| | 👋 Good Friday morning! In today’s Daily Kickoff , we begin with a look at the trend toward extremism in both major political parties from Jewish Insider Editor in Chief Josh Kraushaar. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : Ze’ev Orenstein, Sue Altman and Mark Robinson. One of the biggest changes to politics in America over the last decade is the proliferation of extreme views and factions — from the left and right — that have slowly and steadily become assimilated in both parties’ coalitions. Politics at the turn of the 21st century were defined by both parties fighting for persuadable moderates, and gatekeeping radical views and individuals to avoid tarnishing their brands. Campaigns in our current social media-infused age are driven by the most outspoken and extreme voices dominating the partisan discourse, with any efforts at policing guaranteed to spark an internal backlash. That dynamic is clearly at play in the battle for the GOP nomination, where former President Donald Trump continues to dominate, despite facing multiple indictments and the prospect of jail time. But the degradation of discourse can also be seen in smaller ways, such as the alliance of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign with a social media influencer with a long history of antisemitism, both publicly and privately. The tolerance of radical views is also on display within the Democratic coalition, albeit in different ways. Extreme ideas from the party’s left flank — such as defunding the police — have been giving Democrats political headaches as they try to broaden their appeal. But instead of overtly criticizing the views of the Squad, they’re content to overlook the Left’s excesses to keep their coalition partners happy. The Democratic Party’s inclination to ignore lawmakers spouting inaccurate and incendiary rhetoric is particularly evident when it comes to Israel. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) Twitter feed is frequently a platform for making baseless accusations against Israel — to the point where Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt this week called on the congresswoman to stop “knowingly slander the Jewish state in a time of rising anti-Jewish hate.” But her rants drew no condemnation from party leaders. But that low bar for policing one’s own is now the bipartisan par for the course. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has done nothing to punish Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) over his support for prominent antisemite Nick Fuentes, even after the congressman spoke at his conference and promoted a favorable documentary about him. He’s even less likely to police his own caucus, given his party’s razor-thin majority in the House. Former President George W. Bush might have called this dynamic the soft bigotry of low expectations. And in our anything-goes political era, it’s a trend that’s likely to continue until principled leaders stand up and speak out against extremists within their midst. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | The Stepped Street A new excavation of an ancient Jerusalem road expected to draw modern-day pilgrims  KOBY HARATI & CITY OF DAVID ARCHIVES More than 15 feet under the busy Silwan neighborhood east of Jerusalem’s Old City, there’s a quiet road that is off-limits to the people above. It’s less than a half-mile long, but its history dates back some 2,000 years. Known as the “stepped street,” or the “Pilgrimage Road,” the wide stone slabs that make up this pedestrian street were believed to be built by the Romans. The road was rediscovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2004, after a sewage pipe burst. Archaeologists expect visitors to be able to walk the length of the road in two years, following the completion of an intricate excavation project, reports Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch, who visited the archaeological site in June.
Underground infrastructure: For more than a decade now, archaeologists have overseen an underground excavation of the road, using heavy iron beams to prop up the above-ground infrastructure while they hollow out everything that has accumulated on top of the road over the past two millennia. Historians and archaeologists assert that the road connected the Pool of Siloam, a Roman-era pool used by Jewish pilgrims as a ritual bath, to the Second Temple.
Pilgrim’s path: Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit the City of David National Park, a popular tourist attraction and historical site in East Jerusalem that oversees several major archaeological projects related to ancient Jerusalem and biblical history. The number of visitors is expected to increase dramatically when the Pilgrimage Road opens, and the world’s Christians come in larger numbers to walk on a sacred stretch of ground that Jesus is considered likely to have walked.
Read the full story here. ALTMAN'S MOMENTUM Progressive leader takes early lead in pivotal N.J. congressional primary  BENNETT RAGLIN/GETTY IMAGES FOR GREEN NEW DEAL NETWORK Democrats view Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) as one of their top political targets in their bid to win back control of the House. President Joe Biden carried the suburban northern New Jersey district, and Kean only won election by three points — a narrower margin than expected — in 2022. But the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District is shaping up as a potential primary headache, with a leader on the activist left facing the likelihood of a challenge from the party’s pragmatic wing, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Early front-runner: Sue Altman, the leader of the progressive Working Families Party in New Jersey, announced her candidacy at the end of May, while former State Department official Jason Blazakis, Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello and former state Sen. Raymond Lesniak are considering joining the field. Altman is showing some momentum as the first entrant into the field, and reported raising over $200,000 in her first month in the race. Her candidacy could be cause for alarm for pro-Israel advocates in a state and district with a significant Jewish voting bloc, given the Working Families Party’s strident criticism of Israel; WFP supports conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel.
Potential challenger: Blazakis was the director of Counterterrorism Finance at the U.S. Department of State for a decade. He’s currently a Middlebury College professor, geopolitical consultant and security adviser. Blazakis wrote a co-bylined op-ed in May 2022 in favor of reentering the Iran nuclear deal. The piece dismissed the Trump administration’s designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization as “a stupendously unserious move… a sanction that brought no discernible pressure on the group or Iran more broadly.” He said the Biden administration should be open to removing the designation as part of nuclear talks. Blazakis has been vocal about the threat of far-right domestic terrorism.
Read the full story here. Robinson's Ramblings North Carolina's GOP front-runner for governor has a history of racist and antisemitic diatribes  ALLISON JOYCE/GETTY IMAGES In a series of previously unreported social media posts, Mark Robinson, the GOP frontrunner for governor of North Carolina, repeatedly minimized Nazi atrocities and promoted conspiracy theories about Hollywood and the media using Yiddish ethnic slurs, among other incendiary assertions. “I am so sick of seeing and hearing people STILL talk about Nazis and Hitler and how evil and manipulative they were. NEWS FLASH PEOPLE, THE NAZIS (National Socialist) ARE GONE! We did away with them,” Robinson wrote on Facebook in May 2017, before claiming in a typo-ridden screed that communism has always represented a greater threat to the United States, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Alarming rhetoric: Robinson’s comments, written before he was elected lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 2020, fit into a deeper expression of extreme paranoia advanced in several dramatically worded posts on his personal Facebook page — where he frequently voiced fears over a purported communist incursion. More broadly, the social media posts are part of a well-documented pattern of inflammatory pronouncements in which Robinson has invoked antisemitic stereotypes, flirted with Holocaust denialism and targeted Muslims and transgender people, among other minority groups. The lieutenant governor has refused to apologize for his rhetoric, which has raised alarms among Jewish community leaders in North Carolina.
Expected opponent: The newly uncovered Facebook comments could also fuel growing skepticism over Robinson’s electability in a key battleground state, where he is expected to face off against a Jewish Democrat, Josh Stein, who serves as the state’s attorney general. Robinson’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Thursday evening.
Read the full story here. | 🇮🇱 Hezbollah’s New Foothold: The Atlantic Council’s David Daoud cautions that Hezbollah and Iran are moving toward the creation of an additional front against Israel — from inside the Jewish state. “Establishing a front within Israel and the West Bank has immense utility for Hezbollah — now and during the group’s promised ‘comprehensive war’ against the Jewish state. For now, it allows the group to continue bleeding Israel through proxies while maintaining plausible deniability. At a minimum, this will keep the IDF mired in combating low-level, albeit sustained, violence. At worst, Israel’s ongoing clashes with Palestinian militants increase the possibility of miscalculation or overreaction by one or both parties, potentially igniting a new intifada. Such an outcome appears increasingly plausible as a younger Palestinian generation — disillusioned both with their leadership and negotiations with Israel, and with no memory of the bloodiness of the Second Intifada — is increasingly skewing Palestinian society in support of returning to armed confrontation. The future utility of Hezbollah’s ‘frontline’ within Israel would come into effect during a war. Years into the future, Hezbollah could ignite that war during one of the religiously or nationalistically sensitive anniversaries cluttering the Israeli-Palestinian calendar.” [AtlanticCouncil]
🗽 NYC Democratic Brawl: Politico’s Joe Anuta looks at the tensions between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller. “The episodes have cast the progressive ombudsman of city government as the moderate mayor’s archrival — even as Lander has been cautious in his approach. And the increasing tension is setting up a broader collision course between the left and center factions of the local Democratic Party. ‘If Brad Lander decides to really go to war with the mayor, he can be so much more aggravating to him,’ Chris Coffey, a Democratic political strategist who worked for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said. ‘On the flip side, Brad makes a pretty good punching bag for a mayor who is at times at odds with the organized left.’ What comes next could impact Adams’ reelection bid, arm the left wing of the party with institutional firepower and provide a platform for the comptroller to potentially mount a mayoral campaign of his own down the road.” [Politico]
🪖 A Matter of Fact: The Jerusalem Post’s Editor in Chief Avi Mayer reacts to BBC presenter Anjana Gadgil’s on-air statement that "The Israeli forces are happy to kill children,” while she interviewed former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about the IDF operation in Jenin. “After several deadly terrorist attacks in recent weeks, the Israeli government realized it had no choice but to step in and do the job itself. On Monday, the IDF and other Israeli security forces entered the city in a pinpoint operation aimed at uprooting the terror infrastructure there and particularly in the Jenin refugee camp. Rather than using the massive firepower at its disposal, Israel opted to send infantry troops into the city in order to keep Palestinian casualties to a minimum. That effort was successful. As noted, 12 Palestinian terrorists were killed in battle. One Israeli soldier, 23-year-old Sergeant-Major David Yehuda Yitzhak of Beit El, was also killed; the IDF is investigating whether his death was due to friendly fire. No uninvolved civilians lost their lives in Jenin. None of that, of course, matters to those to whom facts are irrelevant.” [JPost] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | 🐦 Threading a Case: Attorneys for Twitter are threatening legal action against Meta, alleging that the Instagram parent company hired away Twitter developers to create Threads, an app that launched this week as a rival to Twitter.
🗳️ Fear Factor: Politico reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is withholding an endorsement to former President Donald Trump, in part, out of fear that Trump’s nomination risks costing Republicans their lower-chamber majority in 2024.
☎️ Defense Discussion: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday about Israel’s military operation targeting militants in Jenin.
🇮🇱 Senatorial Visits: Multiple senators made stops in Israel this week, following a trip by House Armed Services Committee members last week. Visitors included Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). Scott, who was in Israel during the recent Israeli military operation in Jenin, expressed his support for Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism.
💬 Syria Soundbite: The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin reports that President Joe Biden told a group of Syrian refugees last month that he thinks Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be removed from power.
✍️ Live Free, and Don’t Boycott: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order banning state offices from investing in companies that engage in boycotts of Israel, becoming the 37th state in the U.S. to pass or adopt anti-BDS legislation.
🍽️ Bipartisan Brunch: The Wall Street Journal spotlights Washington’s Cafe Milano, the Georgetown restaurant where “the two sides of the country’s ideological chasm find themselves side-by-side.”
🚆 All Aboard: A new six-year, $6 billion proposal would reconfigure New York City’s Penn Station “into a single concourse with high ceilings and a grid of wide corridors that lets daylight, dignity and circulatory logic replace the rat’s maze beneath Madison Square Garden,” according to The New York Times.
👵 RBG Honor: A carving of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being added to the New York State Capitol’s “Million Dollar Staircase” in Albany, the first addition to the structure in 125 years.
📗 Bookshelf: The Washington Post reviews Aharon Appelfeld’s Poland, a Green Land, newly translated into English 20 years after the novel was published in Hebrew, and five years after Appelfeld’s death.
🙏 Future of Faith: Researchers at the University of Southern California are using AI to translate the Bible into obscure languages.
🇬🇧 Across the Pond: The U.K. announced new sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over Tehran’s stepped-up threats to kidnap British citizens and others residing in the U.K., but fell short of designating the IRGC as a terror group.
🚢 Smuggling Suspicions: U.S. Navy officials said that a ship seized by Iran on Thursday in the Arabian Gulf may have been part of a smuggling operation.
🛢️ Tehran Triumph: Iran’s crude oil exports hit a five-year high as Tehran sells its supply to countries including China, Syria and Venezuela.
🛰️ Drone Dealings: The Albatross company, based at a site that is at the center of Russo-Iranian drone cooperation, has delivered some 50 reconnaissance drones for Moscow’s use in its war against Ukraine.
🪖 West Bank Attack: A Hamas militant shot and killed an IDF soldier near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim.
🏖️ Bali Balagan: The upcoming 2023 World Beach Games were canceled following the withdrawal of host nation Indonesia, which cited bureaucratic issues, months after the southeast Asian nation was pulled as the host of the Under-20 Men’s World Cup over Jakarta’s objections to the participation of Israeli athletes.
🕯️ Remembering: Preservationist Jack Goldstein, who was instrumental in designating two dozen Broadway theaters as historical landmarks, died at 74. |  JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Tsinandali and Kindzmarauli wines:
“As the new honorary consul general of Georgia to Napa Valley, I recently set out on a diplomatic mission to learn as much as possible about the nation on the Black Sea, and one of its most important exports, wine.
While traveling around Georgia, I visited many technology companies, saw some magnificent synagogues and tasted some of Georgia’s many kosher wines. My new friend Mamuka, Georgia’s largest exporter of wine, made sure I tried the best. The flavors were all new to me and somehow seemed to tell the story of the close relationship between the indigenous Georgian and Jewish communities:
The white wine, Tsinandali, opens with a bold dry tartness alerting the drinker to pay close attention. The mid-palate softens a bit and has a ripe peach overtone, and the finish stops just shy of elegant, though is in concert with the rest of the wine. Enjoy with khinkali.
The red wine, Kindzmarauli, is semi-sweet, not a flavor profile I seek out. I was extremely surprised by this wine’s suppleness, Malaga-like finish, and mid-palate melancholy. When eaten with khachapuri, the rest of the evening was one big blur of happiness. I strongly suggest a trip to Georgia for its wine, food and people.” |  SCREENSHOT Israeli singer Yuval Dayan’s new song, "Stay As You Are," has garnered some 350,000 views on YouTube since its release last month. |  Shahar Azran/WireImage Israeli business mogul with vast holdings in energy (Delek Group) and real estate (El-Ad Group), Yitzhak Tshuva turns 75...
FRIDAY: A founder and former interim president of Hampshire College, Kenneth Rosenthal turns 85… Early collaborator on object-oriented computer programming in the 1970s, Adele Goldberg turns 78... Cardiologist and former president of CRIF in France, Richard Prasquier turns 78... Former president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a past member of the Knesset, Menachem Ben-Sasson turns 72... Pioneer of Israeli punk rock, nicknamed "HaMeshuga," Rami Fortis turns 69... Former USAID official who consults internationally on Rule of Law issues, Richard Gold... Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer, Akiva Goldsman turns 61... President of the United Synagogue of the UK, he is also a trustee of the UK's Chief Rabbinate Trust, Michael Howard Goldstein turns 60... President and CEO of HIAS since 2013, he first joined HIAS in 1989 as a caseworker in Rome, Mark Hetfield turns 56... Comic book creator and a cappella singer, he published the Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel, Jordan B. Gorfinkel turns 56... Television and film actress, Robin Weigert turns 54... Communications director for the Democratic Majority for Israel, Rachel Rosen... Consultant and project manager for non-profits, Amy Handman... Ethiopian-born Israeli actress, Netsanet Mekonnen turns 35... Olympic sports sailor, she competed for Israel in both the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, Gil Cohen turns 31... Originally a figure skater and now a pairs skater, Megan Wessenberg turns 25... Shalom Klein... Israel Policy Forum Board member, Lawrence Gottlieb...
SATURDAY: Emmy Award-winning singer and actor, part of the duo "Steve and Eydie," Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz) turns 88... Retired in 2016 after 26 years as executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Arthur "Art" Abramson turns 75... Democratic candidate for president in 2024, Marianne Deborah Williamson turns 71... Mayor of Farmington Hills, Mich., she is a former member of the Michigan State House of Representatives, Vicki Barnett turns 69... Attorney and Democratic politician from Texas, Barbara Ann Radnofsky turns 67... Attorney and a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium in the Obama administration, Howard Gutman turns 67... Partner of the global law firm Dentons, when he was elected attorney general of Georgia in 2010 (and re-elected in 2014) he became the first Jewish person in Georgia to win statewide office, Samuel Scott Olens turns 66... Former member of Knesset who had served as Israel's foreign minister, justice minister, agriculture minister and housing minister, Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni turns 65... Retired rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Beaumont, Texas, Rabbi Joshua S. Taub... Co-president of Rochester, N.Y.-based Hahn Automotive Warehouse, he is on the board of governors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Eli N. Futerman... SVP and COO of the Jewish Communal Fund, Marina W. Lewin... Washington D.C. bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ron Kampeas turns 63... Consultant strategist, policy advisor and writer, he served as corporate counsel to Allstate Insurance for 28 years, Steven Richard Sheffey turns 63... Managing principal at Albright Stonebridge Group, Dan K. Rosenthal turns 57... Former ice hockey player, her three sons were 7th, 1st and 4th picks overall, respectively, in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 NHL Draft, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes turns 55... Higher education reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Douglas Belkin... Managing director at Harbor Group International, Meir Raskas... CEO and president of the Truman National Security Project, Jenna Ben-Yehuda... Atlanta-based educator, activist and writer, Robbie Medwed... Senior associate at Horizons Law and Consulting, Alon Sachar... Assistant to the president and White House staff secretary, Stefanie Feldman turns 35... Diplomatic correspondent at the Israeli public broadcasting corporation, Amichai Stein...
SUNDAY: Former Soviet refusenik, prisoner of conscience, human rights activist, author and translator, Iosif Begun turns 91... Constitutional law expert focused on the First Amendment and free speech, senior counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindel where he has practiced since 1963, Floyd Abrams turns 87... Conductor and music director of symphony orchestras in Rotterdam, Rochester, Baltimore and Zurich, David Zinman turns 87... Licensed loan officer based in Huntington Woods, Mich., Robert M. Rubin... Arizona resident, Howard Cohen... Tikvah (Tiki) Lyons... Rabbi of Congregation Beth Jacob of Atlanta, Rabbi Ilan D. Feldman turns 69... U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) turns 68... Author, motivational speaker and former stockbroker, his autobiographical memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, was adapted into a film and released in 2013, Jordan Ross Belfort turns 61... Mortgage professional and owner of D.C.'s Char Bar, Michael Chelst... Activist short seller, author and editor of the online investment newsletter Citron Research, Andrew Left turns 53... Actor, tour guide, poet, speaker, philosopher and author, Timothy "Speed" Levitch turns 53... Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy, Eli Lake turns 51... Anchor and reporter for Fox Business Network covering the NYSE, Lori Rothman turns 50... Peter Webb ... Israeli documentary filmmaker, Guy Davidi turns 45... Tony Award-winning actor, Brandon Uranowitz turns 37... Renewable energy and climate specialist, Samantha Hea... Pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization, he played for Team Israel at the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Jake Kalish turns 32... Pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels organization, currently on AAA Salt Lake Bees, Kenny Rosenberg turns 28... | | | | | |
