| | Good Thursday morning. In today’s Daily Kickoff , we highlight last night’s Lamplighter Awards and interview author Amir Tibon about his upcoming book about the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. We also cover Stephanie Hallett’s confirmation hearing to be ambassador to Bahrain and spotlight former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Fitz Haney’s new line of Israeli agave-based spirits. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff : House Speaker Mike Johnson, Mark Zuckerberg and Robert Kraft. Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - President Joe Biden is marking the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act at a White House ceremony at 5:45 p.m. Leaders from the National Council of Jewish Women, Shalom Bayit, the Jewish Coalition on Domestic Abuse, the SRE network and Jewish Women International will be at the event.
- Former President Donald Trump is making his first campaign swing since Tuesday’s debate, delivering remarks at 2 p.m. ET in Tucson, Ariz., and later traveling to Los Angeles to headline a private fundraising event.
- Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Trump’s running mate, is headlining two fundraisers in New York City today hosted by top backers in the financial industry. The first is a $10,000-a-plate-minimum breakfast hosted by investor Scott Bessent, Morgan Stanley's Jonathan Burkan, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Norm Champ, a former director at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The second lunch event features investor Keith Rabois, Palantir advisor Jacob Helberg and Burkan as co-hosts.
- Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking at a campaign event in Charlotte, N.C., this afternoon at 3:40 p.m. ET.
| As klezmer music echoed through the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., last night, dozens of members of the House and Senate gathered alongside more than 100 Jewish leaders, ambassadors and politicos for the annual American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) Lamplighter Awards gala. At the cocktail reception, guests noshed on kosher charcuterie and sushi as they heard remarks from several pro-Israel stalwarts in Congress including Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Tim Kennedy (R-NY), and Joe Morelle (D-NY).
During dinner, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was presented with the Lamplighter Leadership Award, a menorah made from rockets fired by Hamas into Israel, for his support for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
"I stand with Israel because it's a matter of faith for me and it always will be," Johnson told attendees. "America's support for Israel has been and must remain bipartisan," he said. Johnson recalled hosting the inaugural menorah lighting inside the Capitol last Hanukkah, alongside Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who leads American Friends of Lubavitch. "I was surprised to learn that that did not happen before," Johnson said. "I'm glad we began that tradition."
Johnson was introduced by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). “There is a special relationship between the U.S. and Israel and our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad and unbreakable,” Jeffries said, adding that he and Johnson are committed to ensuring that support for Israel “remains bipartisan.”
In his speech, Jeffries referred to this week’s Torah portion, which concludes with the obligation to “remember what Amalek did to you on the way” out of Egypt. He said that like Amalek, “the enemy nation of the people of Israel [continues] throughout generations to rear its ugly head.”
“But the Jewish people are resilient and we will stand up for Israel’s right to defend herself. We will stand up to make sure that we crush antisemitism and bury it in the ground never to rise again,” Jeffries said to applause from the crowd.
The usually celebratory event was held against a somber backdrop this year, on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — and a few weeks before the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, while more than 100 hostages remain held in Gaza. The evening opened with a moment of silence for the victims of Sept. 11, followed by a United States Marine Corps Color Guard tribute. Several Gold Star families and members of the U.S. armed forces were in attendance.
Jeffrey DeBoer, chief executive of the Real Estate Roundtable, was also honored at the event. Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog, who was among nearly two dozen ambassadors in attendance last night, delivered remarks to the crowd. Speakers also included Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Shelley Greenspan, the White House liaison to the American Jewish community, who delivered remarks on behalf of President Joe Biden. | bookshelf Standing at the gates of Gaza – and telling the world what happened  courtesy If there is one book that eloquently sums up the personal, national and historical tragedies endured by the Israeli people on the darkest day since the country’s founding, it could be the forthcoming account by Israeli journalist and author Amir Tibon. In The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival and Hope on Israel’s Borderlands, out Sept. 24, Tibon, Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent and a resident of Nahal Oz, one of Israel’s now-devastated southern border communities, captures the personal horrors he and his young family endured on Oct. 7, as well as recapping the brave efforts of his father, a retired IDF general, to reach the family. Tibon also methodically lays out the sequence of political and strategic events that brought the country to that nightmare point, as well as the grueling war that has lasted nearly a year, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Looking back: “I didn't want to participate in the construction of a narrative in which the history of the Israeli communities attacked on Oct. 7 began on Oct. 7,” Tibon told JI. “These communities, including Nahal Oz, have existed on the border for decades. Nahal Oz was founded in 1953, some of the other communities that were attacked were actually created even before the State of Israel, in the 1940s. They have a long history of life alongside the Gaza border, with a lot of ups and downs, with good periods of relative quiet and coexistence and dreams of peace, and more difficult periods of war and conflict,” Tibon explained, adding, “I felt that without telling that story, you cannot really understand Oct. 7.”
Read the full story here. hallett hearing Top U.S. diplomat says Israeli response to West Bank killings of Americans is 'unsatisfactory'  melissa weiss Stephanie Hallett, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, described Israel’s response to the killing of two U.S. citizens in the West Bank as “unsatisfactory,” during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “It’s my understanding from the Israeli government that those investigations are ongoing,” Hallett said. “I know that’s unsatisfactory, it is to us in the embassy as well, and I assure you that we will continue to ask and demand accountability and a full investigation.” She was appearing before the committee for a confirmation hearing for her nomination to be the U.S. ambassador to Bahrain. Hallett added that she agreed with recent comments by Secretary of State Tony Blinken, following the killing of a Turkish-American activist in the West Bank, that Israeli security forces have used excessive force in the West Bank and turned a blind eye to settler attacks.
Read the full story here. from ground to glass Israeli-American tequila aficionados make the Negev bloom with agave  courtesy A visit to the retirement home of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev Desert may inspire thoughts about leadership and the pioneering spirit of Israel’s founders. For one group of friends visiting from the U.S., a trip to the cabin in southern Israel in 2016 brought something entirely different to mind: tequila. “I was in the Ben-Gurion [Desert Home] souvenir shop,” David Niewood told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, “and they were selling wine and touting how they were growing grapes in the desert. A thought instantly came to me: Why aren’t they growing agave?”
Founding Negave Estates: Agave is a succulent native to arid parts of the Americas that can be used to produce spirits, including tequila. About five years later, Niewood and his friend and fellow tequila aficionado Stafford Fitzgerald Haney, the former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica who had moved to central Israel, and a few other friends from Englewood, N.J., started working on establishing Negave Estates, their own company to produce agave-based drinks in the Negev.
Read the full story here. | Alarm Over Egypt: In Newsweek, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer and Mariam Wahba accuse Egypt of having violated its peace treaty with Israel and suggest that Cairo must face ramifications. “Article III, subsection two of the peace agreement's preamble explicitly requires both parties ‘to ensure that acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, or violence do not originate from and are not committed from within its territory.’ This clause also mandates both parties to hold accountable any perpetrators of such acts. So much for that. Recent Israeli operations along the Philadelphi Corridor, the narrow strip of land bordering Egypt and Gaza, have uncovered multiple tunnels and access points used by Hamas — some in plain sight of Egyptian guard towers. While it could be argued that Egypt has lacked the capacity to tackle this problem, it is equally plausible that it lacks the will. Either way, it's a serious problem.” [Newsweek] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | Semafor reports on Republican concerns over the deepening friendship between far-right provocateur Laura Loomer and former President Donald Trump and Loomer’s potential influence on the former president; Loomer traveled with Trump to Philadelphia earlier this week…
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Former CIA officer Edward Johnson, who was instrumental in the effort to rescue six Americans during the 1980 Iran hostage crisis, died at 81… |  OLIVER BUNIC/AFP via Getty Images Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) embraces Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli-Serbian citizen Alon Ohel, who is being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas, during a press conference on Wednesday with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade. |  Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Chairman at Waxman Strategies, he served for 20 terms through 2015 as a Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, Henry Waxman turns 85...
2020 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, Harvey James Alter turns 89... 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, University of Chicago behavioral economist, Richard H. Thaler turns 79... Director of intergovernmental affairs in the Obama White House, he was previously lieutenant governor of Kentucky and mayor of Louisville for 20 years, Jerry Abramson turns 78... President of Israel21c, she is a former president of AIPAC, Amy Rothschild Friedkin... Former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, he was governor of Kansas and a U.S. senator, Sam Brownback turns 68... Miami-based chairman of American Principles Super PAC, Eytan Laor... Former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, he is now a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Geoffrey Steven Berman turns 65... Denver Jewish leader, Sunny Brownstein… SVP of government and public affairs at CVS Health, Melissa Schulman... Internet entrepreneur and a pioneer of VoIP telephony, Jeff Pulver turns 62... Attorney specializing in the recovery of looted artworks during the Holocaust and featured in the 2015 film "Woman in Gold," E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg turns 58... Senior paralegal and contract manager at The St. Joe Company, Sherri Jankowski... Senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Max A. Boot turns 55... Screenwriter, producer and director, he won three Emmy Awards for episodes of “Robot Chicken,” Douglas Goldstein turns 53... Deputy chief advocacy officer at the Credit Union National Association, Jason Stverak... Israeli singer, songwriter and musician, he has performed around the world, Idan Raichel turns 47... Founder of the Loewy Law Firm in Austin, Texas, Adam Loewy... Venture capitalist and one of the co-founders of Palantir Technologies, Joseph Todd "Joe" Lonsdale turns 42... AIPAC's area director for Philadelphia and South Jersey, Kelly Lauren Stein... Actress, director and singer, she directed and starred in the 2022 Peacock miniseries “Angelyne,” Emmanuelle Grey "Emmy" Rossum turns 38... Former advisor to the prime minister of Israel for foreign affairs and world communities, Sara Greenberg... Manager of operations communications at American Airlines, Ethan Klapper... National political correspondent at Politico and the author of The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power, Ben Schreckinger... Senior product manager at Amazon, Natalie Raps Farren... Film and television actress, Molly Tarlov turns 32... | | | | | |
