Daily Kickoff
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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in the United Arab Emirates earlier today to meet with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The previously unannounced trip marks the third time in recent months that the two leaders have met in person.
The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. watchdog group tasked with monitoring nuclear behavior, called on Iran to cooperate with its nuclear investigators, the first time in two years the board has issued such a statement.
The vote came hoursafter Iranian officials disconnected surveillance cameras at some of its nuclear sites, and a day after Germany’s domestic intelligence agency released a report indicating that Iran has stepped up its efforts to obtain nuclear technology.
Iran blamed the U.N. vote “on false and fabricated information from the Zionist regime.”
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) warned that “Iran now has enough uranium to produce a nuclear weapon” in a statement praising the IAEA Board of Governors’ resolution.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan said that the IAEA’s move “reveals the true face of the rogue Iranian regime and its intention to acquire nuclear weapons.”
malicious map
Boston BDS map of Jewish groups has ‘potential to incite violence,’ Auchincloss says

House Financial Services Committee Vice Chair Jake Auchincloss speaks at bipartisan press conference for Congressional support on H.R. 5232 at Rayburn Building on March 08, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said on Wednesday that a report released last week by a Boston-area Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement group plays on millennia-old antisemitic tropes and could inflame violence against the Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: The group, calling itself the “Mapping Project,” alleges sinister connections between Jewish and pro-Israel groups across Massachusetts and government, politicians, the police and the media, and blames these groups for a range of nefarious activities. The group plotted the locations of the organizations on an interactive state map — drawing lines between the Jewish groups and institutions the project claims they influence — and released the addresses and names of some of the groups’ staffers.
Red alert: “This is just chilling to me. It is tapping into millennia-old antisemitic tropes about nefarious Jewish wealth, control, conspiracy, media connections and political string pulling,” Auchincloss, who represents a heavily Jewish area in the Boston suburbs, told Jewish Insider. “To name names and keep lists, which has a very sinister history in Judaism, in terms of how we are targeted, is very irresponsible. BDS needs to take this down and apologize.”
Community threat: Auchincloss tied the release of this project to current debates in the House over gun violence, explaining that he believes history shows that previous efforts to “keep lists” of Jews “can incite violence” and “inflame the deranged among us to take the next step from contemplating to acting upon violence.” The Mapping Project’s organizers did not respond to a request for comment.
Calling out: “[The organizers] need to recognize actions that have the potential to incite violence, especially in a moment of heightened antisemitism and gun violence,” Auchincloss continued. Auchincloss said he plans to raise the issue with his colleagues and with groups in the area that have promoted the Mapping Project, and will urge his colleagues to do the same. “I will give direct and stark feedback about how inappropriate and unacceptable this is,” he said.
Around the state: Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), tweeted on Wednesday that “Targeting the Jewish community like this is wrong and it is dangerous. It is irresponsible. This project is an anti-Semitic enemies list with a map attached.” The other members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation — including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) who are named in the Mapping Project — did not respond to requests for comment.