Daily Kickoff
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2026
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Sen. Darline Graham’s shaky debate performance earlier this week is prompting questions in the GOP about her electability, do a deep dive into efforts by the Democratic Socialists of America to win local and state-level races and report on Rep. Ryan Zinke’s advertised participation in an event hosted by the Turkey-linked group involved in the Eric Adams bribery scandal. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Marc Brown, Lauren Sherman and Eliya Cohen.
Curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod.
Today's Agenda
We’re monitoring the situation in the Middle East following President Donald Trump’s announcement yesterday that the U.S. was launching a campaign of “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale” targeting Iran. The president called the move the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY,” and warned that efforts to assist Tehran would be met with “TREMENDOUS economic consequences.” Read more here.
In Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) will face off in the last debate before the Sept. 1 Senate primary. A WCVB/University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released earlier this week showed Markey with a significant lead over Moulton in the race.
One Thing to Know
By Matthew Shea
As Israel and the Trump administration negotiate the next U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, a new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America demonstrates how even among hawkish experts in Washington, the question is increasingly not how to preserve the traditional military aid model, but what should replace it.
The report, titled “Shifting the Center of Gravity: Transforming the U.S.-Israel Security Partnership,” recommends that the two countries sign one final 10-year MOU — a sea change for Israel supporters who previously wouldn’t have dreamt to advocate for the end of these kinds of agreements between Jerusalem and Washington, though they largely hope for it to be replaced with cooperative and enduring programs.
The report comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself championed the eventual end of direct U.S. aid to Israel and as elements of both parties become resistant to defense spending overseas, a new reality that is forcing a reassessment of how Washington can sustain its commitment to Israel without relying on the traditional aid model.
The Big Reads
PALMETTO STATE POLITICS
Darline Graham’s foreign policy flub rattles GOP ahead of S.C. Senate runoff
Sen. Darline Graham’s (R-SC) stumbling performance at the final GOP primary debate on Tuesday has prompted questions about her prospects in next week’s runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. “The debate seems fairly consequential for a number of reasons,” said GOP campaign veteran Colin Reed. He predicted that Graham’s inability to sound articulate on foreign policy — all but taking a pass on a consequential national security question — was likely to have an impact on the outcome of the race because of the importance of national security issues to South Carolina’s “heavy military presence and large veteran community.”
GOING LOCAL
Socialist surge happening in under-the-radar local and state legislative races
Even as attention has focused on the Democratic Socialists of America’s victories in Senate and House primaries, many of the group’s more overlooked victories have happened at the state legislative level, where the DSA members are poised to wield significant power if they win, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. A new study by the Brookings Institution, released Wednesday, found that of the 104 state legislative candidates endorsed by national or local DSA chapters in 2026, 76 have won their primaries or advanced to the general election without a primary. At the local level, another 64 of the 99 DSA-endorsed candidates are moving on to the general election.
COLD TURKEY
Turkey-linked group in Eric Adams bribery scandal advertising event with Ryan Zinke
A Turkish-tied organization that launched in 2023 with an alleged straw-donor fundraiser for former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has spent recent weeks selling tickets for a Sept. 20 gathering listing Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) as a “featured speaker” — even as Zinke’s office insists he’s not attending the event, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. The CEO Club New York and Turkish-American Business Association have posted materials online and created a listing on Eventbrite advertising the “World Business Summit New York & Award Ceremony 2026” next month, with the name and photo of the retiring Montana congressman, who served as secretary of the interior during the first Trump administration, prominently displayed.
The Rundown
The rest of today’s original stories from Jewish Insider — full stories, all published on the site.
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The U.S. has reportedly quietly established in recent weeks a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz that has allowed between 15-20 tankers to transit through the waterway nightly, allowing some 10 million barrels of oil to move out of the region each day…
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack doubled down on his criticism of Israeli strikes on a Syrian air base earlier in the week, which Israel said had been prompted by Turkish involvement at the base…
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met on Wednesday in Doha with Hamas leaders including Khalil Al Hayya; Al Thani praised the terror group for accepting the Board of Peace’s disarmament road map, which analysts told JI Hamas likely has no intention of abiding by, and called on the international community to “pressure Israel to fulfill its obligations”...
Reps. Greg Meeks (D-NY) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over his decision to loosen export controls on the United Arab Emirates, arguing he had failed to provide “justification or evidence that proliferation or diversion risk had been mitigated” and questioning whether the moves were driven by political or financial interests...
U.S.-based missile manufacturer Castelion closed a more than $1 billion round of funding co-led by Carlyle, JPMorgan Chase and Andreessen Horowitz to boost production of hypersonic missiles…
Fortune looks at ServiceNow’s acquisition of Yevgeny Dibrov’s Armis earlier this year, as the company — which founded by Dibrov and cofounder, Nadir Izrael — becomes a core component of ServiceNow’s pushback against the AI-driven “SaaSpocalypse”...
The New York State Department of Financial Services issued a notice warning Holocaust survivors and their families about potential fraud by an organization calling itself the “Jewish Holocaust Claims Center” that is contacting such individuals about their eligibility for compensation…
Author and illustrator Marc Brown, the creator of the “Arthur” series, sold his Martha’s Vineyard home for $6.4 million…
The New York man accused of assaulting two people at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue last week is facing federal hate crimes after initially being charged with state-level hate crimes related to the incident…
L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman’s mayoral campaign confirmed plans to work with Fight Agency, as the consulting firm faces criticism from elements of the Democratic Party over its work with former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who dropped his bid following an allegation of rape by a former romantic partner…
Vanity Fair spotlights Puck’s Lauren Sherman, the lead author of the online publication’s “Line Sheet” newsletter, described as “one of the most influential — and polarizing — figures in fashion media”...
U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said London was preparing targeted sanctions against Israelis engaged in “illegal settlement expansion,” and summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires in the country over the issue…
The IDF said it was opening an investigation into the death of 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza in January 2024 after finding that Israeli troops had fired at her family’s vehicle as it was traveling opposite the direction of an evacuation route; the IDF had previously denied responsibility for the incident, which drew global attention and inspired an Oscar-nominated film titled “The Voice of Hind Rajab”...
Australia summoned Israel’s ambassador in Canberra following the IDF’s announcement that it would not move forward with criminal proceedings regarding a 2024 IDF strike in Gaza in which seven World Central Kitchen workers, including an Australian citizen, were killed…
The Dubai-based DP World is moving forward with an $800 million plan to redevelop the Syrian port of Tartous on the Mediterranean…
Former Israeli hostage Eliya Cohen married his longtime girlfriend, Ziv Abud, on Wednesday night; the couple, who attended the Nova music festival, survived a siege on the bomb shelter in which they were hiding during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks before Cohen was taken captive and held for more than 500 days…
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Iran’s Best Friends: In The Washington Post, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Bradley Bowman and Cameron McMillan call on the U.S. to address continued Russian and Chinese support for Iran. “Perhaps most startlingly, Russia reportedly provided Iran with satellite imagery and other forms of intelligence to enable Iranian attacks on American military positions in the region, likely improving Tehran’s ability to target U.S. forces and high-value assets — such as radars and command-and-control sites — with drones and ballistic missiles. … Beijing has long provided Tehran with dual-use support, meaning items that can be used for civilian and military purposes. This is perhaps most evident in Iran’s ballistic missile program.” [WashPost]
Village People: In The Wall Street Journal, David Cohen, the CEO of Algemeiner, reflects on the communal response to the recent death of his brother, Jonathan. “The people filling the mourning house weren’t merely responding to Jonathan’s death. They were responding to Jonathan’s life. A few weeks later, my wife put it succinctly: ‘To have a village, you have to be a villager.’ We talk about the disappearance of community. Americans report loneliness despite technology that lets us reach anyone, anywhere, instantly. … Perhaps we have the equation backward. A village isn’t something we find when we need one. It’s something we build long before that.” [WSJ]
Picture of the Day
The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, visited Israeli troops in Syria on Wednesday, days after an Israeli strike targeted an air base in northwestern Syria meant to deter Turkish troops from deploying in the area. Credit: IDF
Birthdays
Mark Levin, film director, television producer and screenwriter, turns 58
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP
Phoebe Bryan, Laguna Hills, Calif., resident
Connie Chung, news anchor and reporter for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC, turns 80
Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council during the Trump 45 administration, now a commentator for Fox Business, turns 79
Lana Gordon, former Kansas secretary of labor, turns 76
Steven Klinghoffer, immediate past chair of the Golda Och Academy in West Orange, N.J.
Sam Katz, mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba, from 2004 to 2014 and the owner of minor league baseball's Winnipeg Goldeyes, turns 75
Jay Knopf, managing director of equity derivatives at Rice Financial Products
Bradley Schneider, U.S. representative (D-IL), turns 65
Suzanne Grant, Wilmington, Del., resident and former treasurer of the board of the Jewish Federations of North America
Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, he was the U.S. trade representative during the Obama administration, turns 64
Steve Daines, U.S. senator (R-MT), turns 64
Patrick Drahi, founder and controlling shareholder of the Altice Group, he acquired Sotheby's in 2019, turns 63
Etgar Keret, Israeli writer known for his short stories and graphic novels, turns 59
Matthew Gould, British ambassador to Israel from 2010 to 2015, the first Jewish U.K. ambassador to be posted to Tel Aviv, and former CEO of the Zoological Society of London, turns 55
Asher Fentahun Seyoum, Ethiopian-born, former member of the Knesset for Kulanu, turns 55
Ari Goldberg, chief communications officer at Nova Ukraine
Abigail Michelson Porth, executive director of Lisa Stone Pritzker's LSP Family Foundation
Karen Brunwasser, co-CEO and one of the founders of the Jerusalem Season of Culture, a summer music festival that showcases Jerusalem
Rachel Fish, co-founder of Boundless Israel
Elhanan Miller, Israeli teacher and writer, he is the founder of People of the Book focused on communicating about the Jewish faith with the Arab world, turns 45
David Adelman, partner in the Iowa office of Cornerstone Government Affairs and foundation president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines
Meghan Ory, Canadian television and film actor, turns 44
Josh Flagg, real estate agent, author and television personality as an original cast member on the show “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” Josh Flagg, turns 41
Simon Shnapir, ice skating professional at The Skating Club of Boston, turns 39
Gianmarco Soresi, stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster and internet personality, turns 38
Roy Ziv, Canadian guitarist, YouTuber, producer and music teacher, turns 35
Sella Sharlin, triathlete and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Israel 2019, turns 30
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