Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
Yesterday in D.C., Jewish Insider and The Circuit hosted an Insider Access lunch event at the UAE Embassy in Washington featuring U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog. The panel conversation, which was the first time the three ambassadors appeared together, was moderated by JI’s Washington correspondent Gabby Deutch.
The gathering, which took place on International Women’s Day, also honored female diplomats from the three countries.
Notable attendees included Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar, Egyptian Ambassador Motaz Mounir Zahran, UAE’s Deputy Chief of Mission Shaima Gargash, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Jill Deutch, Sam Feist, Wolf Blitzer, Estee Portnoy, Hilary Smith Kapner, Norm Brownstein, David Krone, Mark Isakowitz, Alex Katz, William Daroff, Malcolm Hoenlein, Talal Alabsi, Dora Cattuti, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Rabbi Hyim Shafner, Jarrod Bernstein, Tamara Wittes, Rob Satloff, Aaron Lobel, Jason Isaacson, Sander Gerber, Hanna Gerber, Dana Al Marashi, Chris Isham, Ludo Hood, Natalie Gutman-Chen, Nathan Diament, Brian Shankman, Rob Greenway, Carmiel Arbit, Jacob Slone, Tim Hysom, Gabe Scheinmann, Amanda Berman, Ethan Bronner, Abba Cohen and Josh Kraushaar. Stay tuned for additional clips from the event this week.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog just landed in Ankara, Turkey, where he will meet today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This is the first high-level meeting between an Israeli leader and the Turkish president since 2008 and is being viewed by both sides as a first step towards warming ties between the two countries.
Before departing for Ankara, Herzog said, “Certainly at a time when the international order is being shaken, it is good and proper that stability and partnership be maintained in our region… We will not agree on everything, and the relationship between Israel and Turkey has certainly known ups and downs and not-so-simple moments in recent years, but we shall try to restart our relations and build them in a measured and cautious manner, and with mutual respect between our states.”
Herzog will be greeted at the president’s palace in a special ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. local time, with a military band set to play the national anthems of both countries. There will also be a 21-gun salute, after which the two leaders will hold closed meetings.
Since taking office last July, Herzog has spoken with Erdogan via phone several times. During the visit, which has been coordinated with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and their offices, the two presidents will discuss various bilateral issues, including Israel-Turkey relations and the potential for expanding collaboration between their respective states and peoples in various fields.
Following a state dinner at the palace on Wednesday evening, Herzog and his wife, Michal, will travel to Istanbul overnight and will meet with representatives of Turkey’s Jewish community on Thursday morning before returning to Israel.
grand canyon politics
Blake Masters wants to take back Arizona

Blake Masters
Even by the fun-house standards of Republican politics in the swing state of Arizona — which has produced a rather colorful stream of election denialists, Nazi analogists and other far-right extremists who have gained notoriety in recent years — Blake Masters cuts an unusual profile.
The GOP Senate candidate and Peter Thiel protegé casts himself as a former libertarian who turned to conservatism after establishing what he describes as an early intellectual and emotional basis for former President Donald Trump’s brash neo-populist agenda.
And on many red-meat conservative fixations, Masters comes off as a relatively standard-issue Trump loyalist, warning repeatedly of the dangers of lax immigration policies, the Chinese Communist Party and Big Tech censorship. He has frequently denounced critical race theory as “anti-white racism.”
Masters, 35, has turned heads for other reasons, thanks in large part to a series of provocative campaign ads that have drawn national attention. During one notable spot, the chief operating officer of Thiel Capital, speaking over a foreboding soundtrack, brandished a short-barreled rifle “designed to kill people” — a demonstration of his gun-rights bona fides. Elsewhere, he falsely declared that “Trump won in 2020” and has said that Americans “should be able to raise a family on one single income.”
“Most politicians, left or right, don’t really talk that way,” Masters, a self-described “anti-progressive,” said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel in late January. “I think I just really stand out,” he added, with characteristic bluster. “I’m the only one who’s not boring. I’m the only one who really, I think, understands the stakes.”