Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent JI stories, including: Alserkal Avenue, the Dubai arts district with a multicultural vision; In Bay Area congressional race, parsing differences on Israel; Meet the Israeli working to revive and preserve Morocco’s Jewish past; Only one Jew remains in Yemen, U.N. says; Israel ‘shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state,’ Amnesty USA director tells Democratic group; 25 Jewish House Dems condemn Amnesty director’s ‘alarming’ and ‘antisemitic’ comments; Eleven Jewish House Dems: Amnesty director’s full remarks ‘even more troubling’; and Will the Biden administration allow Congress to review the new Iran deal? Print the latest edition here.
Negotiations in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear program are in the final stages, Biden administration officials told lawmakers yesterday.
The National Security Council’s Brett McGurk and Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley gave a classified briefing to members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, seeming optimistic that a deal could still come together.
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Brian Mast (R-FL) are reintroducing their billto provide Israel with so-called “bunker busters” — the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal — Jewish Insider has learned. That weapon could allow Israel to independently strike at Iran’s best-protected nuclear facilities.
“We must prepare for the serious threat of a nuclear-armed Iran when key provisions of the deal expire. That’s why I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan bill to defend Israel from Iran and Hezbollah, and reinforce our ally’s qualitative military edge in the region with ‘bunker buster’ munitions,” Gottheimer said in a statement to JI.
Mast said, “Since the radical Islamists took over in 1979, the Iran regime’s goal has been destroying the Jewish homeland, Israel. We cannot sit silent while they continue trying to wipe Israel off the map… Israel must have the tools it needs to protect its people against Iranian aggression.”
CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told House lawmakers yesterday, “I don’t think [Iran has] made a decision to go forward” with creating a nuclear weapon, because “they want the sanctions relief” that would come with a deal. “I think the best solution would be to get an agreement where they’re not going to get a nuclear weapon,” he continued.
Following that hearing, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) said she is “even more convinced” that a new Iran deal will put Israel and Iran “on a collision course,” a warning she said Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog provided in a Wednesday meeting.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), who opposed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, signaled in a Wednesday statement that she intends to oppose the new agreement as it has been outlined publicly.
Meng said, “Any new agreement must address three core tenets — Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile program and its funding of terrorism. It is simply not enough to return to the 2015 agreement while Iran’s oil continues to flow and its centrifuges continue to spin.” She also called for a new deal to address expiring restrictions and sunsets in the original deal.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill yesterday with a dozen other Senate Republicans seeking to block certain sanctions waivers for non-military Iranian nuclear projects.
And several former Trump administration officials expressed their support for a House resolution from 50 Republicans expressing opposition to the Vienna negotiations.
scoop
In letter to members, AIPAC defends recent endorsements

AIPAC President Betsy Berns Korn speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference in March 2020
In a four-page letter sent to its membership on Friday morning, AIPAC defended its first round of more than 100 Congressional endorsements issued by its new PAC, in particular three dozen Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Quotable: “This is no moment for the pro-Israel movement to become selective about its friends,” the letter, authored by AIPAC President Betsy Berns Korn and CEO Howard Kohr and obtained by Jewish Insider, reads. “The one thing that guarantees Israel’s ability to defend itself is the enduring support of the United States. When we launched our political action committee last year, we decided that we would base decisions about political contributions on only one thing: whether a political candidate supports the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Background: Since the endorsements were announced in early March, the group has faced criticism from some liberals for endorsing 37 sitting Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the election for President Joe Biden. Following AIPAC’s December announcement of the new PAC, J Street and the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) issued public calls for other pro-Israel PACs to pledge not to endorse any candidates who have promoted false claims around the 2020 election.
One of many: The letter sent by AIPAC on Friday acknowledges those criticisms, framing the 2020 election as one of many points of division — both political and demographic — among the “remarkably diverse” set of pro-Israel lawmakers. “We have friends in Congress who are skeptical of foreign aid for any nation — except for Israel,” the letter reads. “We have friends who are pro-choice and pro-life, those who are liberal on immigration and those who want to tighten our borders, and yes, those who disagree strongly on issues surrounding the 2020 presidential election.”
Pushback: Critics of the endorsements have argued that backing election deniers will undermine, rather than bolster, U.S. support for Israel. “The U.S.-Israel relationship cannot be strengthened at the cost of America’s democracy. Without democracy in the United States and Israel, our bilateral relationship will no doubt falter,” JDCA CEO Halie Soifer wrote in a recent op-ed. “Nothing will erode bipartisan support for Israel more than the perception that support of Israel equals tolerance for hatred and insurrection at home.”
Side issue: While Berns Korn and Kohr acknowledge that “these disagreements… are, in many respects, critical to the future of America,” they argue that “they do not determine the fate of America’s enduring commitment to the State of Israel.”