Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at Israeli efforts to make inroads in Africa, and talk to New Jersey congressional candidate Jason Blazakis. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Ruth Porat, James Snyder and Fabien Levy.
In another indication that Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley’s suspension will not soon be lifted, the State Department swapped the profile photo for the X — formerly known as Twitter — account of the office of the special envoy, removing Malley’s image and using one of Abram Paley, Foggy Bottom’s acting envoy. Malley has been on leave since June while the FBI and State Department investigate concerns over his handling of documents related to negotiations with Iran.
State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on Monday that he had “no specifics to offer” regarding the photo swap, and that Malley remains on leave.
Patel was also pressed about questions over the Biden administration’s agreement with Iran, announced last week, to exchange prisoners held by both countries as well as the release of more than $6 billion in Iranian oil reserves.
The list of Americans being released in the agreement does not include Shahab Dalili, an Iranian immigrant to the U.S. with permanent resident status who was arrested on charges of espionage by Iranian authorities in 2016 and given a 10-year sentence. Dalili is not considered “wrongfully detained” by the State Department, which has declined to give further details. According to his son, who is protesting outside the White House this week, Dalili began a hunger strike after not being included in the swap.
The debate over the prisoner swap has permeated conversations on and off Capitol Hill since it was announced on Thursday. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a supporter of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran who has backed the administration’s rapprochement with Iran, quarreled with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ CEO Mark Dubowitz over the contours of the prisoner swap.
In charges announced last night, former President Donald Trump and 18 others, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorney Sidney Powell, were indicted in Georgia in connection to the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Peach State.
Israel in Africa
Israel’s innovative diplomatic policy in Africa bears fruit

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his first-ever trip to Africa in 2016, he famously declared, “Israel is coming back to Africa, and Africa is coming back to Israel.” During that weeklong visit, the first by an Israeli leader to sub-Saharan Africa in more than 30 years, Netanyahu visited Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia, and held a historic summit with leaders from some seven countries. At the time, he said his plan was to share Israeli security and technological expertise in exchange for new friends who might be less critical of Israel and offer support in international forums that are usually biased against the Jewish state. Seven years later, some of Netanyahu’s African dream seems to have come to fruition, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports.
Strengthening ties: Bilateral ties with several African countries are stronger than ever, prompting a tiny but visible shift in bodies such as the United Nations and the African Union. In addition, Israeli innovation from both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors is increasingly finding its way to the African subcontinent, providing life-saving solutions for some of the world’s poorest countries and helping some of the world’s most impoverished communities overcome the challenges of dry, desolate or underdeveloped land.
Water works: Two years after Netanyahu’s inaugural visit, Nermine Khouzam Rubin heard the prime minister speak at an AIPAC conference about his country’s technological progress. The Florida native already knew about the myriad challenges in Africa and, spurred by Netanyahu’s comments, envisioned a way to connect the two. The result was Water 4 Mercy, an organization that utilizes Israeli technology to locate underground aquifers that can build sustainable feeding and farming options in some of the driest parts of Africa. In just five years, Khouzam Rubin’s nonprofit, working with Israeli NGOs and innovation companies, has positively impacted the lives of some 50,000 people in 12 communities in Tanzania. And next month, along with a consortium of international donors, nonprofits, and for-profit Israeli companies, the organization will oversee the launch of its first sustainable farming center in Kenya.