Wes Moore specifies he stands with ‘the Israeli people’
Meanwhile, Van Hollen slams JCRC head as Netanyahu 'apologist'
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Gov. Wes Moore’s specification that he stands with ‘the Israeli people’ at a gathering of members of Maryland’s Jewish community, and cover Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s allegation that Ron Halber, the head of the JCRC of Greater Washington, is an “apologist” for the Israeli government. We report on Rep. Maxine Dexter’s apology over recent remarks comparing the Israel-Hamas war to the Holocaust, and spotlight an initiative by New York’s Success Academy to bring students to Auschwitz. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Stephen Ross, Elad Gil and Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- UJA-Federation of New York, along with the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council-NY and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is hosting a solidarity rally this evening at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue, following an anti-Israel demonstration outside the synagogue last month.
- The two-day Milken Middle East and Africa Summit kicks off today in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker are among those scheduled to speak.
- White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to brief Ukrainian officials in Miami today, following their trip earlier this week to Russia, where they met with President Vladimir Putin, who rejected a U.S. peace proposal to end the war with Ukraine.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will meet today with the parents of slain Israeli American hostages Omer Neutra and Itay Chen.
- European Broadcasting Union members are meeting today to discuss potential changes to the Eurovision Song Contest’s voting system, following an uproar last year after Israeli entrant Yuval Raphael came in second place in the popular vote. The meeting comes amid threats by the broadcasters from Slovenia, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands, which have threatened to boycott the May event if Israel is permitted to participate.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Josh Kraushaar
If there’s a lesson for Democrats from the GOP’s nine-point victory in the Tennessee special election on Tuesday night, it’s that the type of left-wing politics that can play in the city is a political turnoff for persuadable suburban voters. Nominating a telegenic candidate with ideologically radical views — à la Zohran Mamdani — might not matter to many urban Gen Z voters, but it does matter everywhere else.
In the big picture, Republican Matt Van Epps’ single-digit margin of victory in a district that President Donald Trump carried by 22 points is a sign of a strong Democratic environment heading into the midterms. Democrats should feel confident about their chances of winning back control of the House, even with increased gerrymandering. But look a little more closely at the results, and there are signs of an urban-suburban divide in the district, indicating that Democrat Aftyn Behn’s outspoken progressivism cost her badly in the affluent, conservative-minded suburb of Williamson County.
Take a look at the stark urban-suburban divide by the numbers: Behn won by 56 points in the city of Nashville, outperforming Kamala Harris’ margin in the country by a whopping 20 points. But in the Nashville suburbs, Behn barely outperformed Harris, losing Williamson County by 23 points (while Harris lost the county by 30 in 2024).
Behn was tagged as the “AOC of Tennessee” by Republicans, and she didn’t shy away from that comparison during the campaign, even inviting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to participate at a virtual rally for the Democratic candidate. Her anti-police rhetoric, antipathy towards her home city of Nashville, along with her record of hostility against Israel all underscored she was on the far left wing of her party.
Just as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Israel and far-left views were toxic enough that suburban New York City Democratic lawmakers — like Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen — spoke out against his mayoral campaign, Behn’s suburban struggles underscore that swing-district Democrats who adopt the agenda of their party’s far-left activists will face consequences at the ballot box.
At the same time, Behn’s appreciable gains in Nashville and small inroads in the heavily Republican working-class rural counties of the district indicate that the Democratic message of affordability is outranking other more-ideological issues for voters facing challenges paying their bills. With fears of rising prices amid a volatile economy, Republicans risk losing a little support from their working-class base that could prove costly in the 2026 midterms — and beyond.
All told, the results should be encouraging for Democrats, even as their overly exuberant expectations led them to invite polarizing figures like Harris and AOC to boost turnout, despite the district’s strong conservative bent. But a more moderate nominee would likely have improved the party’s standing in the suburbs, and taken better advantage of the favorable overall political environment for the opposition party. It’s another reminder that moderation is the winning formula for the party to win back power in the future.
HEATED EXCHANGE
Van Hollen attacks Maryland Jewish community liaison Ron Halber as Netanyahu
A spokesperson for Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) attacked Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington CEO Ron Halber by name, accusing the Jewish liaison of being an “apologist for the Netanyahu government” in response to Halber’s own criticisms of the Maryland senator to reporters earlier Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The exchange marks an unusual and dramatic breach between a leading representative of the D.C.-area Jewish community and a senator who Halber said had once been an ally on a range of issues.
Back and forth: “He’s become the leading senator agitating against Israel in the United States Senate,” Halber told reporters. “On the issue of Israel, I would say the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community feels betrayed by the senator.” The Van Hollen spokesperson responded in part, “Instead of representing the diversity of views that, in the Senator’s experience, are held by the Jewish community of Maryland, Ron Halber has become an apologist for the Netanyahu government.”
HAND IN HAND
Gov. Wes Moore: ‘Maryland stands with the Israeli people’ and the Jewish community
Speaking to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s annual Maryland legislative breakfast on Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, touted as a prospective presidential candidate, offered support for Israel and for members of the Jewish community facing antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Notable quotable: “Today, I want to be loud and clear, that Maryland stands with the Israeli people and we support their right to exist in the region with the same sense of safety and security that we all want,” Moore said, echoing remarks he made at a memorial days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, which had been his most recent address to the JCRC. The Democratic governor said that lasting peace between Israelis and the Palestinians requires “humane leadership” for the Palestinians — which cannot include Hamas — as well as by Israel, the United States and any other countries involved in the future of Gaza.
MEA CULPA
Democratic congresswoman apologizes for speech comparing Gaza war to the Holocaust
Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), in a letter to Portland’s Jewish community, apologized for a recent House floor speech in which she appeared to compare the war in Gaza to the Holocaust while explaining her support for a resolution describing the war as a genocide, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What she said: “I am deeply sorry that my recent statement on the U.S. House floor gave the impression that I was equating the Holocaust with the evolving events in Gaza,” Dexter said. “In the aftermath of Hamas’ atrocious attack on October 7th and in the face of rising antisemitism that is pervasive in every corner of the world, I am genuinely sorry to have been the cause of further pain.” In a meeting with local Jewish officials, Dexter apologized for the speech but said she would not withdraw her support for the resolution accusing Israel of genocide.
NOMINEE NEWS
Senate Foreign Relations Committee backs Kaploun’s nomination as antisemitism envoy
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on Wednesday to advance Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun’s nomination to be the Trump administration’s antisemitism envoy, clearing the way for a full Senate vote on his confirmation. All 12 Republicans on the committee voted in favor, while eight of the 10 Democrats on the panel were opposed. The two Democrats who voted to support Kaploun were the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a close ally of the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Reading the signals: The 14-8 vote, which came two weeks after Kaploun’s confirmation hearing, offers a preview of how senators on both sides of the aisle could land on his nomination when it comes before the full Senate. Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) decision to vote to advance Kaploun’s nomination, given his record of bucking the president’s choice of Cabinet nominees and legislative matters, suggests Republicans are likely to be unified in supporting Kaploun on the floor. Shaheen and Rosen’s support for Kaploun’s nomination indicates that he could secure a handful of Democratic votes as well.
Elsewhere on the Hill: The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on a bipartisan basis on Wednesday to advance a bill designating the entire Muslim Brotherhood globally as a terrorist organization, weeks after the Trump administration took action to target certain branches of the group, JI’s Marc Rod reports.
SURVEY SAYS
New Reagan Institute polling finds widespread approval for Trump’s strikes against Iran
President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, dealing a significant blow to the Islamic Republic’s weapons program, is viewed favorably by 60% of Americans, according to a newly released survey commissioned by the Ronald Reagan Institute, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.
Policy popularity: The decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear program was one of the most popular policy decisions the Pentagon has made in Trump’s second term, according to the survey. Of the 10 policies tested, only two (using force against drug traffickers in Latin America and issuing gender-neutral standards for combat roles) had a higher net approval rating. Despite the widespread support for the airstrikes, there is a partisan divide in support. Republicans overwhelmingly supported the military action, while 39% of Democrats did so.
HISTORY IMMERSION
Amid rising antisemitism, Success Academy takes charter school students to Auschwitz
Standing inside a gas chamber, Natalie Francisco felt history — the darkest kind — come alive in a way no classroom lesson on the Holocaust could have. Francisco, an 11th grader at Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts–Harlem, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen that “witnessing Auschwitz-Birkenau, literally being inside a gas chamber, brought the horror of it all to me in a way that reading or studying history could not.” Fransciso was one of eight high school students who took part in the school’s inaugural six-day trip to Poland last month, which included visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the Plaszów Concentration Camp in Krakow and the Warsaw Ghetto.
Trip mission: Success Academy, a network of New York City charter schools primarily serving low-income families, designed the new program as a way to give students “a direct personal connection and opportunity to understand this singular event in history,” Eva Moskowitz, the organization’s CEO and founder, told JI. “Even if there weren’t recent, horrific incidents of antisemitism, I would still want our students to understand [the Holocaust],” she said, adding that the trip was several years in the making, with logistics including obtaining passports for students, many of whom have never traveled outside of the U.S.
Worthy Reads
No Direction Home: In The Wall Street Journal, longtime Democratic political operative Jennifer Bayer Michaels reflects on the party’s shift away from the mainstream and embrace of antisemitic elements. “The Democratic Party has allowed and lately encouraged the normalization of rhetoric that dehumanizes Jews and distorts history. … Democratic leaders must speak clearly: Terrorism is terrorism, Jewish lives matter, moral consistency matters. They must rebuild trust not with performative gestures but with action that shows the extreme is not where the heart of the party is. I may feel politically alone in this moment, but I am not alone. Countless Jews and Americans want this party to succeed yet feel unspoken for and unrepresented. We require something simple: a Democratic Party that remembers its own values and has the courage to live by them in earnest. Only after my community’s safety is secure, and the party recognizes it not as a favor but as a fundamental principle, will I consider coming home.” [WSJ]
Lost Opportunity: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius argues that the U.S., Israel and moderate Arab states are fumbling an opportunity to reshape the Middle East in the wake of Israeli and American military successes and the collapse of rogue regimes. “‘Everything is stuck,’ a senior Israeli defense official told me this week. Because diplomats have failed to capitalize on the disarray of Iran and its allies, ‘all the fronts in the Middle East are still open,’ he warned. Most of Gaza’s population is still controlled by Hamas, Lebanon hasn’t fully regained its sovereignty from Hezbollah and Iran is rebuilding its battered military. … Trump’s problem is that he’s juggling so many diplomatic balls at once that some of them will inevitably tumble to the ground. That’s what happened after his Gaza peace deal. He promised far more than he has so far delivered.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he would visit New York City despite Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s threat to have him arrested on war crimes charges if he does so, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
The U.S. is deploying to the Middle East a fleet of low-cost, domestically manufactured drones designed like Iran’s Shahed-136 “kamikaze” aircraft as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s strategy of “drone dominance”; SpektreWorks, the Arizona-based company producing the drones, designed them by reverse-engineering the Shahed-126…
New York State Assemblyman Micah Lasher, a candidate for Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY) congressional seat, and state Sen. Sam Sutton introduced legislation that would ban protests within 25 feet of places of worship, following an incident last month in which dozens of anti-Israel demonstrators protested outside an event at the Park East Synagogue…
The LAPD arrested two individuals following an incident at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in which anti-Israel protesters demonstrating outside an event aimed at bridge-building with the city’s Korean community disrupted the event and vandalized property inside the temple; Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “abhorrent” and said it “has no place in Los Angeles”…
Community Security Service announced it will join the Joint Threat Intelligence Partnership, a national threat monitoring and assessment network launched in September by the Anti-Defamation League and Community Security Initiative of New York…
Real estate developer Stephen Ross is partnering with Archer Aviation to build a flying taxi network in South Florida…
A man suspected of attacking two Jewish students at DePaul University in 2024 pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of battery; hate crimes charges against the assailant were dropped…
Jewish “Dancing With the Stars” pro Alan Bersten led castmates in a Hanukkah routine during the series’ first-ever holiday special; the group, following a routine that included steps mimicking spinning dreidels and other Hanukkah imagery, danced to Matisyahu’s “Miracle”…
A new trove of photographs taken from the Syrian military is providing evidence of approximately 10,000 people who were killed and tortured by the Assad regime…
The U.S. brokered the first direct talks in decades between Israeli and Lebanese officials in an effort to deescalate tensions between Jerusalem and Beirut…
Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman was selected as the new head of Israel’s Mossad, succeeding David Barnea when Barnea’s term ends in June 2026…
NPR spotlights Palestinian writer Bassem Khandaqji, who was serving three life sentences for directing a 2004 terror attack in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis and was freed in accordance with the October ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, as his book A Mask the Color of the Sky gains accolades and awards…
Thai officials confirmed that the remains of Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, were transferred on Wednesday to Israel; the body of one Israeli, Ran Gvili, remains in Gaza…
A new report from NGO Monitor details Hamas’ efforts to infiltrate local and international aid groups operating in Gaza…
Israeli cloud data startup Eon raised $300 million in a Series D funding round led by Elad Gil’s Gil Capital…
The Financial Times looks at efforts by the Taliban, which resumed control of Afghanistan in 2021, to rehabilitate its image and rebuild relations with former allies…
The Iranian rial reached a new record low on Wednesday…
Artist Mel Leipzig, whose focus on ordinary residents of New Jersey earned him the nickname the “Chekhov of Trenton,” died at 90…
Pic of the Day
Toys for Hospitalized Children hosted a pre-Hanukkah celebration this week for young cancer patients undergoing treatment in New York City and their families at Manhattan’s Moise Safra Center.
“The goal is just that the kids and their families should have a lot of fun. It’s sick children, their siblings. Some of them, the kids are healthy, but the parents are sick, and the parents came here for treatment,” Rabbi JJ Hecht, the nonprofit’s president, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. “We’re just here to make them happy, make them have a good time.”
Birthdays
Actor best known for playing Stuart Bloom in 108 episodes of the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” Kevin Sussman turns 55…
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, author of six books and winner of the 1980 National Book Award, A. Scott Berg turns 76… Television director and producer, Dan Attias turns 74… Register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office, her firing earlier this year by President Donald Trump is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court, Shira Perlmutter turns 69… Digital creator, Tony Sarif turns 67… Dermatologist in the Philadelphia area, Merle M. Bari Shulkin, MD… Founder and lead guide of the Adventure Judaism program based in Boulder, Colo., she is the author of 13 books, Jamie Korngold… Fashion director and chief fashion critic of The New York Times since 2014, Vanessa Victoria Friedman turns 58… Publisher and founder of FlashReport on California politics and principal of the Fleischman Consulting Group, Jon Fleischman… Co-founder and co-managing member of Manhattan-based hedge fund Knighthead Capital Management, Ara D. Cohen… Screenwriter and producer, he co-created ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” Adam Horowitz turns 54… National security advisor of the UAE, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan turns 54… Principal at Proxima Media and founder of Relativity Media, Ryan Kavanaugh (family name was Konitz) turns 51… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-OH) since 2023, Gregory John Landsman turns 49… Childhood chess prodigy, martial arts competitor and author, the film “Searching for Bobby Fischer” is based on his early life, Joshua Waitzkin turns 49… Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, now living in New Jersey, Grammy Award-winning violinist, Miri Ben-Ari turns 47… Israeli composer of stage works, orchestral works, ensemble works and classical music, Amir Shpilman turns 45… Comedian and former host of the ChangeUp baseball program for DAZN, one of his viral videos was “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Jew,” Scott Rogowsky turns 41… Co-chief of the civil rights and human trafficking unit at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, Sam Adelsberg… Former senior campaign director at The Hub Project, Sarah Baron… First-round pick in the 2016 National Hockey League draft, he is a center for the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Luke Kunin turns 28… Israeli fashion model, as a 14-year old she became the lead model for Dior, she served in the IDF from 2019-2021, Sofia Mechetner turns 25…
