Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Republican senators about former President Donald Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, and look at some of the changes that members of Israel’s incoming government would like to enact. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jason Rezaian, Mayim Bialik and Dr. Morris Hartstein.
Dozens of lawmakers, diplomats and policymakers from the U.S., Israel and Europe will meet in Washington today and tomorrow to discuss a broad array of global challenges. China, the war in Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear program, the Abraham Accords and antisemitism in European and American politics are at the top of the agenda at the fifth convening of the invitation-only, closed-door U.S.-Europe-Israel Trilateral Strategic Dialogue.
Former Israeli Air Force general and head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate Amos Yadlin, who is now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, will chair the dialogue, which is co-hosted by the Hudson Institute and ELNET, a European NGO that aims to strengthen ties between Europe and Israel.
The gathering calls to mind the Saban Forum, the annual Middle East policy confab hosted by the Brookings Institution each December until 2017. Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, told Jewish Insider last year that the think tank — in conjunction with the forum’s chief patron, Haim Saban — decided to pause it “while on a high note” because “institutions never know when to quit.”
The World Cup in Qatar has drawn no shortage of attention — or criticism — for the reception of its host country to Jewish and Israeli attendees and journalists. But also at the mercy of their hosts are supporters of Iran’s growing protest movement, who have donned shirts reading “Women. Life. Freedom.” — and faced repercussions from Qatari security officials, who have detained or escorted out of the stadiums individuals wearing anti-Tehran attire.
American athletes have not been insulated from the politics of the games — in one press conference, Iranian journalists grilled U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter and captain Tyler Adams on U.S. policies on immigration and activities in the Gulf. But all eyes will be on the U.S.-Iran match tonight, which begins at 2 p.m. ET.
on the hill
Republican senators come out in force against Trump, West, Fuentes meeting

Republican senators emerged in force on Monday to condemn former President Donald Trump’s meeting last week with white nationalist Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, who has repeatedly made antisemitic comments in recent months, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Peppered with questions on the subject by reporters as they returned from the Thanksgiving recess, Republican senators broadly disavowed West and Fuentes and criticized the former president for having hosted the duo. Prior to Monday night’s barrage of in-person questioning, few GOP lawmakers had spoken up about the meeting, which took place last week.
Evil: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a longtime critic of the former president, said, “There is no bottom to the degree to which [Trump] is willing to degrade himself — and the country for that matter. Having dinner with those people was disgusting.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called West “disturbed” and in need of “help,” and used the term “assclown” to describe Fuentes. “Trump shouldn’t have met with [Fuentes] because it gives legitimacy to a guy who’s a purveyor and a spreader of an evil ideology,” Rubio continued. “He’s an evil guy and shouldn’t be legitimized by allowing him to come into places like that and meet someone like a former and maybe future president.” Rubio added later that he hopes Trump condemns Fuentes.
Opposing vision: Caroline Anderegg, a spokesperson for Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) — who spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting earlier this month — told JI in a written statement, “Of course the man [Scott] who’s dedicated his career to stamping out hate and racism thinks it’s a bad idea for anyone to elevate racists or anti-Semites. Senator Scott’s vision for America is rooted in opportunity, optimism, and freedom — standing in stark contrast with the recent comments from Kanye West and the vile rhetoric of Nick Fuentes.” Scott is viewed as a potential 2024 presidential candidate. Trump announced his own entry into the race earlier this month.
Dinner time: Some senators, while condemning West and Fuentes and, in some cases, disavowing Trump’s conduct, appeared to offer some degree of cover to the former president. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, “I suppose he can have dinner with whomever he wants to.” Upon followup, he said that he did not want figures who have espoused antisemitism or racism to be part of the GOP, before pivoting to condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as an “avowed [antisemite]” and urging Democrats to disavow her. In separate comments, Hawley denounced Fuentes specifically, saying, “I’m not a big fan of giving people who say they hate Jews, hate Israel, giving them a platform.”
Schumer speaks: Condemnation was not limited to Republican legislators. In a speech on the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Trump’s “friends and allies” who “are pushing him to do the right thing by condemning” Fuentes, and suggested that Trump “does not seem to have the honor to do it on his own.”
In the mishpacha: Jewish figures and organizations that — until now — have stood by Trump, have also spoken out about the dinner, The New York Times reports. Zionist Organization of America head Mort Klein, whose organization honored the former president earlier this month at its annual gala, told the Times that Trump is “not an antisemite” but “he mainstreams, he legitimizes Jew hatred and Jew haters. And this scares me.”