Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we feature an interview with Amb. Gordon Sondland on our podcast, and look at a bipartisan effort in Congress to address cyber harassment by terrorists and other foreign actors. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ken Marcus, Elisha Wiesel and Amb. Deborah Lipstadt.
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 Jewish Insider, eJewishPhilanthropy and The Circuit stories, including: Naftali Bennett’s big bet; Showtime’s ‘Ghosts of Beirut’ examines CIA-Mossad op that brought down one of world’s most elusive terrorists; A hotel of firsts reopens in Tel Aviv after a 70-year hiatus; White House faces pressure from the left to buck mainstream antisemitism definition; Lipstadt praises IHRA definition, but declines to say if it will be included in White House strategy; More than 175 American, global Jewish groups urge U.N. to endorse IHRA definition; Abu Dhabi grad school aims to help bridge AI programmer gap; and Chabad rabbis and rebbetzins from far-flung locales gather in Morocco. Print the latest edition here.
Today in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Arab leaders from around the region are gathering for the Arab League summit. Among those in attendance is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose rehabilitation into the Arab League and broader Arab world after more than a decade of isolation has been shepherded by Riyadh.
In addition to Assad, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Vice President Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed, Bahraini King Hamad, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, Omani Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Affairs Sayyid Asaad bin Tarik Al-Said, Tunisian President Kais Saied, President of the Libyan Presidential Council Mohamed Younis Menfi, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Yemen’s Rashad Al-Alimi, the president of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, are all in attendance in Jeddah.
The Washington Post’s Missy Ryan described Assad’s return as “a major triumph for the once-shunned Syrian leader as he seeks to shut the door on a decade of bloody civil war” that “highlights the stark gap between the United States and some of its closest Middle Eastern partners on an issue that once united them.”
“The rapprochement” between Syria and the rest of the Arab world, Ryan wrote, “reflects a recognition in Middle Eastern capitals that, despite earlier efforts to cultivate a formidable opposition to Assad, the U.S.-led policy of replacing the Syrian leader failed, having set the stage for the rise of the Islamic State and the expansion of Iranian military power on NATO’s borders.”
Next week will mark the unofficial start to Republican primary politics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to launch his long-awaited presidential campaign next week. In a private call with top donors Thursday, DeSantis made the case that he was the only GOP candidate that would be able to win the primary, and defeat President Joe Biden.
And on Monday, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is set to formally kick off his presidential campaign in North Charleston, S.C. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, has been leaning in on his inspirational personal biography (“from cotton to Congress”) and abiding faith to win over religious voters looking for an alternative to both former President Donald Trump and DeSantis.
representation in NY-17
Democrats lack Jewish candidates running in pivotal N.Y. swing seat

When Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced her retirement from the House in 2019, it was hardly surprising that most of the candidates who ran to replace her were Jewish. That none of them won, however, was a surprising development in New York’s 17th Congressional District, where voters had long elected Jewish lawmakers such as Lowey, a pro-Israel stalwart who served in the House for more than three decades, writes Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel.
Marked absence: The district itself, which spans the Lower Hudson Valley, has one of the highest Jewish populations in the country. But since 2020, no Jewish candidates have stepped up to run for the recently redrawn swing seat now held by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a freshman Republican whose narrow victory last November was attributed in large part to strong support from Orthodox Jewish voters in Rockland County, home to the largest Jewish population per capita of any county in the U.S.
Locals unfazed: As Lawler prepares to seek a second term in 2024, the emerging Democratic primary field now looks unlikely to draw any Jewish challengers. Yet while the recent dearth of Jewish candidates from both parties is a setback for Jewish representation, Jewish leaders in the Hudson Valley insist they are largely unfazed by the change.
‘It isn’t enough’: “My sense is, for many Jewish voters, all else being equal, people would probably prefer a Jewish candidate,” Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, a Jewish Democrat and former state senator in Rockland County who lost a reelection bid last cycle, told JI in a recent interview. “But for most voters, including in the Orthodox community, it isn’t enough.”