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: The Nigerian startup hoping to solve Israel’s tech-worker shortage; Chuck Edwards walks a fine line in challenge to Cawthorn; Jared Moskowitz wants to succeed Ted Deutch in South Florida; Shift in early primary states could amplify ‘Jewish voice’ in electoral process; Meet the UAE’s unofficial business ambassador; The secret chords that sounded in the Sinai; Sanctions alone won’t stop Iran, Israeli strike may be necessary, Graham says; eBay ‘reviewing’ policy on selling property belonging to Holocaust victims; and Dan Shapiro departs State Dept.’s Iran team for Atlantic Council. Print the latest edition here.
Tensions continued to rise in Israel and the West Bank following a series of deadly attacks in recent weeks. An Israeli was stabbed by a Palestinian on a bus outside of Jerusalem, while two Palestinians were killed in a gunfight that erupted during an Israeli arrest raid in Jenin.
A Republican lower court judge in New York rejected as unconstitutional the newly drawn congressional, state Senate and Assembly maps that were adopted last month. No word yet on what this could mean for former Rep. Max Rose (D-NY), who announced he would run to reclaim his purple Staten Island seat, which was merged with the blue Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope in the redistricting process.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken reportedly asked Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, for suggested alternatives to a nuclear deal that would still limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Thursday that the only remaining disagreements between the U.S. and Iran are “tactical,” not strategic, and that Iran’s decisions on how to move forward on those issues would determine the future of any agreement.
delayed response
Amnesty’s O’Brien responds to Jewish Dems: ‘I regret representing the views of the Jewish people’

Paul O’Brien
In a letter to Jewish House Democrats, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O’Brien apologized for “representing the views of the Jewish people,” responding to the members’ unanimous condemnation of his recent remarks that his “gut” tells him American Jews want “a safe Jewish space” rather than a Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Walkback: In his response letter, dated March 25 and obtained by Jewish Insider on Thursday, O’Brien wrote, “I regret representing the views of the Jewish people. What I should have said is that my understanding from having visited Israel often and listened to many Jewish American and Israeli human rights activists is that I share a commitment to human rights and social justice for all with Jewish Americans and Israelis.”
Going further: In the letter, O’Brien says he wants to “provide context” to comments he made to a JI reporter after the event. In those comments, O’Brien said Israel “shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.” He claims his comments were in reference to Amnesty’s concerns about Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law. O’Brien made no reference to the Nation-State Law in the conversation with the reporter, but had mentioned it in an earlier part of the event. “During the course of the event, and at a number of times during the presentation, I stated that Amnesty takes no position on the legitimacy or existence of any state, including Israel,” O’Brien wrote.
On the attack: O’Brien also defends Amnesty International’s report accusing Israel of apartheid, to which several of the lawmakers had objected. “We recognize apartheid is a powerful word for a serious crime and we don’t use it lightly,” he said. “In recent months, the Israeli government has intensified its efforts to censor and discredit anyone who uses the word ‘apartheid,’ instead of engaging with the substance of our findings, and the findings of a number of Israeli and Palestinian groups.”
Follow-up: O’Brien’s response was accompanied on March 25 by a separate letter, also obtained by JI, from Amnesty International Secretary General Agnés Callamard to 11 Jewish House Democrats who wrote separately to Callamard to express further concerns about O’Brien’s remarks. “I write to reaffirm that Amnesty International recognises the right of Jewish people to self-determination. We do not take a position on the international political or legal arrangements that might be adopted to implement this right,” she wrote. “We have reaffirmed, including in the context of the launch of our report on Apartheid, that there is nothing under international law to prevent the state of Israel identifying itself as Jewish, as long as the government does not discriminate between its citizens on the grounds of religion or race.”