Wikipedia’s edit scandal, unedited
Plus, NYC’s pension tension on Israel Bonds
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we cover a new Anti-Defamation League report on what the group says is a failure on the part of Wikipedia to address a coordinated effort to inject anti-Israel content into the site, look at New York City Comptroller Mark Levine’s decision not to reinvest some of the city’s pension funds into Israel Bonds, and report on New Jersey congressional candidate Rebecca Bennett’s decision to campaign alongside a local mayor embroiled in an antisemitism lawsuit, even as her opponent has also appeared with the mayor. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad, Ronen Bar and Theo Baker.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Tamara Zieve and Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
The Atlantic Council is hosting a sit-down this afternoon with former Biden administration official Brett McGurk, a distinguished fellow with the council’s Middle East Programs, and The Washington Post’s David Ignatius to discuss McGurk’s new book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages, which details his role in White House efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is slated to deliver remarks this morning at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards at Georgetown University, which will honor Indian social worker Reema Nanavaty, designer Tory Burch and Bangladeshi economist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
In Baku, Azerbaijan, the seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia kicks off today after a day of preparatory meetings on Wednesday.
As Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who held a rare meeting with Bahrain’s foreign minister in Baku yesterday, took the stage earlier today, representatives from Turkey, Kuwait, Iran and Pakistan appeared to leave the room, while the delegations from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain stayed for the speech. The emir of Qatar, with whom Herzog first shook hands at COP28 in Dubai in late 2023, also stayed in the room for Herzog’s address.
One Thing To Know
EDIT WARS
By Haley Cohen
A year after the Anti-Defamation League exposed what it described as a coordinated campaign to inject antisemitic and anti-Israel narratives into Wikipedia entries, 91% of one banned editor’s contributions to six prominent articles on issues related to Israel remain in the live text, according to a new report.
The report, released Thursday by the ADL Center for Technology and Society, found that Wikipedia has failed to systematically review or correct edits to pages on Hamas, Zionism, the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and Israel’s war in Gaza, even after banning editors involved in the alleged campaign.
The ADL’s analysis focuses specifically on activity involving articles about Israel, Jewish history and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It found that while coordinated editing activity declined by about 95% since last year, 11 new editors continue to shape articles on Israel and the Palestinians, warning that the disputed content can also influence search results and AI-generated responses.
The Big Reads
pension politics
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine came under fire on Wednesday after he revealed to The New York Times that he would reverse course on a long-standing pledge to reinvest municipal pension dollars in State of Israel bonds — criticism that came even from a predecessor in the role, Scott Stringer, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. Speaking to the Times, Levine stressed his continued personal relationship with and support for the Jewish state, and maintained his decision not to purchase the bonds was based solely on “technical challenges” and “financial considerations.” In a statement to JI, his office explicitly echoed a recent analysis by the ratings agency Fitch that cited upcoming Israeli elections as a stability risk, and further pointed to growing state debt and the possibility of additional military clashes with Iran or Hezbollah.
Empire state feud: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sharply criticized Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — the GOP candidate for New York governor — on Wednesday, calling the Republican’s assertions that he would not protect Hasidic communities from arson and sexual violence “directly racist.”
sharing a stage
New Jersey Democratic House candidate Rebecca Bennett campaigned this week alongside Linden, N.J., Mayor Derek Armstead, a Democrat who has been accused of antisemitic discrimination in an ongoing lawsuit, at an event that also featured House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But her opponent, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), has also been photographed alongside Armstead on multiple occasions, including at least once since the lawsuit containing the antisemitism allegations was filed, at an event related to an energy and chemical manufacturing facility in Linden that appears to have been organized by a third party.
in their memory
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and his wife, Allison, CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper, State Department antisemitism envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun and other administration officials joined the families of former hostages and victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel for a commemoration event on Wednesday at the State Department, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Rubio and Lutnick played a central role in organizing the event to honor the 46 Americans killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, following advocacy by Ruby Chen — father of Itay Chen, an American who served in the IDF and was killed on Oct. 7 — and other bereaved families, several of whom delivered remarks. Others in attendance included Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Seb Gorka, the senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council.
Seeking answers: Families of Americans killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel said a State Department memorial event honoring their loved ones offered a meaningful recognition of their loss, with some calling on the U.S. government to take further action and investigate the attacks, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
The Rundown
reggio regrets
booking bias
DRAWING A LINE
veep’s view
platform check
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The U.S. criticized a legal complaint filed in Lebanon against Beirut’s ambassador in Washington, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, over her outreach to Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter after Leiter’s son was critically injured in a terror attack.
The State Department is reportedly considering sanctions on the Lebanese judges involved in the legal complaint, which the Trump administration suggested was an effort by Hezbollah-linked government actors to undermine the ongoing U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon.…
Shipping authorities said two cargo ships were sunk in the Strait of Hormuz this week; Ali Ozmaei, the naval commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reportedly claimed on Wednesday that Tehran was “counting the moments” until it could strike U.S. warships…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks ahead of the CICA summit in Baku, Azerbaijan; the two discussed, among other issues, bilateral cooperation as well as Iran…
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen said on Wednesday they planned to continue their attacks on Saudi Arabia, a day after striking and causing significant damage to Saudi Aramco’s headquarters…
The Wall Street Journal reports that a federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is part of an effort by the Trump administration to strip the congresswoman of her citizenship and ultimately deport her to her native Somalia; the investigation focuses in part on the validity of the date of birth on her citizenship application…
Speaking in Belfast, Northern Ireland, former President Barack Obama suggested that Israel has “ceded moral ground” through its actions in the Middle East…
Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee, told NBC News that his half-sister’s social media posts suggesting that their relatives, including for a time their mother, were members of the Muslim Brotherhood amounted to “hearsay,” days after he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that neither he nor members of his family had ties to the group…
A former grant administrator at Harvard’s School of Public Health is suing the university, claiming that he was fired weeks into starting a new position, after he had requested time off for Rosh Hashanah…
The OpenAI employee arrested after a recording device was found in an executive conference at the AI company’s headquarters had a one-way ticket back to his native Saudi Arabia at the time of his arrest…
Robert Kraft and the Kraft family donated $5 million for naming rights to the Chabad at Chestnut Mill (Ma.) which will now be called the Kraft Family Chabad at Chestnut Hill…
A South Jersey deli is facing a $1,000 fine from the state for using the terms “Jewish” and “kosher-style” in its marketing, despite serving non-kosher items…
Jewish members of the U.K.’s Green Party are planning to sue the party for discrimination over its recent passage of a measure declaring Zionism to be a form of racism…
The technocratic committee tasked with governing Gaza and Germany’s state-run GIZ development agency signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a framework for technical cooperation on Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction; the agreement covers economic recovery, municipal services, education, employment, water, agriculture and energy, with GIZ providing technical expertise, needs assessments and capacity-building support…
Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar filed a NIS 3 million ($970,000) defamation suit against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the prime minister’s claims that Bar knew of the Hamas threat on the night of Oct. 7, 2023, but decided not to alert him…
A new report from the University of Toronto’s digital watchdog group found that two Israeli firms installed spyware on dozens of computers at Al Jazeera..
Irish novelist Sally Rooney said that she is no longer permitted to sell her books in the U.K., owing to her public support for Palestine Action, which was outlawed by the British government last year…
Theo Baker, who as a Stanford student authored How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, is joining the San Francisco Standard as the outlet’s senior Silicon Valley reporter; read our May 2026 interview with Baker here…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Terminal Blow: In The Washington Post, Jim Geraghty warns of the rise of drone warfare targeting airports, following strikes on Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid International Airport over the weekend in which more than a dozen people were killed. “If you’re looking to terrorize people, a drone attack on a major international airport is an effective tool. … Of course, blowing up an airport terminal doesn’t weaken a target country militarily. But the Houthis and Iranians are less interested in that objective. They are convinced that enough civilian casualties will force opposing governments to say ‘uncle’ and agree to their terms.” [WashPost]
Paying a Price: The Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim looks at the pressure Democrats are facing from their left to take an increasingly critical approach to Israel. “The choice that Democratic leaders seem increasingly inclined to make — aligning themselves with the international left on Israel — will offer short-term relief but create hellish problems that have nothing to do with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The ‘anti-Zionist’ academics, activists, influencers and troublemakers Democrats wish to gather into a winning coalition despise democratic politics and loathe the whole idea of a coalition.” [WSJ]
Continental Concern: The Telegraph‘s Con Coughlin posits that European inaction on Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia will lead to deeper problems for the continent in the longer term. “The West’s reluctance to provide the Saudis with tangible support is short-sighted, especially for the European leaders who need to understand that the Houthis’ decision to escalate their attacks against the kingdom is as much a problem for Europe as it is the Saudis themselves. … [U.K. Prime Minister Andy] Burnham and his fellow European leaders need to understand that, by failing to confront foes who threaten their countries’ interests, they are demonstrating a level of weakness that their enemies will be only too eager to exploit.” [TheTelegraph]
Picture of the Day
Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar (center) and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (second from right) participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday at the opening of Colombia’s Embassy in Jerusalem, which comes months after a conservative government led by Abelardo de la Espriella came to power in Bogota. During Escobar’s visit, he reinstated a free-trade agreement between the countries that had been terminated by the previous Colombian government. Rafi Ben Hakoon/GPO
Birthdays
Lawrence John Miller, comedian, actor, podcaster and columnist, turns 73
Jack Newman, retired from the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1996, he is a mediator and arbitrator, turns 87
Rabbi Yochanan Zweig, founder and dean of the Talmudic University of Florida in Miami Beach, Fla., turns 84
Haim Saban, media mogul, major donor to the Democratic Party and producer of “Power Rangers,” turns 82
Barbara Corday, television executive, writer and producer known for co-creating “Cagney & Lacey,” turns 82
Alan D. Bersin, senior advisor at Covington & Burling, he was commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Obama administration, turns 80
Mindy Hersh, Miami-based mental health counselor and senior executive producer of the My Survivor Film Project
Alain Cohen, owner of Los Angeles-based Got Kosher? Bakery, turns 71
Yossi Shelley, Israeli ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, turns 69
Darrell Steven Steinberg, former mayor of Sacramento, Calif., turns 67
Neil Kugelman, founder and CEO of Refinement Services, a provider of software for precious-metal redemption retailers
Mitchell “Moyshe” Allen Silk, former U.S. Treasury official, he is reported to have been the first Hasidic Jew to hold a Senate-confirmed administration position, turns 65
Andrew Fawer, founding partner of Equalitas Capital and managing director at Allegiant Real Estate Capital
Shai Franklin, director of national government relations at Gotham Government Relations & Communications, turns 61
Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and chief executive of the global investment firm Citadel, turns 58
Stu Loeser, press secretary to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now a political communications strategist, turns 53
Wes Moore, governor of Maryland since 2023, turns 48
Melissa Batya Cohen Biden, documentary filmmaker, she is married to Hunter Biden, turns 40
Jesse Levine, director of racquet sports at Shell Bay in Boca Raton, Fla., and former professional tennis player, turns 39
Elizabeth Kenigsberg, managing director at SKDKnickerbocker
Mitch Glasser, second baseman on Israel’s National Baseball Team from 2017 to 2021, turns 37
Heiko Stoiber, director of strategic initiatives at the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai
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