| | Good Wednesday morning. In today’s Daily Kickoff , we have the scoop on Samantha Power’s upcoming trip to Israel. We also report on the warning from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines over Iranian involvement in anti-Israel protests in the U.S., cover the debate over the Democratic Party’s Israel platform and talk to New York state and congressional lawmakers about the proposed reimplementation of a mask ban in an effort to clamp down on antisemitic activity. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : Shari Redstone, Amir Faintuch and Almog Meir Jan. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - President Joe Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington today. The U.K.’s new leader, who has been in office for less than a week, will also meet jointly with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
- USAID Administrator Samantha Power is headed to Israel later this week, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss scoops. Power is one of several U.S. officials in the region this week — the State Department’s Barbara Leaf will be in Israel later this week as part of a swing through the region including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and also a stop in Italy. More on Power’s trip here.
- In Gaza this morning, the IDF dropped leaflets calling for the evacuation of Gaza City in its entirety, saying it "will be a dangerous combat zone." The instructions include safe routes to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The IDF previously evacuated specific areas of Gaza City, in northern Gaza where about 200,000 Palestinians remain. Allowing Gazans to return to the north is one of Hamas' demands in hostage negotiations.
- Hostage-release negotiations are continuing in Doha, Qatar, today, where Mossad Director David Barnea landed along with the head of the Shin Bet and the IDF general in charge of hostage negotiations. The White House’s Brett McGurk left Israel for Doha today after meeting with officials in Cairo earlier this week to discuss a potential cease-fire agreement. Last night, McGurk met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv.
- On Capitol Hill, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold its markup of U.N. and UNRWA bills.
| Democrats are in the final stage of grief — acceptance — over President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance that has left few party leaders optimistic that he’ll be able to defeat former President Donald Trump in November, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports.
After private in-person meetings held by House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday, only one additional Democrat — Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) — called for Biden to step aside, even as many privately are concerned about the president’s health and publicly worried about his political prospects. Even Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who privately said Biden should withdraw from the race on Sunday, changed his tune two days later.
“He’s going to be our nominee and we all have to support him,” Nadler said, reflecting the prevailing mood in Democratic circles. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said at a Tuesday press conference: “As I’ve said before, I’m with Joe.” The Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, representing key elements of the Democratic base, both unequivocally backed the president.
Notably, the list of those falling in line behind Biden include progressives often critical of the president, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). A Biden loss to Trump in November could potentially fire up the party’s progressive base, which emerged as part of the “resistance” during Trump’s first term in office.
The acceptance of Biden as the nominee comes as Democrats recognize they have no good options at this late stage of the campaign. Any move to push Biden aside carries massive risk, especially after the president wrote a letter Monday declaring any such attempt to pick an alternative candidate without engagement by voters would be an antidemocratic act.
Biden’s aggressive counterattack against his own party’s “rebels” underscores that: a) he’s not willingly stepping aside; b) any attempt to pressure him to step down, even with Vice President Kamala Harris as the successor, will not come without a cost.
Biden’s resistance comes as Democrats recognize that Harris carries significant political baggage of her own. Biden may be a likely loser given the trajectory of the race, but the downside risk is potentially greater if Democrats blow up their ticket for a similarly unpopular nominee. Harris would hold less appeal with older white voters (with whom Biden is holding his own), even as she could bring more younger progressives to her side.
Harris — if she emerged as the nominee — would also have to answer uncomfortable questions about how much she knew about Biden’s health while sticking with the White House line that all was well. The reality is there are no good alternatives for Democrats, even with Biden looking in historically weak shape.
Polls have been inconclusive on who would be a stronger challenger: A CNN poll last week showed Harris running slightly more competitively, but an Emerson national poll out Tuesday showed Biden still performing better than Harris. Nearly all of the post-debate polls show Biden trailing, with widespread voter concern about his age and ability to handle the job for another four years.
A new Wisconsin poll, conducted jointly by top Trump and Biden pollsters, found Trump in a strong position, leading Biden by six points (44-38%) in a full-ballot test. Wisconsin is the battleground state where Biden had been polling the most competitively.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) said on CNN yesterday that Trump could win the November election "by a landslide."
But for Democrats on a ballot in 2024, accepting Biden’s problems while maintaining a united anti-Trump front is now looking like their most credible chance to hold down Senate losses and have a shot at winning back the House. If a united party gives Democrats an outside shot at holding onto a bit of power, the thinking goes, it’s a better outcome than to risk dividing the party at the worst possible time. | foreign interference U.S. director of national intelligence says Iran is influencing and funding Gaza war protests  Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday that the Iranian government has both provoked and provided funding for protests in the U.S. over the war in Gaza, suggesting that connections between U.S.-based demonstrators and the Iranian regime and its affiliates go deeper than previously believed, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years,” Haines said in a public statement. “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”
Read the full story here. dem decisions Democrats debate approach to Israel ahead of drafting party platform  SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES While national Democratic figures fret about whether President Joe Biden should remain the party’s nominee, the standard, bureaucratic business of the presidential campaign ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention is proceeding as normal. On Tuesday, the party activists tasked with drafting the Democratic Party’s platform met virtually to hear testimony from advocates on issues ranging from gun violence prevention to abortion, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Who said what: The 30-minute segment of the meeting that focused on Israel and the war in Gaza featured dueling testimonies from both the pro-Israel and anti-Israel wings of the party, hinting at lingering discontent within the party over how Israel — long a key pillar of the Democrats’ platform — could be treated in the policy document. Dana Stroul, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in the first three years of the Biden administration, offered a resounding endorsement of the U.S.-Israel relationship that was echoed by Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer. A leader of the “Uncommitted” movement, meanwhile, urged drafters to consider an “arms embargo” against Israel.
Read the full story here. masking matters Proposed New York mask ban receives broad, bipartisan support  ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES A push by New York state lawmakers to implement mask bans in some public settings, coming largely in response to recent antisemitic activity in New York City, is winning bipartisan support, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the effort: Jewish and Black advocacy groups are pushing for pending legislation to ban masks at protests. New York had an anti-masking law in place since the 1800s, until the COVID-19 pandemic, initially implemented in response to the Ku Klux Klan. It’s winning backing from Republicans and Democrats in New York’s congressional delegation.
Read the full story here. TLV to DC Hostage families to fly on Netanyahu's plane to attend address to Congress  JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images Relatives of hostages still being held in Gaza will join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the inaugural flight of Israel’s version of Air Force One, as the premier heads to Washington, D.C., to deliver a pivotal speech to a joint session of Congress on July 24, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov has learned. The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a query about which families would join Netanyahu.
U.S. hostage families: Relatives of the five living American hostages – Keith Siegel, 65; Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35; Omer Neutra, 22; Edan Alexander, 20; and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23 – are expected to attend the speech, according to an Israeli official. A spokesperson for the Bring Hersh Home campaign said his parents plan to travel to the U.S. before Netanyahu to hold meetings and speak to the media. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, said that he will not be traveling with Netanyahu and is still working out his plans. Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) plans to invite a member of the Siegel family to attend the address. Several other members of Congress plan to invite hostage families, but would not comment on record because the tickets have not come through yet.
Read the full story here. meta move Meta updates hate speech policy on term 'Zionist' to include attacks on Jews and Israelis  CHESNOT/GETTY IMAGES In an update to its hate speech guidelines, Meta will remove content that links the term “Zionist” with antisemitic tropes, calls for harm or denials of existence or other dehumanizing language, the social media giant’s policy forum announced on Tuesday. In its announcement, Meta said that it “found sharply contrasting views” on how to evaluate the term,” noting that the word has “layers of meaning based on its origins and usage today, and may also be highly dependent on context,” eJewishPhilantrhopy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider.
Meta statement: “For many, the term is a proxy for Jewish people or Israelis,” a statement from the company explained. “This perception is particularly strong when the term is paired with age-old antisemitic tropes – especially those invoking the conspiracy of worldwide Jewish power. Many other stakeholders told us that ‘Zionists’ is a reference to adherents of an ideology, rooted in history, and that today the term is used most often to refer to the Israeli government and its supporters.”
Read the full story here.
Bonus: Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, praised Meta’s decision, calling the move “an important step in mitigating the rampant spread of online antisemitism.” union issues Congressional witnesses accuse unions of fostering hostile, antisemitic environments  screenshot Two witnesses testifying before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday said that their unions have created deeply hostile environments for them as Jewish people who support Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they said: William Sussman, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the school’s graduate student union, which has been involved in and promoted anti-Israel, antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity, testified, “I’ve tried to use the law as it exists, and at every turn, the law has failed me.”
Read the full story here. | Summer of Their Discontent: In The New York Times, the Atlantic Council’s Holly Dagres suggests that Iran’s “Gen Z” — known in the country as Nasleh Zed — are unsatisfied with the results of last week’s election and will be a driving force pushing back against the Iranian regime. “Many members of Gen Z blame their parents and grandparents for ushering in an Islamic republic after the revolution that overthrew the shah in 1979 and continuing to accept the current situation, hoping for incremental reform. They don’t see the difference, as some of the older generation do, between ‘principalist’ politicians, known as hard-liners in the West, and ‘reformists’ like Mr. [Masoud] Pezeshkian [who won last week’s presidential election]. Various memes of pink nooses festooned in flowers and morality police wearing pink bows made the point that the reformist camp offers a version of the clerical establishment that is friendlier on the surface only. To them, these men are all ‘footmen’ of Mr. Khamenei, the ultimate decision maker on domestic and foreign policies.” [NYTimes]
False Dawn: In the Washington Post, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Karim Sadjadpour posits that last week’s election in Iran of Masoud Pezeshkian, the less extreme of the two presidential candidates, will not usher in significant change in the Islamic republic. “Although Pezeshkian will not change the regime’s strategic and ideological aims, his appointed foreign policy advisers are likely to be cosmopolitan English speakers rather than unsophisticated ideologues. For the United States, more agile Iranian diplomats at the helm means the Islamic republic may be easier to engage — but also more difficult to isolate internationally. The future of Iran, and its relationship with the United States, will be shaped most profoundly not by what happens after the arrival of a new Iranian president, but what happens after the death or departure of Khamenei.” [WashPost]
Where Are the Yellow Ribbons?: In The Wall Street Journal, John Ondrasik, the singer known as Five for Fighting, asks why the American hostages being held by Hamas have not gotten the same attention as Americans held hostage in previous conflicts. “I’m old enough to remember the yellow ribbons. In 1979, Islamic radicals in Iran took 52 Americans hostage, holding them for 444 days. The hostages’ plight captured the nation’s attention. Some of them became household names. Across the country people prayed for their release. The crisis was the lead story on the news every night. Tying a yellow ribbon on a tree or lamppost became a public expression of sorrow and concern. Even the White House Christmas tree had one. What a contrast to our current hostage crisis. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas killed more than 30 American citizens and took as many as a dozen Americans hostage. Of those who were taken, at least two have been murdered. Five, we pray, are still alive. Do you know any of their names? Have you seen one yellow ribbon?” [WSJ] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | Speaking at a conference at Israel’s Reichman University, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew cautioned that Israel risked an erosion of support “on the margins” of both major U.S. political parties, and warned that “generational change” may further affect support for Israel in the U.S….
By unanimous consent, the Senate passed a bill extending the Never Again Education Act's Holocaust education programming through 2030…
The House Ways and Means Committee split along partisan lines on Tuesday over two bills that Republicans said would punish colleges and universities for campus antisemitism by imposing tax penalties and potentially reassessing their tax-exempt statuses, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Democrats argued that the bills were not serious or effective efforts to combat antisemitism…
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan penned a New York Times op-ed touting the strength of the NATO alliance as the summit gets underway in Washington…
Shari Redstone, along with Robert Kraft, Karlie Kloss and Bob Iger, was among the first to arrive in Sun Valley, Idaho, for Allen & Co.’s annual summit…
Authorities in Oakland, Calif., are investigating two separate incidents of vandalism that targeted the city’s Chabad Center in the last two weeks…
The New York Times spotlights custom wigmaker Shani Lechan, whose creations are used by both Hollywood costumers and Orthodox women…
The Financial Times looks at the growing relations between Serbia and individuals linked to former President Donald Trump, including Ric Grenell and Jared Kushner, as Belgrade seeks to cement itself as a power player in the region, leaning on relationships with both Washington and Moscow…
Amir Faintuch’s Volumez raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies…
Israel’s newest airline, Air Haifa, will receive its first aircraft later this month; the airline expects to operate flights between Haifa and Eilat by September with plans to add flights to Cyprus and Greece…
The Wall Street Journal looks at how the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel is growing in size and popularity following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and subsequent war in Gaza…
Rescued Israeli hostage Almog Meir Jan filed a lawsuit against the People Media Project, the U.S.-based 501(c)3 whose Palestine Chronicle news outlet employed Meir Jan’s captor…
The outgoing head of Israel’s Central Command condemned the rise in settler violence in the West Bank, saying that it was in Israel’s interest to have a “strong and functioning” Palestinian Authority in the territory; the comments from IDF Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs garnered pushback from some right-wing coalition members and settlement leaders…
The IDF said it is investigating after a targeted strike on a Hamas operative who participated in the Oct. 7 terror attacks killed 25 people at a school in Khan Younis, Gaza…
A former bodyguard for Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike in Syria; the terror group retaliated by firing dozens of Katyusha rockets toward an Israeli military base in the Golan Heights…
Two Israeli civilians were killed in a Hezbollah rocket barrage that hit their vehicle in the Golan Heights…
The American citizen injured in a weekend Hezbollah drone strike in Israel’s north is an employee of a drone company who was in Israel for work…
Reuters looks at how Hezbollah is using low-tech strategies, including pagers and landlines, to evade detection and observation by Israel…
Iranian authorities shuttered the Tehran offices of Turkish Airways after female employees refused to cover their heads in compliance with the country’s strict morality laws…
An Iranian warship — one of the largest in the country’s fleet — capsized while undergoing repairs in the port of Bandar Abbas…
Planetary scientist Richard Goldstein died at 97… |  Shalom Burkis/Chabad.org An estimated 50,000 people traveled to the gravesite, known as the Ohel, of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death, which fell on Monday night and Tuesday in the Jewish calendar, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports. |  Chelsea Lauren/WireImage Television and film actress, Aviva Farber Baumann turns 40...
Neurologist, certified by Guinness World Records as the oldest practicing physician in the U.S., in his '60s he attended law school and then passed the bar exam, Howard Tucker, MD, JD turns 102... Senior U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of Texas, Judge David Hittner turns 85... Retired attorney at the California Office of Legislative Counsel, Robert D. Gronke... Stan Udaskin... Folk singer-songwriter, Arlo Guthrie turns 77... NYC-born author of 12 novels, she has been living in Israel since 1971, Naomi Ragen turns 75... Partner in consulting firm Quorum, LLC and president at Regal Domestics, Barbara Goldberg Goldman... Author of 12 books, journalist, she is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Julie Salamon turns 71... Editor of the Cleveland Jewish News, Columbus Jewish News and Akron Jewish News, Bob Jacob... Israel's ambassador to Spain until two months ago, Rodica Radian-Gordon turns 67... Board chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Leslie Dannin Rosenthal... Member of Holland & Knight's public policy group, he was previously a member of Congress (D-FL), Ronald J. "Ron" Klein turns 67... Lobbyist, he was a longtime member of the New York State legislature, Jeffrey D. Klein turns 64... Voice actor and impressionist who has voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and dozens of others, Jeffrey Bergman turns 64... Critic at large for The New York Times Book Review, Anthony Oliver (A.O.) Scott turns 58... Member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019 (D-MI), she is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the 2024 election to succeed Debbie Stabenow, Elissa Blair Slotkin turns 48... NYC-based founding partner at Purposeful Communications, Elie Jacobs... Member of the Knesset for the Shas party, Yinon Azulai turns 45... Head of politics and public affairs at Altice and Optimum Media, Rena Shapiro... Writer and comedian, his conversion from Mormon to Jew is the subject of a documentary, "Latter Day Jew," H. Alan Scott turns 42... Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department during the Trump administration, Morgan Deann Ortagus turns 42... Deputy managing editor for politics at Politico, Sam Stein... Founder, creative director and designer for a fashion line bearing her name, Kimberly Ovitz turns 41... Dance teacher at John Foster Dulles High School in Missouri City, Texas, Kayla Sokoloff... | | | | | |
