| | Good Tuesday morning. In today’s Daily Kickoff , we report on Vice President Kamala Harris’ plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while he is in Washington for his address to a joint session of Congress — which Harris will not preside over. We look at Harris’ support among Jewish Democrats, report on the concerns of Israeli-American hostages' families in Washington and explore the state-level implications of Harris potentially selecting North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as her running mate. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : Deborah Lipstadt, Darren Walker and Sheryl Sandberg. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - President Joe Biden is set to return to the White House this afternoon after spending the weekend in Delaware while he recovered from COVID-19.
- The House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a roundtable this morning for the Israeli-American hostage families who are in Washington this week. Immediately after, hostage families will participate in a similar event with Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).
- The Capitol Hill delegation that traveled to Buenos Aires last week for the 30th anniversary of the AMIA Jewish community center bombing will speak in Washington today about their experiences.
- Elsewhere on Capitol Hill today, the House Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing on the Trump assassination attempt, while the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee is holding a hearing on antisemitism and tax exemptions.
- And on TV, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is slated to make her first appearance on ABC’s “The View” since Biden announced he will not seek reelection.
| Democrats have rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris as the favored presidential nominee, a move that gives the party much-needed unity while facing the risk that the veep may not end up performing much better than President Joe Biden, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
What Harris gives Democrats is hope — hope that a younger, more vibrant campaigner can move the needle in a race that’s tilting away from them. To make a sports analogy: She’s the backup, once-hyped NFL quarterback filling in for an injured veteran with a losing record. There’s nowhere to go but up, the thinking goes.
Harris will bring Democrats the opportunity to win back some of the party’s base that had grown unenthused about the prospect of a second Biden term. She’ll likely score better with younger voters, progressives and Black voters, all of whom registered historically low excitement for Biden.
She’ll also be able to speak more effectively than Biden on abortion policy, one of the few winning issues for Democrats this cycle. Running to protect abortion rights has helped Democrats prevail in numerous off-year elections since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
But her instinct to rally progressives over wooing persuadable moderates could end up becoming a major liability in the general election. She ran to the left in her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, even though there was a wide-open lane for a center-left candidate — a political reality that Biden (and others, such as Pete Buttigieg) embraced.
As vice president, she hasn’t taken the opportunity to reassure Americans skeptical of her background as a Bay Area Democrat, using the second-in-command role more as a trusted emissary to progressives. (One missed opportunity, according to one Democratic strategist: Speaking out aggressively on antisemitism from her vice-presidential perch, following the lead of her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.)
Her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week during his D.C. trip will be an early test on whether she views her new role as an opportunity to rebrand herself in the center of the party, or whether she will use the opportunity to pressure Israel in order to build capital with certain disillusioned left-wing activists.
The RealClearPolitics polling average shows former President Donald Trump with a two-point lead over Harris, about the same deficit Democrats faced with Biden on the ticket, before last month’s debate debacle. Trump has held a small but durable advantage throughout the year, a dynamic that’s been driven as much by concerns about Biden’s record as the long-standing worries about his age and mental acuity.
And Harris risks losing some ground with seniors, a reliable voting constituency that overperformed for Biden, even as she likely improves the party’s standing with younger voters. Seniors make up an outsized share of the three critical Rust Belt battlegrounds that will determine the winner of this high-stakes presidential race.
If Harris lives up to her potential, Democrats could anticipate racially diverse Sun Belt swing states like Georgia, Nevada and Arizona coming back into play as Harris is able to provide a more compelling vision of the country’s future.
If she falters, however, her victory path could be blocked by failing to win over the working-class voters that are critical to winning Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Biden’s success winning back enough of those voters won him the White House in 2020, a task that could prove a bit more challenging for Harris. | Tête-à-tête Netanyahu to meet with VP Kamala Harris at pivotal time in war and politics  AMOS BEN-GERSHOM (GPO) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris this week has grown in importance since Harris has emerged as the expected Democratic presidential nominee, while a scheduled meeting with outgoing President Joe Biden remains pivotal to Israel’s war effort. “This is a crucial moment for Israeli and American leaders,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov. “It’s a much more interesting moment than people realize.”
Political opportunity: Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren argued that the Netanyahu-Harris meeting is a more politically consequential meeting than any conversation Netanyahu could have with Biden. Harris, as the likely presidential nominee, will have her first chance to showcase her commander-in-chief credentials in her meeting with Netanyahu, while also clarifying her own campaign’s views towards Israel.
Read the full story here.
Also on Netanyahu’s schedule: The prime minister is slated to speak at a memorial event on Wednesday for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who died in March. Shoring up support Jewish Democrats fall in line behind Harris  ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES Vice President Kamala Harris shored up support from Jewish Democrats on Monday, winning the backing of both the mainstream pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel and the more progressive Israel advocacy group J Street, in addition to the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA). Ann Lewis, a longtime Democratic strategist and the DMFI board chair, said Harris aligns with her on what Lewis described as her “kishke issues,” using the Yiddish word for “guts” — reproductive rights and Israel, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
‘Unwavering’: Since Oct. 7, Harris has often sounded a more sympathetic note to the Palestinians than Biden and empathized with pro-Palestine student activists, even while continuing to affirm U.S. support for Israel. In comments to JI on Monday, an aide to the vice president outlined Harris’ current thinking on Israel, offering the first look at where she stands as the nominee. “Throughout her career, the vice president has had an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. That remains true today,” the aide said. “Since Oct. 7, she has been deeply engaged with Israeli officials as part of our administration’s support for Israel as it works to eliminate the threat of Hamas.”
Read the full story here. calling on cardin Cardin to preside at Netanyahu’s speech, with VP Harris absent  KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the retiring chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is set to preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday to a joint session of Congress, filling a role traditionally held by Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Brewing protest: Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-WA) would ordinarily be next in line after Harris to preside, but she declined to do so and won’t be attending the speech, a spokesperson told JI. Such a situation hasn’t happened in decades. Amid a growing boycott by lawmakers, a range of lawmakers and outside groups are planning events and to counter-program Netanyahu’s address to Congress.
Read the full story here.
Empty seat: Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, will not attend Netanyahu’s speech; a Trump campaign senior advisor said that Vance’s absence was due to his “duties to fulfill as the Republican nominee for vice president,” but added that the senator “stands steadfastly with the people of Israel in their fight to defend their homeland, eradicate terrorist threats, and bring back their countrymen held hostage.” hostage deal hopes U.S. hostages' families call on Netanyahu to announce deal in Congress speech  ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES Family members of the remaining Israeli American hostages in Gaza warned ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress that they’ll view anything less than him using the speech to announce a hostage deal as a “failure.” Speaking to reporters in the hours after Netanyahu touched down stateside on Monday, the families of “the American eight” called on the prime minister to accept the current hostage deal on the table for the sake of ending this anguishing chapter in their lives, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Lahav Harkov report.
Red line: The relatives said that while they did not know what Netanyahu planned to say during his address, they were clear on what they would find acceptable. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is here this week to address Congress on Wednesday. We fully expect that his speech to Congress on Wednesday is going to be the announcement of this hostage deal that we've all been waiting for. Now is the right time, it’s 290 [days] past the right time, but now is the time to close this deal. We view any speech that is not the announcement of the signing and closing of a hostage deal to be a total failure,” Jon Polin, the father of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said.
Read the full story here. cooper candidacy Roy Cooper VP pick would empower controversial North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson  ALLISON JOYCE/GETTY IMAGES With North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper emerging as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, new attention is falling on a North Carolina state law that could empower controversial Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson while Cooper is on the campaign trail. Cooper wouldn’t have to resign his office if he joins Harris’ campaign, but, per state law, Robinson — who is mounting his own gubernatorial bid — becomes acting governor any time Cooper leaves the state. As such, making Cooper the vice presidential nominee could leave Republicans effectively in charge of the governor’s office for parts of the election cycle, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Risk assessment: Robinson has prompted concerns from North Carolina’s Jewish community over accusations of antisemitism, including comments invoking anti-Jewish tropes and conspiracy theories, downplaying the Holocaust and quoting Adolf Hitler, among a range of other controversial remarks. But Christopher Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina University, said that there’s limited risk for Democrats in the proposition of making Gov. Cooper their vice presidential nominee. “The North Carolina governor is arguably the weakest governor in the country,” Cooper said, noting that Republicans already hold a veto-proof majority in the General Assembly, so it’s essentially irrelevant legislatively whether Robinson or Cooper is signing legislation.
Read the full story here.
Veepstakes: Harris’ campaign has reportedly requested vetting materials from Cooper as well as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Govs. Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer, Tim Walz and J.B. Pritzker. common ground Empowerment trip taking teen survivors of Oct. 7 attacks to Fukushima, Japan  Getty Images One of the teenagers is longing for her grandfather, a hostage being held in Gaza; another lost her best friend in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri; and yet another had to carry a gun for protection as he patrolled his moshav a few days after Hamas’ brutal attack. All three are part of a group of 15 Israeli students from the Nofey Habsor High School — located in the Eshkol region of the Gaza Envelope — that will be traveling to Japan at the end of this month as part of a unique leadership program aimed at supporting their recovery following Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attacks on their communities and instilling a sense of empowerment that young people, despite such extreme events, can be effective agents of change, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.
Loss and destruction: While the group, which will also include three teachers and a student counselor, will travel to several locations in Japan, the highlight of the trip is a scheduled visit to Fukushima, the devastated site of the 2011 nuclear power plant accident caused by an unprecedented earthquake and tsunami in the region. “The similarity between Fukushima and what happened in southern Israel on Oct. 7 are the personal stories of loss and destruction,” said Mayo Hotta, the executive director of enForward, a community platform that promotes diversity and multicultural collaborations to achieve a better future and overcome challenges and crises.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here. | The Next War: For The New Yorker, Dexter Filkins travels to Lebanon and Israel to assess the likelihood of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. “In the week I spent [in Israel], the resolve to subdue Hamas appeared undiminished, but a mood of self-doubt seemed to grip the country. In one conversation, I asked a senior Israeli national-security official how he could be sure of Hezbollah’s condition. ‘We are confident,’ he said — and then stopped himself. ‘But we are not bragging about our intelligence. Especially not after October 7th. We have good capabilities, but we must be humble.’ On the ground, Hezbollah seemed anything but humble. The group’s ultimate dream is not just to thwart the I.D.F. in southern Lebanon. It is, in the words of its founding charter, Israel’s ‘final obliteration from existence and the liberation of venerable Jerusalem from the talons of occupation.’ When I asked Habib, the Hezbollah commander, about the possibility of pulling back from the border in order to stave off a war, he nodded in the direction of Israel. ‘The only direction I’m going is that way,’ he said.” [NewYorker]
Resupply Lines: In The Wall Street Journal, Shay Khatiri suggests that the most effective way to neutralize threats from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen is to cut off the militant group’s supply of weapons. “Israel must recognize that degrading Houthi capabilities alone won’t succeed. The Saudis, Emiratis and Americans can attest to this. Iran will continue to supply the Houthis faster than their military assets can be destroyed. America saw this effect in Afghanistan, where Pakistan resupplied the Taliban. The Afghans lacked the capability to take the fight directly to Pakistan and the U.S., for its own reasons, preferred not to. A successful strategy must cut off the supply of weapons to the Houthis, taking the fight directly to Iran. … The key to ending the Houthis’ assaults on Israel and commercial shipping is interrupting their ability to restock. That will require attacking the Iranian ships that are supplying the weapons. This strategy carries risks, but defeat is the only risk-free strategy.” [WSJ]
Quick Pick: The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood posits that Democrats erred in rushing to back Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee. “If a campaign launch is a candidate’s chance to show off his pearly smile, the primary is the candidate’s chance to show off that smile after he’s been slugged in the face a few times. And as in boxing, it’s better to take one’s practice hits from a sparring partner rather than from the defending champ who awaits you on fight night. Harris is now in danger of bypassing that jaw-hardening process, which the Democrats could have extended over a period of weeks, as other candidates sought to displace her — and, if they failed, showed that they might be vice-presidential material. The process would also, like a normal primary, have long-term salutary effects on the party, by showing which young talent looks likely to ripen into Democratic leadership.” [TheAtlantic] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign announced a $81 million haul in the 24 hours after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection… Sheryl Sandberg threw her support behind Harris’ presidential campaign, citing the VP’s recent hosting of a White House event focused on sexual violence that included a partial screening of Sandberg’s film “Screams Before Silence”...
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, speaking at an event in Pittsburgh, said that Harris’ potential selection of a running mate is a “deeply personal” decision that “should be made free of any sort of political pressure”...
Ford Foundation President Darren Walker announced plans to step down from the helm of the organization at the end of 2025, concluding 12 years atop the foundation as it shifted its focus and expanded its assets by more than $5 billion…
The Anti-Defamation League is calling on the IRS to investigate whether the WESPAC Foundation and Alliance for Global Justice violated their tax-exempt statuses in their support for anti-Israel protests…
Prosecutors in Cook County, Ill., dropped charges against four Northwestern University faculty members arrested for their roles in campus anti-Israel protests; a representative from the state’s Attorney’s Office said the decision to drop the charges was in line with the earlier decision not to prosecute student protesters…
The Nova Exhibition that recreates the site of one of Hamas’ Oct. 7 targets will open next month in Los Angeles after runs in Tel Aviv and New York…
The Los Angeles Times profiled Amb. Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism…
Talks between Alphabet and Assaf Rappaport’s Wiz to acquire the Israeli cybersecurity startup for $23 billion collapsed, with Rappaport telling employees that the company was planning for an IPO…
Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad agreed to sign onto a framework for a unity government; the effort is being overseen by Beijing…
The U.S., UAE and Israel held secret talks in Abu Dhabi last week to discuss “day-after” scenarios in Gaza…
U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking said the U.S. is considering redesignating the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization...
In The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Michael Segal reflects on the largely politics-free atmosphere of coexistence present in Israeli hospitals…
Sudan and Iran exchanged ambassadors, fully restoring diplomatic ties between the two countries after eight years…
Israel issued new evacuation orders for parts of the city of Khan Younis in Gaza… | Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) (center), with brothers and Nova music festival survivors Daniel and Neria Sharabi in New York on Sunday. The Sharabi brothers spoke at an event co-hosted by JCRC-NY and the American Middle East Press Association. On Oct. 7, the Sharabi brothers, both former combat soldiers, protected dozens of fellow Nova festival-goers for six hours while they awaited rescue by the IDF.
Consul General of Israel in New York Ofir Akunis, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York CEO Mark Treyger, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark also spoke at the event, which took place at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale - The Bayit. |  Bobby Bank/WireImage Israeli film actress best known for her performance in the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy, Orli Shoshan turns 50...
Banker who distributed $60 million to his 400 employees when he sold City National Bank of Florida in 2008, Leonard L. Abess turns 76... Former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, she was the chair of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation until 2023, Fay Hartog-Levin turns 76... Retired judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Judge Alex Kozinski turns 74... Businessman and real estate investor, Alexander Rovt turns 72... Senior rabbi of the Great Neck Synagogue for over 30 years, he served as president of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Dale Polakoff turns 67... President of the Marcus Foundation, Jay Kaiman... Proprietor of Oy Vey Jewish Bakery and Delicatessen in Terre Haute, Ind., Chavah Stair... Freelance journalist, she is the widow of Daniel Pearl and wrote a book about his kidnapping and murder in Pakistan in 2002, Mariane Pearl turns 57... Director, producer and actor, Shawn Adam Levy turns 56... Executive director and chief creative officer at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, Rachel Eva Goslins turns 55... U.S. Sen. (D-GA), Raphael Warnock turns 55... Dov M. Katz... Freelance television writer and author of two books, Joel Stein... Psychologist in private practice in both Manhattan and Great Neck, Long Island, Lynn Glasman, Ph.D.... Former White House intern, now an activist, television personality and fashion designer, Monica Lewinsky turns 51... Music producer and songwriter, Jonathan Reuven "J.R." Rotem turns 49... Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Itai Grinberg... Singer, he represented Israel in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest, Tal Sondak turns 48... Radio disc jockey, television show host and professional wrestling personality, Peter Elliot Rosenberg turns 45... Mayor of Minneapolis since 2018, Jacob Lawrence Frey turns 43... Sports studio host and play-by-play announcer for Westwood One, Sirius XM and ESPN, Jason M. Horowitz... Comedian and actor, Rick Glassman turns 40... Reporter for the Washington Post, Perry Stein... Starting right fielder for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Zach Borenstein turns 34... Joseph Stern... | | | | | |
