
Daily Kickoff: The Phoenix Suns 33-year-old CEO + Alex Soros takes over
👋 Good Monday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Phoenix Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein and go behind the scenes of the new Jerusalem hotel The Theatron. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sue Bird, Alex Soros and Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, offered some noteworthy comments about the White House’s antisemitism report in a new interview with The Jerusalem Post.
In the interview, she expressed hope that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has a long history of antisemitism, might evolve and change their past behavior. “If they’re really willing to say, ‘hey, we now see this is a serious problem,’ then they are welcome,” Lipstadt said in the interview.
CAIR, a self-described Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, was mentioned in an accompanying fact sheet to the White House’s antisemitism report. Those familiar with the drafting of the White House plan downplayed the presence of CAIR in the fact sheet, saying the group was included as one of many organizations that reached out to offer assistance in the White House’s efforts.
But Lipstadt’s comments in the interview went beyond previous remarks from those involved in drafting the report. She acknowledged CAIR’s problematic past, but kept open the possibility that the group could be an ally against antisemitism in the future. “I’m going to give people a chance to change their past behavior, making it take something seriously that they never took seriously before and we’ll see what happens,” Lipstadt said.
Lipstadt also was asked about the White House’s decision to include an alternate definition of antisemitism backed by progressives, in addition to referencing the mainstream International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition. “I think the plan makes it very clear: It says America embraces the IHRA definition, by quoting what Secretary [of State Tony] Blinken said in January 2022, in the name of the Biden-Harris administration,” she said.
The report largely sidestepped the debate over how precisely to define antisemitism, only noting that the United States “has embraced” the mainstream definition (in the passive voice) while noting the current administration (in the active voice) “welcomes and appreciates” the alternative Nexus definition championed by progressives.
“There wasn’t a triumph to cloud the picture; it wasn’t an effort to diminish IHRA in any way, it was an effort to say ‘things [in the Nexus] could be useful,’” Lipstadt told The Jerusalem Post.
Mainstream U.S. Jewish groups have praised the strategy’s inclusion of IHRA. But several left-wing groups that are critical of IHRA — including CAIR — have also claimed victory over the definition debate.
“They can say whatever they want,” Lipstadt said of those who celebrated that the Biden administration did not formally adopt IHRA, “but the strategy says the United States government embraces the IHRA definition,” she told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch on Monday.
Lipstadt added that “the IHRA definition has been very useful,” but “there have been those who have misused it.”
“This claim that it stifles speech and all those things — there may have been misapplication of the IHRA definition, but it’s the same thing with social media,” said Lipstadt. “There might be misuse of social media, but we’re not attacking social media. We’re attacking the misuse of social media.”
Asked her thoughts on the recent uproar surrounding a CUNY Law student’s graduation speech attacking Zionists, Lipstadt declined to comment. “I don’t know this for a fact, but there’s a possibility that there will be some legal steps, and I can’t speak about it,” she said.
In American political news, the historic federal indictment against former President Donald Trump — at first glance — only appears to be hardening his support with the Republican base. In one of the first public polls to be conducted after the indictment, CBS News’ survey found that Trump held the largest lead to date in the GOP primary, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 61-23%.
That Trump grows stronger within the Republican Party despite his growing legal troubles is also backed by the actions of his rivals for the GOP nomination. Only two long-shot GOP candidates — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson — have urged Americans to take the charges seriously.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign won two additional congressional endorsements after the indictment — from Georgia GOP Reps. Andrew Clyde and Mike Collins.
In diplomatic news, U.S. and Iranian officials reportedly held indirect talks in Oman last month, with Omani officials delivering messages between hotel rooms, three sources told Axios.
And in philanthropic news, George Soros is passing over control of his empire to his younger son, Alex. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Alex Soros noted that he is “more political” than his father, who has been a frequent target of right-wing attacks for his progressive activism.
The Soros’ nonprofit, Open Society Foundations, directs about $1.5 billion a year to like-minded groups, according to the Wall Street Journal. Their super PAC (Democracy PAC) has spent millions to elect progressive prosecutors and district attorneys who favor less punitive sentences for criminals in favor of rehabilitative efforts.
ISOLATIONIST STANCE
Rand Paul, Mike Lee rail against U.S. aid to Ukraine

Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY), two of the most prominent avatars of a more restrictionist foreign policy in the Senate Republican conference, criticized the bipartisan U.S. approach to Ukraine and the U.S.’ broader foreign policy posture in speeches at a foreign policy conference on Capitol Hill organized by The American Conservative magazine, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Ukraine in focus: Lee further lamented that “anyone raising dissent” or “legitimate questions” about the U.S.’ assistance to Ukraine is “immediately labeled a Putin apologist, a lover of Russia,” and said that fellow NATO members have not been pulling their weight in supporting Ukraine. Echoing a line adopted by a growing number of conservative critics of U.S. foreign policy on the war in Ukraine, Lee claimed that the U.S. is depleting stockpiles that would be needed in a potential conflict with China. “This is leaving us ill-prepared to replenish those resources and prepare for what some would say might end up being the most significant near-term threat to our national interest and our national security abroad,” Lee said.
Friendly fire: Lee criticized plans to potentially include additional aid for Ukraine in an upcoming disaster relief funding bill as “another sign of weakness in our unflinching pro-Ukraine strategy” and a sign that the war is actually unpopular among Americans. “If your aid package cannot pass on its own merits, such that it has to be attached to another package, a sympathetic, must-pass bill… that says something about your cause,” he argued. Paul echoed such sentiments. “I think the people are with us, but Washington isn’t, and that’s why we still need to clean house and get a new Congress as soon as possible,” Paul said.