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Good Thursday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at former Virginia Rep. Jim Moran’s lobbying work on behalf of Qatar amid a long record of controversy in his relationships with the Jewish community, and report on Sen. Susan Collins’ criticism of 2026 challenger Graham Platner, who called AIPAC “weird” and has accused Israel of committing genocide. We report on Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s condemnation of the antisemitic rhetoric espoused by staffers for Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, and cover a new Anti-Defamation League report highlighting a white supremacist online forum that has inspired school shooters. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Greg Landsman, Yael Nativ and Daniel Loeb.

Ed. note: The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, Aug. 25.

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It’s notable that Democrats are still relying on experienced, brand-name candidates a bit past their political prime as top recruits for key Senate races. 

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, now 72, is seeking a political comeback after losing his reelection bid last year in Ohio. Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is pursuing a career change to the Senate at 68 years old. Maine Gov. Janet Mills is being recruited into the Senate race against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) even though she’s 77.

To be sure, these are the strongest challengers Democrats could muster in these three must-win battleground states. All are popular statewide officials with a history of winning support from outside the party base. It’s hard to name any other Democratic candidate more capable of flipping these GOP-held seats than the aforementioned recruits. 

But there’s another more uncomfortable reality that is drawing the Democrats towards their stars of yesteryear. In today’s fractured media environment, it’s incredibly hard for a new face to emerge and get the type of publicity rising stars would generate from “earned media” on television and in the press, as was common in the recent past.  

And given the declining influence of such mainstream platforms, the best way to get attention is by playing to the party’s activist base on social media. It’s how Zohran Mamdani broke through a comparatively dull field of challengers in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Going viral is becoming a prerequisite in today’s politics, and the best way to go viral is to play to the extremes — or to, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, emulate President Donald Trump’s online bullying and trolling.

If you don’t have name identification built up from a career in politics, it’s hard to register any other way these days. And it’s exceptionally hard to break through the noise if you’re a thoughtful moderate.

It’s why we’re seeing a slew of Democratic candidates popping up who are looking to capture the anti-establishment mood within the party amid the desire for a younger generation of leadership. At the same time, most of these change-focused candidates also hold political views that are well out of the mainstream. 

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During Jim Moran’s 24 years in Congress, the Virginia Democrat had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, particularly when it came to his Jewish constituents. In 2003, he blamed the Jewish community for President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, prompting several local rabbis to call for his resignation. Four years later, he blamed AIPAC for the war. The blowback was so strong that when then-Sen. Barack Obama accepted Moran’s endorsement of his presidential campaign in 2008, he stated plainly that he disagreed with Moran’s views of the Jewish community. Moran retired from Congress in 2015, but the 80-year-old still walks the halls of Capitol Hill. Now, he’s there as a lobbyist — primarily as a registered foreign agent lobbying on behalf of the government of Qatar, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Influence wars: It is notable that one of the people tasked with advocating for a country that is close to both America and Hamas seems to have a deeply rooted hostility to Israel and even to American Jews, particularly at a moment when Qatar’s dealings in the U.S. are facing greater scrutiny — like when Trump said earlier this year that the U.S. would accept a Qatari gift of a luxury jet to use as Air Force One. Moran and his team have held dozens of meetings with members of Congress since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in 2023 that spurred the ongoing war in Gaza, mainly to talk about “Qatar’s role in the Middle East peace process.” At the same time, he has questioned Jewish involvement in the American political system, including just days after Oct. 7. 

Read the full story here.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is criticizing Graham Platner, a Democrat running against her in next year’s election, for singling out AIPAC as a “weird” interest group in remarks to a local newspaper in which he also pledged to reject support from the organization. “Sen. Collins is a strong supporter of AIPAC, a bipartisan organization that promotes stronger ties between the United States and Israel,” a spokesperson for Collins told Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel. “Nothing about their work is ‘weird’ — in fact, it has never been more important given the aggressive antisemitism that we have seen around the world since the appalling Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.”

‘Very simple’: In his comment, Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer, Marine veteran and political newcomer who launched his bid to challenge Collins on Tuesday, said he would reject backing from corporate super PACs and donations from interest groups such as AIPAC that he called “weird.” “My view here is very simple,” Platner told JI on Wednesday when asked to elaborate on his remark. “What is happening in Gaza is a genocide; I refuse to take money from AIPAC or any group that supports the genocide in Gaza.” In other interviews this week, Platner has similarly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and endorsed efforts to block U.S. arms sales to Israel.

Read the full story here.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is rebuking a top mayoral candidate in Minneapolis, far-left state Sen. Omar Fateh, who has recently faced criticism for employing campaign staffers who have glorified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and called for Israel’s destruction, among other extreme comments. In a statement to Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Klobuchar, who is backing Fateh’s chief rival, Mayor Jacob Frey, said the senator “strongly and immediately condemned the Hamas terrorist attack, and condemns any statements to the contrary.” 

Breaking the silence: “These comments are outrageous and have no place in our politics,” the spokesperson, Jane Meyer, said of the staffers’remarks, which were unearthed by JI last week. “She has spoken out against antisemitism for years. She has endorsed the mayor and did so months ago.” Klobuchar, who along with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the most high-profile Democratic official supporting Frey’s campaign, had until now remained silent with regard to Fateh, a 35-year-old democratic socialist whose insurgent bid has drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.

Read the full story here.

Following his recent trip to Israel, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) says he believes that the Jewish state is “as close as I’ve understood it to be to ending” the war in Gaza. “The language around aid has changed. [Israel talks] about surging aid and they talk about ending this war quickly,” Landsman, who discussed his trip on Wednesday with Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs, said. The Ohio Democrat told JI that he believes “everyone should be putting pressure on all parties to end the war. I think it is entirely appropriate to put pressure on the Israeli government to end this war. I also think it is necessary for people to put pressure on Qatar and Egypt to end this war, to use all of the leverage they have, particularly with the senior Hamas leaders that are in Qatar.”

Support system: Landsman, one of 14 House Democrats who took part in a delegation to the Jewish state last week, told JI that the Israeli officials and citizens he spoke with urged him and others on the trip to continue supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship during moments when they took issue with some of the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They remind you that they would never want anyone to abandon them, as we would never want anyone to abandon us. It’s an important reminder that being critical of the government when you disagree is part of democracy, it's why democracy and freedom are so important,” he said. “There's a line. In terms of having the strength and courage to both stand up to and criticize your partners, while also having the strength and courage to not abandon them, especially a partnership like this one and in an existential moment such as this.”

Read the full story here.

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism suggests that an online community of white supremacists is increasingly recruiting and inspiring school shooters, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Violent videos: The research, published Thursday as an interactive timeline, analyzes two school shootings that occurred weeks apart. Despite happening in different states, the report found overlapping online activity between the young perpetrators. In the months leading up to the shootings, both perpetrators were active on the website WatchPeopleDie, a forum where users can post and view real images and videos of violence. ADL researchers found that extremist material — such as white supremacist and antisemitic manifestos and videos of white supremacist and antisemitic mass murders — was widely accessible on WPD.

Read the full story here.

President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin on Tuesday that at the time of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, he believed Tehran “would have had nuclear weapons in a period of four weeks,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. Calling in to Levin’s radio show, Trump said that, “if we didn’t [strike Iran], they would probably by this time, just about this time, have a nuclear weapon and they would have used it.”

Taking on Tehran: “The Atomic Energy Commission said, this place is gone. [Iran] can maybe start up, but they’re not starting up there,” Trump said of the Iranian nuclear facilities targeted in the operation. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission found that the U.S. strike on the Fordow nuclear facility “destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure” and rendered it “inoperable,” though reports differ on the extent of the damage. The president also boasted about his peacemaking abilities, saying, “I’ve settled six wars and we did the Iran night, wiped out their whole nuclear capability, which they would have used against Israel in two seconds if they had the chance.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus: The New York Times does a deep dive into the U.S. strikes on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility in June.

Trump Card: The Times of Israel’s founding Editor David Horovitz considers how President Donald Trump could hasten the end of the Israel-Hamas war. “Trump’s opening here is to broker a deal — not between Israel and Hamas, which will never sign off on its own path to oblivion, but between Israel and the regional actors who have indicated willingness in principle to step in and rehabilitate the Strip. Netanyahu doesn’t want the PA there. Regional players and Israel’s (now unreliable) international allies have demanded a role for the PA, while stressing the imperative that it be reformed and closely overseen. Washington should strive to produce a viable accommodation, paving the way for non-Hamas governance, negotiating a security mechanism that enables Israel to intervene when necessary, and conditioning the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza on its demilitarization.” [TOI]

Foreign Green on the Green: In Mosaic, Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, proposes a crackdown in foreign funding of American universities to address antisemitism on college campuses. “Is Qatar the only driver of campus anti-Semitism? Absolutely not. The resurgence of Marxist thought, critical race theory, and the ‘intersectionality’ that demands that Jews must be reviled along with racism, fossil fuels, ‘settler colonialists,’ and social conservatives deserves a significant chunk of the blame. But there should be little doubt that, in a campus environment hostile to Israel, Zionists, and Jews, the contributions of a country well known for its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas progeny is a significant factor. And Qatar isn’t going away any time soon. If American universities are to become more welcoming places for Jews — indeed, if they are to become better institutions altogether — federal and state governments will have to crack down thoroughly on foreign funding, and administrators will have to exercise some restraint and just say no to money that fosters Jew hatred.” [Mosaic]

The Case for Diversity: In recent remarks to Yale’s incoming law school class that were published in The Free Press, Danielle Sassoon, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, reflects on the diversity of opinions among her classmates at the law school 15 years prior that bolstered opportunities for conversation and dialogue. “Ideological familiarity might provide comfort, but don’t take the lazy way out. Recognize that conditioning social acceptance on ideological conformity is the weapon of the intellectually weak. Don’t insulate yourself in an artificial circle of only like-minded peers, or permit others to dehumanize your classmates, whatever their race, religion, or creed. And don’t fall prey to the arrogance of turning analytical questions into moral judgments unworthy of debate. Otherwise, you don’t stand a chance — whether against a hostile judge, a room full of aggressive lawyers 20 years your senior, or as a leader of an institution with people of diverse views and talents.” [FreePress]

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The Trump administration announced sanctions on four International Criminal Court officials over the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant…

The State Department fired a contractor and onetime National Iranian American Council intern who clashed with officials over the department’s language around relocating Gazans outside of the enclave, expressing condolences over the death of a Palestinian journalist Israel has claimed was a member of Hamas… 

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into Haverford College, three months after the President Wendy Raymond dodged questions regarding antisemitism on the Pennsylvania university’s campus at a congressional hearing…

The New York Times looks at the logistical and bureaucratic challenges facing international students — approximately 1 million of whom study in the U.S. every year — amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visa holders…

An advisor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams who was also a volunteer on his reelection campaign was suspended after giving more than $100 in cash to a journalist who reported the exchange to her superiors…

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim interviews outgoing Revson President Julie Sandorf about her foundation’s approach to funding projects and initiatives in New York City, as well as her own questions about how Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani intends to address antisemitism and anti-Israel activity in the city…  

Eighteen people were arrested at a two-day worker-led protest at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters as the software giant pledged to review the IDF’s use of its technologies…

An Israeli academic is suing the University of California, Berkeley, alleging that the school, where she had taught a class in 2022, had invited her to apply for another teaching position and rejected her application because she is Israeli; in the lawsuit, Yael Nativ said that the chair of the school’s theater department told her that she would not be offered a position because “[t]hings are very hot right now and many of our grad students are angry” over the political situation in Israel and Gaza…

Third Point founder Daniel Loeb was named chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s board of trustees, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports…

A group of 80 Modern Orthodox rabbis signed on to a letter calling for Israel and its supporters to act with “moral clarity” in regards to the humanitarian situation in Gaza…

The New York Yankees drafted a shortstop who in 2021 had scrawled a swastika on the dorm room door of a Jewish student; Core Jackson, whose acquisition despite the incident was approved by Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, has expressed remorse for his actions, telling The Athletic he was “blackout drunk” at the time and had no memory of the incident… 

Brandon Korff, the son of Shari Redstone, recently applied for Israeli residency…

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry criticized what it called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “clumsy intervention” and “inflammatory and provocative” comments made in the wake of Canberra’s cancelation of a visa for hard-right Israeli MK Simcha Rothman; in response, Netanyahu lambasted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”...

B'nai Brith Canada issued an open letter calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to reverse his plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next month…

Netanyahu is reportedly mulling the creation of a satellite party to woo right-wing voters disillusioned with his Likud party and its far-right coalition members; the new party would attempt to block former Likud voters from backing former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett or Avigdor Liberman…

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nassirzadeh said that Tehran had built missiles “with far greater capabilities than previous missiles” and would use them in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran…

Iranian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said that current circumstances are preventing “effective negotiations” between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program…

The Iranian Navy launched its first drills in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean since its 12-day war with Israel in June…

Seventy-nine Afghans who had been forcibly returned from Iran were killed in a bus crash in Afghanistan; Tehran has sought to deport more than 1 million Afghans in the country as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration…

A senior Catholic cleric in Lebanon said that Pope Leo XIV was considering a trip to the country as his first overseas trip since becoming pontiff…

British tech pioneer Stephanie Shirley, who fought for women’s inclusion in the field as an adult after fleeing Nazi Europe on the Kindertransport as a child, died at 91…

Psychiatrist Warren Brodey, who coupled his field with the advent of modern technology, died at 101…

OHAD KAB/DADA STUDIO

Former Israeli hostage Andrei Kozlov met with several dozen Holocaust survivors on Tuesday at the Adolph and Lotte Rosenberg Summer Retreat for Holocaust survivors in Kerhonkson, N.Y., hosted by The Blue Card. Read more from eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher here.

ADRIÁN MONROY/MEDIOS Y MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES

Mexican writer, playwright and journalist whose work is related to diversity and its obstacles, Sabina Berman Goldberg turns 70... 

Retired owner of Effective Strategy Consultants, South Florida resident, Irwin Wecker... Senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit (with chambers in Chicago), the first woman appointed to this court, Judge Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner turns 87... President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until the end of 2022, L. Rafael Reif turns 75... Former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, he was the first Jewish chief justice in Ohio history, Eric S. Brown turns 72... Israeli-born pawnbroker and star of the reality television series “Beverly Hills Pawn,” Yossi Dina turns 71... Businessman and collector of modern and contemporary art, he is a partner in the NFL's Washington Commanders, Mitchell Rales turns 69... U.S. senator (D-MT) for 18 years, ending earlier this year, Jon Tester turns 69... Israeli physician who was a member of the Knesset, he now serves as mayor of Ashdod, Dr. Yehiel Lasri turns 68... Photographer best known for his fashion and celebrity images, Jerry Avenaim turns 64... Israeli career diplomat who served for six years as consul general in New York, Ido Aharoni turns 63... United States secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent turns 63... President at Maimonides Fund, Mark S. Charendoff... Co-founder of BlueLine Grid, he was previously an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and a member of the Los Angeles City Council, Jack Weiss turns 61... Member of the philanthropic leadership group for the UJA-Federation of New York, Chavie N. Kahn... Partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts-KKR where he is the global head of public affairs and a co-head of global impact, Ken Mehlman turns 59... President of Berger Hirschberg Strategies, Rachel Hirschberg Light... Co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin turns 52... MLB pitcher for nine teams in a 16-season career, he was the starting pitcher in three of Team Israel's first four games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, all of which the team won, Jason Marquis turns 47... District attorney of San Francisco, elected in 2019 and recalled in 2022, Chesa Boudin turns 45... Head coach of the Temple University Owls men's basketball team, Adam Fisher turns 41... President at Bold Decision, Adam Rosenblatt turns 40... Missions manager for domestic and overseas travel at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Erica N. Miller... Communications director at Breakthrough Energy, David Abadian Heifetz... Pop singer and songwriter, Madeline Fuhrman turns 32... Associate editor at Simon & Schuster, Tzipora (Tzippy) Baitch... An Argov fellow at Reichman University and a Lauder fellow at the World Jewish Congress, Noa Rakel Perugia... Lynn Sharon... James Barton...