Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Monday morning!
Ed. note: As the holiday season wraps up,the Daily Kickoff will return on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will address the United Nations General Assembly this morning. According to reports, Bennett’s maiden U.N. speech will call for action against Iran’s nuclear program. Bennett, who reportedly wrote the speech himself, also took guidance from author and philosopher Micah Goodman, whose theory includes “shrinking” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The prime minister will meet with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres following his address at the GA, and later in the day, he will also meet with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Bennett will also speak this afternoon at a meeting of The Jewish Federations of North America, his first on-the-record meeting with the American Jewish community since taking office earlier this year. The prime minister will return to Israel early Wednesday morning. Accompanying Bennett on his trip is Keren Hajioff, who was just appointed the prime minister’s international spokesperson. Hajioff previously served in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
On Sunday, Bennett met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and UAE Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Almarar.
The New York Times’s Adam Rasgonhighlighted the Bennett government’s efforts to engage with Palestinian counterparts, outreach that has included giving residency to thousands of undocumented Palestinians, as well as the approval of Palestinian housing units in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, said his government would reconsider its recognition of Israel next year if territorial issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not resolved.
Germany’s Social Democrats won a narrow victory over the Christian Democratic Union party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel in the federal election to choose the members of the 20th Bundestag, the worst showing for the CDU in its history. With no outright majority, the leading parties are set to begin negotiations to form a governing coalition and choose the next chancellor.
This week is a moment of truth for Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and the group of centrist Democrats he led in support of quick passage of the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had promised a vote by today, but said on Sunday the vote would be delayed to Thursday. It’s still unclear if the bill currently has enough support to pass.
buckeye ballot
Matt Dolan walks an uncharted path in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary

Ohio Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, speaks during a news conference Monday, Oct. 7, 2019 at the Ohio Department of Public Safety in Columbus, Ohio.
Former President Donald Trump has yet to make an endorsement in Ohio’s crowded Republican Senate primary, but one candidate can be sure he won’t be getting the nod. Hours after Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan declared his candidacy last Monday, he received a sharply worded rejection letter from the ex-president, pejoratively characterizing him as a “Republican in name only.” Not that Dolan, 56, was expecting it would go any other way, reports Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel. Dolan has made clear that he isn’t actively seeking Trump’s support — in contrast to the other Republican candidates locked in competition for an endorsement.
Against the grain: For one, Dolan wholeheartedly supported the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal negotiated by outgoing Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), in spite of Trump’s vocal opposition to the bill. The other GOP candidates all bashed the spending package. “I can only guess I’m the only person who supported it because President Trump said he wouldn’t endorse anyone who did,” Dolan said in a recent interview with JI. “My opponents all failed the very first test — that they’re going to follow politics before they follow what’s in the best interest of Ohio.”
Toeing the line: Despite his readiness to part ways with the former president on select issues, Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Indians, is quick to suggest that he largely approved of the former president’s agenda — even if the feeling isn’t mutual. The two-term state senator and former state representative lists a number of issues on his campaign site that suggest he is in line with the other Republican candidates in substance if not style, employing such terms as “socialist Democrats,” “election integrity,” “critical race theory” and “securing the border.”
Eye on Israel: On Israel, there is little to no distance between Dolan and his opponents, who have all expressed staunch support for the Jewish state. Dolan said he would have voted in favor of providing $1 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, as the House did last week after a contentious floor debate. “The Iron Dome is essential for Israel to protect itself,” he said. The other GOP Senate candidates told JI after the vote that they supported the spending as well.
‘Republican ideals’: Still, Dolan’s candidacy represents an unorthodox path in Ohio, where Trump’s base appears to remain energized as he mulls running in the 2024 presidential election. But Dolan said it would be misguided to view his Senate bid as a test of Trump’s salience within the Republican Party. “If we want an America that’s better and we want an Ohio that’s better, then you need somebody like me who’s pushing conservative Republican ideals that have produced results,” Dolan told JI. “That’s what I think this race is about.”