Plus, Vance on blaming Israel for everything
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces his resignation as UK Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, outside No.10 Downing Street on June 22, 2026 in London, England.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview tomorrow’s primaries in New York City and talk to Jewish leaders in D.C. about Janeese Lewis George’s victory in last week’s Democratic primary in the city. We cover the developments in Switzerland where the U.S. and Iran have been negotiating a deal, and report on a new survey of Israeli public opinion about the outcome of the war with Iran. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff, Keir Starmer, Bob Iger and Ruth Porat.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday morning, bowing to pressure from within his Labour Party to step down. Newly elected Labour MP Andy Burnham, until recently the mayor of Greater Manchester, is the front-runner to succeed Starmer as prime minister and become the seventh person to hold the office in a decade.
- Technical teams from the U.S. and Iran are continuing talks in Switzerland this week, after Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner wrapped up “positive and constructive” talks with top Iranian negotiators on Sunday, according to a statement from mediating countries Qatar and Pakistan.
- The statement also said Washington and Tehran had agreed to create a “de-confliction cell” to end military operations in Lebanon, though it named neither Israel nor Hezbollah, who are not parties to the talks and who have continued to trade strikes despite agreeing to a ceasefire last week.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the discussions delivered “major progress,” including waivers for Iran to export oil and the release of “some frozen assets,” which the U.S. has not yet confirmed.
- In Jerusalem, the Jerusalem News Syndicate’s policy summit continues into its second day, after an opening plenary on Sunday that included remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Monday’s program includes Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, Rafael Chairman Yuval Steinitz, Witkoff advisor Aryeh Lightstone and Netanyahu advisor Caroline Glick.
- In Washington, the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center is convening its second annual Attorneys Conference to discuss ways to use the legal system to combat antisemitism and protect religious liberty.
- The five-day Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicks off in the south of France.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
2026 has been the year of the democratic socialist, with numerous far-left, anti-Israel candidates winning mayoralties and congressional primaries in cities up and down the Northeast corridor, from New York to Washington, D.C. — and beyond.
Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who proved that radicalism can win hearts and minds among voters in deep-blue jurisdictions, is now trying to utilize valuable political capital by electing three like-minded congressional candidates in primaries in the Big Apple on Tuesday — backing two challengers running against well-funded incumbents, and a third against a well-established progressive borough president.
The outcomes of these three races will go a long way in determining whether Democratic Party voters still draw any red lines around candidates holding views and values that fall well outside the party mainstream.
Let’s be clear: The main difference between the three candidates backed by most Democratic leaders and Mamdani’s favored challengers is the challengers’ hostility to Israel.
WASHINGTON WATCH
D.C. Jewish leaders taking wait-and-see approach to Lewis George’s expected mayoralty
With Janeese Lewis George’s victory in last week’s Democratic primary, Washington, D.C., is expected to become the third major city in the country, after Seattle and New York, with a democratic socialist serving as mayor. Jewish Washingtonians who were unsettled by Lewis George’s stance on Zionism, as articulated in a Democratic Socialists of America endorsement questionnaire in which she said she would reject the “Zionist lobby,” are grappling with how to approach her tenure as mayor, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Holding hope: Mainstream Jewish organizations tasked with local lobbying and advocacy efforts appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach, but will be monitoring her tenure to make sure she does not assume positions that exclude segments of the city. “We hope to work with her, and we will work with her,” Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told JI on Friday. “But at the same time we’re also going to be watching to make sure that she lives up to her promises to make this an inclusive city, where all feel they can participate equally, and that all people, regardless of their backgrounds, are welcomed — Zionists as well.”
carrot and stick
JD Vance: U.S. ‘willing to fundamentally transform’ relations with Iran if it gives up nukes, ends terror support
Vice President JD Vance, leading the American delegation in diplomatic negotiations this weekend with Iran in Switzerland, told reporters on Sunday that “the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with [Iran]” if the Islamic Republic’s leadership is willing to give up nuclear weapons and end its backing of terrorist proxies, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.
What he said: “If your leadership is willing to give up being a driver of regional instability, if they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions in the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with that country,” Vance said at a news briefing, according to The New York Times. Vance described the approach of the U.S. delegation, which he is leading alongside White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as offering an “outstretched hand” to the people of Iran.
More from Vance: Asked by Christian conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey about an “obsession” some on the political right have with “blaming all of their problems” on Israel, as opposed to an “Israel first” perspective, Vance said, “I see both, and I think both are bad,” JI’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. But he said he’s “particularly sensitive” to what he views as the elevation of Israel’s interests because he’s “been defending the president’s decision to end the Iran [war], and I find often the arguments are, ‘Well, Israel doesn’t think this is good, therefore it’s bad.’ And my reaction is: Israel’s opinions matter, but fundamentally they are separate.”
BLAME GAME
Israelis overwhelmingly believe Iran won the war, survey finds
Israelis overwhelmingly believe Iran won the war against the U.S. and Israel and view its conclusion negatively, a new survey by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found. More than 9 in 10 respondents (92%), surveyed between June 17-20, said Tehran emerged as the victor, according to The Times of Israel, and nearly 70% said President Donald Trump’s management of the war classifies as “failed” or “poor,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Survey says: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fared slightly better, with 56% of respondents saying his handling of the war was either a failure or poor. Nearly all Israelis surveyed (88%) said the country did not achieve its stated goals of ending Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and bringing down the regime. About half (48%) of respondents said Israel should restart major military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon, even at the risk of clashing with Trump, who has pushed for the fighting to end — while only 21% said they were opposed to such action.
Mixed messaging: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) defended the Trump administration’s diplomatic discussions with Iran on Sunday, but predicted that negotiations with the Islamic Republic will likely fail, and threatened that the U.S. will take over the Strait of Hormuz if no agreement is reached. “Let’s try a diplomatic solution. I think it’s going to fail,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” JI’s Marc Rod reports.
COMMON DENOMINATOR
Mamdani’s House candidates attack Israel in closing arguments
The battle for three Democratic congressional primaries in New York City has been defined by a conflict more than 5,000 miles away, with candidates spending the final days before Tuesday’s primary echoing the fiercely anti-Israel rhetoric that helped elevate Mayor Zohran Mamdani to power, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
Israel angle: All three of the mayor’s favored contenders for the House — former City Comptroller Brad Lander, Assemblymember Claire Valdez and doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier — underscored their criticism of Israel and its U.S. supporters as early voting began in the contested districts. Avila Chevalier took time in a televised debate on Tuesday to accuse the country of “apartheid” while seeming to compare the actions of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and the IDF in the Gaza Strip to gentrification in the district where she hopes to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and other majority-minority areas.
TESTING THE WATERS
Van Hollen says he’s considering presidential bid, wants Israel to be 2028 litmus test
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a leading critic of Israel in the Senate, publicly confirmed for the first time this week, after visits to key primary states, that he is considering a 2028 presidential bid — and argued that criticism of Israel should be a key litmus test for the emerging field, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Podcast playback: “I went to New Hampshire because I was invited, but I would say kind of kicking the tires a little bit,” Van Hollen said on the “On NOTUS” podcast this week. Asked whether he thinks any Democratic presidential candidate will be viable without criticizing Israel and supporting conditioning aid to the Jewish state, Van Hollen responded, “I think a Democratic presidential candidate should believe in the United States’ foreign policy based on advancing our values and our interests. And if you want to advance our values, you cannot apply one set of standards just to our adversaries and another to our friends and be taken seriously in the world about it.”
BONDS BROKEN
Auto union votes to divest from Israel at annual convention
Delegates at the United Auto Workers convention in Detroit voted on Thursday to divest from Israel Bonds, citing the war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. One of the largest unions in the country, the UAW previously held an estimated $400,000 to $700,000 in Israel Bonds and securities, according to the Detroit Free Press. It has not been disclosed how much money the divestment will affect or how many members voted to pass the resolution.
On the stage: The annual convention also featured a speech from Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left, UAW-endorsed Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan who told Jewish supporters last month that he “often struggle[s]” to answer whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He said in an interview with CNN in April that he believes the Israeli government is just as evil as Hamas.
Worthy Reads
The Folly of Trying to Bribe Tehran: In The Atlantic, Karim Sadjadpour posits that President Donald Trump is betting that Iran will respond to what he calls “bribery” in the form of critical economic concessions that fail to obtain meaningful concessions from Tehran. “The logic of Trump’s current gamble with Iran resembles his entreaties to the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during Trump’s first term: The president is offering reintegration as a reward for denuclearization. In Singapore, Trump famously tried to entice Kim with visions of turning North Korea’s missile-testing coastlines into prime real estate, marveling at the country’s ‘great beaches’ and envisioning ‘the best hotels in the world.’ But for revolutionary dictatorships such as North Korea and Iran, Western-backed luxury hotels, foreign tourists, and open capital flows aren’t a triumph — they are a Trojan horse that would erode their total information control and ideological legitimacy.” [TheAtlantic]
Sounds Familiar: The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley writes how Vice President JD Vance is echoing the far left in his recent hostile rhetoric against Israel: “Vance has been eager to take credit with [Tucker] Carlson and his acolytes for bringing the war to an end. His thinly veiled threat last week — echoed by Mr. Trump — to cut off military support for Israel after it responded to Hezbollah’s aggression is aimed at soothing the Carlson crowd’s criticism. Americans might observe, however, that the vice president sounded eerily like Mr. Biden in demanding that Israel show restraint in the face of hostility — and not too different from progressives who accuse Israel of war crimes.” [WSJ]
Climate Change: The Financial Times’ Kenza Bryan profiles Kaveh Madani, a Western-educated environmental scientist and former Iranian environmental official now living in exile after being branded a spy by the regime in Tehran. “Once he started his work as deputy of the environment ministry, Madani was quickly caught between a government that wanted to sell the idea of expatriate children of the revolution choosing to return to Iran, and a security establishment deeply suspicious of Iranians tainted with foreign ideas. … During his brief stint in government, Madani was compared by the IRGC to Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who infiltrated elite Syrian political circles in the 1960s.” [FT]
Word on the Street
The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is working with Qatar to release some $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran that would be directed to humanitarian efforts…
An explosion at Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas facility on Sunday night caused a fire that injured at least 54 people, while an additional 18 were missing. The site was damaged in an Iranian missile attack early in the war…
The New York Times spotlights the Bürgenstock Resort in Switzerland that has hosted the latest U.S.-Iran talks, owned by Katara Hospitality, a Qatari state-backed hospitality group that acquired it in 2007…
In Colombia’s presidential election, an initial vote count found that right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, narrowly defeated leftist challenger Iván Cepeda and will succeed President Gustavo Petro, who cut ties with Israel in 2024 over the war in Gaza…
Petro accused Israel of rigging the elections, posting on X that “software was compromised, and others entered data for polling stations and voting centers”…
The Wall Street Journal profiles Dan Moraff, the progressive strategist behind Maine Democrat Graham Platner’s Senate bid, whose rushed vetting process missed key issues about the candidate’s past…
Journalists visited an underground drone factory in a hilltop village in southern Lebanon from which Hezbollah launched unmanned aerial vehicles at Israel, in a tour organized by the Israeli military after it captured the tunnel, dug near the Israeli border and discovered 50 Iranian-made explosive UAVs…
Military technology company Anduril is considering launching operations in Israel, according to Calcalist…
Puck reports on Alphabet President Ruth Porat’s remarks at the Economic Club of New York last week, where she argued that AI will drive trillions of dollars in economic growth and accelerate scientific breakthroughs despite mounting concerns about job losses, energy demand and social disruption…
The Wall Street Journal examines the increase in hangings in Iran over the past three months as the war with the U.S. unfolded — at least 45 people have been executed by the regime this year for political reasons, according to human rights groups and Iranian state media…
A Washington Post investigation reports that outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was under the sway of her longtime guru Chris Butler throughout much of her political career…
The New York Times spotlights the roles that the “Manhattan moms” of NY-12 congressional candidates Micah Lasher, Jack Schlossberg and Alex Bores are playing in their respective sons’ campaigns…
The International Criminal Court set a date next month to vote on the removal of its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who is facing sexual assault allegations from members of his staff…
Meanwhile, the U.K.’s Bar Standards Board suspended Khan, a British lawyer, following his suspension from the ICC earlier this month…
The Financial Times profiles Bob Iger’s second departure from Disney, examining how the architect of its modern empire transformed the company through landmark acquisitions and major investments in streaming, while leaving his successor, Josh D’Amaro, to navigate a rapidly changing media landscape…
Snackmaker Gerald Shreiber, who acquired a series of struggling food companies and turned such products as the SuperPretzel, Dippin’ Dots and ICEEs into household names, died on May 9, at 84…
Yaacov Agam, Israeli kinetic art pioneer whose motion-based sculptures and paintings earned him the Israel Prize and left a mark on public spaces from Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square to the Pompidou Center in Paris, died on Sunday at 98…
Pic of the Day
Chefs Mitchell Davis, Paul Carmichael, Ryan Bartlow and Naama Shefi, founder of the Great Nosh picnic, at the annual picnic on Sunday on Governors Island in New York City.
Birthdays
Retired MLB second baseman, he played for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics and managed the team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Ian Kinsler turns 44…
A leading securities, corporate and M&A attorney, he is a founding partner of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Martin Lipton turns 95… D.C.-based senior representative of Israel Aerospace Industries from 1969 to 2017, Marvin Klemow turns 89… Jerusalem-born 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, she is the director of a research center at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Ada Yonath turns 87… U.K. judge who chaired high-profile hearings on ethics in the media, currently serving as the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Brian Henry Leveson turns 77… Winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics, he is a professor at Brown University, J. Michael Kosterlitz turns 83… Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court until 2014, she was previously the Israeli state prosecutor for eight years, Edna Arbel turns 82… U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) turns 77… Member of the California state Assembly until 2022, now a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Richard Hershel Bloom turns 73… Partner at Shibolet & Co., one of Israel’s largest corporate law firms, Yoram Raved turns 70… AIPAC director for Greater Washington, Deborah Adler… Chair of the kindergarten and pre-K division of Bowman Ashe/Doolin K-8 Academy in Miami, Fla., Cynthia Rosenbluth Huss… Past president of the UJA-Federation of New York, Alisa Robbins Doctoroff… U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) turns 66… Former member of the Knesset for the Hatnuah and Zionist Union parties, Robert Tiviaev turns 65… Creator of the Android operating system, which he sold to Google, Andy Rubin turns 64… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, now serving as deputy prime minister and minister of justice, Yariv Gideon Levin turns 57… SVP at Red Banyan PR, Kelcey Kintner… Writer, director and film producer, he is a two-time Israeli Academy Award winner and the founder of Hey Jude Productions, Dani Menkin turns 56… Program director at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Rafi Rone… Senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz and author of a biography of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer turns 53… Israeli jazz vocalist and composer, Julia Feldman turns 47… COO of TR Capital Management, Ahron Rosenthal… Russian-Israeli Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Russia’s largest social network VK.com and the Selectel data network center, Lev Binzumovich Leviev turns 42… Baltimore-based endodontist, Jeffrey H. Gardyn, DDS… Israeli Muay Thai kick boxing champion, Ilya Grad turns 39… Israeli-born basketball player with 10 NBA seasons, Omri Casspi turns 38… Former outfielder for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier round, now a real estate investor based in Nashville, Tenn., Rhett Wiseman turns 32…
Plus, CNN terms 'Palestinian-Israeli towns'
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
CIA Director John Ratcliffe arrives to the U.S. Capitol for a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense closed hearing titled "A Review of the President's FY2026 Budget Request for the Intelligence Community," on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Iran’s second ballistic missile strike on Beersheba in as many days, and cover CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s suggestion that Iran is like a football team nearing the 1-yard line in its quest for a nuclear weapon. We report on a Democratic primary between a DSA candidate and a more moderate challenger in South Brooklyn, and talk to Rep. Randy Fine, the newest Jewish member of Congress. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Max Miller, Josh Kesselman and Edan Alexander.
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: Persian Jews in the U.S. watch Israeli strikes on Iran and dare to hope; How a Mediterranean vacation destination for Israelis turned into a displaced persons hub; and Leonard Lauder, who supercharged his family’s cosmetics firm and became an arts patron, dies at 92. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump is convening the National Security Council at 11 a.m. as senior U.S. officials mull American involvement in what has been to date a conflict between Israel and Iran.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting for nuclear talks today in Geneva with his counterparts from France, Germany and the U.K. The European delegation is also set to meet with the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Anna Borshchevskaya, Michael Knights, Farzin Nadimi and Assaf Orion are headlining a virtual event this afternoon focused on the Israel-Iran war.
- The Jewish Democratic Council of America is hosting a briefing on the Israel-Iran war with Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Adam Smith (D-WA) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
- Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter is appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S melissa weiss
On Thursday, NBC News reported a claim from Iran’s Ministry of Health that “over 2,500 injured people were treated in public and university hospitals, with 1,600 discharged and about 500 still hospitalized.” Earlier this week, CBS News reported 224 Iranians were dead from Israeli airstrikes, also attributed to Iran’s Ministry of Health.
There is no free press in Iran, and journalists have been arrested and imprisoned simply for practicing journalism in the Islamic Republic. There is no real way to verify the Iranian Health Ministry’s numbers, and so many journalists report them, unscrupulously.
In a fast-paced, constantly evolving news environment, accuracy is paramount. The ability to try to authenticate a statistic by attributing it to an official government source, while knowing that the source is unreliable, can serve as the basis for an inaccurate narrative with wide-ranging effects.
An ABC News report from earlier this week on violence near humanitarian aid distribution sites in Gaza leads with the headline “More than 30 killed at controversial foundation’s aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials,” giving an air of legitimacy to the claim — even though a reader would have to move down to the story before learning that those health officials came from the “Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.” And nowhere in the story does ABC News note that the Gaza Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The inclination to publish talking points and statistics from terror groups and regimes incentivizes a playbook for malign actors — from Iran to the Houthis to Hamas — to provide misleading casualty figures for the media to carry that lack the intricacies and nuances necessary in such reporting.
ISRAEL-IRAN WAR, DAY 8
Iran strikes Beersheba again as Trump defers strike decision for up to two weeks
An Iranian missile struck Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, for the second consecutive day on Friday, hours after President Donald Trump said he would decide in the next two weeks whether to join Israel in striking the Islamic Republic, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. The IDF unsuccessfully attempted to intercept the surface-to-surface missile from Iran, which injured seven and left a crater at the blast site and damage to buildings in the area of Beersheba’s HiTech Park. One of the sites reportedly damaged is Microsoft’s office in Beersheba, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed worked in “close collaboration with the Israeli military” and was “part of the system supporting aggression, not merely a civilian entity.”
Trump’s timeline: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump would take up to two weeks to decide if the U.S. will join Israel’s operation against Iran. Key components of Iran’s nuclear program are in a facility in Fordow built under a mountain, and experts said Israel does not have the capability to destroy it from the air, while the U.S. has Massive Ordinance Penetrators and B-2 heavy stealth bombers, which are thought to be have the capacity to destroy it. “I have a message directly from the president, and I quote, ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,'” the press secretary said at a White House briefing.
THE RED ZONE
Ratcliffe: Iran’s at the nuclear goal line — and wants to score
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has told colleagues behind closed doors he believes Iran is actively working toward building a nuclear weapon, comparing the claim that Tehran isn’t working on building a nuclear weapon to the idea that football players at the 1-yard line would not attempt to score a touchdown, per CBS News, citing an unnamed U.S. official, Jewish Insider’s Jake Schlanger reports.
Background: Ratcliffe’s reported comments function as a rebuke of other U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran is not actively developing a nuclear weapon, in spite of its accelerating efforts to amass stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in violation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and construction of ballistic missiles with which a nuclear weapon could be launched.
language choices
In apparent shift, CNN describes Arab-Israeli towns as Palestinian
After an Iranian ballistic missile struck a home in the northern Israeli city of Tamra, killing a woman, her two daughters and her sister-in-law, news outlets faced an additional challenge beyond the sober responsibility of covering a tragic loss: choosing what language to use to describe these women and their ethnic identity, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Media matters: Tamra is an Arab town, with a history dating back hundreds of years. When Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited on Wednesday, he talked about the “shared society of Jews and Arabs” in Israel that “believe in our common life together,” and described the victims as “Muslim women.” Most news reports — in major international outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — referred to Tamra as either an “Arab-Israeli city” or an “Arab town in Israel.” CNN, however, chose a different word for Tamra, a city that is firmly inside Israel’s original 1948 borders: Palestinian. “Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel,” read one headline from this week. The accompanying article described Tamra’s residents as “Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Another story called Tamra a “Palestinian-Israeli town.”
Label politics: “There’s a growing trend going on in the past, I want to say 10, maybe 20, years, of people who are saying, ‘We are going to reclaim our identity as Palestinians, and we’re not going to be ashamed to call ourselves Palestinians,’” said Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who is completing a fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She counts herself among that trend: She didn’t use the term “Palestinian citizen of Israel” to describe herself until her late 20s, after she studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
More from CNN: In a segment about Tucker Carlson published yesterday, one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan described Carlson as “a frequent supporter of Israel,” and stated that “U.S. intelligence suggests that Iran is years away from a nuclear bomb.”
ROAD RAGE
Rep. Max Miller says he was run off the road, threatened by pro-Palestinian activist
Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), one of four Jewish Republicans in the House, said on Thursday that his car was run off the road by a pro-Palestinian activist who threatened his and his family’s lives, earlier in the day, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: Miller said in the video that on his way to work in his district on Thursday morning, an “unhinged, deranged man” leaned on his car horn and ran Miller off the road “when he couldn’t get my attention, to show me a Palestinian flag, not to mention ‘death to Israel, death to me’ — that he wanted to kill me — and my family.” He explained in the X post that the man threw a Palestinian flag out of his car before driving off and threatened his life and his family’s lives. Miller did not specify what the individual said. Miller said that he had reported the incident to local and U.S. Capitol Police, and that the individual had been identified and would face consequences.
COUNCIL CLASH
With Ling Ye, pro-Israel activists see opportunity to unseat DSA-backed Alexa Avilés in City Council primary in South Brooklyn
In recent years, Jewish and pro-Israel activists in New York City have been successful in defending favored incumbents while boosting candidates in open-seat local races. But they have struggled to go on the offensive against far-left Israel critics on the City Council aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, which has gained prominence in some districts. Now, however, some Jewish community activists and pro-Israel strategists are expressing optimism that a competitive City Council election in southern Brooklyn could be their best pick-up opportunity in next week’s citywide primaries, delivering a possible upset that has so far proved elusive at the local level, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
The players: In one of the city’s most hotly contested local races, Alexa Avilés, a two-term councilmember backed by the DSA, is facing a formidable challenge from Ling Ye, a moderate former congressional staffer making her first bid for elective office with a focus largely on public safety. The race is playing out in a redrawn district that now includes more moderate constituents in Dyker Heights who are likely less receptive to reelecting a socialist, strategists say, fueling hopes among allies of Ye eager to pick off an incumbent whose hostility to Israel while in office has rankled Jewish leaders.
A FINE MISSION
Rep. Randy Fine says he’s on Capitol Hill to be a leader against antisemitism
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) believes that he was sent to Congress, at least in part, to take a leading role in fighting for the Jewish community against antisemitism. Fine, during a lengthy interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod in his congressional office earlier this month, said he sees himself as having a mostly unique ability among House members to help tackle the rise of antisemitism nationwide, as one of only four Jewish Republicans in the lower chamber.
It’s personal: “I think I can play that role. I’m willing to do it. Certainly happy to share the spotlight with the other three [Jewish Republicans] if they wish to do it, but, but this is deeply personal to me,” Fine said. “This affects my children and so I understand it better than others.” Fine added, “This must be why [I’m in Congress]. This is what He wants me to do. … I think this is one of the reasons that I am here, to solve this problem, much like we did in Florida.”
Worthy Reads
Battle of Wills: The Atlantic’s Eliot Cohen considers the implications of Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program. “Israel’s current campaign is built around two realities often missed by so-called realists: first, that the Iranian government is determined to acquire nuclear weapons and cannot be deterred, bought off, or persuaded to do otherwise, and second, that Israel reasonably believes itself to be facing an existential threat. … It takes a particular kind of idiocy or bad faith to disregard the speeches, propaganda, and shouts of ‘death to Israel.’ The Israeli lesson learned from the previous century — and, indeed, the Jewish one learned over a much longer span of time — is that if someone says they want to exterminate you, they mean it.” [TheAtlantic]
The Case for a U.S. Attack: In The Free Press, Niall Ferguson and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posit that the U.S. should help Israel destroy the Fordow nuclear facility in order to “shorten the war, prevent wider escalation, and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability” posed by Iran. “A nuclear-armed Iran would pose more than a threat to the Israeli people and their state. Its missiles could reach Gulf capitals and Europe. Those missiles could allow Iran to sponsor terror and wage conventional war with impunity. The result would be a nuclear arms race in the Gulf. By destroying Fordow, President Trump would create a new equilibrium in the Middle East and reestablish American leadership. The strike would focus solely on eliminating Iran’s nuclear arms program, but it should be accompanied by a clear message: If Iran attempts to target the United States or its Gulf allies, it will risk the elimination of its regime.” [FreePress]
Back to Begin: In The Wall Street Journal, Amit Segal considers how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has employed the “Begin Doctrine” established four decades ago that seeks to keep bad actors from acquiring nuclear weapons. “Persuading the Trump administration to support the attack was a historic diplomatic success. The ayatollahs spread their tentacles throughout the Middle East, but now Iran stands completely vulnerable. If only the free world had adopted its own Begin doctrine against countries like North Korea and Pakistan, so that a dictator’s temper tantrum couldn’t lead to nuclear winter. At least Israel has become the world’s bomb squad, a stroke of good fortune for which we can thank Menachem Begin.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
The FBI is increasing its surveillance of Iran-backed operatives and suspected sleeper cells in the U.S….
U.S. carriers including United and American Airlines are suspending service to parts of the Middle East, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, amid heightened tensions in the region around the Israel-Iran war…
Bloomberg reports on the surprise of Arab states by the timing and speed of Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last week; one Gulf official told the publication that it was “beneficial for his own country and the wider region to see Iran’s nuclear program set back or destroyed.” Satellite imagery indicates that Iran has made a concerted push to export oil since the eruption last week or war with Israel…
The Wall Street Journal looks at the rising financial cost of the Israel-Iran war, finding that the costs of interceptors alone can cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars a day…
Iran is reportedly using Israeli home-camera systems to spy inside Israel and obtain better information about its missile targets…
The Washington Post spotlights Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) as the trio seek to lead the Democratic Party into the next generation; the Post describes the three as “centrist women with national security backgrounds who helped retake the House in 2018 and this year hope to steer their beleaguered party back toward winning”…
Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American citizen who was held hostage in Gaza for more than 580 days, returned on Thursday to his family’s home in Tenafly, N.J….
Josh Kesselman, the founder of the Raw rolling paper company, purchased the cannabis magazine High Times this week for $3.5 million…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the behind-the-scenes efforts that go into planning luxury weddings, ahead of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s upcoming nuptials; luxury event planner Ruth Minkowitz, whose Elite Kosher Events company works with clients in Italy, told the WSJ, “Food, plates, material, everything, it all goes by boat … You need a lot more personnel, just to schlep.”
Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were killed in a terror attack in the West Bank in 2023, announced his engagement to Aliza Teplitsky…
Pic of the Day
A view of the Khatib family home yesterday in the northern Israeli village of Tamra that was destroyed in an Iranian missile strike, killing four women inside. During a solidarity visit to the family, Jewish Agency Chair Doron Almog said he hoped to connect the Arab town to a Jewish community in the United States, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross from Tamra. “We have come here to be in pain together with the Khatib family. We are in pain with you,” Almog said, speaking at a mourning gathering with the family. “There is great pain and loss here. And from that pain, I want us to cultivate partnership, to cultivate love, to cultivate hope.”
Birthdays
Writer, director and film producer, he is a two-time Israeli Academy Award winner and the founder of Hey Jude Productions, Dani Menkin turns 55 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Weston, Fla., resident, Harold Kurte turns 96… Former member of Knesset for the Ratz party, Ran Cohen turns 88… Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman… Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie “Les” Gold turns 75… Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 71… Host of “Bully Pulpit from Booksmart Studios,” Bob Garfield turns 70… Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum… Federation leader, co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty) and of Riverstone Communities (it owns and operates over 80 manufactured housing communities in 12 states), James Bellinson… EVP of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Moshe Hauer turns 60… Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 60… Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 59… Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein… Governor of Pennsylvania, Joshua David Shapiro turns 52… U.S. senator (R-MI), Eric Stephen Schmitt turns 50… Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 48… Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D…. Israeli author of crime and thriller books, Mike Omer turns 46… Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, Maggie Shnayerson turns 44… EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel… French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 41… Deputy communications director in the Trump 45 White House, now head of external affairs at Standard Industries, Josh Raffel… Jennifer Bernstein… Photographer, producer and digital strategist, she is a supervising producer at HardPin, Sara Pearl Kenigsberg… Writer, director, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster and mental health advocate, Allison Beth Raskin turns 36… Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 34… Chief campus officer at Hillel Ontario, Beverley Shimansky… Director of advocacy initiatives at The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Jaime Reich…
SATURDAY: Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Marjorie Margolies turns 83… Investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the Bush 43 administration, Charles L. Glazer turns 82… Philanthropist, she is vice-chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Ingeborg Hanna Rennert… British businessman, co-founder with his brother Charles of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, Baron Maurice Saatchi turns 79… U.K. cabinet minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind turns 79… Retired creditors rights attorney in the Chicago area, David Stephen Miller… Retired managing editor and writer at The Washington Post for 33 years, now chief editor at The Reis Group, Peter Perl… Member of the Knesset since 2013 for the Yesh Atid party, Mickey Levy turns 74… Susan Gutman… CEO of Amir Development Company in Beverly Hills, Keenan L. Wolens… Punk rock singer and songwriter, known as the Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman turns 67… Washington Institute distinguished fellow and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, David Makovsky turns 65… Chief communications officer at Minerva University until last month, he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, David L. Marcus… Co-founder and executive editor of Axios, Mike Allen turns 61… National education policy reporter for The Washington Post, Laura Meckler… Founder and leader of Beautifully Jewish, Tanya Rebecca Singer… Actor, singer and entrepreneur known for his work on Broadway, television, film and concerts, Aaron Scott Lazar turns 49… Journalist and author, Abigail Krauser Shrier turns 47… Public affairs consultant based in Manhattan, Sam Nunberg turns 44… Co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science platform acquired by Google in 2017, Anthony Goldbloom turns 42… Former member of the Knesset where she was the first-ever Druze woman, she then became a Jewish Agency shlicha to Washington, Gadeer Kamal Mreeh turns 41… Communications executive at Netflix, she was previously a communications officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jacqueline (Jackie) Berkowitz… Chief of staff to the chairman and CEO at Saban Capital Group, Amitai Raziel… Award-winning Israeli classical pianist, Boris Giltburg turns 41… Executive director at Hunter Hillel, Merav Fine Braun… Editor for the global programming team at CNN, Madeleine Morgenstern… Singer-songwriter known as Jeryko, Yaniv Hoffman turns 34… Singer-songwriter and actor, known by his mononym Max, Maxwell George Schneider turns 33…
SUNDAY: A leading securities, corporate and M&A attorney, he is a founding partner of the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Martin Lipton turns 94… D.C.-based VP of Israel Aerospace Industries from 1969 until 2017, Marvin Klemow turns 88… Jerusalem-born 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, she is the director of a research center at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Ada Yonath turns 86… Retired U.K. judge, who chaired high-profile hearings on ethics in the media, prompted by the 2011 News of the World phone hacking affair, Sir Brian Henry Leveson turns 82… Winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics, he is a professor at Brown University, J. Michael Kosterlitz turns 82… Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court until 2014, she was previously the Israeli State Prosecutor for eight years, Edna Arbel turns 81… U.S. senator (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren turns 76… Member of the California State Assembly until 2022, now a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Richard Hershel Bloom turns 72… Partner at Shibolet & Co., one of Israel’s largest corporate law firms, Yoram Raved turns 69… AIPAC director for Greater Washington, Deborah Adler… Chair of the kindergarten and pre-K division of Bowman Ashe Elementary in Miami, Fla., Cynthia Rosenbluth Huss… Past president of the UJA-Federation of New York, Alisa Robbins Doctoroff… U.S. senator (D-CA), Adam Schiff turns 65… Former member of the Knesset for the Hatnuah and Zionist Union parties, Robert Tiviaev turns 64… Creator of the Android operating system which he sold to Google, Andy Rubin turns 63… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, now serving as deputy prime minister and minister of justice, Yariv Gideon Levin turns 56… SVP at Red Banyan PR, Kelcey Kintner… Program director at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Rafi Rone… The Economist‘s Israel correspondent and author of a biography of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer turns 52… Israeli jazz vocalist and composer, Julia Feldman turns 46… COO of TR Capital Management, Ahron Rosenthal… Retired MLB second baseman, he played for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics and managed the team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Ian Kinsler turns 43… Russian-Israeli Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Russia’s largest social network VK[dot]com and Selectel network centers, Lev Binzumovich Leviev turns 41… Baltimore-based endodontist, Jeffrey H. Gardyn, DDS… Israeli Muay Thai kick boxing champion, Ilya Grad turns 38… Israeli-born basketball player with 11 NBA seasons, Omri Casspi turns 37… Former outfielder for Team Israel in the 2016 World Baseball Classic qualifier round, now a real estate investor based in Nashville, Rhett Wiseman turns 31…
Update: Scroll down for video of President Obama chatting with Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi
Father daughter dinner @whitehouse with Larry David pic.twitter.com/3JfgmDDxkP
— Jerry Silverman (@JerrySJFNA) December 6, 2013
Great to meet you Where’s @jpodhoretz? “@Daroff: Excited to be with @IDFfan and JoshMalina #AtTheWH #Hanukkah party! pic.twitter.com/O0ezwHUCZz”
— Joshua Malina (@JoshMalina) December 6, 2013
Berachos 58a – Strive to see kings of this world, so you may merit to differentiate between them and the true king. pic.twitter.com/EJMjeZiXe0
Enjoying the Chanukah party @WhiteHouse with @RepTedDeutch and co. pic.twitter.com/3twxQzDDH0
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) December 6, 2013
Enjoying the Chanukah party @WhiteHouse with @RepTedDeutch and co. pic.twitter.com/3twxQzDDH0
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) December 6, 2013
— Nick Muzin (@nickmuzin) December 5, 2013
The White House Red Room was converted for a temporary hasidic shtibel with 3 minyunim mincha mariv #OnlyInAmerica pic.twitter.com/DlqOhArGBj
— Yoel Lefkowitz (@YLefkowitz) December 6, 2013
An honor to speak to @barackobama @whitehouse #chanukah party; #Jews are blessed to live in USA pic.twitter.com/L6Xjzk1PGZ
— Nathan Diament (@NDiament) December 6, 2013
Rachel 2 Michelle “As a Mother I am so grateful that u prioritize our children’s health because they are our future” pic.twitter.com/FAKzFVZDmn
— Rabbi Steven Burg (@stevenburg) December 6, 2013
.@Daroff @JeffreyGoldberg talking shop outside the White House http://t.co/MJIdfOjm94
— Heidi Krizer Daroff (@IDFfan) December 6, 2013
A couple of Rabbis and #Marines celebrating #Chanuka together at the @WhiteHouse! @RabbiGoldberg @jarrodbernstein pic.twitter.com/brBNd1868C
— Rabbi Steven Burg (@stevenburg) December 5, 2013
Special thanks to Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who makes it happen at the @whitehouse Chanukah party. @Lubavitch @Chabad pic.twitter.com/7DeeY2X5hi
— Chaskel Bennett (@ChaskelBennett) December 6, 2013
Rare sighting of Larry David next to George W. Bush. pic.twitter.com/8DoT5BN1ld
— Teddy Goff (@teddygoff) December 6, 2013
With #AIA Leadership at the @whitehouse Chanukah pic.twitter.com/QrzyfJkf2v
— Chaskel Bennett (@ChaskelBennett) December 5, 2013
Giving some basketball tips to @Casspi18 @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/xN0Kin5L5Q
— Jerry Silverman (@JerrySJFNA) December 6, 2013
The @WhiteHouse organizes a panel for Chanukah. 6 Men, 0 Women #WHITEHOUSEFAIL pic.twitter.com/xmrdFK5zeo
— AWP (@AWPHeadsUP) December 5, 2013
At White House with Hillary. pic.twitter.com/zGK1fqCFGL
— Jerry Goldfeder (@JerryGoldfeder) December 6, 2013
Just spotted Justice Elena Kagan at the White House for Hanukkah reception.
Enjoying the Chanukah party @WhiteHouse with @RepTedDeutch and co. pic.twitter.com/3twxQzDDH0
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) December 6, 2013
Attended Hanukkah reception at White House last night. Huge thrill to be singing Maoz Tzur in the presence of the President and First Lady.
— Joshua Malina (@JoshMalina) December 6, 2013
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) December 6, 2013
Though Hanukkah ended at sunset, Pres Obama hosting a second Hanukkah reception and Menorah lighting.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 6, 2013
At WH Hanukkah party, Obama praises Mandela for his pursuit of justice. Ruth Bader Ginsburg yells out “Yes!” #Boss #NotoriousRBG
— Alana Newhouse (@alananewhouse) December 6, 2013
First Look – Ron Dermer profile in Politico Magazine by Ron Kampeas — ‘Bibi’s Brain’ Comes to Washington: Can Dermer, dubbed “Bibi’s Brain” by an American Jewish publication and “Bibi’s Mirror” by an Israeli newspaper, reset the fraught relationship between Obama and Netanyahu? The “yes, he can” argument goes something like this: No one knows Netanyahu better than Dermer, who is also one of the few Israelis to really understand the American political landscape. “Ron Dermer’s significance now cannot be overrated,” says Ari Shavit, a writer for the liberal Haaretz newspaper. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is probably the loneliest head of state one can imagine,” Shavit told me. “There are very few people he truly trusts and appreciates, and Ron Dermer is one of them. If Washington plays it right and Dermer plays it right and they enable America and Israel to start a new page—a new dialogue in which leading American players will find a way to his heart and mind while he finds a way to their hearts and minds—it might be good news.”
–The other view is that Dermer will entrench in Washington a bunker mentality that has isolated Netanyahu and helped perpetuate the breakdown in relations with Israel’s closest and most important ally. “Among the White House’s inner circle—Denis McDonough, Ben Rhodes—Dermer is a red flag,” says Barak Ravid, Haaretz’s political correspondent, referring respectively to the White House chief of staff and deputy national security adviser. “They see him as the guy who incited Congress and Jewish organizations against Obama.” It’s a reputation that Dermer’s defenders say is unfair—it does not take into account missteps by Obama and his team, and understates Netanyahu’s determinative role in shaping relations with Washington. But it is a reputation that continues to dog Dermer nonetheless. When I asked about him, a Democratic source on the Hill who is close to Jewish groups blamed Dermer for distributing talking points on Iran, critical of the White House, to Republican members of Congress. Asked for evidence, the source said, “Who else?”
–Nicolas Muzin, the director of coalitions for the House Republican Conference, says Dermer was respectful and never partisan in his pitch—but emphatic. “He’s been trying to make the case that the sanctions relief is more than dollar value because it’s the change in momentum [that really matters],” Muzin says, underscoring an Israeli claim that the $7 billion the Obama administration says Iran could earn from eased sanctions may be a low-ball figure.
His predecessor Michael Oren says he believes that Dermer can and will overcome the suspicion that he was an architect of the Netanyahu-Obama tensions. “I understand that was the perception of him, but the reality is going to be different, because it has to be,” Oren told me. “He’s going to understand that to be an effective ambassador, he has to be scrupulously bipartisan.” Differences over Iran will be a test. “Clearly the prime minister is not impressed with this arrangement,” Oren adds. “Does that mean you actively campaign against it, lobby against it, or are you briefing people on the Hill? I have a feeling it will be the latter. Over the next six months, Israel will try to have a close conversation with the administration over what we consider a safe deal.” Can Dermer straddle the line between presenting Israel’s case and pressuring the United States to embrace it? “Lobbying has a negative connotation. Lobbying is putting pressure on someone,” Oren notes. “What an ambassador does is explain. That doesn’t involve attacking the president’s position but explaining ours.” [PoliticoMag]
Scene Last Night – JINSA (The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) awarded the 2013 Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award to Senator Mark Kirk in DC; Michael Bloomberg threw his final Hanukkah bash as NYC Mayor [Video] & announced he plans to use the $1M from the Geneses Prize “to promote commerce between the people in Palestine and the people in Israel”; Florida Gov. Rick Scott hosted a Hanukkah party in the Governors mansion; Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick lit the menorah at the Mass. State House: (more…)
Please log in if you already have a subscription, or subscribe to access the latest updates.
Continue with Google
Continue with Apple