Daily Kickoff
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Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview this weekend’s Republican Jewish Coalition confab in Las Vegas, and report on calls for the Biden administration to take action on campus antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Elissa Slotkin, John Kirby and Rabbi Yonah Hain.
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: Inside the kibbutz where Hamas massacred more than 100 Israelis; DeSantis crackdown on pro-Hamas rallies could be model for elected officials; Noam Peri’s life-or-death mission to Washington.Print the latest edition here.
Five years ago today, an armed white nationalist walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue that was just starting its Saturday morning Shabbat service and began shooting. Eleven people were killed in the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, the most deadly antisemitic act in American history. Today, members of the Jewish community in the tight-knit Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill will gather to commemorate that horrible day and the lives lost, reports Jewish Insider Washington correspondent Gabby Deutch.
This anniversary, already a difficult day for a grieving community, comes less than three weeks after Hamas’ deadly terrorist attacks in Israel that have deeply affected Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
“There’s deep sadness about what we saw in Israel, and I think deep sadness at what is happening in response,” said Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, a community-building organization created after the shooting. “I think the community unfortunately knows what it’s like to come together in moments of horror and sadness, and I think it’s done that. I wish we didn’t have to again. I wish we didn’t have to be practiced at it.”
Squirrel Hill has this week faced troubling antisemitic incidents related to the situation in Israel. At least three families woke up on Thursday to find their “I Stand With Israel” yard signs vandalized. One had the word “NO” scrawled over the text in bright red, while on the others the word “Israel” had been crossed out and covered with the word “Gaza.” Someone spray painted “Free Palestine” on a wall outside a local public school with a large Jewish population. Read more here.
In Washington, National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby responded forcefully to a question about the Biden administration’s skepticism over the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty count. “What’s harsh,” Kirby said, “is the way Hamas is using people as human shields. What’s harsh is taking a couple of hundred hostages and leaving families anxious, waiting, and worrying to figure out where their loved ones are. What’s harsh is dropping in on a music festival and slaughtering a bunch of young people just trying to enjoy an afternoon. I can go on and on. That’s what’s harsh. That is what’s harsh.”
Reiterating comments made earlier in the week, Kirby acknowledged that the casualty count was likely to mount in the coming days, “because that’s what war is. It’s brutal. It’s ugly. It’s messy.” Kirby noted that the White House is “in close contact with our Israeli counterparts to do everything we can to help them minimize the risk to civilians that are in harm’s way.”
“It would be helpful if Hamas would let them leave — leave their homes, leave the — leave areas, not shelter in tunnels underneath their houses and in hospitals,” Kirby continued. “And let them get out — let them get out of Gaza if they want to leave. We know that there are thousands waiting to leave Gaza writ large. And Hamas is preventing them from doing it. That is what is harsh.”
Kirby doubled down on the Biden administration’s refusal to rely on numbers provided by Hamas’ Health Ministry. “I don’t need to tell you how to do your jobs,” he told reporters, “but if you’re going to report casualty figures out of Gaza, I would frankly recommend you don’t choose numbers put out by an organization that’s run by a terrorist organization.”
gaza war: day 21
Israel’s ground offensive into Gaza has yet to start. Many are asking why

Israelis, and much of the rest of the world, have been waiting anxiously for the IDF to launch an all-out ground offensive into the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ mass terrorist attacks on Oct. 7. Yet, nearly three weeks later, despite intense Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave and a continued barrage of rocket fire against Israel from Palestinian terrorists within, a sweeping operation to remove the Hamas threat has still not materialized. The ground offensive will be coming, however, sooner rather than later, analysts tell Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash.
American aspect: There has also been diplomatic pressure from the White House for Israel to hold back from an all-out ground invasion out of concern for the humanitarian situation faced by Gaza civilians, and also amid diplomatic efforts to release the hostages, among whom are dozens of Americans and other foreign citizens. In addition, the U.S. has been working to shore up its own forces in the region over fears that the conflict in Gaza could ignite additional fronts – the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon is already threatening to join the fray – and beyond, as Israel’s arch-nemesis Iran closely watches events unfold.
Internal considerations: As well as the U.S. aspects, Neri Zilber, a Tel Aviv-based journalist and adviser to Israel Policy Forum, said that for internal Israeli reasons ramping up the military campaign in Gaza would also take a little longer. “Yes, the IDF has said it is ready, but it’s also softening up the battlespace inside Gaza via the air to make it easier for the ground forces to go in,” he said. “They also need time to prepare and better train the reserve army and the standing army for what’s to come.”