Jewish GOPers grapple with groypers
Plus, Hill hums along to F-35s for Saudi
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with President Donald Trump today at the White House, and look at how Jewish Republicans are reckoning with resurgent antisemitism on the right. We report on the U.N. Security Council’s support for Trump’s plan for postwar Gaza, and cover Israel’s push for the International Criminal Court to drop its arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over claims the court’s chief prosecutor pursued the case to distract from sexual harassment allegations. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. JB Pritzker, Robert George and Troye Sivan.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve with assists from Marc Rod and Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- All eyes are on Washington today for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the nation’s capital and meeting with President Donald Trump, followed by a formal dinner in honor of the crown prince’s visit. More below.
- The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is holding a daylong conference on “Exposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right.”
- Elsewhere in Washington, the Aspen Cyber Summit is taking place at the Kennedy Center.
- The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly wraps up today. Speakers at this morning’s closing plenary, which features a musical performance by The Tamari Project, include Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and “Call Me Back” host Dan Senor. JI’s Lahav Harkov will be moderating a session this morning on the future of the Middle East.
- The One Israel Fund is holding its annual gala tonight in New York. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is keynoting this year’s event.
- In Turtle Bay today, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz will be joined by rapper Nicki Minaj as the two deliver remarks on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
- Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams concludes his trip to Israel today. Following a trip to Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel’s south, Adams will depart Israel for Uzbekistan.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S Matthew Shea
President Donald Trump is hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman today at the White House, marking the first time MBS has visited Washington since 2018.
Trump plans to roll out the red carpet for the visit, which includes a welcome ceremony, bilateral meeting in the Oval Office and a black-tie dinner in the evening. Tiger Woods and Elon Musk are expected to be in attendance at the dinner, among other high-profile attendees. “We’re more than meeting,” Trump said late Friday. “We’re honoring Saudi Arabia, the crown prince.”
The visit is not an official state visit, as MBS is not Saudi Arabia’s head of state; however, the crown prince holds almost all responsibility in ruling the kingdom.
The bilateral meeting will feature high-stakes discussions on several key issues, including the sale of F-35 fighter jets, Saudi-Israel normalization and a possible U.S.-Saudi defense pact. Experts told Jewish Insider such an agreement is likely to be modeled after the assurances Trump gave Qatar in September, in the wake of an Israeli strike on Hamas in the Gulf state, when he issued an executive order stating that the U.S. will regard “any armed attack” on Qatar “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
Trump announced on Monday he would approve the sale of the F-35s to Riyadh, helping the Saudis secure a long-coveted deal and making them the first country in the Middle East other than Israel to obtain the advanced fighter jets. “They want to buy. They are a great ally. We will be doing that. We will be selling them F-35s,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Concerns remain within the foreign policy community over the impact that the sale of F-35s will have on the military balance in the region and Israel’s qualitative military edge, which the U.S. is bound by law to uphold. Experts also cautioned the risks of transferring sensitive technology to Riyadh after Saudi naval forces conducted a joint military exercise with China last month. Israel has requested that such a sale be conditioned on the kingdom joining the Abraham Accords, however Trump made no mention of such a provision.
THE RIGHTS NEW DIVIDE
‘Confused young groypers’: Jewish Republicans reckon with resurgent antisemitism on the right
During a talk at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi last month, Vice President JD Vance listened carefully as a student took the microphone and asked him a question grounded in antisemitic tropes. Vance took the question at face value, declining to push back. The exchange came soon after right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson hosted neo-Nazi provocateur Nick Fuentes for a decidedly friendly interview, a shocking but not altogether surprising cultural moment that catapulted an intra-party rift into the open: a shift among a small but growing contingent of young conservatives away from Israel and, increasingly, into a conspiratorial worldview that holds the Jewish state — and Jews — responsible for the world’s ills. The question facing party leaders is just how deeply this perspective has rooted itself among the right and how to deal with it: whether to fight it, accept it or stay quiet and hope it disappears, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Looking ahead: Vance’s response at the Turning Point event sparked concern among Jewish conservatives about how a potential future GOP presidential nominee plans to deal with a growing segment of the political right that is not just critical of Israel but of Jews — and why he has been willing to make excuses for the bigotry of some of his supporters. Earlier this month, at the RJC conference in Las Vegas, Republican fundraiser Eric Levine told JI that he has concerns about Vance, though he added that those concerns are balanced out by the fact that President Donald Trump remains “the most pro-Israel president in the history of the country.”
F-35 FACTOR
House Republicans largely supportive of F-35 deal with Saudi Arabia
House Republicans sounded largely supportive of President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday that he plans to sign a deal to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite an apparent lack of progress toward normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Democrats, meanwhile, were generally more skeptical of the deal.
What they’re saying: “I’m very supportive of the president in every effort to reach out to Saudi Arabia,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told JI. “Saudi Arabia has been so significant in addressing the regime change in Syria and so over and over again, Saudi Arabia is proving [itself].” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a co-chair of the Abraham Accords caucus, suggested that normalization should precede the sale of F-35s. Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords “would certainly require a reassessment of the assumptions underpinning our strategic outlook for the region and revisions to our policy doctrines, including provision of the F-35 platform to Saudi Arabia, while also preserving Israel’s qualitative military edge,” he said.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Adam Smith (D-WA).
Forceful feedback: The Lebanese Armed Forces is facing pushback from Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over a statement it posted to social media on Sunday blaming Israel for flare-ups with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. The Trump administration reportedly canceled an upcoming trip to the U.S. by Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal as part of Washington’s concern over the LAF’s moves.
PATH TO PEACE
U.N. Security Council backs Trump’s Gaza plan
The U.N. Security Council adopted a U.S.-led resolution on Monday backing President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, including the creation of an international security force, in a move that could boost efforts to advance into the next phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. In the first phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, originally presented in September, the Israel Defense Forces have partially withdrawn to a “yellow line” dividing Gaza, while Hamas has returned all of the living hostages and all but three of the deceased hostages’ bodies. However, the plan has faced significant roadblocks, and questions remain about the feasibility of implementing the following phases, including effectively disarming Hamas and determining who will govern Gaza.
What it means: Monday’s vote follows coordinated diplomacy between Washington and Arab partners aimed at reviving momentum behind the U.S. plan, including hosting a summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, last month and issuing a joint statement of support last week. With the adoption of the resolution, the U.N. showed a rare consensus on Gaza — 13 countries voted in favor and none against, with Russia and China abstaining. Experts told JI that moving to the second phase of the plan now becomes more plausible — even if challenges remain.
RESIGNATION RIPPLE
Heritage board member resigns amid continued fallout over Tucker Carlson controversy
Robert George, a prominent board member of the Heritage Foundation, said on Monday that he was resigning from the conservative think tank, in the latest sign of continued fallout over its president’s controversial defense of Tucker Carlson after his friendly interview last month with a neo-Nazi influencer, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What he said: “I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on October 30th,” George said in a Facebook post Monday morning, referring to the group’s president. “Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse.” His decision to step down indicates that Roberts is likely secure, for now, in his role atop Heritage, as its board remains split about his future, according to a former Heritage staffer familiar with internal discussions.
PARTING WAYS
Matt Gaetz producer fired for sharing virulently antisemitic video
A producer for former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) weeknight show on the right-wing One America News Network has reportedly been fired after he shared a vehemently antisemitic social media post depicting Jews as cockroaches, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. Vish Burra, who was a booker and script writer for Gaetz, had drawn widespread backlash for posting an AI-generated animated video last week showing him entering a “scheming room” with Stars of David on the door to find a group of cockroaches counting money, who scurry away upon his arrival. The post has since been deleted.
Additional hate speech: “I will expose the vermin in the venomous coalition and their transgression against MAGA, America First, and Kevin Roberts at The Heritage Foundation,” Burra said in another post to X, which has also been deleted. “It all starts with Susan Lebovitz-Edelman,” he wrote, referring to a Jewish trustee at the Manhattan Institute who is married to the hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman. Lebovitz-Edelman, he wrote, “is behind the entire campaign to oust Kevin Roberts from The Heritage Foundation by using her leverage as a recent big dollar donor to take control of the organization.” Burra’s firing was reported by The Wrap and The Independent on Monday.
TRIBUNAL TURMOIL
Israel petitions ICC to remove chief prosecutor from case, citing conflict of interest
Israel petitioned the International Criminal Court on Monday to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan from its case, saying he pursued charges against Israeli leaders to distract from sexual harassment accusations lodged against him. Israel also asked the court to cancel its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Khan’s allegations that they perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Background: The petition came after two women submitted complaints against Khan for workplace sexual misconduct. One is an ICC employee, who alleged the misconduct occurred as recently as 2024 and that Khan attempted to dissuade her from making claims against him. In a leaked recording of a phone call between Khan and the ICC employee, she lamented that she had been accused of being a “Mossad plant” over the complaint. Khan was recorded telling the woman that someone had leaked the complaint to the media to “get rid of the warrants for Palestine,” among other open cases. According to The Guardian, private investigators hired by Qatar had attempted and failed to find a link between the accuser and Israel.
Worthy Reads
A Magazine’s Missteps: In Commentary, Jamie Kirchick does a deep dive into the antisemitism within The American Conservative — underscored by the language of its opposition to the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this year that put it at odds with both the White House and the conservative movement. “The more one reads the American Conservative and listens to its contributors, the more one realizes how deeply ingrained the idea of Jewish perfidy is in the magazine’s Weltanschauung. … There is no greater rebuke to isolationism than Auschwitz. Isolationists know this, which is why they spend so much time relitigating World War II. It’s also why so many isolationists harbor antipathy toward Jews, the Holocaust’s chief victims and the stewards of its memory. The Jews are a living reminder of what happens when evil is not confronted, and their survival is deeply offensive to those who prefer not to confront the evil in our world.” [Commentary]
BBC Bias: The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker raises concerns over the impact of the BBC’s biases on public opinion and policy. “There were — and are — many talented, honest people there. But in the past 10 years, it has, like other institutions worldwide, been captured by the cultural revolution that has swept the world of graduate-level work, seized by an activist class not content to report the news but insisting instead on telling people what to think. Their orthodoxy is familiar: on race, gender, sexuality, immigration and national sovereignty, climate alarmism, Western civilization and international affairs. I believe that the BBC’s coverage of Gaza is the most important factor in the recent rise of antisemitism in Britain. The daily repetition of Hamas propaganda about supposed Israeli atrocities has played in Britain (and around the world) for two years.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker contributed $25.5 million to his campaign fund over the last two weeks as he makes a bid for a third term and as speculation mounts that he may enter the 2028 presidential race…
New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé filed paperwork to challenge House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in New York’s 8th Congressional District; Ossé, an ally of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, is challenging Jeffries from the House leader’s left…
Former Harvard President Larry Summers will step away from his upcoming public commitments following the release of extensive email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein that lasted until the day before Epstein’s arrest; Summers will continue teaching five classes this semester, and will stay on as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School…
Federal prosecutors in New York are seeking an 18-year prison sentence for a neo-Nazi leader who pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes for his role in a plot to give poisoned candy to Jewish children…
Canadian officials said that worker error was the reason an Israeli-born woman applying for a passport was told that she could not list Israel as her country of birth; an employee had reportedly told the woman that the denial was due to “the political conflict”…
A collection of Gustav Klimt works owned by art collector and philanthropist Leonard Lauder, who died earlier this year, is expected to garner more than $400 million when they are auctioned by Sotheby’s today…
A German auction house canceled the planned sale of more than 600 items that belonged to Holocaust victims after coming under criticism by a Berlin-based organization for survivors…
The Washington Post spotlights the efforts of a Brazilian magazine publisher to uncover rumored underground tunnels in his hometown that had been constructed by Nazi officials who had fled to South America after World War II…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned recent settler violence in the West Bank following the release of video that showed dozens of settlers setting fire to vehicles and homes in the Palestinian village of Jab’a…
The New York Times reports on the shadowy effort that brought hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza to South Africa in the last month…
Parts of western Iran flooded after heavy rainfall, following months in which the Islamic Republic faced severe drought issues…
Singer Troye Sivan listed his home in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, which he bought in 2017, for $2.545 million…
Rabbi Shlomo Porter, the executive director of the Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning, died at 78…
The New York Times spotlights psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein, who was believed to have been killed by a Nazi death squad in Russia in 1942, in its “Overlooked” series…
Pic of the Day
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) spoke in conversation with Julie Platt, the immediate past board chair for the Jewish Federations of North America, at a Monday plenary session at the JFNA’s General Assembly in Washington.
Birthdays
Longtime former play-by-play sportscaster for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, Marc Zumoff turns 70…
Theoretical physicist, at age 27 he became a professor and then later president of the Weizmann Institute, he is the founder of the Davidson Institute of Science Education at Weizmann, Haim Harari turns 85… Former president of East Bay Federation, Steve Goldman… Former national director of major gifts for the American Committee for the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Paul Jeser… Lecturer at Boston University School of Law, he was formerly SVP and general counsel of Fidelity Management & Research Company, Eric D. Roiter turns 77… Atlanta resident, Lynda Wolfe… Israeli cantor and actor, known for his Broadway performance as Jean Valjean in “Les Misérables,” David “Dudu” Fisher turns 74… Professor emerita at Harvard Business School, Shoshana Zuboff turns 74… Professor of epidemiology and neurology at Columbia University, Walter Ian Lipkin turns 73… Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa, she is a luxury handbag designer, Lana J. Marks turns 72… Singer-songwriter, he is also the author of a popular Passover Haggadah, Barry Louis Polisar turns 71… Mayor of Dallas from 2002 until 2007, Laura Miller turns 67… SVP and general counsel of HSP Group and ARF Financial, Robert Bruce Lapidus… Moroccan-born, member of the Knesset since 2003 for the Shas party, he currently serves as the minister of welfare and social affairs, Yaakov Margi turns 65… NYC-based writer, activist and performer, Shira Dicker… Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington-based correspondent for The New York Times covering health policy, Sheryl Gay Stolberg turns 64… Retired Baltimore attorney who devotes her time to philanthropic and pro-Israel activities, Laurie Luskin… Rabbi of Burbank Temple Emanu El and former national coordinator of Rabbis Without Borders, Tsafreer “Tsafi” Lev turns 54… Chabad rabbi in Kyiv and executive chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, Raphael Rutman turns 53… President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Audra P. Berg… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Michal Shir Segman turns 46… Freshman U.S. senator (R-MT), Tim Sheehy turns 40… Real estate agent at Coldwell Banker and a consultant for Bridals by Lori, Talia Fadis… Israeli singer-songwriter and music producer, Elisha Banai turns 37…
