AIPAC wins some, Squad wins none in Illinois
Plus, Kent help himself
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Illinois congressional candidates backed — or opposed — by AIPAC fared in yesterday’s primaries, and report on Jerusalem’s assessment that joint U.S.-Israel strikes have destroyed Iran’s ballistic missile production capabilities. We cover Joe Kent’s resignation as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and look at how Senate Democrats who previously raised concerns about his far-right links are now echoing his conspiracy theories about Israel’s role in the war in Iran, while their GOP counterparts criticize his comments. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jonathan Gould, Rep. Tom Suozzi and Idan Roll.
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
- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed “significant surprises” in Iran and Lebanon that “will escalate the war,” a day after Israel assassinated Iranian National Security Council head Ali Larijani. Katz also said that Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib had been killed in overnight strikes. More below.
- The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding a hearing on worldwide threats this morning, with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel set to testify.
- Gabbard’s appearance comes a day after Joe Kent — whom Gabbard had reportedly refused orders from the White House to fire — stepped down as head of the National Counterterrorism Center (more on Kent’s resignation below). President Donald Trump, for his part, reupped a 2020 tweet of Kent’s in which the former Green Beret said, “We shouldn’t sit and wait for the next attack, wipe Iran’s ballistic capability out.”
- Less than 24 hours after news broke of his resignation, which he tendered to Vice President JD Vance on Monday, Kent is expected to sit for a live interview today with Tucker Carlson as the commentator further locks in his position as the go-to first interview for recently departed Trump officials following Carrie Prejean Boller‘s appearance on “The Tucker Carlson Show” following her ouster from the Religious Liberties Commission over her support for Candace Owens and comments about Israel.
- Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are attending a closed briefing today on the situation in the Middle East with senior officials from the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
- The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will have its confirmation hearing this morning for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to be Homeland Security secretary, following Kristi Noem’s departure last week from the role.
- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is holding a virtual hearing on the rise of global antisemitism.
- Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told JI that Senate Democrats are likely only planning to force a vote this week on one of the half-dozen war powers resolutions that they’ve introduced to halt the war in Iran. Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY) reiterated that he’s planning to force further action on war powers resolutions in the House.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Reports of the demise of AIPAC’s political clout in Democratic primaries, it turned out, were greatly exaggerated.
Pro-Israel candidates who received backing from AIPAC or AIPAC-aligned groups won two of the four targeted Democratic primaries in Illinois — and helped block all the Squad-aligned far-left candidates from winning nominations in all of the races. It was a respectable, if not dominant showing, but one consistent with making an impact with the $22 million pro-Israel groups spent in the four open congressional races.
In the 8th District, former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) came out ahead of anti-Israel activist and businessman Junaid Ahmed, and looks like a lock to hold onto the suburban district as long as she wants.
Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, who benefited from about $4.5 million in outside spending from a pro-Israel group, comfortably outdistanced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) in the 2nd District by a double-digit margin (41-29%) — even though Jackson entered the race as the favorite. The anti-Israel candidate in the field, state Sen. Robert Peters, finished in a distant third place, with only 12% of the vote.
AIPAC’s biggest setback came in the affluent Chicago lakefront seat of retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), where Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss prevailed over pro-Israel state Sen. Laura Fine despite facing a barrage of attacks from an AIPAC-aligned group. But pro-Israel voters also dodged the worst-case outcome in the 9th District, with anti-Israel social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh finishing in second, and trailing badly in the district’s suburban precincts. All told, Biss won with 30% of the vote, Abughazaleh finished with 26% and Fine tallied 20%.
And despite AIPAC’s super PAC spending nearly $5 million in positive ads to boost Chicago city Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin in the 7th District, state Rep. La Shawn Ford narrowly prevailed in the crowded primary, 24-20%. Ford was backed by retiring Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), with the congressman’s political machine ultimately making a bigger difference than the money spent on behalf of Conyears-Ervin.
Anthony Driver, Jr. and Kina Collins, the two candidates running on anti-Israel platforms, lagged well behind in third and fourth place, tallying a combined 20% of the vote.
AIPAC managed to block all six of the far-left candidates it viewed as potential Squad-aligned lawmakers, which a source close to AIPAC told JI was the group’s top goal in the home stretch of the campaign — once it backed off of anti-Biss attacks that failed to dislodge him as the front-runner and Abughazaleh closed in in second place. AIPAC is treating that as a win as well.
MILITARY UPDATE
Israel, U.S. destroyed Iran’s ballistic missile production capabilities, IDF says
U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian production sites during the ongoing war have destroyed the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile production capabilities, the IDF told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Wednesday. ”Right now, they are unable, during this war, to produce ballistic missiles … due to steps we and the Americans took,” IDF Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the IDF’s international spokesperson, said in response to a query from JI.
Iran arsenal shrinks: The elimination of production facilities and stores of material for manufacturing the missiles means that Iran has a finite number of ballistic missiles that they produce domestically. The Islamic Republic has been burning through its ballistic missile stockpile daily, shooting at Israel and others in the region. Shoshani noted that ahead of the war, Iran engaged in the “hyper-production” of ballistic missiles, and suggested that the Islamic Republic could restart production after the war, as it did after last year’s 12-day June war. ”But right now, as they’re fighting and desperate, they are unable to produce more missiles,” he added.
HORSESHOE POLITICS
Onetime Democratic critics elevate Joe Kent’s conspiratorial resignation letter
Some congressional Democrats who previously criticized Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, for his extremist history are now elevating his conspiratorial resignation statement in which he blamed Israel for bringing the U.S. into the war with Iran, as well as a series of other Middle East conflicts, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Meanwhile, Republicans who supported Kent during his nomination process are now criticizing the former administration official.
U-turn: Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during Kent’s confirmation process that Kent had a “consistent pattern of questionable judgment and false statements” and willful ignorance to evidence that conflicted with his preexisting political biases and that he had “aligned himself with political violence, promoted falsehoods that undermine our democracy and tried to twist intelligence to serve a political agenda.” On Tuesday, however, Warner echoed Kent’s comments in his resignation letter, where he wrote that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rand Paul (R-KY), Tom Cotton (R-AR), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Max Miller (R-OH) and Don Bacon (R-NE).
POWER SHIFT
Senate Republicans say Iranian official Ali Larijani’s killing could help pave way to regime change
Some Senate Republicans suggested on Tuesday that Israel’s killing of senior Iranian regime official Ali Larijani could help pave the way toward resistance and uprising by the Iranian people, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: “At some stage of the game, the people there will have had enough. We just want to make sure that this regime is weakened enough to where, when the people of Iran decide that they want a change in leadership, that it is a possibility of success for them,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told JI. On the Democratic side, two pro-Israel Democrats said that while they’re critical of the Trump administration’s decision to enter the war without congressional authority, they’re not shedding tears for Larijani.
LONE STAR LIABILITY
Israel conspiracies threaten Democratic hopes in Texas runoff race
An upcoming Democratic runoff for a red-leaning open House seat in Texas that could be competitive in November is now emerging as a stark example of the growing tensions between moderate candidates and their fringe opponents on the extreme left over how to approach Israel and the rise of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
State of play: The May 26 election in Texas’ recently redrawn 35th Congressional District, which was created to favor Republicans and extends from San Antonio to Austin, pits Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy who is backed by pro-Israel Democrats and establishment officials, against Maureen Galindo, a local activist who has used her growing social media presence to promote a range of conspiracy theories, including specious claims about Israel and its ties to the United States. Despite spending only around $4,000 on her insurgent bid and raising no money, Galindo, 38, narrowly won the crowded primary earlier this month, clinching just over 29% of the vote — two points ahead of Garcia, who placed second.
CAMPUS CRITIQUE
Education Committee finds SJP and faculty groups play central role in campus antisemitism
A new report from House Republicans on the Education and Workforce Committee alleges that faculty members and student groups have played a central role in promoting and amplifying antisemitism on college campuses, particularly those affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Findings: The report, titled “How Campuses Became Hotbeds: The Rise of Radical Antisemitism on College Campuses,” was released Tuesday and examines campus activity following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. The report finds that faculty affiliated with Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) “played a significant role in legitimizing and amplifying antisemitism on college campuses,” and that campuses with FSJP chapters were seven times more likely to experience “violence against Jews.” It alleges that some faculty members sought to “strip Jewish students of protections, incited protests that turned violent, taught antisemitic content in their courses and hosted programming that isolated Jewish students and demonized Israel.”
CARRYING THE TORCH
Parents of slain Israeli Embassy staffer urge Jewish community to carry on her legacy
Ten months after his daughter, Israeli Embassy employee Sarah Milgrim, was shot dead alongside her boyfriend and colleague, Yaron Lischinsky, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Bob Milgrim said he feels a “deeper connection to the Jewish community [than] we ever felt before.” On Tuesday evening, at the conclusion of the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference in Manhattan, Milgrim was joined in conversation with his wife, Nancy Milgrim, and CBS News reporter Jonah Kaplan, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Turbulent time: The Milgrims spoke days after another Jewish community was rocked by an antisemitic attack last week, in which an assailant drove a truck filled with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., one of the largest Reform synagogues in the country, while 140 children were inside. Security guards prevented any casualties in the attempted terrorist attack. Two months earlier, an antisemitic arsonist heavily damaged Beth Israel Congregation, the only synagogue in Jackson, Miss. “It’s very easy to lose hope with what’s happening, especially with what happened at Temple Israel … and Mississippi,” said Milgrim. “There’s no end to it. But when you have hope you have to act. Even when you don’t have hope, you have to act.”
Communal considerations: Also speaking at the conference, prominent historian and Jewish studies scholar Pamela Nadell joined the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of legacy Jewish organizations on Tuesday, arguing that they play a crucial role in educating non-Jews about antisemitism.
Worthy Reads
Iran in North Africa: In Semafor, former White House Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt raises concerns about the expansion in North Africa of the Iran-backed Polisaro Front, with which Tehran has been building ties for decades. “By building ties with the Polisario, Iran gained a foothold in North Africa and a means of pressuring Morocco, one of Washington’s most reliable regional partners. Morocco’s cooperation with the United States includes counterterrorism coordination and broader regional security efforts. Undermining Morocco therefore undermines American interests.” [Semafor]
What Tulsi Believes?: The Atlantic’s Shane Harris considers the questioning Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has in the past opposed U.S. military action in Iran, may face on Capitol Hill today following the resignation of National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent over the Trump administration’s Iran strategy. “The entry of the United States into the very war that Gabbard has long opposed raises uncomfortable questions. How does Gabbard herself feel about the decision to go to war? Does she share Kent’s view that he could not ‘in good conscience’ support a war that, by his account, was predicated on misleading information? These are narrow versions of the big question that has dogged Gabbard for weeks: Why is someone who built her political identity on opposition to ‘regime-change wars’ still serving in this administration?” [TheAtlantic]
Angst in Amsterdam: In Tablet, Rabbi Pini Dunner reflects on recent attacks on Jewish institutions around the world, including a Jewish school (cheidar) in Amsterdam founded by his late grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who fought with the Dutch Jewish resistance. “My grandfather believed that the only answer to hatred was to double down on Jewish life — to strengthen it, expand it, and refuse to allow intimidation to succeed. The history of the Cheider proves that he was right. The school began at a moment when many believed traditional Jewish life in the Netherlands might never recover from the devastation of the 20th century. One man disagreed. He cleared a table in his apartment and gathered five children around it. That was how the Cheider began.” [Tablet]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump warned that NATO allies were making a “foolish mistake” in not assisting in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but said the U.S. did not “need or desire” assistance to do so…
The USS Ford carrier group, which has been plagued by a series of issues, including fire damage and plumbing problems, during its nine months at sea,is expected to depart the Red Sea to travel to Crete for repairs…
The Wall Street Journal reports on Israel’s systematic targeting of Iranian regime officials, an effort that includes “chasing security forces from their headquarters to muster points then on to hide-outs under bridges in an effort to disrupt their activity and show Iranians that the enforcers are being taken out”…
Iran’s judiciary said it executed a man charged with spying for Israel…
The New York Times looks at how U.S. Gulf allies under attack from Iran are increasingly looking to Europe and Australia to fulfill their defensive weapons needs, while those countries push for the Iranian regime to be, per The Wall Street Journal, “neutered, if not dismantled,” in the U.S.-Israel strikes…
Dr. Anwar Gargash, a top advisor to president of the United Arab Emirates, told Bloomberg that Iran erred in attacking the UAE and other Gulf nations, saying the attacks have pushed moderate Arab states toward Israel and the U.S. and away from Tehran…
Major U.S. airlines, including United and Delta, are extending suspensions of direct flights to Israel, upending travel plans for thousands hoping to visit the country for Passover, when the country typically sees a surge in visitors, and beyond, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…
Albania’s parliament adopted a resolution declaring Iran to be a “state sponsor of terrorism,” a week after Iran-linked hackers coordinated a cyberattack and reportedly stole personal data of lawmakers in Tirana…
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) on Tuesday urged the administration to work to free one of his constituents, Kamran Hekmati, from prison in Iran. Hekmati, who is Jewish and a U.S. citizen, has been held by the regime for nearly a year for visiting Israel for his son’s bar mitzvah more than a dozen years ago, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Nearly all Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the administration’s “seeming lack of preparedness for the war it initiated with Iran and its foreseeable risks to American citizens and U.S. government personnel”…
Administration officials dodged questions about weapons sales to Turkey during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, despite calling antisemitic statements from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “atrocious,” JI’s Matthew Shea reports…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Jonathan Gould, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who is shaking up the banking industry by giving the green light to crypto firms to build national trust banks…
Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who is mounting a bid for Senate, released her first ad attacking Graham Platner over past comments he made regarding sexual assault as the two engage in a heated primary to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November…
A federal judge ordered the reinstatement of more than 1,000 Voice of America employees who were laid off nearly a year ago, determining that Trump administration official Kari Lake’s efforts to dismantle VOA parent U.S. Agency for Global Media were unlawful…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day and the presence of former Irish President Mary Robinson in New York to talk Middle East politics and praise Robinson’s controversial tenure as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, JI’s Will Bredderman reports…
Canadian businessman Stephen Smith will make his first foray into the media market and acquire a nearly 27% stake in The Economist Group from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild in a deal worth roughly $400 million…
The New York Times talks to members of the Dutch Jewish community about antisemitism in the Netherlands following attacks on a religious school in Amsterdam and a synagogue in Rotterdam in the last week…
Former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll is joining Code for Israel as the group’s new CEO; read our 2023 interview with Roll here…
Ben Wieder is joining the Los Angeles Times’ Washington bureau…
Literary agent Albert Zuckerman, whose Writers House worked with Ken Follett, Stephen Hawking and others, died at 94…
Pic of the Day
Israeli Ambassador to Argentina Eyal Sela (center), flanked by Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno (second from left) and Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan (right), a native of Argentina, spoke on Tuesday at a ceremony commemorating the 34th anniversary of the bombing of Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed and 200 injured.
Birthdays
Lead vocalist for the pop rock band Maroon 5, Adam Levine turns 47…
Screenwriter, actor, comedian and film executive, he is best known for co-writing the screenplay for “Jaws” and its first two sequels, Carl Gottlieb turns 88… U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism during the Biden administration, Ambassador Deborah Esther Lipstadt turns 79… National columnist with Creators Syndicate and contributor to CNN Opinion, Froma Harrop turns 76… One-half of the eponymous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (Jerry is four days older), Bennett “Ben” Cohen turns 75… Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Howard E. Gendelman, MD turns 72… French businessman, he was the CEO and chairman of Électricité de France from 2014-2022, Jean-Bernard Lévy turns 71… Former crisis response team manager for the City of Los Angeles and now a consultant for nonprofit organizations, Jeffrey Zimerman, MSW… Former head coach of the Auburn Tigers men’s basketball team, his Hebrew name is Mordechai as he was born in the week of Purim, Bruce Pearl turns 66… Senior rabbi-elect at the New North London Synagogue, Rabbi Daniel S. Nevins turns 60… Filmmaker, writer and stand-up comedian, Jake David Shapiro turns 57… Identical twin brothers and former yeshiva students, both singers and songwriters who recorded as “Evan and Jaron,” Evan Lowenstein and Jaron Lowenstein turn 52… Actor, comedian and writer, Adam Pally turns 44… COO at Roofmart, Ariel Koschitzky… Actor known for his roles in “24” and “House of Sand and Fog,” Jonathan Ahdout turns 37… COO and chief of staff at the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Samuel Crystal… Senior business transformation consultant at EY, Michael Schapiro… Actor and television producer, best known for his role on the Netflix original series “Orange Is the New Black,” Alan Aisenberg turns 33… Israeli actor, singer and television presenter, Shahar Tavoch turns 27…
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