Milken crowd warns of populism’s poison
Plus, Pelosi's Al Green light
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover the White House’s new counterterrorism strategy targeting the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran and Islamic State elements in Africa, and report on Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s backing of an anti-Israel congressional candidate in Houston who is at odds with the city’s Jewish community. We cover Georgetown University Law School’s decision to replace a Jewish commencement speaker with a critic of Congress’ antisemitism hearings, and talk to CNBC’s Sara Eisen on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Adeena Sussman, Ken Griffin and Eyal Waldman.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump is hosting Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this morning at the White House. The sit-down comes amid continued uncertainty over the state of U.S. negotiations with Iran. Fox News reported that Trump said the parties had a week to reach an agreement — establishing a deadline set to expire at the president heads to Beijing for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Rome this morning, and met withPope Leo XIV at the Vatican amid tensions between the Holy See and the White House over the war in Iran. Earlier this week, Trump told Hugh Hewitt that the pontiff’s criticism of the war was “endangering a lot of Catholics.”
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is holding its annual policy dinner tonight.
- Magnum Ice Cream Company is holding a stakeholder meeting today, where it will face pressure from NorthStar Asset Management, which is working with Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen, over steps taken in recent months by Magnum, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, to tamp down on the ice cream company’s social activism.
- Voters in the U.K. are casting ballots in local elections around the country, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his ruling Labour party expected to face significant losses.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
The country’s consummate insiders gathered at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this week. But far away from the five-star hotels where attendees closed business deals and mingled over salmon bento boxes, there is concern over an anti-elite sentiment that is dominating American politics.
The executives, philanthropists and politicians who attended the gathering took note of this increasingly populist moment while discussing how to remedy some of the legitimate concerns of Americans.
There were sessions focused on protecting the workforce in the face of disruption from AI, and on retirement planning for gig economy workers who cannot contribute to a typical 401(k). Behind the scenes, Trump Accounts — tax-advantaged savings accounts for American children, with $1,000 kicked in from Uncle Sam — were a big topic of conversation.
As some of America’s most important decision-makers discussed the turbulent downstream impacts of the AI boom, and the sense that many people are feeling left behind, a related topic that animated the many Jewish executives and investors who attended the conference.
They worry that the intermingling of populism and antisemitism, already heightened following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel two and a half years ago, represents a dangerous combination.
“Antisemitism is a manifestation of extremism and populism,” TD Bank Vice Chair Jeffrey Solomon told Jewish Insider. “Extremism on the left and extremism on the right, neither one of those is good for us as Jews, but it’s not good for a lot of people.”
SPEAKER SELECTION
Georgetown Law replaces Jewish commencement speaker with critic of antisemitism hearings
After a Jewish university leader withdrew as Georgetown University Law Center’s commencement speaker following backlash from anti-Israel student activists, the school replaced him with a professor who criticized congressional hearings on campus antisemitism as a form of “McCarthyism” aimed at chilling free speech, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Chain of events: In an email to law school students on Wednesday, Joshua Teitelbaum, the interim dean of Georgetown Law, wrote that “in the past week, a number of law students raised concerns” about the speaker selection of Morton Schapiro, an economist and the former president of Northwestern University for over 10 years. Teitelbaum said those concerns were “due primarily to opinion essays [Schapiro] published on Israel and Palestine in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023.” Schapiro withdrew after learning of the students’ concerns, Teitelbaum said, and announced that Georgetown Law professor David Cole would replace him.
PROTEST POLITICS
New York Democrats condemn Park East demonstrators’ rhetoric as Mamdani doubles
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reiterated on Wednesday his criticism of the “Great Israel Real Estate Event” held at Park East Synagogue the night prior, even as fellow Democrats condemned the extremist speech and actions of protesters who sought to break the police cordon outside, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. The event included, among other offerings, advertisements for settlements in the West Bank.
Reiterating his position: Pressed on Tuesday about plans for protests at the Manhattan shul, Mamdani released a statement strictly criticizing the event with no mention of the previous disturbance the same pro-Hamas activist group caused outside Park East last November. Jen Goodman, spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul meanwhile, said, “No one should be intimidated when entering their house of worship.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Attorney General Letitia James and Council Speaker Julie Menin.
Washington weighs in: Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the department was investigating an incident in which a Jewish couple appeared to be harassed by protesters near the Wednesday event at the Park East Synagogue.
DOHA DYNAMICS
Iran’s attacks on Qatar could prompt regional realignment, experts say
Iranian attacks on Qatar could prompt Doha to reassess its regional alignment and relationship with Tehran, experts said, though they expressed skepticism that the strikes would change Qatar’s antagonistic posture toward Israel, its funding of anti-Israel media or its harboring of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned groups, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.
Turning point: “Iran’s strikes have created real fissures,” said Natalie Ecanow, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “For example, Qatar expelled Iran’s military and security attachés and cracked down on IRGC cells within its borders. Notably, Qatar’s prime minister called Iran’s strikes ‘a big sense of betrayal,’ which is language typically reserved for friends or partners, not foes. That tells you something about Qatar’s mindset before the war.”
TERROR TARGETS
White House unveils counterterrorism strategy targeting Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, Africa
Seb Gorka, the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, announced while unveiling President Donald Trump’s U.S. counterterrorism strategy on Wednesday that U.S. officials will meet with representatives from several foreign governments this week to ask for assistance in combating terrorism emanating from Iran and elsewhere, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What it entails: Gorka, who also serves as a deputy assistant to the president and oversaw the drafting of the strategy, told reporters that as part of the strategy, the U.S. intends to seek more support on the counterterrorism front from allies who want to be “measured as a serious nation” by the Trump administration. The strategy covers how the administration will respond to threats from Islamic terrorist organizations at home and abroad, drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere and domestic political groups accused of inciting violence.
PELOSI’S PICK
Pelosi backs anti-Israel Democrat who alienated Houston’s Jewish community
Rep. Al Green (D-TX), a vocal critic of Israel competing in a closely contested runoff against a fellow House Democrat later this month, announced in social media posts on Monday that he had received a coveted endorsement from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the powerful former House speaker, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Community reactions: Jewish community leaders in the Houston area were surprised to see Pelosi’s endorsement, especially as it appeared to break with her precedent of declining to engage in member-on-member races. It also fueled ongoing frustrations with Green’s alleged lack of outreach to Houston’s sizable Jewish community — a potentially critical constituency in what is expected to be a close election.
MAKING NEWS
CNBC anchor Sara Eisen confronts antisemitism — on air and online
CNBC anchor Sara Eisen is a fixture at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, where she moderates marquee events, such as a one-on-one interview on Tuesday with Ken Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel. But the real reason that Eisen comes to Beverly Hills for the exclusive annual gathering is for the conversations happening far from the main stages. And much of the conversation Eisen is hearing this week, she told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch, has to do with the dramatic rise in antisemitism in recent years.
Sideline conversation: “To a large extent, I reflect a lot of what the sources that I speak to [say]. That’s investors, and it’s business leaders, and it’s private equity leaders,” Eisen told JI. “A lot of these people, Jewish and non-Jewish, talk to me about it. They know about my background. They know my perspective. They see what’s happening in the political world. They see what’s happening in geopolitics,” she continued. “This is the sideline conversation.”
Worthy Reads
Tehran Talks: In Foreign Policy, Menahem Merhavy observes a shift in the rhetoric of senior Iranian officials that he attributes to a “deeper contraction in the regime’s horizon of action” as it struggles in the wake of the war with the U.S. and Israel. “The United States now appears in Iranian discourse less as a fading empire than as a force capable of demanding surrender, while Israel is treated not as a collapsing anomaly but as a resilient and operationally effective adversary. The shift is striking: The same regime that once denied the durability of its enemies now implicitly affirms it. The greater the acknowledged strength of these adversaries, the more meaningful survival can be presented as victory.” [ForeignPolicy]
Lurie’s Lure: In The Washington Post, Max Raskin, a self-identified “Republican who has been investing in San Francisco real estate for the past two years,” praises Mayor Daniel Lurie’s efforts to turn the city around following years of high crime and economic malaise. “Like Nixon in China, Lurie’s disarming charm and Democrat bona fides gave him the political cover necessary to establish these initiatives and make these changes. This is why the country’s most liberal city can experiment with a conservative idea — that if you get crime right, everything else will follow. Foot traffic picks up, which leads to more retail activity, which leads to more investment, resulting in a boom loop.” [WashPost]
Intifada in the Digital Age: In The Free Press, Warren Kinsella looks at Hamas’ use of digital technology to garner support for its cause and antipathy for Israel. “[Counterterrorism expert Khaled] Hassan said that no one should be under any illusion: For Hamas, the main weapon of the war — online and otherwise — is now a smartphone, which provides vital insights into the way Westerners live and how to capture their support. If someone is in the business of fomenting anger, he said, the internet is the best recruitment and radicalization tool in the history of the world.” [FreePress]
Word on the Street
The U.S. Air Force is planning for the Qatari luxury jet being gifted to the Trump administration to be delivered on July 4, to coincide with the U.S.’ Semiquincentennial…
Bloomberg looks at U.S. efforts to pressure the governments of Lebanon and Iraq to crack down on Iran-backed groups in the countries that are threatening the stability of the current ceasefire…
The effort comes amid ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon; on Wednesday, Israel struck a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire went into effect, saying on Thursday that Radwan Force commander Ahmed Ghaleb Balout was killed in the strike…
The U.S. halted its short-lived “Project Freedom” effort to help stranded ships leave the Strait of Hormuz after Saudi Arabia denied the U.S. the use of its bases and airspace, NBC reported…
A Washington Post assessment found that Iran had damaged more than 220 installations at U.S. military sites across the Middle East during the recent war…
The Financial Times reports that Iran has increased its rate of executions in recent weeks, using a new legal framework to target Iranians who participated in anti-government protests earlier this year as well as those accused of colluding with the Islamic Republic’s enemies…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights the efforts of Mohamed Arrachedi, the Middle East regional coordinator for the International Transport Workers’ Federation, who with his team serves as a lifeline to the approximately 20,000 sailors in the region and has responded to some 2,000 requests seeking assistance…
The New York Times looks at clashes between German officials and members of the country’s intelligence community over public warnings about the domestic threat posed by Iran, with regional intelligence officials raising concerns that the threat is more severe than Berlin is acknowledging…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would cut federal R&D funding to universities that operate campuses in Iran, China, Qatar, Turkey, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea…
Rutgers withdrew an invitation for Arcellx CEO Rami Elghandour to deliver a speech at the school’s upcoming commencement ceremony for its engineering school after some students indicated they would not attend the event over Elghandour’s past anti-Israel commentary on social media…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s reelection campaign said the governor raised $3.6 million in the last five weeks, bringing Shapiro’s war chest to $37 million…
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin praised Rahm Emanuel’s tenure as former mayor of Chicago while attacking Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for his handling of crime and education issues during a panel at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference this week, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
A senior official at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington said that the JCRC is receiving “significantly higher” reports of antisemitism from Montgomery County Public Schools, located just outside of Washington, than others in the region, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Oaktree’s Howard Marks listed his home in Malibu, Calif., for $38.5 million, five years after purchasing the beachfront property for $31 million…
Adeena Sussman’s newest cookbook, Zariz, was named to The New York Times’ best-seller list in the Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous category; read our interview with Sussman about Zariz here…
An Israeli court ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provide medical records detailing his diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer as part of a libel case against Israeli journalists and an anti-Netanyahu activist who said in 2024 that the prime minister was seriously ill…
Mellanox co-founder Eyal Waldman, whose daughter Danielle was killed at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, was heckled by a demonstrator at the Venice Biennale who discovered Waldman was Israeli…
Hamutal Meridor’s defense-tech startup Kela is raising $200 million at a $1 billion valuation in a funding round led by Stripe and D1 Capital Partners that also includes Bill Ackman and Eric Schmidt…
Israel will send jet fuel to Germany following a request from Berlin, amid shortages resulting from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz…
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever criticized U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White for weighing in on an Antwerp prosecutor’s decision to levy charges against three mohels after Belgium barred nonmedical practitioners from conducting circumcisions, in a move that was heavily criticized by the country’s Jewish community…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) met on Wednesday with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino in Panama City, becoming the first sitting Israeli president to visit the Central American country. From Panama, Herzog will travel on to Costa Rica for the inauguration of President-elect Laura Fernández Delgado.
Birthdays
CEO of the American Jewish Committee, he was previously a member of Congress for 12 years, Ted Deutch turns 60…
Member of the New York state Assembly from 1993 to 2022, Sandra R. “Sandy” Galef turns 86… Senior member of the Mobile, Ala., law firm of Silver Voit Garrett & Watkins, Irving Silver turns 86… Napa, Calif.-based media executive and podcast host, Jeffrey Schechtman… Theatrical producer at Press the Button Productions in Monterey, Calif., Jane J. Press… Former member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Rabbi Meshulam Nahari turns 75… Former deputy secretary of state and deputy national security advisor, currently the dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS, James Braidy “Jim” Steinberg turns 73… Director of many commercially successful films including “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” “Look Who’s Talking” and “Clueless,” Amy Heckerling turns 72… President of Harvard University, Alan Michael Garber turns 71… Mayor of El Paso, Texas, from 2013 to 2017 and again from 2021 to 2025, Oscar Leeser turns 68… Professional poker player and hedge fund manager, Daniel Shak turns 67… CEO of Rationalwave Capital Partners, a venture capital firm investing in technology companies, Mark Rosenblatt… Emmy Award-winning film, television and music video director, Adam Bernstein turns 66… Mexican actor best known for his work in telenovelas and the stage, Ari Telch turns 64… Co-founder of JewBelong, Archie Gottesman… Chairman and CEO of Hertz from 2022 to 2024, following 28 years at Goldman Sachs, Stephen Scherr turns 62… Former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Mark H. Levine turns 60… Principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs, Keith Stern… Chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, Matthew Hillel Solomson turns 52… Senior advisor at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz turns 50… Head of congressional affairs at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, Eyal Naor turns 50… Former member of the Knesset who served as interior minister and justice minister, she now chairs Kardan Real Estate Group, Ayelet Shaked turns 50… AIPAC activist, Yana J. Lukeman… VP of sales at Harvey, Robert Warren Saliterman… Head of school at Manhattan Day School, Pesha C. Kletenik… Social entrepreneur, winemaker and CEO of Napa Valley’s OneHope, Jake Kloberdanz turns 43… Director of government affairs for the Port of Los Angeles, Arthur L. Mandel turns 41… CEO of Harris Media, he has worked on several presidential campaigns, Vincent Robert Harris turns 38… Adventurer, dogsled racer, advice columnist and writer, she raced in and completed the 2019 dog sled Iditarod, Blair Braverman turns 38… Las Vegas-based fashion blogger, model, DJ and writer, known as Bebe Zeva, Rebeccah Zeva Hershkovitz turns 33… Film and television actress, Dylan Nicole Gelula turns 32… Actor and singer, Andrew Barth Feldman turns 24… Director of advocacy and public affairs for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Ben Suarato… Mayor of Providence, R.I., Brett Smiley…
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