Benjamin Kallos turns 45… President and COO of American Signature, the parent company of Value City Furniture, Jonathan Schottenstein turns 44… Israeli swimmer, she competed in the 2000 Olympics, Adi Maia Bichman turns 43… CEO at the American Journalism Project, Sarabeth Berman… Partner for political and strategic communications at Number 10 Strategies, he was previously a senior advisor to Ambassador Ron Dermer, Joshua Hantman… Olympic sprinter, born in Los Angeles and now an Israeli citizen, specializing in the 400-meter dash, Donald Sanford turns 39… Actor and singer, best known for his work in musical theater, Alex Brightman turns 39… Director of communications and intergovernmental affairs at NYC’s Correctional Health Services, Nicole A. Levy… Israeli golfer who is an LPGA Tour member, Laetitia Beck turns 34…
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