Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we sit down with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and talk to Rep. Brad Schneider about Saudi-Israel normalization efforts. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Emma Green, Susie Gelman and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
As the Biden administration moves closer to releasing its national strategy to combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, declined to say on Wednesday whether White House domestic policy chief Susan Rice will include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in the document.
Lipstadt, both in her role as special envoy and prior to joining the administration, has been a proponent of the IHRA definition, which is also used by the State Department. Some Jewish community leaders have urged the administration to follow Lipstadt’s advice on the subject.
“It’s been the definition that’s been broadly accepted. The United States has championed [it],” Lipstadt told reporters in a briefing at the State Department on Wednesday. “It’s been very useful, it’s been very useful on the ground. So I think that it’s an effective tool.” Read the full story here.
The White House is currently under cross pressures on how it should define antisemitism in its upcoming strategy — mainstream Jewish groups are pushing for the administration to incorporate IHRA only, while some on the left say the administration should exclude IHRA or include other definitions that provide more latitude for criticism of Israel. Sources say the administration is considering both options.
Lipstadt said the strategy could be released“in the next few days” or “next week.” White House officials have said they expect a rollout by the end of May. Rice is leaving her post this month after two years in the job.
Lipstadt’s comments come as a coalition of major American and global Jewish organizations is pushing United Nations leaders to include an endorsement of the IHRA definition in the body’s own forthcoming action plan to monitor and respond to antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod scoops.
The letter, signed by 176 global Jewish groups — including more than 60 U.S. groups — and 120 academics from the U.S. and elsewhere, was organized by the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith International, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, European Jewish Congress, Jewish Federations of North America and World Jewish Congress.
The letter highlights that the IHRA definition has been widely adopted by international governments and organizations, U.S. states, local governments and various other sectors of public life. It also notes that Ahmed Shaeed, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, has also recommended the use of the IHRA definition.
The signatories argue that Jewish groups and leaders, as “the primary targets of antisemitic hatred, discrimination, and violence,” are “best placed to identify manifestations of hatred and bias directed against us.”
at home with…
Naftali Bennett’s big bet

In recent months, Naftali Bennett has met with members of Congress, sat for a one-on-one meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi and appeared on major American networks defending Israel’s recent operation in the Gaza Strip. But Bennett, 51, is no longer Israel’s leader. He’s not even in the government. “The passion of my life, beyond my core family, is the State of Israel,” Bennett told Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss in a wide-ranging interview at his home in Ra’anana earlier this month. “That’s what I care about. God bless, I’ve been successful in business and money has never been a driver… I don’t care about material stuff. I care about the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Learning lessons: No longer flanked by aides, Bennett, clad in a dark blue shirt and black slacks on the day of the interview, opens the door and welcomes visitors to his still-heavily guarded home set on a quiet street in the middle of the small city. The family dog trots around the house. Once settled on his back patio, Bennett sips water as he speaks about his time in the Prime Minister’s Office. “I think in the short term, over the next year or two, we’re going to go through a tough period, which we’re going through right now,” Bennett said. “After which I think the big lesson that’s going to be imprinted on the minds and hearts of Israelis is that we have to be together, a bit similar to what was imprinted during Oslo: that we can’t tear up the land of Israel, we can’t divide it. So now the big lesson is we can’t divide the people of Israel.”
When Mansour met Naftali: “I believe then, and now [I] believe more, that [Ra’am party head] Mansour Abbas is a unique leader, unprecedented within Israel,” Bennett told JI. “I would call him the Israeli [Anwar] Sadat, because he, with immense personal courage, he is taking a stand that is highly risky politically, and more than just politically. He’s taking personal risk. And his message is loud and clear: ‘Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. I get it. I want the Arabs to integrate to be part and parcel of the economy, society… and I vehemently oppose terror.’ Now, I couldn’t say that everyone around him is there yet, but it’s a process and from [the standpoint of] a leader of Israel, what we need to do is embrace him and prove him right.”