Plus, Dermer departs
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Council Member Alexa Aviles speaks during a press conference outside of City Hall on April 10, 2025 in New York City.
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the far-left challengers gearing up to compete against Democratic incumbents in New York City and cover Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s evasive answer to whether he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. We report on the reaction of Jewish groups to former state Assemblyman Michael Blake, who is running in the Democratic primary against Rep. Ritchie Torres, for featuring a clip of an antisemitic influencer in his campaign launch video. We also cover the announcement by former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) that she will run to reclaim the congressional seat she lost in 2022, and report on Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer’s resignation. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Shulem Lemmer, Gal Gadot, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider 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
- The International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries begins today in New York City, bringing together 6,200 rabbis from 111 countries.
- Former First Lady Michelle Obama will appear at Washington’s Sixth & I Synagogue this evening to discuss her forthcoming book, The Look.
- Finance industry executives — including Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan and Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman — were invited to dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump this evening.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar
Beware the law of unintended consequences: President Donald Trump’s zeal to aggressively redraw maps in GOP-friendly states is looking like it will bring less of a political advantage to Republicans than originally expected.
Indeed, if the overall political environment remains in the Democrats’ favor — which would be consistent with the historical precedent of the opposition party gaining seats in the first midterm election of a new president — the House is likely to flip back to the Democrats’ control in 2027.
Here’s the lowdown: California’s referendum on redistricting, which passed overwhelmingly on Election Day, will allow Democrats to gain as many as five seats with a new, more-partisan map — with three Republican-held seats (of GOP Reps. Doug LaMalfa, Kevin Kiley and Ken Calvert) all but guaranteed to flip.
That should offset the expected GOP gains in Texas, which started the whole redistricting gamesmanship off with a partisan redraw that guarantees Republicans to pick up at least three Democratic-held seats, with the hope that Republicans can win two additional seats that became more favorable to them.
But there’s a catch with the Texas map. Two of the redrawn districts — the seats of Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar — are in predominantly Hispanic areas along the U.S.-Mexico border that swung dramatically to Trump in 2024, but had a long tradition of voting Democratic before then. If Democrats rebound with Hispanic voters — as happened in New Jersey and Virginia on Election Day — and the national environment remains rough for Republicans, it’s not hard to see the two Democratic incumbents hanging on.
Adding another wrinkle to the GOP’s redistricting plans: A Utah judge rejected the preferred map drawn by Republican state lawmakers, and selected a new map that would guarantee a Democratic district in Salt Lake City. That would automatically flip one seat to the Democrats, given that the state’s current delegation is made up of four Republicans, all in solidly Republican districts.
NEXT STEPS
After Mamdani win, socialists look to challenge Democratic incumbents in NYC
The organized left scored a major victory last week when Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, elevating to executive office a politician who became one of the nation’s most prominent democratic socialists during the campaign. Now, as the movement seeks to ride momentum from Mamdani’s win and grow its influence at the federal level, some emerging challengers are setting their sights on a handful of pro-Israel New York Democrats in the House — posing what is likely to be the first key test of its political credibility in the upcoming midterm elections, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Challenges ahead: While next year’s primaries are still more than six months away, some early signs indicate that the far left is already facing obstacles in its efforts to target established incumbents like Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres, raising questions about its organizational discipline and messaging ability, not to mention alignment with Mamdani — who is now walking a delicate path in seeking buy-in from state leadership to deliver on his ambitious affordability agenda. Jake Dilemani, a Democratic consultant in New York, said “there is and should be euphoria among the left” after Mamdani’s victory, “but that does not necessarily translate into toppling relatively popular incumbents. One swallow does not make a summer,” he told JI on Tuesday.
EVASIVE MANEUVER
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sidesteps question on Israel’s right to exist
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sidestepped a question about Israel’s right to exist during an interview with the anti-Israel media outlet Zeteo last week. Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan asked El-Sayed how he would respond if and when he faces questions on the campaign trail about whether he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said — and what he didn’t: El-Sayed initially responded by calling the question hypocritical and again dodged when pressed. He said that most U.S. presidents have expressed support for a two-state solution, and “Israel exists. Palestine doesn’t. And so I always wonder why nobody asks me why Palestine doesn’t have a right to exist.” El-Sayed accused the U.S. of supporting “the very people in Israel who want to foreclose on the possibility of Palestine existing. And so to me, frankly, it is about our principles and how we apply them evenly. If you believe in a two-state solution, then what are you doing to make it possible?” he continued.
EXCLUSIVE
Jewish groups blast Torres challenger for featuring antisemitic activist in campaign launch
Major New York Jewish groups criticized former Assemblyman Michael Blake, who is running in the Democratic primary against Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), for featuring a clip of an influencer who supported the shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in his campaign launch video, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Pushback: “Hurling a bus load of antisemitic tropes and platforming bigots who cheer antisemitic violence in a launch video is not the pro-humanity flex one thinks it is,” the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York said in a statement. The Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey said that “we can all agree that Michael Blake’s platforming of anti-Zionist influencer Guy Christensen should be roundly condemned.”
comeback campaign
Pro-Israel Democrat Elaine Luria announces bid to reclaim House seat
Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), who was an outspoken voice in support of Israel and against antisemitism during her time in the House, announced a bid on Wednesday to reclaim the congressional seat she lost in 2022, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Looking back: Luria, who is Jewish, was a leading moderate voice in the House in support of Israel and against antisemitism, at times criticizing members of her own party and breaking with the Biden administration on its Israel policy. She was one of the few House Democrats who consistently opposed efforts by the Biden administration to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and Luria organized and led a group of pro-Israel House Democrats to speak on the House floor in 2021 in support of Israel and its military operations, responding to a competing effort by far-left Democrats in opposition. She also repeatedly called out antisemitism from Democratic colleagues.
STEPPING DOWN
Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s right-hand man, resigns from Israeli government
Israel’s influential minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, resigned from his post on Tuesday, three years after assuming the role, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve reports. “This government will be defined both by the attack on October 7th and by the prosecution of the two-year, seven-front, war that followed,” Dermer, widely regarded as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest advisor, wrote in his resignation letter.
Staying around: Dermer has led Israel’s ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations since February. He is expected to stay on as Netanyahu’s envoy to continue handling the future of the Gaza portfolio, political sources recently told JI. U.S.-born and a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, Dermer has long played a central role in managing Israel’s relationship with the U.S. “What the future holds for me, I do not know. But I do know this: No matter what I do, I will continue to do my part to help secure the future of the Jewish people,” Dermer said.
history lessons
Clintons tie Trump’s Gaza peace plan to Oslo Accords in Rabin memorial discussion
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza could be a “new moment of hope and possibility.” But it will only be successful if there is “a level of organization” applied to the implementation, a lesson that can be drawn from the Oslo process, she said, during a panel hosted by Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What she said: “One thing that can be learned from the Oslo process and applied to the situation now with the peace plan is that there was a process,” Clinton said. The event commemorated the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist, soon after signing the Oslo II Accords peace agreements with then-Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in 1995 — two years after the signing of the Oslo I Accords. “You have to have a level of organization, it can’t just have few people at the top — whether it be a president or special envoy, as necessary as they are, you have to have teams of people who can be working with their counterparts,” continued Clinton, who is a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia.
What he said: In 40-minute remarks, former President Bill Clinton, who mediated the Oslo Accords signing — which he hosted at the White House — spoke about his close personal and professional relationship with Rabin, calling the assassination one of the worst days of his life. “We have to begin again, where the trust level is low,” Clinton said of achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace. “People in power might not be in favor of giving up on anything now.”
Worthy Reads
Hate on the Right, Then and Now: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens draws comparisons between today’s rising trend of antisemitism within the GOP to past iterations of antisemitic ideology on the right. “The MAGA movement is not antisemitic. But many of its core convictions are antisemitic-adjacent — that is, they have a habit of leading in an anti-Jewish direction. Opposition to free trade, or to a welcoming immigration policy, or to international law that crimps national sovereignty, are legitimate, if often wrongheaded, political positions. But they have a way of melding with hoary stereotypes about ‘the International Jew; working across borders against the interests of so-called real Americans.” [NYTimes]
After Mamdani, Healing Divisions: Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, senior rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, reflects in the Forward about how the New York City Jewish community must unite in the aftermath of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory. “For me, personally, the fact that about a third of New York City’s Jewish voters checked the box for Mamdani is totally bewildering. I am not unaware of the bigger political trends, the shortcomings of the other candidates, or the systemic challenges our city faces; I understand why Mamdani won. But for me, his anti-Zionist rhetoric and his intent to shut down research and economic partnerships between Israel and New York — to name but a few of his promises that would negatively impact our community — not only disqualified him from receiving my vote, but were a meaningful enough concern that I chose to publicly urge Jews and their allies to vote against him as well. And yet, it would seem that what was self-evident to me was not so self-evident to a sizeable percentage of my kinfolk. … We need to learn to walk together again. If, as I have repeatedly claimed, ahavat yisrael — love of the Jewish people — is my North Star, then it is a principle I must uphold even and especially when it is uncomfortable to do so. It is a love that must extend to Jews whose views I neither share nor understand.” [Forward]
Takeover on the Quad: John Ellis, professor emeritus of German literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, argues in The Wall Street Journal for placing universities in a “receivership” to address the dominance of left-wing ideology in higher education. “The discrepancy between what we fund the campuses for and what they are doing is enormous. Promotion of knowledge and understanding has given way to inculcation of a poisonous fringe ideology. Students are encouraged to despise their society and kept ignorant of anything that might make them think otherwise. … The only viable solution is to place schools in ‘receivership,’ a well-established procedure to reform ailing college departments. A new chairman is imposed on a department with a free hand to make whatever appointments he thinks necessary to restore the department to health. By action of lawmakers or trustees, a new president can be imposed on a campus with a mandate to return the school to its proper mission by appointing subordinate administrators, especially deans, committed to reform.” [WSJ]
Investing in the Jewish Future: In Sapir, Jordan Chandler Hirsch argues that the Jewish people should establish a sovereign wealth fund to secure long-term communal and national resilience. “A wealth fund would allow the Jewish community to invite allies and skeptics alike into mutually beneficial investments. It could help key players solve their problems and achieve their goals, thereby securing support for ours. Skeptics who distrust our institutionalism might respect our show of independence. Anti-establishment forces might welcome Jewish capital that strengthens their projects. Most important, a wealth fund could transform both our psychology and our posture — from supplicants seeking protection into partners offering opportunity. Despite its corporate veneer, a wealth fund would not merely reproduce institutionalism. If shtadlanut sought seats at the institutional table, a wealth fund would build its own table and invite others in.” [SAPIR]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump sent a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog calling on him to “fully pardon” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing the corruption case against him as “a political, unjustified prosecution.” Herzog’s office put out a statement saying that while he “holds President Trump in the highest regard … anyone seeking a Presidential pardon must submit a formal request in accordance with the established procedures”…
Following a joint meeting in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced the creation of a joint committee “for the consolidation of the state of Palestine,” which will work towards drafting a “constitution” for such a state…
Iran has smuggled advanced armaments to terror groups in the West Bank over several months, the Washington Free Beacon reports, including rockets, explosive drones, anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, hoping to use it as another launch pad in addition to Gaza to attack Israel…
Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the Capitol on Tuesday. A person familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider that Van Hollen had “reiterated his support for the lifting of the Caesar sanctions while also stressing his long-held position that the U.S. must ensure that the Government of Syria complies with the six conditions included in the amendment he and Senator Graham added to the NDAA”…
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) urged the State Department to take action to ensure the release of Kamran Hekmati, an Iranian-American dual citizen and Suozzi constituent imprisoned in Iran. “This is about more than one man. It’s about defending the basic rights of American citizens abroad and standing up to regimes that traffic in hostage diplomacy,” Suozzi said…
Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) led 125 House Democrats in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio seeking “clarity on your plan to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza” and urging that aid be distributed through “reputable international institutions”…
Saudi Arabia is set to host a U.S.-Saudi investment summit at the Kennedy Center in Washington next Wednesday, a day after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman‘s visit to the White House…
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) met with Malcolm Jallow, an anti-Israel left-wing member of the Swedish parliament who has espoused antisemitic views and has associations with pro-Hamas individuals…
The New York Times speaks to Iranians deported back to Iran by the Trump administration in the first U.S.-chartered deportation flight to the country in September…
The New York Times profiles Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy, who is preparing to run for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District…
After receiving backlash for canceling planned shows in Israel as a result of pressure by the BDS movement, British comedian John Cleese said he was only postponing the shows “following advice about safety.” The “Monty Python” actor, who has a history of anti-Israel commentary on social media, claimed he is “hugely fond of Israeli audiences”…
Argentine President Javier Milei met with Rabbi David Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel; Isaac Sacca, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Argentina; and Eyal Sela, the Israeli ambassador to Argentina…
Israeli authorities arrested four suspects after dozens of settlers launched an arson attack in the Palestinian villages of Bei Lid and Deir Sharaf in the West Bank….
Israeli actress Gal Gadot won Israel’s Genesis Prize, sometimes called the “Jewish Nobel,” for her outspoken support of Israel in Hollywood since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. Gadot said she will donate the $1 million award to organizations “that will help Israel heal”…
Israeli pop star Noa Kirel and soccer player Daniel Peretz tied the knot on Tuesday in an A-lister affair in Jaffa: spotted at the nuptials were Israeli celebrities Eden Daniel Gabay, Idan Raichel, Eran Zahavi, Reef Neeman, Ron Bitton, Ron Aluf and Mor Hamami…
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts recently toured a site in Saudi Arabia for a possible Universal theme park location, raising speculation that he might bring in Saudi funds for a potential Comcast bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery…
Wonderful, an Israeli AI startup, has secured $100 million in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, with backing from Insight Partners, IVP, Bessemer and Vine Ventures…
Song of the Day
Shulem Lemmer shared on social media “The March Medley” he performed together in June with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, featuring Gur’s “Shir Hamaalos” and Modzitz’s “Ein Kitzvah,” at the 2025 MDA Chassidut B’Class concert in the Caesarea amphitheater.
Birthdays
Rabbi of the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary, Róbert Frölich turns 60…
Co-founder and dean of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky turns 101… Professor emerita of history at Columbia University and expert on Japan, Carol Gluck turns 84… Author and senior fellow at USC’s Annenberg School, Morley Winograd turns 83… Accountant and former PwC partner in Phoenix, Steven M. Scheiner, CPA… Former New York state senator, he is a descendant of Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the former Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Stephen M. Saland turns 82… Sportscaster for “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video, after more than 50 years at NBC and ABC, Al Michaels turns 81… U.S. senator (D-RI), Jack Reed turns 76… Attorney in Brooklyn, Bernard C. Wachsman… Member of the New York state Assembly since 2006, her district includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Linda B. Rosenthal turns 68… Author of young-adult fiction and winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman turns 63… Author, journalist and former political advisor to Al Gore and Bill Clinton, Naomi Rebekah Wolf turns 63… University of Chicago professor, he won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, Michael Kremer turns 61… Mayor of Oakland, Calif., until 2023, Elizabeth Beckman “Libby” Schaaf turns 60… Partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis, Sanford E. “Sandy” Perl turns 60… White House chief of staff for the last two years of the Biden administration, Jeffrey Zients turns 59… British journalist and political correspondent for BBC News, Joanne “Jo” Coburn turns 58… Hasidic lecturer with many thousands of followers, Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Biderman turns 58… SVP and general manager of MLB’s Minnesota Twins from 2016 until 2024, Thad Levine turns 54… Member of the Knesset until 2019 for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Robert Ilatov turns 54… Restaurant critic and food writer for the Boston Globe, Devra First turns 53… Israeli fashion model and actress, Nina Brosh turns 50… Former member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party, Eliyahu Hasid turns 49… Campus support director at Hillel International, Aviva Zucker Snyder… Actress best known for her roles on “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” Kelly Kruger turns 44… Co-founder of Purple Acorn, Dave Weinberg… Assistant professor of Jewish studies at Oberlin College, Matthew D. Berkman turns 41… Director of strategic talent initiatives at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Spencer F. Lucker… New Jersey-based primary care physician known as Doctor Mike, he is an internet celebrity on YouTube and Instagram, Mikhail Varshavski turns 36… Activist in the fight against antisemitism throughout the U.S., Adela Cojab turns 29… Catcher in the Washington Nationals organization, Cameron J. Stubbs turns 29…
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report the latest out of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, following the announcement overnight that Israel and Hamas had reached a hostage-release and ceasefire agreement as part of the first phase of a broader deal to end the war in Gaza. We talk to Noam Tibon about the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to cancel and then reinstate the screening of a documentary about his efforts to rescue his family during the Oct. 7 attacks, and look at how the Pentagon’s new rules regarding grooming standards could impact Orthodox Jewish servicemembers. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Anne Dreazen and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- We’re closely tracking the ongoing talks to secure the release of the remaining 48 living and dead hostages and reach an end to the war, following last night’s breakthrough in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Jerusalem tonight for the continuation of talks. More below.
- We expect to hear more about the agreement over the course of the day, first in a televised White House Cabinet meeting scheduled for 11 a.m. ET, followed hours later by a press conference at 3 p.m. ET with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Become a premium subscriber and sign up for the Daily Overtime to get our afternoon update on the latest in the talks.
- Negotiations between the Trump administration and Harvard aimed at releasing billions of dollars in frozen grant funding are set to resume today, with Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who chaired the Strategic and Policy Forum during the first Trump administration, is playing a central role in the talks.
- In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to name a new prime minister by the end of the week, following the resignation earlier this week of Sébastien Lecornu, who held the position for less than a month.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
It’s a “morning of historic and momentous news,” as Israeli President Isaac Herzog put it on Thursday, when Israelis woke up to learn that a deal had been reached to free the remaining hostages in the coming days and halt the fighting in Gaza.
The sides are expected to officially sign the deal in Egypt today, and Israel’s Cabinet is set to vote at 11 a.m. ET on the exchange of the 48 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive, for close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The IDF said it began preparing to withdraw from parts of Gaza as part of the deal.
Hamas is expected to release the Israeli hostages first. Only when Israel is satisfied that the terrorist group has freed everyone it can find — including the remains of about 28 Israelis who were killed — will Palestinian prisoners be released. The swap comes with caveats: Hamas says it is unable to locate some of the bodies, and about 250 of the Palestinian prisoners set to be released are serving life sentences for terrorist offenses, though Israel insisted that high-profile detainees — such as Second Intifada mastermind Marwan Barghouti — will not be part of the deal.
The deal is expected to pass easily in the Cabinet, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party holding the majority of the seats. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who expressed opposition earlier this week to President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, was unusually quiet on Thursday morning, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would not vote in favor.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News that all of the hostages “will be coming back on Monday. … As we speak, so much is happening to get the hostages freed.”
communal reactions
‘Fulfillment of our prayers’: Jewish groups hail Gaza ceasefire deal
Jewish organizations and leaders from around the world and across most of the ideological spectrum cheered the acceptance last night of the first phase of a Gaza peace plan, which will see the release of all living hostages in the coming days and the eventual release of slain ones as well, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports.
Communal response: Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement that it “celebrate[s] the exciting news of the deal between Israel and Hamas to return all the remaining hostages home and end the war. Both AIPAC and J Street issued statements in support of the agreement, as did the American Jewish Committee, Israel Policy Forum, the Israeli-American Coalition, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, National Council of Jewish Women, Anti-Defamation League, the Conservative movement, Yeshiva University, Board of Deputies of British Jews and World Jewish Congress, among many others.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Bonus: Jewish communal leaders and a bipartisan group of political officials gathered somberly on Tuesday at the “Sukkah of Hope” hosted by the Hostages Families Forum at the Kennedy Center to mark two years since the Hamas terror attacks, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports from Washington.
book shelf
‘Now, life:’ Former hostage Eli Sharabi shares his post-captivity resilience and optimism
Freed hostage Eli Sharabi’s new memoir, Hostage, ends with him visiting the graves of his wife, Lianne, and his daughters, Noiya and Yahel, for the first time after being released from nearly a year and a half of captivity in Gaza, during which he had hoped they were still alive following the Hamas attack on their home in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023. “This here is rock bottom. I’ve seen it. I’ve touched it,” Sharabi writes. “Now, life.” That final sentence of Sharabi’s memoir could sum up his post-captivity self. In a recent interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, Sharabi said he was determined to reassert his agency, take action on hostage advocacy and move forward in his life.
In the belly of the beast: “I recognize that even within Hamas, after spending 24/7 with them for many months and having different conversations with them, I understand who is ideological and who stumbled into it because Hamas controls the financial faucets in Gaza,” Sharabi told JI. “Does that make them innocent? Of course not. The moment they got the order, I was shackled around my legs. If they were told to shoot me, they would have shot me.”
FILM IN FOCUS
‘A story about family’: Noam Tibon, director Barry Avrich reflect on ‘The Road Between Us’ premiere
The most important victory of Israeli Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon’s life was rescuing his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. But the premiere of a new documentary telling that story almost didn’t happen, after “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” was removed from the Toronto International Film Festival’s schedule last month, where it was set to make its debut. The film’s reinstatement after widespread pushback was “a victory for the movie and a victory for the truth of what happened on Oct. 7,” Tibon, the film’s protagonist, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen in an interview alongside documentarian Barry Avrich.
Global effort: “What was extraordinarily amazing to me — because I just didn’t think we had the wind to our back — was that the global pressure and reaction to the withdrawal of this film was so enormous and validating. We received emails from Jewish people as far as Shanghai” who were outraged over the film’s cancellation, Avrich recalled. “It was one of the great moments in my film career, when the Hollywood community and Jewish community globally said, ‘We will not be erased.’ I kept telling Noam, ‘You will not cancel your ticket, you’re coming to Toronto. We will show this film.’” Tibon said he dedicated the film to “all of the people who fought with me on Oct. 7 — the brave soldiers and border patrol and the brave squad of [Kibbutz Nahal Oz]. I hope many people will watch this around the world because it’s a story about family. What would you do in such a situation?”
exclusive
Gottheimer, GOP lawmakers warn Irish BDS effort will damage relationship with United States
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and a group of Republican House lawmakers warned the Irish government on Monday that pending legislation to criminalize the importation of Israeli goods from the West Bank and east Jerusalem into Ireland risks damaging the country’s economic relationship with the United States, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The lawmakers also criticized Dublin’s efforts to support a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Message to Dublin: “This legislation threatens to inflict real harm on American companies operating in Ireland. If enacted, it would put U.S. firms in direct conflict with federal and state-level anti-boycott laws in the U.S., forcing them into an impossible legal position and jeopardizing their ability to do business in Ireland,” reads the letter, addressed to Taoiseach Micheál Martin. “Therefore, were it to pass this bill, Ireland would risk causing significant damage to its own economic credibility and partnerships with American commerce.” The letter states that Dublin’s moves are “fueling rising antisemitic and anti-Zionist sentiment in Ireland and beyond,” and urges the country to cease both efforts in order to “preserve the economic and diplomatic ties between our two nations.”
grooming guidelines
Pentagon’s stricter grooming standards could impact Orthodox Jewish servicemembers
The military grooming rules announced last week and circulated in a memo to military members would end most existing religious exemptions allowing troops to maintain beards. The regulations would present a potential obstacle to Orthodox Jewish servicemen who maintain beards. The policy, which would return the military to pre-2010 standards — when the Pentagon first granted an exemption to a Sikh soldier to maintain a beard in uniform — also prohibits sideburns below the ear openings, potentially impacting servicemen who wear peyot, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Waiver crackdown: Religious facial hair waivers will be “generally not authorized” under the new policy, and will require “individualized reviews” with “documentation demonstrating the sincerity of the religious or sincerely held belief … sufficient to support a good faith determination by the approving authority,” according to the Pentagon memo. “The military obviously has its need for discipline and uniform adherence,” Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told JI. “At the same time, it has been, and we hope it will continue to be, cognizant that certain individuals, for them to serve and accommodation will be necessary, and as in the past, if everything else about that particular person adheres to military standards, then they should get the dispensation they need.”
transitions
AJC names Anne Dreazen to lead its Center for a New Middle East
The American Jewish Committee tapped Middle East policy official Anne Dreazen on Thursday as vice president and director of its Center for a New Middle East, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen has learned. The center launched in June 2024 to advance the organization’s existing work in Israel and the Gulf, with the goal of hosting conferences and business programs in the U.S., Israel and the Gulf, and working with emerging leaders in Israel and the Arab world.
Background: Dreazen, whose career spanned 15 years at the Department of Defense in a variety of roles — most recently as principal director for Middle East policy — is slated to begin the Washington DC-based position on Oct. 20. She oversaw U.S. defense cooperation with partners including Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar while serving as the Pentagon’s principal director for Middle East Policy, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. She also served as a national security fellow in the Senate. Prior to that, Dreazen spent seven months on the ground in Iraq’s Anbar Province, facilitating U.S. reconstruction efforts following Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Worthy Reads
Bearing Witness: In Politico, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner reflects on the rise of antisemitism globally following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and his meeting with Nova music festival cofounder and producer Ofir Amir. “Since this conversation about the events of Oct. 7, I keep asking myself how Ofir Amir can bear what happened after Oct. 7. How he can bear that victims are turned into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims. That more and more often, it is concealed who started this war, what is action and what is reaction. How he can bear it that justified criticism of decisions made by an Israeli government is mixed with deep-rooted hatred of Jews and that, as a result, instead of an obvious global wave of compassion and solidarity, a global wave of cold-heartedness and increasingly aggressive anti-Semitism has emerged. How he can bear what I can hardly bear, even though I am neither a victim nor a relative of victims.” [Politico]
A Family’s Torment: The Financial Times’ Mehul Srivastava interviews Ilay David, whose brother, Evyatar, has appeared in multiple Hamas hostage videos in a continuous state of decline since his capture two years ago. “But in this litany of broadcast suffering, few have suffered more than the family of Evyatar David, a 24-year-old guitar player who loved AC/DC and Queen and was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival alongside 40 others. … Ilay has watched the video of him waiting many times, his brother breathing fresh air and begging for his freedom. ‘Of course, Hamas terrorists told him to beg for their life,’ he said. ‘But I saw my brother’s eyes. I saw that he really begged for his life — I saw that he wants to cry.’ Ilay says he lies awake wondering why his brother was chosen for this public form of torture — so many other hostages had suffered in private, while others were filmed but their videos never released. ‘Why Evyatar? Why does he have to suffer so much more?’ he said.” [FT]
Problems Across the Pond: Jewish News Editor Richard Ferrer considers the increasing isolation and antisemitism faced by the U.K.’s Jewish community. “Since Hamas’s massacre in Israel, Jews in Britain have been pushed, slowly — and ever so politely — out of public life. Jewish actors have been dropped from shows. Jewish comedians told their Edinburgh Fringe gigs are off under the pretext of ‘staff safety.’ Venues have quietly cancelled Jewish musicians. Holocaust survivor visits to schools have been pulled ‘for security reasons.’ Every time a theatre has cancelled a Jewish performer, every time a company has decided it’s ‘uncomfortable’ working with Jews, the line between silent and savage antisemitism has blurred just a little more. Now that line no longer exists. On Thursday, Britain became a place where a knife-wielding man called Jihad can convince himself that driving a car into Jews outside a synagogue isn’t an atrocity but a statement. Tonight, I’m off to a bat mitzvah party hoping there’s enough security on the door. That’s life for British Jews now. And death.” [JewishNews]
Iran’s Next Move: The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi and Graeme Wood weigh Iran’s military and diplomatic options following its defeat during the 12-day war with Israel in June. “Iran could surrender its nuclear ambitions. Call this the Libya option, after Muammar Qaddafi’s renunciation of his nuclear program in 2003. The limits of the Libyan option’s appeal are evident when one considers Qaddafi’s fate, which was to be deposed, poked in the backside with a piece of steel, and shot in the head. More appealing is the relative calm of North Korea, whose combined nuclear and conventional deterrent shows no sign of weakness. States that go nuclear tend to survive. … Another option would be to go short of nuclear — to go ballistic.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The Department of Commerce sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for acting as conduits for Iran to purchase American technology…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation taking aim at antisemitism in K-12 schools, which passed last month over the opposition of the state’s largest teachers union…
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called on the New Jersey Education Association to fire its recently hired magazine editor, citing since-deleted social media posts promoting violent and antisemitic content, including a post that said that the president of Egypt was “filthier than the Jews”…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, is expected to announce her entry into the state’s 2026 Senate race in the coming days; Mills will face a crowded primary field that includes Israel critic Graham Platner as she seeks to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) next year…
On the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for Senate in Michigan, sent a fundraising email to supporters that criticized Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza while ignoring the Hamas attack that precipitated it, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Several key Minnesota political leaders across the ideological spectrum, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN), condemned the vandalism of a synagogue in Minneapolis on Wednesday as an act of antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The New York Times explores how New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s views on Israel were shaped by his upbringing and college activism; during his time at Bowdoin College, where he founded the campus’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, Mamdani refused efforts to collaborate with the campus’ J Street U chapter, citing SJP’s “antinormalization” policy against working with groups that support Israel’s right to exist…
Federal prosecutors in Maryland are expected to charge former National Security Advisor John Bolton in the coming days with mishandling classified documents…
A Pennsylvania couple is pursuing legal action against the previous owner of their home, who hid a tiled swastika and German war eagle, installed in the 1970s, under carpet during the property sale…
A U.K. court began proceedings against two men accused of planning a terror attack against the Jewish community in Manchester in late 2023 and early 2024; the trial is taking place days after two people were killed in an unrelated terror attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how 10 Downing Street under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the ruling Labour party has struggled to quell daily anti-Israel protests around the country amid concerns that the rallies are fueling antisemitism in the U.K.…
The family of Bipin Joshi, a Nepali citizen taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, released a recently discovered video of Joshi filmed shortly after his abduction to Gaza…
Iran released a 19-year-old French-German cyclist who had been detained since June…
Longtime Zabar’s owner Saul Zabar, who oversaw the appetizing shop’s operations for seven decades, died at 97…
Attorney Bruce Cutler, who secured multiple acquittals for his client, mob boss John Gotti, died at 77…
Pic of the Day
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion prayed at the Western Wall during the Priestly Blessing on Thursday in Jerusalem. Also in attendance during the Chol Hamoed prayers were the Sephardic and Ashkenazi chief rabbis of Israel and former hostage Sasha Trufanov.
Birthdays
U.S. ambassador to Canada during the Obama administration, then vice chair of BMO until 2024, David Jacobson turns 74…
Founder, executive chairman and now retired CEO of C-SPAN, known for his unique interview style, Brian Lamb turns 84… Retired federal government manager and analyst, Charles “Chuck” Miller… Associate professor of Jewish history at the University of Maryland, Bernard Dov Cooperman turns 79… Burbank, Calif., resident, Richard Marpet… Commissioner of Major League Soccer since 1999, Don Garber turns 68… VNOC engineer at Avaya until a few months ago, David Gerstman… Attorney at Wilkes Artis, Eric S. Kassoff turns 65… Retired director of Jewish learning at the Brandeis School of San Francisco, Debby Arzt-Mor… Managing director and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and chair emeritus of DMFI, Todd Richman… Best-selling author and motivational speaker, Simon Sinek turns 52… Rosh yeshiva at Yeshivas Elimelech following 17 years as rabbi at Ohev Shalom Synagogue in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld turns 51… Musician and singer, Neshama Carlebach turns 51… Member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, Karin Elharar Hartstein turns 48… SVP for Jewish education, community and culture at Hillel International, Rabbi Benjamin Berger… Partner at Left Hook Strategy, Justin Barasky… CEO at Denver-based energy firm Nexus Energy Partners, he was the national board chair of Moishe House (now known as Mem Global) until 2022, Ben Lusher… Senior director of state and international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, David Meyerson… Stand-up comedian and two-time Emmy Award-winning television writer, Ian Karmel turns 41… VP of portfolio management for LEO Impact Capital, Lily Goldstein… Counsel in O’Melveny’s NYC office, he was an executive assistant and advance associate in the Obama White House, David Cohen… Physical therapist in Montreal, Chaya Notik… VP at L’Oréal, Jason Kaplan turns 35… Senior manager of policy communications at Snap, Julia Schechter… Israel-based senior associate at JP Morgan Payments, Daniel Rubin… Manager of in-stock management at Amazon in NYC, Kayla Levinson Segal… Security coordinator of Kibbutz Nir Am on Oct. 7, 2023, now an Israeli heroine after her team killed 25 terrorists and the kibbutz suffered no casualties, Inbal Rabin-Lieberman turns 27… Foil fencer, he won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics (Tokyo) and an individual bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics (Paris), Nick Itkin turns 26…
Israeli Embassy staffers killed outside Jewish Museum
Embassy of Israel to the USA
Yarón Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we detail the latest on last night’s deadly attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. and report on the response from Jewish communities and Israeli officials. We highlight Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch’s podcast interview with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the lead-up to New York’s mayoral primary, report on remarks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the urgency of humanitarian aid for Gaza as well as his predictions for the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and cover Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference last night. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Ted Cruz, Bruce Pearl and Richard Priem.
What We’re Watching
- The UJA-Federation of New York and JCRC-NY will be hosting a town hall this evening with the leading Democratic New York City mayoral candidates. Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar and New York Jewish Week managing editor Lisa Keys will be co-moderating the forum.
- The Brandeis Center will host a briefing on Capitol Hill featuring current college students and recent graduates sharing their personal experiences with antisemitism on campus. Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center, Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center, and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) will also deliver remarks.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa subcommittee will hold a hearing on the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
- The Qatar Economic Forum wraps up today in Doha.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH ji’s TAMARA ZIEVE
It was an evening dedicated to humanitarian service — young Jewish professionals gathering under the theme “Turning Pain Into Purpose,” discussing interfaith collaboration and working to counter the rising tide of “us versus them” narratives. The event spotlighted efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa — including in Gaza.
But what was supposed to be a night rooted in shared humanity was rocked by deadly violence. Outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was hosting the event, an assailant opened fire on a group of four people, killing a young couple, both Israeli Embassy employees.
Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately. (Police say the suspect had discarded his weapon.)
Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.
JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJC’s DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, told JI’s Danielle Cohen the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water. Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.
Siegel then said that the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red keffiyeh.
“The deep irony I felt after the guy pulled out the keffiyeh was, ‘if only you knew,’” Drake Kalin reflected. “It was Jewish professionals gathering not for a political agenda but for our collective humanity,” Kalin added. “Which I won’t let this event take from me.”
The two victims of last night’s attack, Yarón Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were due to be engaged soon — Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the man had purchased a ring earlier this week and was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem.
Milgrim’s last job before joining the embassy’s public diplomacy department was at Tech2Peace, where she researched peace-building theory and, according to her LinkedIn profile, designed and implemented a 12-person study on the role of friendships in the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process.
Lischinsky emigrated from Germany to Israel at age 16, where he studied government, diplomacy and strategy and served in the IDF, according to his LinkedIn profile. The last post shared on X by Lischinsky, an employee of the embassy’s political department, called out a United Nations official for “blood libel,” for spreading a false claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours without aid.
Reactions to the killings have been swift. President Donald Trump said of the shooting, “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Leiter said Trump vowed to him that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel. “We’ll stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear,” Leiter said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, updated him on the details of the incident and asked to convey her condolences to the families of the couple, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
“We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel,” Netanyhau said. “Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost. My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer. I have directed that security be increased at Israeli missions around the world and for the state’s representatives.”
In a press conference in Jerusalem this morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the attack was “the direct result of toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the Oct. 7 massacre.” He pointed a finger at incitement by “leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe.”
Sa’ar noted that “there is not one week without terror attacks or attempted terror attacks around the world — usually more than one.”
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and Israeli missions around the world will lower their flags to half-mast today to honor the memory of Milgrim and Lischinsky.
security concerns
After deadly shooting, Jewish communities go on high alert
Jewish communities are going on high alert following the deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday night, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports. Richard Priem, CEO of the Community Security Service, which trains security teams at synagogues and other institutions, told eJP this morning that his organization and other security groups would be stepping up their “posture” in the wake of the shooting in case additional attacks had been planned or others are “inspired” to act by this one.
Increased measures: “We’re definitely going to be present, we’re definitely going to do something that increases our posture because anytime there’s an attack, certain people get activated and think, ’Now’s the time,’” Priem said. “But we don’t know yet if there might be a direct, correlated threat.” Such security measures may include additional guards posted outside buildings, tighter involvement of local law enforcement and increased coordination between different Jewish security groups, such as national ones like the Anti-Defamation League and Secure Communities Network, as well as local ones like New York’s Community Security Initiative or various neighborhood watchdog groups.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Security funding: The Capital Jewish Museum is one of the recipients of a $500,000 security grant for local nonprofits recently announced by the D.C. government.
new york, new york
Cuomo predicts Jewish vote could decide mayoral race
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the leading Democratic candidate in New York City’s upcoming mayoral primary, predicted that Jewish voters could ultimately swing the outcome of the June election in a new podcast interview released today, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
‘Use your vote’: “You have 600,000 registered Jewish Democrats. The whole turnout in the primary is 800,000,” he said in a conversation with Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York. “They could decide the election. Use your voice, use your vote, get aggressive. Passivity does not work.”
shifting sentiment
Rubio: Israel’s Gaza aid blockade hurt Israel’s security, standing
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a shift, said in a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday that Israel’s 11-week blockade of aid into Gaza was damaging Israel’s national security and international standing and that U.S. pressure had contributed to Israel’s decision to release the hold. He also said that current levels of aid entering Gaza are not sufficient. The remarks are strikingly similar to comments made since the beginning of the war in Gaza by Democrats, particularly progressives, who have criticized Israel’s policy toward aid to Gaza, and stand in contrast with Rubio’s and other Republicans’ previous comments arguing against allowing aid to flow back into Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What he said: “In the interim period, the one thing we’ve made abundantly clear is that the humanitarian situation — and I think this was acknowledged by the prime minister in his statement — the humanitarian situation, the direction that it was headed was undermining Israel’s standing and national security,” Rubio said.
More from Rubio: In his second consecutive day of hearings on Capitol Hill, Rubio said that he expects that additional Arab countries will join the Abraham Accords by the end of the year, if not earlier. “We do have an Abraham Accords office that is actively working to identify a number of countries who have lined up and already I think we may have good news, certainly before the end of this year, of a number of more countries that are willing to join that alliance,” Rubio said a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday.
WAR ROOM
Netanyahu lays out newest phase of Gaza war, view on Iran negotiations in press conference
Striking a defiant tone on Wednesday amid intensifying international pressure to end the war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid down his conditions for the end of hostilities, Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve and Lahav Harkov report. “The world is telling us to end the war,” Netanyahu said, in the first press conference he has held in Israel since December. “I am prepared to end the war according to clear conditions: Hamas lays down its weapons, steps down from power, returns all the hostages, Gaza is demilitarized and we implement the Trump plan” to relocate residents of Gaza.
Talk of tension: Addressing reports of strained ties between the U.S. and Israel, Netanyahu said that he spoke to President Donald Trump about 10 days ago and Trump told him, “Bibi, I want you to know I have a total commitment to you and to the State of Israel.” Referring to Trump’s recent Middle East tour, which excluded Israel, Netanyahu said, “I have no opposition to the U.S. deepening its ties to the Arab world … I think this can help broaden the Abraham Accords that I’m very interested in.”
On Iran: “Iran remains a serious threat to Israel. We are in full coordination with the U.S. — we talk to them all the time. We hope that it’s possible to reach an agreement that will prevent a nuclear weapon from Iran and will prevent Iran from having the ability to enrich uranium. If it is reached, of course, we will welcome it,” he said, before adding, “In any case, Israel reserves the right to defend itself against a regime that threatens to destroy us.” Netanyahu previously called for total dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which would go farther than stopping Iran from enriching uranium. An official in Netanyahu’s office denied that his remark reflects a change in policy.
TEHRAN TALK
Some Senate Republicans skeptical of excluding terrorism, missiles from Iran talks
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued on Wednesday that sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program can’t be separated from other sanctions on the regime as part of a nuclear deal, contrasting the approach apparently being taken by the Trump administration to that of the Obama administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said in congressional testimony this week that talks with Tehran have revolved solely around Iran’s nuclear program and have not addressed its sponsorship of terrorism or its ballistic missile program, but said that sanctions related to terrorism and missiles would remain in place if those issues are not addressed in a potential deal. “The Obama administration invented the category of ‘nuclear sanctions’ as an excuse to give the Ayatollah whatever he wanted for a nuclear deal,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said to Jewish Insider, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
Tillis’ take: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) expressed confidence that the Trump administration understood that any deal must be multifaceted, though he noted that congressional Republicans haven’t been briefed on the talks. “I have to believe at the end of the day, they realize that it’s not just about enrichment, but it’s all the other enabling capabilities, because the reality is the world’s a dangerous place and if they had that underlying capability, maybe then they’ll build their own bomb,” Tillis told JI.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), James Lankford (R-OK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and John Kennedy (R-LA).
ON THE HILL
House lawmakers call on Appropriations Committee to address antisemitism in health care
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging colleagues to take steps to address antisemitism in the health care field in the 2026 appropriations process for the Department of Health and Human Services and related agencies. In a letter sent Wednesday, the lawmakers called on the leaders of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to demand reports from HHS on the rise of antisemitism in health care, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: “Failure to confront this pernicious ideology harms not only Jewish medical professionals, students, and patients but threatens to destroy the very foundations of our healthcare system,” the letter reads. “Dangerous rhetoric from individuals in positions of influence raises fears among Jewish and Israeli students, families, and patients about whether they will receive equitable and compassionate care. Antisemitic hate and bigotry put Jewish patients at risk and undermine the ethical foundations of medicine, where commitment to the patient should be paramount.”
Signed on: The letter was signed by Reps. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Troy Balderson (R-OH), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tim Kennedy (D-NY), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), Mike Carey (R-OH), Laura Friedman (D-CA) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).
Education confrontation: House Democrats urged Education Secretary Linda McMahon not to make cuts to the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights as employees work through the backlog of cases, which includes scores of civil rights complaints from Jewish students alleging discrimination at their universities since the Oct.7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Worthy Reads
Terror Comes to Washington: Commentary Editor John Podhoretz reflects on the nature of last night’s deadly attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. “This is a different kind of event from the attacks on synagogues in Pennsylvania and California in 2018, which were the work of white supremacists. It happened at a secular Jewish site, and targeted an event sponsored by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats. And it was self-evidently an act of anti-Semitic terror in the nation’s capital — which raises similarities to the 2015 attack on the Hyper Casher supermarket in France’s capital, Paris. The only analogue here I can think of was the invasion of the headquarters of the B’nai Brith in D.C. in 1977 by Hanafi Muslims, during which 104 staffers at the Jewish organization — including my wife’s cousin, William Korey, an expert on Soviet Jewry — were held hostage for three days and repeatedly threatened with execution and torture. Two other buildings in DC were invaded as well, and a security guard at one of them was shot in the head and killed.” [Commentary]
Private Sector Diplomacy: The Atlantic’s Andrew Exum writes approvingly about Trump’s transactional approach to Middle East foreign policy in The Atlantic. “Trump unabashedly uses the American private sector as an instrument of national power. In fact, he does this better than any previous president has in my lifetime…Trump may well understand that with the Democratic Party likely divided on Israel for the next generation, his Jewish and evangelical-Christian supporters have nowhere else to go. This puts him in a position of power relative to the Israeli prime minister — one that must surely make Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders very uncomfortable. Making them still more uncomfortable will be the fact that everyone who mattered seemed to be in those meetings in the Gulf. Everyone, that is, except them” [TheAtlantic]
Red Lines on Iran: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board endorses Trump’s Iran diplomacy. “Iran’s rulers are unhappy with the direction of nuclear talks, which is a sign President Trump is pushing in the right places. No one is ever pleased to make far-reaching concessions, but those are what the U.S. and the world need to get a deal worth making… Iran long insisted it would never negotiate with Mr. Trump. It spent the Biden years talking about killing him. But after Mr. Trump resumed sanctions enforcement and built up a military threat that Iran had to take seriously, Iran came to the table. Its other options are worse. Tehran may decide it can’t abandon enrichment or allow its centrifuges to be dismantled. And it may call the U.S. and Israeli bluff on the use of force, but that could be a mistake its leaders come to regret” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump is reportedly set to appoint Thomas Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, as a special envoy for Syria…
The Department of Defense formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Qatar for President Donald Trump’s use as Air Force One, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
The State Department announced that anyone involved in the sale or transfer to or from Iran of 10 materials found to be used in Iran’s nuclear, military and ballistic missile programs will now be subject to mandatory sanctions…
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at a conference in Tehran on Wednesday about nuclear negotiations with the U.S. that Iran “not give up this right to use peaceful nuclear technology in any way. No matter what they say, do, how they threaten us or impose sanctions, it makes no difference.” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said that the fifth round of nuclear talks will be held in Rome on Friday…
Xiyue Wang, who was wrongly imprisoned in Iran for more than three years until Trump arranged for his release during his first administration, was named as a senior advisor for Iran at the State Department…
In a tense meeting at the Oval Office yesterday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa refuted unsubstantiated claims made by Trump about genocide against white South Africans…
Speaking at one of the university’s commencement ceremonies on Wednesday, Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, said, “I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate, Mahmoud Khalil,” referring to the anti-Israel protest leader who is currently facing deportation proceedings, and said, “We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right.”
Some 100 pro-Palestinian protesters outside the campus attempted to disrupt the ceremony…
Charl Kleinhaus, an Afrikaner who was granted refugee status in the United States and said Jews are “untrustworthy and a dangerous group” on social media, confirmed that he is being resettled by HIAS and its affiliate, the Jewish Family Services of Western New York. Kleinhaus said his posts were “completely misinterpreted” and he “probably should have worded it better”…
The Vaad of Lakewood, N.J., endorsed Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) for the Democratic nomination in the New Jersey gubernatorial election, specifically calling on unaffiliated voters to cast their ballots for him in the June 10 primary…
New York state Democratic lawmakers moved to block a bill in the state Assembly to include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism in state education law…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights shifting sentiment in the Israeli public toward the war in Gaza…
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor, met with Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone, to discuss investment trends…
Arc magazine chronicled the role of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in supporting President Jimmy Carter’s creation of the Department of Education…
Amy Schumer, Israeli actor Yadin Gellman and Israeli director Eliran Peled are co-producing a romantic comedy called “Now More Than Ever” about the divides between Israeli and American Jewry post-Oct. 7…
Eliana Goldin, a recent Columbia University graduate and pro-Israel activist, shared her experience being fired from the Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper…
Philanthropist and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose father was Jewish, died at 65…
Pic of the Day
Auburn University men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl addressed a Jewish American History Month breakfast on Capitol Hill yesterday. Guests included more than 25 House members and senators, antisemitism envoy nominee Yehuda Kaploun and former deputy envoy Aaron Keyak. The event was hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jewish Federations of North America, Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, AEPi and Operation Benjamin.
Birthdays
Author, activist, actress and producer, she served until 2023 as a special envoy against antisemitism at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Noa Tishby…
Senior fellow emeritus at the Hudson Institute, Irwin M. Stelzer turns 93… Retired U.S. district court judge from Massachusetts, now a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, Nancy Gertner turns 79… Award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker since 1989, Connie Bruck turns 79… Former Skadden partner and then vice-chair at Citibank, J. Michael Schell turns 78… Cognitive scientist and CEO emeritus of Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Philip E. Rubin turns 76… Director emeritus of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Ambassador Bradley Gordon turns 76… Gloria Woodlock… Charles Scott… Former member of Knesset from the Zionist Union party, he was previously a major general in the IDF, Eyal Ben-Reuven turns 71… Immediate past chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Dianne F. Lob… Former member of Congress (D-AZ-1), now a business and transactional attorney in Phoenix, Sam Coppersmith turns 70… Senior consultant as to philanthropy and impact at private equity firm Cresset Capital, Sanford Ronald “Sandy” Cardin… U.S. Sen. (R-AK) Lisa Murkowski turns 68… General partner of Google Ventures where he co-leads the life science investment team, David Schenkein turns 68… Former head coach of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, he was the winning coach of the EuroLeague Championship in 2014 with Maccabi Tel Aviv, David Blatt turns 66… Actor, he appeared in all five seasons of the HBO program “The Wire” as defense attorney Maurice Levy, Michael Kostroff turns 64… British writer, philanthropist and documentary filmmaker, Dame Hannah Mary Rothschild turns 63… Partner at Sidley & Austin, he clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the 1996 term, David H. Hoffman turns 58… Former relief pitcher for seven MLB teams, Alan Brian “Al” Levine turns 57… Harvard Law School professor since 2007, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice David Souter in the 1998 term, Noah Feldman turns 55… Israeli cookbook author and TV cookery show host, Shaily Lipa turns 51… Israel’s minister of communications in the prior government, Yoaz Hendel turns 50… Executive director of American Compass, Oren Cass… Co-founder of Facebook in 2004, Dustin Aaron Moskovitz turns 41… Retired slot receiver and kick returner for the NFL’s New England Patriots, member of three Super Bowl-winning teams, Julian Edelman turns 39… Co-founder and former CEO of Tinder, Sean Rad turns 39… Film, television and theater actress, Molly Ephraim turns 39… Washington bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilner turns 36… J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School in the class of 2026, he is a summer associate at Weil Gotshal, Alex Friedman turns 25… Law clerk for a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York until earlier this year, Peter Walker Kaplan… Emma Kaplan… Aryeh Jacobson… Rebecca Weiss… Benjamin Weiss…
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…)