Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Jewish Democrats about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ past defense of his uncle’s antisemitic comments, and look at the newest push on Capitol Hill to increase funding for the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Yair Lapid, Josh Harris, Steven Fulop and Shari Redstone.
We hope those of you who celebrated Passover had a meaningful holiday. In Israel, the holiday was marred by several terror attacks, one of which saw Lucy Dee, a British immigrant to Israel, and her daughters Maia and Rina killed by Palestinian terrorists in a shooting in the West Bank in the hours before Shabbat last week.
Hours after the Dee family’s car came under fire in the Jordan Valley, Alessandro Parini, an Italian tourist vacationing in Israel, was killed in a car-ramming attack on Tel Aviv’s beach promenade in the area of Charles Clore Park.
Lucy Dee’s husband, Rabbi Leo Dee, called for social media users to post photos of the Israeli flag days after the killing, calling it “the sign of good. It’s the side of building something worthy.”
In Jerusalem, Israeli security forces are bracing for violence this weekend as Muslim worshippers at the Al-Aqsa mosque mark the last Friday of Ramadan, which coincides with the Iran-initiated anti-Israel Quds Day. The websites of Israel’s postal service and several Israeli banks were targeted by a hacker group named “Anonymous Sudan,” Israeli media reported.
Tensions came to a head at the Al-Aqsa mosque on the eve of Passover, when Israeli police clashed with Muslim worshippers who had barricaded themselves inside the mosque. The U.S. reportedly blocked the adoption of a U.N. Security Council statement condemning Israel for the clashes.
The events on the Temple Mount, Jonathan Spyer, director of research at the Middle East Forum and director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, were, along with rockets subsequently fired into Israel from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, part of “a continuing effort by Tehran and its various franchises to ‘unite the arenas’ of engagement with the Jewish state against the background of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.”
In an effort to quell tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred Jewish visitors from entering the Temple Mount for the final days of Ramadan. The Prime Minister’s Office said the decision was recommended by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir blasted the ban as a “serious mistake.”
The prime minister also announced this week the reversal of the firing of Gallant, whose ouster Netanyahu’s office declared after the defense minister called for the government to halt its efforts to push through judicial reform legislation.
In Washington, top-secret U.S. intelligence documents leaked on Discord caused headaches for the Biden administration. Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old National Guardsman from the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s intelligence unit who is believed to be behind the leak, was arrested yesterday. Teixeira also reportedly filmed himself yelling “racial and antisemitic slurs” in video while at a shooting range. Among the documents was intelligence indicating that Egypt had planned as recently as February to covertly supply Russia with tens of thousands of rockets, and that the Mossad had encouraged its staff and Israeli civilians to participate in the ongoing protests against judicial reform, which the agency denied. Officials have said some of the documents were “doctored.”
Also in Washington today, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak at the World Bank’s annual meeting.
Dan and Tanya Snyder have reached a deal to sell the Washington Commanders to a group led by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is expected to request next week that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) be temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee, following a request from the 89-year-old California Democrat, whose absence in Washington has resulted in a number of stalled judicial nominees as she recovers from shingles. Feinstein rejected calls from Reps. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) to resign ahead of the completion of her term, which she has said will be her last.
REVELATION REACTIONS
Jewish Democrats back Jeffries after resurfaced defense of uncle’s antisemitic remarks

Jewish Democrats who have long been staunch supporters of House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) are standing by Jeffries this week following new revelations that he publicly defended his uncle, Leonard Jeffries, in the early 1990s, after the elder Jeffries made offensive comments about Jewish people, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: Jeffries’ uncle, then a professor at City College in New York, made comments about the involvement of “rich Jews” in the African slave trade and alleged that Jews in Hollywood engaged in a “conspiracy” to denigrate Black Americans. CNN reported on Wednesday that Rep. Jeffries, who was in college at the time, penned an editorial in a Binghamton University newspaper defending his uncle as the subject of “a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.” Jeffries also mentioned Nation of Islam leader Rev. Louis Farrakhan, notorious for his own antisemitic comments, as another individual unfairly maligned for his opposition to the “ruling elite.” Since he was elected to Congress in 2013, Jeffries has said he only had a “vague recollection” of his uncle’s controversy and said that his parents kept him shielded from it.
Offering support: Jewish supporters of Jeffries who spoke to JI on Wednesday and Thursday largely brushed off the controversy as long in the past, and defended Jeffries’ record in office. Jeffries, who has clashed with the far-left elements of his caucus, has generally maintained strong support among mainstream Democrats, particularly in the Jewish and pro-Israel community. “I know Hakeem Jeffries. I know his record, his heart, and his soul,” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said in a statement to JI. “He and I have traveled to Israel together. He is a friend of mine, a friend of the Jewish people, and a friend of Israel.”
Republican response: Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Matt Brooks, the national chairman and CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement to JI, “Jeffries owes the Jewish community an explanation as to why he lied and attempted to cover up his defense of these revolting antisemites.” Coleman and Brooks said that the revelations reflect “the Democratic Party embracing and promoting antisemites.” These criticisms have been echoed by other Republicans in recent days, including the National Republican Campaign Committee. Republicans have also criticized Jeffries for deriding Black conservatives in the op-ed.
Off the Hill: Jeffries’ Jewish supporters outside of Congress are also standing by him. Jeffries’ district includes a sizable Jewish population, with which he has maintained a strong relationship. Gideon Taylor, the executive vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said in a statement to JI, “Hakeem Jeffries has been a very strong, stalwart and close friend of the Jewish community and of Israel in the long time we have known and worked with him. We look forward to continuing to work with him as we have in the past in the fight against antisemitism and hate and in seeking a safe and secure Middle East for Israel and its neighbors.”
Read the full story here.
Elsewhere: Jeffries raised $33.4 million in the first quarter of 2023, his first months as the House’s top Democrat.