Plus, an interview with Jack Ciattarelli
CNN
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg moderated by Chris Cuomo. CNN Democratic Presidential Town Hall: The Climate Crisis New York, NY 2019
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at leading Democrats’ leftward shifts on Israel and talk to New Jersey Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli about his outreach to the Garden State’s Jewish community ahead of the November election. We report on the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to reinstate the screening of a documentary about the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, and talk to House legislators who recently returned from Israel about their meetings with senior officials. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Michael Eisenberg, Rep. Dan Goldman and Dan Raviv.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Jay Schottenstein has great genes; Mountain minyan: An unorthodox experiment in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains; and After quietly supporting Gaza relief work since early 2024, IsraAid CEO opens up and warns: ‘We are reaching an extreme humanitarian situation’. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Today marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to meet today in Alaska for talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
- The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s National Jewish Retreat wraps up this weekend in Washington. Weekend speakers include journalist Dan Raviv, Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin and Amb. Stuart Eizenstat.
- An anti-Israel protest slated to take place in New York City tomorrow is expected to draw thousands of participants, the largest protest of its kind in the city in months.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
Watching several nationally ambitious Democrats, under pressure from the activist left, shift away from their measured support of Israel is reminiscent of watching the party’s 2020 presidential candidates rush to embrace a panoply of hard-left positions that turned politically costly in the long run.
The biggest flip-flop under pressure came from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who, in a recent appearance on the “Pod Save America” podcast, tried to maintain some support for the U.S.-Israel alliance while criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for being responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
That nuanced, largely-critical-of-Israel reaction, nonetheless, drew widespread opprobrium from the loudest anti-Israel voices within the party, including the former Obama administration operatives who host the show.
Within days, Buttigieg backtracked in favor of embracing a more hostile view towards the Jewish state. He came out against re-upping another long-term agreement to secure military aid to Israel — the type of deal that former President Barack Obama last secured before leaving office in 2016. He said he would have supported anti-Israel resolutions championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to cut off some military aid to Israel. And he called for recognition of a Palestinian state, a position held by only the furthest-left Democratic lawmakers in Congress.
Buttigieg’s rapid reversal does him little good in advancing his national political interests. As a presidential candidate whose appeal was centered in his thoughtful pragmatism, his rush to pander to the far flank of his party threatens to undermine his more-moderate brand.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), to a lesser extent, is feeling similar pressure from the base as he hints at an interest in presidential politics. The swing-state senator, who has been critical of his party’s far-left, came out squarely against Sanders’ anti-Israel resolutions. But as anti-Israel activists aired an ad in Iowa targeting his position (he missed the actual vote in the Senate), he responded by saying his view on Israel is “evolving.”
And it wasn’t lost on the pro-Israel community that among the 26 Senate Democrats who voted with Sanders on the anti-Israel resolution was Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a pragmatic Democrat who nonetheless is watching the radical strains within the party grow in influence within her state. Klobuchar is also expected to consider another presidential campaign, after experiencing surprising success in her first run — running as a centrist.
LEFTWARD SWERVE
Buttigieg’s about-face on Israel signals possible shift in Democratic politics
A senior Biden official expressed concerns about Pete Buttigieg’s about-face on Israel and its wider implications about Democratic politics, in comments to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch following the former transportation secretary’s recent remarks on military support for the Jewish state and his support for recognizing a Palestinian state.
Notable quotable: “Pete Buttigieg is a viable president of the United States. He won the Iowa caucus. He was the transportation secretary. And his words really matter,” the official told JI. “The fact that he so quickly got wobbly and said his comments about the 10-year MOU suggests that those who still believe in standing strong really need to stand up right now, because we’re seeing a trend that’s extremely disturbing.”
NEW JERSEY JOUST
Ciattarelli focuses on Jewish voters as he seeks an upset in the N.J. governor’s race
Ever since President Donald Trump ran surprisingly close to Vice President Kamala Harris in New Jersey during last year’s presidential race, Republicans have been looking at the state’s gubernatorial race as a chance to capitalize on the party’s momentum in the blue state. Jack Ciattarelli, the GOP’s nominee for governor, also came tantalizingly close to defeating Gov. Phil Murphy in the state’s last gubernatorial race. He’s running again, and hoping to get over the finish line against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), in part, by courting the state’s sizable Jewish community, which has swung a bit to the right in recent elections. “People now know, because of the closeness of my race, that we can win. There’s just an attitude change because they feel like the Democrats have really failed them on a number of issues, and antisemitism is one of them,” Ciattarelli told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs in an interview ahead of his visit to Israel this week.
Trade goals: Ciattarelli organized his five-day visit to Israel in a show of solidarity. He also spent time on his visit pursuing opportunities for economic investment from leading Israeli companies in the technology and medical sectors. He told JI that one of his goals with the visit was to boost the state’s economy “by forging a closer economic relationship with a number of nations” that are close U.S. allies. “Israel is first and foremost on the list, but as governor, I will certainly look to Canada, Mexico and India as well to increase our bilateral trade,” Ciattarelli said.
REVERSING COURSE
Toronto film festival reverses decision, will air Oct. 7 documentary
The Toronto International Film Festival reversed course on Thursday, deciding to screen “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” a documentary about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, at its upcoming festival. TIFF had faced serious backlash from Jewish organizations and Canadian politicians over its initial decision to cancel the screening due to the film’s usage of Hamas footage from the attacks, saying the terror organization had not approved them for use, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Back and bigger: TIFF board member John Ruffolo told the Toronto SunToronto Sun that the organization decided at a board meeting Thursday that the movie “will be exhibited as planned and even bigger than originally.” Another source told the Sun that TIFF President Cameron Bailey and Barry Avrich, the film’s director, were essential to the decision, along with input from philanthropist Heather Reisman and entrepreneur Henry Wolfond, both influential Jewish Canadians.
ISRAEL INSIGHTS
Freshman House Republicans discuss their recent trip to Israel
Returning from a trip to Israel, two first-term House Republicans blasted European nations and others that have recently hardened their positions against Israel, saying that those decisions had set back efforts to free the hostages and end the war, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Discussion: One of the lawmakers who visited Israel with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation also indicated that she had not heard in meetings with Israeli leaders a concrete plan for bringing the war to an end. “Europe’s actions definitely set back the … negotiations for Hamas releasing the existing hostages — potentially resulting in them dying,” Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) said. “It’s maddening that these countries that should know better, or should take the time to find out better, are taking these very unhelpful positions.” Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said it was crucial to “stand up to these countries like France and the U.K. and Canada and Australia that have fully embraced Muslim terror and want to reward it.”
Q&A
Michael Eisenberg on Israel’s ‘defining generation’ and the future of a region rewired by AI
American-Israeli venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg isn’t just watching Israel’s transformation — he’s trying to shape it. As cofounder of the prominent investment fund Aleph, early backer of companies including Lemonade and WeWork, and a longtime thought leader in the intersection of Judaism, economics and technology, Eisenberg has become an influential voice in Israel’s public discourse. In a wide-ranging conversation on the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast, co-hosted by Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, Eisenberg discussed the impact of the war in Gaza on Israeli society and the tech sector, what the government must do to turn postwar recovery into long-term renewal and why he sees young Israelis as a “defining generation.”
Faith in the youth: “Part of what makes me optimistic is the youth of Israel,” Eisenberg said. “Two years into this war that nobody wanted, two years into a war that saw hundreds of thousands of people called up to reserves — [I have] sons, sons-in-law who have probably done more than 1,500 days of reserve duty in Gaza or mandatory service in Gaza. We currently have two kids in the army right now. These kids have proven to be what I called already in November 2023 the ‘defining generation.’” Eisenberg also made the case for an ambitious AI-powered regional alliance between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners — and warned that Israel’s political dysfunction could squander the opportunity.
Worthy Reads
Classroom Conversation: In The Wall Street Journal, Claremont Consortium professors Jon Shields and Yuval Avnur reflect on the results of their recent study demonstrating anti-Israel biases in academia. “We also looked at the most assigned texts that narrowly focus on the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. We found that the most commonly assigned works were sharply critical of Israel. Those that show sympathy for Zionism are less popular and rarely paired with more critical texts. … More of us should follow the minority of professors who teach the real controversy — not only the dominant texts but also work that is critical of them. Doing so is good for developing citizens and for maintaining the public trust of the university. It’s hard for us to see a path toward restoring public confidence in the university that doesn’t involve curricular reform. If we shut out the views of half or more of the population, we shouldn’t be surprised when the democratic process leads to the diminution of our subsidies and other privileges.” [WSJ]
All Politics is Local: The Atlantic’s David Frum considers the domestic political motivations behind the recent decisions by French, British, Canadian and Australian leaders, whom he describes as “centrist politicians” who “regard themselves as strong friends of Israel,” to recognize Palestinian statehood. “If they’re investing their prestige in a seemingly futile gesture, they must have good reason. They do. All four men lead political coalitions that are fast turning against Israel. Pressure is building on the leaders to vent their supporters’ anger, and embracing the French initiative creates a useful appearance of action. … Now here we are again, after another failed Palestinian terror campaign, and there is only one idea energizing Western foreign ministries: That thing that failed before? Let’s try it one more time. But this time, the hope is not to bring peace to the Middle East. They hope instead to bring peace to their own streets.” [TheAtlantic]
Taiwan Talk: In The Washington Post, Vincent Chen spotlights what he calls the “hypocrisy” of Western recognition of a Palestinian state while denying Taiwan the same recognition. “Many Western democracies lining up to recognize a Palestinian state are in the process of conferring legitimacy on something that, legally speaking, doesn’t yet exist. Meanwhile, an economically crucial and politically functional democratic state that Western leaders have vowed to aid in case of outside aggression — Taiwan — remains unrecognized. This kind of hypocrisy invites trouble. Those trying to will a Palestinian state into being are doing so to constrain Israel’s ability to intervene. And yet no such moves are being contemplated on Taiwan’s behalf vis-à-vis China. By recognizing one entity and not the other, Western leaders are signaling to Beijing that its commitments to Taipei should not be taken too seriously. Tragic miscalculations are likely to follow.” [WashPost]
A Time to Choose: In Sapir, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren reflects on the “chosenness” of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. “Today’s anti-Zionists, much like the Jew-haters of the past, adduce our wholesale demonization as proof of our inherent wickedness. After all, those countless keffiyeh-clad college students chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ can’t be all wrong. In response, Israelis could assert, as our ancestors did, that the world’s hatred of us is a sign of our chosenness — that accusations of genocide, like the earlier ones of deicide, indicate that we remain, even as a secular state still yearning for normalcy, chosen. … Whether on the battlefield or in the Israeli streets where opposing protests sometimes clash, it is a status we must always strive for and a title we must relentlessly earn. Israel, built by the chosen people on the chosen land, must prove it is chosen not by suffering and enduring hate, but by showing strength, seeking justice, and embracing peace. Not only to the world but to ourselves, Israelis must affirm that chosenness is, in fact, our normal.” [Sapir]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump said he would “like to see” Israel grant access to foreign journalists to enter Gaza…
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is holding off on making an endorsement in the New York City mayoral race, saying he “what actions and concrete steps [Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani] takes to address the significant concerns of the 1.3 million Jews in New York City who are justifiably and understandably very afraid given the most recent hate crime statistics that came out”…
A Massachusetts man who pleaded guilty to making threats against area synagogues and Jewish community members, as well as placing dozens of menacing calls to the Israeli Consulate in Boston, was sentenced to 26 months in prison…
Israel’s Foreign Ministry funded a trip to Israel for MAGA-aligned social media influencers in an effort to bolster GOP support amid party divisions over the war in Gaza and the U.S.-Israel relationship…
The New York Times reports on the surge in settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank since the beginning of the year…
Mossad head David Barnea met in Doha yesterday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani for the highest-level talks in weeks aimed at reaching a ceasefire and hostage-release deal…
The Financial Times looks at how Israel has become “increasingly criticised, sanctioned and isolated” over its war against Hamas in Gaza…
Recent Western intelligence reportedly indicates that Beijing may be preparing to assist Iran in rebuilding its ballistic-missile program…
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said Cairo was moving forward with plans, in partnership with Jordan, to train thousands of Palestinian police officers in preparation for administration in a post-war Gaza Strip…
The defense ministers of Turkey and Syria signed an agreement this week for Ankara to send weapons and other military equipment to Syria…
Pic of the Day
Thousands of people attended the second annual Nova Healing Concert last night in Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon Park to remember and commemorate 22 months since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre at the Nova music festival in Re’im.
Birthdays
Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators, John Fetterman (D-PA) and David Harold McCormick (R-PA), celebrate their birthdays this weekend. Fetterman turns 56 today, and McCormick turns 60 on Sunday.
FRIDAY: Philadelphia resident, Irvin Farber… Retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Stephen Breyer turns 87… Investment banker, businessman, Republican politician, economist and historian, Lewis Lehrman turns 87… Former CFO of The Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg turns 78… Founder and chairman of the Executive Committee of Limmud FSU, he has also served as treasurer of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Chesler turns 76… Economist, CPA, investment advisor and founding member of wealth advisor RVW Investing LLC, Selwyn Gerber… Colorado resident, he is an artist and avid mountain biker, William Crary (“Bill”) Weidman… Chairman of Benj. E. Sherman & Sons, he is the chair of Israel Policy Forum, David A. Sherman turns 65… Orthopedic and trauma surgeon in Rome, Dr. Dario Perugia turns 63… Co-founding rabbi of Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs, Ga. (he made aliyah in 2020), Rabbi Mario Karpuj… Emmy Award-winning actress, she played Grace Adler on the 11-season sitcom “Will & Grace,” Debra Messing turns 57… Chief development officer for the Birthright Israel Foundation, Margot (Atlas) Ettlinger… Board chair of Holocaust Museum Houston, Elyse Spector Kalmans turns 56… Co-CEO and chairman of the entertainment production company Propagate, Benjamin Noah Silverman turns 55… Associate justice of the California Supreme Court since 2019, Joshua Paul Groban turns 52… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-VA) for four years ending in 2023, Elaine Goodman Luria turns 50… Real estate and business law attorney in the Baltimore law firm of Rosen Neuberger Lehmann, Meir Neuberger… Senior director at Teva Pharmaceuticals, he was an international model for Armani and appeared in the Israeli versions of “The Amazing Race” and “Dancing with the Stars,” Raz Meirman-Baruch turns 48… National college football reporter for ESPN, Adam Rittenberg turns 44… Former executive director of New York’s Transit Innovation Partnership, now chief of staff at Los Angeles-based Bedrock, Rachel Sterne Haot turns 42… Computer scientist at MIT and podcaster with 867 million YouTube views, Lex Fridman turns 42… Career counselor, Rachel Spekman… Member of the Alaska House of Representatives until 2023, now mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Grier Hayden Hopkins turns 42… VP of global brand and communications at AI-powered data security platform Cyera, Yael Wissner-Levy… Contemporary jazz and classical recorder player, vocalist, composer and educator, Tali Rubinstein turns 41… Co-founder of Irenic Capital Management, Adam Jason Katz… Freelance designer, Talia Siegel… MLB pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in 2015 and 2016, he played for Team Israel in the 2020 Summer Olympics, he is now an associate for a private equity firm, Jon Moscot turns 34… VP of technology policy at Retail Industry Leaders Association, Justin Goldberger… Founder and managing partner at Ezra Venture Group, Ezra Mosseri… Joe Farry… David Summer…
SATURDAY: Solicitor general of New York State, Barbara Dale Underwood turns 81… Member of Congress (R-NJ) from 1991 to 1997, Richard Alan “Dick” Zimmer turns 81… Retired judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, she is currently of counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, Shira Ann Scheindlin turns 79… Sportscaster who is known as the “Voice of the Dallas Cowboys,” Brad Sham turns 76… President and CEO of the Business Roundtable, he was previously the White House chief of staff in the Bush 43 administration, Josh Bolten turns 71… Secretary of the Maryland Department of Aging from 2015 until 2023, Rona E. Kramer turns 71… Gerald Platt… Media consultant, Sol Levine… Former commander of the Israeli Air Force and later CEO of El Al, Eliezer Shkedi turns 68… Senior partner in the Denver office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and an AIPAC board member, Steven C. Demby… Founder of Value Retail Plc and co-owner of the NHL’s New York Islanders, his sister is married to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Scott David Malkin turns 67… Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Associated Press, Martha Mendoza turns 59… Founder of Walk Swiftly Productions, she spent 17 years on-air at ESPN/ABC and CBS covering the Super Bowl, NBA playoffs and MLB playoffs, Bonnie Bernstein turns 55… Johannesburg-born model, actress and singer-songwriter living in NYC, Caron Bernstein turns 55… Senior staff writer for Politico Magazine and editor-at-large of The Agenda, Michael Grunwald… Lieutenant governor of Vermont until this past January, David E. Zuckerman turns 54… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Vladimir Beliak turns 52… Mayor of Ramat Gan, he served as a member of the Knesset and as Israel’s ambassador to the OECD, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, Carmel Shama-HaCohen turns 52… Board member of the Torah School of Greater Washington, Kami Troy… Chairwoman of Profitero and board member of Campbell Soup Company, Sarah Hofstetter… Co-founder and co-CEO of The Creative Counsel, South Africa’s largest advertising agency, Gil Oved turns 50… Political and public relations consultant based in Albuquerque, Jonathan Lipshutz… Emmy Award winner in 2016 and 2018, he is a supervising producer at CBS, Matthew J. Silverstein… Chief political analyst for “The Upshot” at The New York Times, Nathan David “Nate” Cohn turns 37… VP at BlackRock, Julian Olidort… Studio manager at Barre3 Bethesda and founder of Atom, LLC, Anna Dubinsky… Founder and CEO at Project Healthy Minds, Phillip Schermer… Argentine professional tennis player, he has ranked as high as 8th in the world, Diego Schwartzman turns 33… Rachel Berman… Associate in the D.C. office of Eversheds Sutherland, Katherine Dolgenos O’Donnell… Member of AJR, an indie pop multi-instrumentalist trio, together with his two brothers, Jack Metzger turns 28… Managing director and head of the London office of Tier One Rankings, she was the executive assistant to the ambassador at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, Galit Tassi Imbo… Director of public affairs at J Street, Cooper Boyar… Ellen Weissfeld… Marshall Cohen… Dave Jacobsen…
SUNDAY: Leader of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Baruch Dov (Berel) Povarsky turns 94… Former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David B. Cornstein turns 87… Co-founder of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison turns 81… Head of Drexler Ventures and 16-year board member of Apple until 2015, Millard “Mickey” S. Drexler turns 81… Former U.S. senator from Minnesota, his family name was originally Goldman, Norm Coleman turns 76… Partner in Katten Muchin Rosenman, he represented Jonathan Pollard, Eliot Lauer… Audiologist and disability activist in the Boston area, Louise Citron… Senior U.S. District court judge for the southern district of California, Barry Ted Moskowitz turns 75… Retired special education teacher with an interest in Holocaust studies and human rights education, Sharon Taksler… Former chairman, president and CEO of Continental Airlines and then United Airlines, Jeffery Alan “Jeff” Smisek turns 71… Associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey until 2024, Lee A. Solomon turns 71… Founder and managing partner of SBNY, he is a past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo, Jordan Levy… Co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a television and film production firm, Gail Berman turns 69… Communications coordinator at Temple Beth El in Longmeadow, Mass., Deborah Kessner Peskin… Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union and Labor parties, she is a leading Israeli criminal defense attorney, Revital Swid turns 58… Former MLB baseball player, now an insurance advisor in Baltimore, Brian Kowitz turns 56… Arab affairs correspondent on Israel’s i24 News, Zvi Yehezkeli turns 55… Emmy Award-winning documentary film director and producer, Judd Milo Ehrlich turns 54… Special assistant for baseball operations at Major League Baseball, Glen Caplin… Partner in the white collar and securities litigation groups at Proskauer Rose, Hadassa Robyn Waxman… Former Obama White House staffer, now a podcaster and comedian, Jon Lovett turns 43… Chief impact officer at Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, Elyse Cohen… Comedian, writer, producer and actor, Raphael “Raizin” Bob-Waksberg turns 41… Technology reporter at Punchbowl News, Ben Brody… One of the Sprout Brothers from Great Barrington, Mass., Ari Meyerowitz… VP of government affairs at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Aaron Taxy… Project manager of real estate at BDT & MSD Partners, Amanda Horwitz Langer… Israeli marathon and half marathon runner who represented Israel at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Marhu Teferi turns 33… Eli Diamond… Gabriel Berger… John Kohan…