
Daily Kickoff: Heritage’s foreign policy shift + Rep. Auchincloss on China, Iran
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the Heritage Foundation’s policy shifts in recent years and feature an interview with Rep. Jake Auchincloss on our podcast. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: N.C. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Rabbi Marc Katz and Wolf Blitzer.
Who killed Kesher’s rabbi? This morning, we’re bringing you the third installment of an investigation from Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch into the 1984 murder of a prominent Washington rabbi. Catch up on the first two parts here.
Known and beloved for his generosity, Rabbi Philip Rabinowitz lived his values by helping Jews in need. But after he was killed and suspicions mounted, some would begin to question: Had he been too generous? More below.
Hours before the kickoff of the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Tel Aviv last night, attendees (and the press corps) received an email that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been slated to address the gathering’s opening session along with President Isaac Herzog, would no longer be appearing at the confab, JI’s Melissa Weiss reports. The cancellation came as leaders of Israel’s protest movement and American activists planned a demonstration to coincide with Netanyahu’s address. Earlier in the day, one of the chief architects of the judicial reform proposals, MK Simcha Rothman, was disrupted by audience members with shouts and groggers while he was speaking at a meeting of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors.
Netanyahu, however, did appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he discussed judicial reform efforts and fielded questions about his coalition partners. “I think a lot of them have changed over time,” Netanyahu said of the coalition members who have garnered attention for past involvement in extremist groups and derogatory comments about different factions of Israeli society. “And they themselves say that. But the important thing to understand is they joined me, I didn’t join them. We have by far the largest party in the Knesset, and certainly in the coalition. They’re smaller parties. The mainstream policies are decided by me. And that’s what I’m doing.”
Netanyahu also told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that he is open to meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later this week in Jerusalem. “I’ll meet with everyone. Why not?” Netanyahu said. “I meet with Republican governors and Democratic governors… I think it’s my job, and I think it’s important for Israel’s bipartisan support in the United States. I make a point of it.” Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor DeSantis’ office responded to inquiries about an official meeting.
Speaking last night at the GA in Tel Aviv, Herzog addressed what he described as “fierce debate over Israel’s direction in recent months,” cautioning that “there is no greater existential threat to our people than the one that comes from within: our own polarization and alienation from one another.”
Herzog also announced the launch of a new initiative that seeks to improve dialogue among Jewish communities and identify new young Jewish leaders, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports. Read more here.
The JFNA GA was not without protest, even with Netanyahu’s absence. A panel Monday morning featuring Rothman, Israel Democracy Institute President Yohanan Plesner and One Million Lobby founder and CEO Alex Rif was punctuated by frequent outbursts from audience members and occasionally heated exchanges between Plesner and Rothman over some of the government’s more contentious efforts, including its judicial reform proposals and discussions to revoke Israel’s “grandfather clause.”
Rif, who moved to Israel from Russia with her family in the 1990s, directly addressed Rothman regarding the grandfather clause, which currently allows individuals with one Jewish grandparent to make aliyah. “I think the biggest danger for changing the Law of Return today is for the ones that are here in Israel, the 400,000 Israelis that are not Jewish by halacha,” Rif said to Rothman amid applause. “When you change the law of return, you close the door for them forever for the Jewish people. You’re telling them, ‘You’re here by mistake.’”
Israeli Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid is slated to address the gathering this afternoon.
Among the many travelers to Israel ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, this week is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who, along with a delegation of House members, met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides yesterday.
The House is set to vote on Tuesday on a resolution, introduced by Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Mike McCaul (R-TX) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), celebrating the 75th anniversary of the U.S.-Israel relationship, encouraging the strengthening and expansion of the Abraham Accords, affirming support for the U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding and supporting Israel’s “robust involvement as an active member of the community of nations.”
In Pittsburgh today, jury selection begins for the trial of the man charged with murdering 11 congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018.
conservative conversation
Inside Heritage’s foreign policy evolution

The Heritage Foundation was once a bastion of interventionist foreign policy in the Republican Party. But on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the influential conservative think tank has shifted toward what its president, Kevin Roberts, described to Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod as a more “selective” U.S. foreign policy — one in which Israel and Taiwan land at the top of the list of U.S. priorities; Ukraine, which for more than a year has struggled against a Russian invasion, does not.
Grand strategy: Roberts described Heritage’s grand strategy for foreign policy as “what we call the third way… which is to say neither interventionism nor isolationism.” The strategy aligns with the populist national conservative movement, which promotes a more isolationist foreign policy coupled with protectionist trade measures. The current approach, Roberts said, stems from “recognizing that America is a lot weaker 40 years after [Ronald] Reagan’s presidency. It’s weaker financially, it’s weaker socially and culturally, every branch of the services has a very difficult time not just in recruiting, but in retaining.” Roberts argues that the current policy remains consistent with Reaganite values. “We hope that we can help change [the current situation] by saying, ‘We believe in peace through strength, we want a very strong, robust American military,” he said, “but we have to be a heck of a lot more selective and just and constitutional when we decide to deploy the people’s resources.’”
Israel in focus: Although the prime focus for Heritage and its keynote speakers has been on shifting resources toward Taiwan and away from Ukraine, Roberts emphasized that Israel remains a key interest — and another example of why the U.S. needs to conserve the resources being sent to help Kyiv fend off the Russian invasion. The Heritage president classified Israel as “near the top of the scale” or potentially “at the very top” of vital U.S. interests because it is among the U.S.’ most “consistent all[ies] in world politics,” “geopolitically important for those of us who appreciate the shared [Judeo-Christian] heritage we have” and because the U.S. and Israel share the same existential enemies.
Eye on Iran: Iran received scant attention at the conference — at odds with the level of concern many in the GOP’s more traditional foreign policy wing hold about the regime in Tehran. But Roberts pointed to the potential threat from the Islamic republic as an additional reason the U.S. needs to cut off Ukraine, placing it alongside China as one of “our biggest enemies.” “This is a pie and these military resources are not infinite, and we have to be able to keep some of them in case the Iranians become an even bigger issue than they are,” he said. “I would actually say Iran is a much bigger threat to us than Russia.”