Daily Kickoff: Inside Lauder’s meetings with Abbas | Trump’s itinerary signals anti-Iran alliance | Katzenberg backing Bob Iger to be 1st Jewish POTUS

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SCENE LAST NIGHT — LA Edition: Cheryl and Haim Saban opened up their Beverly Park estate for an evening event to introduce their friends to the Israel Policy Forum and its partnership with Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS). The two organizations advocate for a two-state solution that is ‘consistent with Israel’s security needs.’ In introducing the evening’s program, Haim Saban joked that typically he hosts events at his home that cost between $5-25k to attend in support of a variety of causes but that ‘this one is free so everyone should make sure to really enjoy the food.’ On a more serious note, Saban explained “all of us here tonight — whether left, right, center, meshugeners, non-meshugeners — care about Israel. While there are some who say there’s no such thing as ‘Palestinians’ — call them whatever you would like but the facts are it’s pretty much equal (populations) between the Jordan river and the sea. We have to find a way to keep Israel both Jewish and democratic.”

In describing CIS, Nimrod Novik noted how rare it is for even one Israeli general to follow another one but “when 270 retired generals, who make up approximately 80%, unite around one organization, led by one general, that’s focused on one issue — the two state solution — it’s worth paying attention.”

Rabbi David Wolpe summed up the evening’s overall discussion for us by quoting the author Flann O’Brien — “It is a great thing to do what is necessary before it becomes unavoidable”

ALSO SPOTTED: Israeli-American entrepreneur Avi Arad, Executive Producer of Homeland Alex Gansa, Former LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Barbara Yaroslavsky, Tribe Media’s David Suissa, Tikkun Olam Journeys’ Tova Suissa, IPF’s Executive Director David Halperin, Gen. (ret.) Amnon Reshef, IAC’s Shawn Evenhaim, RAND Corporation’s Shira Efron, Saban Family Foundation’s Amitai Raziel, film producer Mike Medavoy, Head of TV at WME Rick Rosen, Charles Perez, Ada Horwich, Don Feder, Shifra Efron.

DRIVING THE CONVERSATION — Trump’s Israel trip — White House aides, speaking on background yesterday, did not offer any specific details about Trump’s upcoming trip to Israel, after he first visits Saudi Arabia. Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia, according to a senior administration official, will focus on trying to reach an understanding with Arab leaders on joint “long-term” goals to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East. In Israel, Trump will “reinforce the strong alliance that we have with the Israeli people, and then we are going to talk a little bit about the peace process with the Palestinians and how we plan to go forward… We will approach it with a lot of humility. The President is very involved in [discussing] a lot of ideas.” [JewishInsider]

Initial itinerary… “A senior Israeli official said Trump was due to land in Israel on May 22 at 11 A.M. He will be received at an official ceremony at Ben-Gurion International Airport by President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… Trump will then proceed to Jerusalem for a series of meetings with Rivlin and Netanyahu… The Foreign Ministry and the Shin Bet security service are preparing for the possibility that the U.S. president will visit the Western Wall and Masada. It is still not clear whether Trump will give a speech during his visit. On May 23, Trump will visit Bethlehem, meet Abbas and apparently will also visit the Church of the Nativity. From there, he will head back to Ben-Gurion airport, taking off at about 1 P.M.” [Haaretz] 

We’re Hearing… Sheldon Adelson will likely be in Israel during Trump’s visit. For the folks who can, might be time to book your Air Adelson tickets…

“Why Does Trump Want to Address Israel at Masada?” by Sigal Samuel: “Six years ago, he inquired about whether he could hold the Miss Universe Pageant at Masada, according to Eran Sidis, the spokesman for the Knesset Speaker… Trump also loves an underdog… Now he’s about to embark on a high-profile mission to solve what may be the world’s most notoriously unsolvable conflict… In this scenario, too, he is an underdog… But he’s a confident underdog, one who believes he can and will make a historic deal. So why not throw some spectacle into the mix? Masada has been a centerpiece of the Zionist national myth for decades.” [TheAtlantic]

“Trump’s selective world tour” by Frida Ghitis: “The stops in Israel and Saudi Arabia will… please his base at home and will strengthen his hand as he seeks to score a historic victory he says we wants, helping to broker a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. The very fact that Trump will visit Israel on his first trip carries symbolic value. Israelis and many of the Jewish State’s supporters in the US had trouble forgiving Obama for failing to visit the country during his first term. Obama came within short distances of Israel, visiting nearby Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the first months of his administration, but pointedly did not go to Israel.” [CNN]

“Trump Joins Saudi Arabia, Arab Leaders for Potential Anti-Iran Alliance” by Kimberly Dozier: “The trip indicates that Trump is re-aligning the White House with Saudi Arabia’s and Israel’s anti-Iran position, while the Obama administration had sought to stay more neutral in order to deliver the Iranian nuclear deal. It’s also a signal that Trump is returning to the Bush-era reliance on Sunni Arab strongmen to quell a roiling Middle East, and it’s an in-your-face rejection of critics who called him anti-Islamic.” [DailyBeast] • Angry at Criticism by Saudi Prince, Iran Accuses Him of ‘Unveiled Threat’ [NYTimes]

“Trump goes soft on Saudi” by Michael Crowley: “Trump’s Israel visit promises to be more reflective of establishment thinking than of his past rhetoric. He is not expected, for instance, to press his campaign vow to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem… “He’s approached this like a stunningly conventional president,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a former chief of staff to the special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Obama’s State Department. “That’s been a pleasant surprise.” Some Netanyahu supporters in Washington and Israel, skeptical that an acceptable peace deal with the Palestinians is feasible, find Trump overly eager to break the historic impasse… Hard-liners close to Netanyahu are especially anxious about reports that Trump is taking advice on Israel from an old friend, New York businessman Ronald Lauder, who has played a behind-the-scenes role in past peace talks, has ties to Palestinian officials, and who believes Trump can broker a deal.” [Politico; NYTimes]

KAFE KNESSET — Lauder lore — by Tal Shalev and JPost’s Lahav Harkov: In the past two weeks, since Jewish Insider first revealed Ronald Lauder as a top White House whisperer, Israeli officials and politicians have been whispering about him as well. In addition to a public meeting with Egyptian President Sisi, Kafe Knesset has learned that Lauder met with Abbas twice in the past month, a few weeks ago in a European capital and earlier this week in DC, a day before Abbas’ White House meeting this week.  “Lauder has emerged as a significant unofficial envoy to the President, and is increasing his involvement with the Israeli Palestinian issue, and he is convinced he can help the President secure a deal,” one well informed source told Kafe Knesset. “He thinks peace is possible and is embracing the Palestinians who feel they have found their man and he believes he can bring them to the table,” he added. Another well informed source said that during the Trump-Abbas meeting this Wednesday, the President praised Lauder, adding that “Lauder is determined to move forward, and is convinced that the Palestinians want a deal.” Read today’s entire Kafe Knesset here [JewishInsider]

HAPPENING ON SUNDAY — The Jerusalem Post will be holding its 6th annual conference at the Marriott Marquis in NY. Speakers include top Israeli ministers, Israel’s Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog, White House aide Sebastian Gorka, Senators Tom Cotton and Deb Fischer; Congresswoman Grace Meng, Ambassador Danny Danon, Ron Lauder, and Alan Dershowitz, among others. Larry King will receive the Jerusalem Post Lifetime Achievement Award and talk about his career and Jewish identity.

ON THE HILL — Reaction to Trump’s upcoming trip to Israel — by Aaron Magid: “I guess when he can’t get any of his domestic programs done, it’s good to go overseas. Certainly, we have heard nothing about infrastructure,” Rep. Donald Norcross(D-NJ) told Jewish Insider. “For somebody who during the campaign who was almost solely focused on Making America Great Again and bringing jobs home, he seems to be spending a lot of time focused abroad and not dealing with infrastructure which is jobs.”

Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) added, “I’m glad that he would pick those countries and any positive outreach that he does. I’m very skeptical. He doesn’t have a good comprehension on foreign affairs and doesn’t do his homework.” [JewishInsider]

SCENE LAST NIGHT IN NYC — Jake Sullivan discussed American foreign policy under Trump, as well as his experience in establishing back channel talks with Iran that led to the nuclear deal, in a conversation with Jordan Hirsch, Visiting Fellow at The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, at the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life.

“I am very skeptical that the traditional approach is going to lead to success,”Sullivan said about Trump’s efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. “I am deeply skeptical. It did not work when George Mitchell and Hillary Clinton tried it. It did not work when John Kerry tried it. It did not work when Condoleezza Rice tried it. I do not believe that it is right for success in this administration either. And I think Donald Trump saying that maybe it isn’t as hard as everyone made it out to, I can say from personal experience, I have my grave doubts that he is correct in that statement. I have my doubts about whether Abu Mazen (Abbas), given his current political position, given his history on this, he is not strong enough, in my view, to deliver a yes to a deal. Even a yes to a deal that gave him most of all what he needed.”

Sullivan on the Iran deal going forward: “I believe that job number one today – and I think the Israeli intelligence and military establishment would agree with this – is not to try to enter a renegotiation on the nuclear deal, which I think is on sound footing right now. Iran is in compliance, We can continue to shape their behavior around the nuclear issue. It’s to deal with the broader issue of their activities. And I think that the administration deciding that it is going to increase pressure on that – economic pressure, intelligence pressure, military cooperation with our allies – that is where their focus should be. The notion that they say we are going to open core trade-offs in this deal right now is a way to alienate our partners. As time progresses, If Iran continues to remain a state that is looking to get a nuclear weapon ultimately, we have options down the road to do something about that, not just a military option.”

Thoughts on 2020 and whether he would join another campaign: “I think it’s going to be a big field (in the Democratic primary), and there are a lot of intriguing candidates. In terms of me getting involved, I do not plan on working full time on a campaign again, unless it’s the campaign of a close friend or family member. But, of course, I will be in the fight. I will participate in some way in 2018 and in 2020 and beyond because I think it’s important not to retreat from the field.”

Sullivan’s reading list: “Core international relations texts like Man, the State, and War, Robert Gilpin’s The Political Economy of International Relations, and John Gaddis’s The Cold War: A New History. I am in the middle of a book right now about the ratification of the U.S. constitution and contingent it was… and then in terms of the daily stuff, I pretty much follow the same newspapers, foreign policy outlets that everybody does.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I’m a full service celebrator” — Dan Senor on CBS This Morning when asked if he’s celebrating Cinco de Mayo today [Video]

TRUMP TEAM — “The Voice in His Ear – Jared Kushner’s access to power” by Michael Warren: “It’s a mistake to believe Kushner controls Trump, like a globalist Svengali… “I think you don’t get Kushner trying to influence Trump, you get Trump directing Kushner,” says Gingrich. “I don’t think anybody drives the Trump system except Trump.” As one senior White House official put it, “Trump is the face of Trumpism.” That’s true. But when Trump turns to the side, more often than not it’s Jared’s face he sees.” [TWS]

“In House Health Vote, Reince Priebus Sees a Much-Needed Reprieve” by Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman: “Mr. Priebus has half-joked that Mr. Kushner has “all the fun” but few of the responsibilities that burden him, according to one longtime Priebus confidant… At the height of the Kushner-Bannon spat last month, Mr. Trump instructed both men to “stop it” or face the boot, and delegated to Mr. Priebus the role of evenhanded mediator. Instead, Mr. Priebus interpreted that as a license to forge an alliance with Mr. Kushner.” [NYTimes] 

“Omarosa Manigault: I’ve never shied away from having a good relationship with Louis Farrakhan” by Louis Nelson: “Manigault, the former reality TV star turned White House adviser to President Donald Trump, said Thursday that she has a “good relationship” with the controversial Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, and would “look forward” to a meeting with him… “I would look forward to receiving that invitation and sitting down with him.” Farrakhan has been the leader of the Nation of Islam since 1977… Farrakhan himself is “an anti-Semite who routinely accuses Jews of manipulating the U.S. government and controlling the levers of world power,” according to the SPLC.” [Politico]

INBOX: “The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was deeply disturbed by comments earlier today by former reality star and White House staffer Omarosa Manigault… “Louis Farrakhan should not be made to feel welcome by anyone in the White House,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Such an overture would only serve to legitimize his long record of conspiratorial and hateful views toward Jews. We hope that the administration will make it clear that Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic organization will find no supporters in the White House.””

“Gorka: Reports about leaving White House ‘very fake news'” by Nikita Vladimirov: “President Trump’s deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka went after “very fake news” on Thursday… “I will be in the White House as long as the president wants me there and if he needs me to do something somewhere else, I will do whatever he needs me to do,” Gorka said on Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade and Friends.”” [TheHill]

“Bernie Sanders just defended Israel on Al Jazeera. Here’s why that’s a big deal” by Ron Kampeas: “Asked by Takruri whether he “respected” BDS as a legitimate nonviolent protest movement, Sanders said, “No, I don’t.” The senator suggested in his reply that the tactic was counterproductive as a means of bringing the sides to peace talks.” [JTA; Video]

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