Daily Kickoff
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2026
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the challenges facing Saudi Arabia amid escalating tensions with the Houthis, talk to Jewish communal leaders in Michigan who say Abdul El-Sayed’s debate performance last week was the “final straw” for some Jewish Democrats in the state, and spotlight the most recent polling in Israel ahead of the election later this month. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Jon Ossoff and Rep. Mike Lawler.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Tamara Zieve.
Today's Agenda
Former Israeli hostage Eliya Cohen and his wife, Nova music festival survivor Ziv Abud Cohen, are slated to speak at tonight’s UJA Young Leaders’ Oct. 7 commemoration in New York.
The Jewish Federation of Detroit, in partnership with the local Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee chapters, is hosting “Call Me Back” host Dan Senor for a conversation focused on Judaism and Zionism in public life.
As Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed aims to court Jewish voters in Michigan in the final weeks of the campaign — and amid efforts by Republicans to woo Jewish Michiganders to vote for Republican Mike Rogers — Israeli critics Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee in NY-10, and former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) are speaking at a private event in Ann Arbor for undecided Jewish voters today in support of El-Sayed.
In Stamford, Conn., the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition is hosting a conversation with Elisha Wiesel for rabbis in the greater Connecticut area.
One Thing to Know
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has spent years — and billions of dollars — seeking to transform his country into a global economic powerhouse. But the recent escalation in tensions with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen — including the deadly weekend strikes on Riyadh’s main airport — is putting into question whether such a strategy is compatible with the changing geopolitical reality and continued threats posed by Iran and its terror proxies.
Thirteen people were killed and hundreds injured in a strike on a passenger terminal at the airport on Saturday. Another individual was killed in a separate attack when a projectile struck the airport again on Sunday. One American was among those killed in Saturday’s attack, prompting questions over whether Washington will enter the fight.
The Saudi playbook for years has been to lean on diplomacy and deescalation in an effort to prioritize its own economic ambitions. It’s a strategy that has done little to address the threats posed by the Houthis, leaving Riyadh vulnerable to the kind of situation it had hoped to avoid.
The Big Reads
breaking point
For some Jewish Democrats, Michigan’s debate was the ‘final straw’ for El-Sayed
Last Thursday’s Michigan Senate debate, where Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed described Israel as a threat to the United States comparable to Iran and said he would not vote to send defensive aid to Israel even if it were under fire, proved to be a breaking point for some Jewish Democrats who were holding out hope that the Democratic nominee would moderate his views in the general election, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Community leaders said that they’re hearing from some previously undecided Jewish Democrats that, after the debate, they now plan to back Republican Mike Rogers.
Accusation aftermath: El-Sayed on Sunday denied that he or any of his family members have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood — accusations Rogers raised last week during the debate, JI’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. El-Sayed’s mother worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was designated as a terrorist organization for supporting al-Qaida, and his sister-in-law sued to be removed from a federal terrorism watchlist, according to recent reports.”
Money moves: AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, entered the Michigan Senate general election on Friday to oppose El-Sayed, after reported tensions with Rogers over its role in the race. The group spent nearly $100,000 on direct-mail advertisements to 130,000 Jewish voters highlighting El-Sayed’s response to the terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., saying of the attacker, “Hurt people do hurt people.”
bibi boost
Netanyahu bloc gains on Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition in latest Israeli polls
The bloc of political parties backing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had its best showing of the campaign ahead of the Oct. 27 Knesset election, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. In eight polls published by Israeli media outlets in the last week, the pro-Netanyahu bloc led in four and tied in two, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party led in two. In all polls, the bloc sizes are very close, except for two polls in which Netanyahu’s bloc leads by 12 and 18 seats, respectively. The average of the eight polls puts Netanyahu’s bloc at 55 seats and the Eisenkot bloc at 51. Without the outlier polls, the average for Netanyahu’s bloc drops to 52 and the opposition bloc leads with 53 seats.
empire state education
Hochul will opt New York into federal scholarship tax credit program that will help fund Jewish education
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that she will opt New York into the new federal scholarship tax credit program, making her the second Democratic governor to do so since the administration published formal regulations for the program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Hochul’s decision bucks intense opposition from teachers’ unions, but has won her support from the Jewish community, which has been urging governors to opt in. “I’ve been clear from the start that New York would participate in the federal scholarship tax credit program if, and only if, all schools and students, including those in our public schools, could benefit,” Hochul said.
The Rundown
The rest of today’s original stories from Jewish Insider — full stories, all published on the site.
peach state politics
Ossoff defers to ICC on Israel genocide accusations, but says IDF violated int’l law
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.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas postponed the PA’s upcoming elections, slated for late November, to Sept. 11, 2027; Abbas has repeatedly postponed Palestinian legislative elections, which were last held in 2006…
The French Foreign Ministry, which has led a renewed push for a two-state solution and recognition of Palestinian statehood, criticized the postponement of the elections, which it said “once again deprives the Palestinian people of the right to democratic expression at the ballot box”...
The White House is reportedly opposing all of the current candidates to succeed U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres when his term ends later this year, with a State Department official telling Politico the Trump administration is “looking for a little bit of a disruptor”...
The Trump administration announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court, hours after the Nobel Prize committee named former ICC judge Navi Pillay as the winner of this year’s Peace Prize…
The Pentagon quietly raised the number of servicemembers killed during this year’s hostilities with Iran from 18 to 21, with 865 wounded…
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has thus far refused to release his remarks from the keynote address he gave at a gala hosted at the National Press Club last week by the anti-Israel activist group Democracy for the Arab World Now — the organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi that prioritizes transparency and accountability...
A group of 74 House Democrats led by Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) and Sara Jacobs (D-CA) are calling on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon to provide a report on civilian casualties in the war with Iran…
The Wall Street Journal does a deep dive into the “virtually unknown” donors backing left-wing candidates and causes this cycle, including failed House candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, real estate investor Deborah Simon and Bay Area tech executive Omer Hasan…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul visited the Ohel in Queens, the grave of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson; Hochul also paid respects at the graves of the rebbe’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, and Ari Halberstam, who was killed in a terror attack targeting a van of Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994…
New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman met with Allure Group founder and Satmar philanthropist Yoeli Landau at Landau’s home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn…
Amazon is in talks to acquire Decart, founded by Israelis Dean Leitersdorf, Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev, in a deal that could value the company at around $7 billion…
Private equity firm CVC sought to play down its purchase of a 40% stake in camouflage maker Fibrotex over concerns of potential blowback for investing in an Israeli company, opting instead to only inform investors in the fund rather than make a public announcement…
The United Arab Emirates’ WAM news service reports that Hamam al-Hammami, the FlyDubai co-pilot who attempted to hijack the plane, had previously flown the Dubai-Tel Aviv route at least twice to familiarize himself with it.
The UAE’s attorney general said that investigators are looking into al-Hammami’s shift toward extremism, focused on the two years he spent studying in Australia, during which time he is believed to have been radicalized at a Melbourne mosque…
A new report from the Council for a Secure America found that Kuwait is the Arab state with no current relations with Israel that is most likely to be the next country to join the Abraham Accords…
The Wall Street Journal speaks with intelligence agencies, cybersecurity experts, military officials and hackers about the hijacking of civilian video cameras to gather intelligence for attacks in conflict zones…
JI Live Briefing · Free preview
You’re seeing a snippet of the Live Briefing.
The Live Briefing is JI’s real-time feed — breaking news, notable content from across the web, video clips, images and more, all day. The items above are just a taste.
Blood Libels, Old and New: In Tablet, former refusenik Natan Sharansky considers the staying power of centuries-old blood libels against the backdrop of genocide accusations against Israel. “Our goal should not be to convince the rest of the world that we are right. Our existence does not depend on a vote in the United Nations. It depends on our own belief in the righteousness of Jewish civilization. Of course, we are not above criticism, and we must acknowledge and correct course when we deviate from our own standards. But remaining vigilant about our shortcomings is not the same as accepting guilt we don’t deserve.” [Tablet]
Targeted in Tucson: The New York Times spotlights Arizona state lawmaker Alma Hernandez, who is Jewish, and the ongoing threats she faces from both the far left and far right in part over her support for Israel. “She put iron bars on her windows and a blinding floodlight on her front porch. She cut down two trees in her yard after the police told her they could aid an intruder, and her brother moved in to protect her when the death threats intensified. … She said her vocal support for the Jewish state has drawn more violent messages in the last three years than any other time in her career.” [NYTimes]
Peace Prize Betrayal: In The Free Press, Elisha Wiesel accuses the Norwegian Nobel Committee of betraying the legacy of his father, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, with its decision last week to award the Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navi Pillay. “On December 10, 1986, I was 14 years old, sitting in Oslo City Hall as my father, Elie Wiesel, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. I will never forget the look of hope on his face that day. … My father was honored because he had turned the memory of genocide into a moral duty to the living. This morning, the same committee awarded the same prize to Navi Pillay, who chaired the UN commission of inquiry that, on September 16 of last year, betrayed the meaning of the word genocide and weaponized it against Israel.” [FreePress]
Picture of the Day
A memorial dedicated to the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre at the Nova music festival was inaugurated in Argentina over the weekend, in an initiative established by KKL Argentina in partnership with the city of Mendoza. More than 400 trees were planted in the Bosque KKL Nova (KKL Nova Forest) in Mendoza, one for each person murdered at the festival, at a ceremony attended by a delegation of bereaved families, representatives of the Nova Tribe Community Association and KKL Argentina representatives. Marcelo Álvarez
Birthdays
Tony Ressler, co-founder of both Apollo Global Management and Ares Management, he is the owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, turns 66
KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES
Marjorie Berg Ancowitz, founder of Medical Reports Service, turns 101
Murray Chass, longtime baseball reporter for The New York Times, he is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, turns 88
Lewis M. Eisenberg, U.S. ambassador to Italy during the Trump 45 administration, he is a co-founder of private equity firm Granite Capital International, turns 84
Chris Wallace, longtime Fox News anchor, more recently at CNN, turns 79
Linda Gerstle, retired CEO of Wakefield, Mass.-based CAST, a nonprofit whose mission is to transform education for students with disabilities
John D. Lantos, pediatrician and medical ethicist, turns 72
Lamar A. Nelson, dermatologist in Los Angeles
Amy Eilberg, first female rabbi ordained in Conservative Judaism, turns 72
Richard B. Ancowitz, secretary to the New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal, turns 68
Seth D. Harris, deputy director of the National Economic Council during the Biden administration, now a distinguished professor at Northeastern University, turns 64
Wendy Singer, former executive director of Start-Up Nation Central until 2022, now a strategic advisor to select Israeli start-ups including Remilk
Gary Rosen, former editor of The Wall Street Journal's Weekend Review section, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
Raanan Agus, longtime managing director at Goldman Sachs, now chairman of the David Group
Babak "Bobby" Samini, Los Angeles-based trial attorney for many high-profile clients, turns 56
Alexandra Smothers, producer, actor and screenwriter
Yael Cohen Paran, former member of the Knesset, she now serves as the co-chair of the Green Movement of Israel, turns 53
Bram Cohen, computer programmer, creator of the BitTorrent protocol and founder of Chia cryptocurrency, turns 51
Rabbi Aharon Mordechai Rokeach, only son and heir apparent of the current rebbe of the Belz chasidic dynasty, turns 51
Miri Bohadana, Israeli actor, model and television anchor, turns 49
Michael Barbaro, reporter and co-host of “The Daily,” a podcast at The New York Times
Lauren Book, former member of the Florida Senate, turns 42
Rosie Gray, freelance journalist, formerly the politics and media reporter for BuzzFeed News, turns 37
Naomi Preizler, Argentine fashion model and artist, turns 35
Alex Katz, pitcher for Team Israel in the 2020 Olympics and 2023 World Baseball Classic, he is the founder of Stadium Custom Kicks, turns 32
Noa Argamani, Oct. 7 hostage, she is a platform manager at Vine Ventures, turns 29
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