Daily Kickoff
đ Good Thursday morning!
Ed note: The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday morning. Have a great weekend!
In todayâs Daily Kickoff,we spotlight a nascent effort to expand ties between Egypt and Iran, and report on concerns from a bipartisan group of lawmakers regarding the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Texas. Also in todayâs Daily Kickoff: Elliott Abrams, Frank LaRose and Keren Hajioff.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this weekâs edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider, eJewishPhilanthropy and The Circuit stories, including: A new era for the Washington Commanders; American immigrants spice up Tel Avivâs food scene with family-run cooking studio; For Ilhan Omar, not all foreign influence spending is bad. Print the latest edition here.
Tensions continue to simmer along Israelâs border with Lebanon, as both Israeli officials and leaders of Hezbollah publicly traded barbs in recent days, each threatening to wipe out the other. Earlier this week, a Hezbollah operative hurled a Molotov cocktail at the northern Israeli town of Metulla, damaging water infrastructure but otherwise avoiding casualties.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Lebanese environmental group Green Without Borders and its leader. A release from the department cited the âwidely reportedâ collaboration between GWB and the State Department-designated terror group, and alleged that the organization âhas used its resources to support Hizballah activity at GWB outposts and has also publicly partnered with the Hizballahâs construction arm, Jihad al-Bina.â
Keren Hajioff, a former senior advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, tells us this morning that âdiplomatic effortsâ are needed to avert a crisis. âThe mounting tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border warrant serious attention,â Hajioff, who previously served as IDF spokesperson of the Northern Command, explained. âWith Iran-backed Hezbollah intensifying its provocations against Israel, a minor incident could spiral into major conflict. The Lebanese people shouldn’t be held hostage to Hezbollah’s dangerous ambitions. In the powder keg that is the Middle East, the Israel-Lebanon border is a fuse that’s getting shorter by the day.â
Rocky relations, at the moment, appear to remain on the mainland. An offshore drilling rig arrived at its Mediterranean destination â near Lebanonâs recently negotiated maritime border with Israel â this week and is expected to begin exploring for gas in the coming weeks. Lebanese officials are banking on the effort to help extract Beirut from its worst financial crisis in decades.
Israelâs top military brass will meet next week with Gen. Mark Milley. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been slated to visit earlier this summer but canceled due to an escalation between the Wagner group and Russian forces. Milley is expected to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi; a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet been confirmed.
regional relations
Egypt eyeing rapprochement with Iran amid Tehranâs warming ties with UAE, Saudi Arabia

With Middle East observers focused on the chances of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, another more low-profile process of rapprochement appears to be underway in the region: between Egypt, Israelâs oldest regional peace partner, and Iran, Israelâs biggest foe, Jewish Insiderâs Ruth Marks Eglash reports. The prospect of closer ties between the worldâs most populous Shiite nation and the Sunni-majority Egypt after more than four decades of estrangement serves the interests of both countries, recent think tank reports suggest, and follows a trend of powerful Arab nations forging closer ties with Iran, partly in a bid to bring calm to a tumultuous region.
Baby steps: A research paper published in June by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University noted reports in recent months suggesting that the two countries are in the process of drafting a preliminary agreement that would establish, among other things, a joint committee to discuss restoring diplomatic relations and deepening coordination on security issues. Iranâs supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as senior Iranian officials, according to the INSS, have publicly expressed hope for the renewal of bilateral diplomatic ties, although Egypt remains relatively silent on the matter. âThe renewal of diplomatic relations accompanied by the exchange of ambassadors between Egypt and Iran still remains uncertain,â Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the INSS and the co-author of the report, told JI.
Playing both sides: Professor Moshe Maâoz, a senior research fellow at the Truman Institute at Hebrew University, said that the apparent change in diplomatic strategy in Egypt, which is the most populous Arab state, is likely just âmaneuveringâ between the countries. âWe still donât know how itâs going to end, but by and large, Egypt is more in the U.S. camp than the Iranian camp,â he said. âEgypt is still very much connected to the United States but is trying to squeeze more concessions from them.â Maâoz added that while Egypt has certainly been influenced by âthe very significant step taken by Saudi Arabia in signing an agreement with Iran, it is more neutral than Saudi Arabia and the other states.â