Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the state of Israel’s relationships with Russia and China, and look at how the recent surge in antisemitism at the university level is affecting how Jewish high school seniors are selecting where to go to college. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jay Sures, Ali Al Nuaimi and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The Senate voted 53-43 on Tuesday to confirm Jack Lew as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jewish Insider‘s Capitol Hill reporter Marc Rod reports. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) voted with Democrats to approve Lew’s nomination — a rare alliance from one of the Senate’s most isolationist Republicans and one of its most hawkish.
Grahamsaid that“there are legitimate concerns about Mr. Lew” but the U.S. needs to “immediately have an ambassador” and that Israeli leaders “both knew and were comfortable with Mr. Lew serving in this position.”
Secretary of State Tony Blinken is slated to travel to Israel on Friday, his third trip to the country following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports. Blinken’s trip comes days after the IDF conducted an operation in Jabalya, north of Gaza City, on Tuesday, killing Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari, a key figure in the planning of the Oct. 7 attacks. The IDF said troops killed some 50 terrorists in yesterday’s ground operations, which saw significant Palestinian casualties. The army said 13 Israeli soldiers were killed fighting in Gaza in the past day.
In a Washington Post op-ed published yesterday afternoon, Blinken reiterated both the Biden administration’s support for Israel and its calls for humanitarian assistance to be administered to Palestinians in Gaza — and a plea for Congress to pass a supplemental funding package that would send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Palestinians in Gaza.
“From the moment Hamas slaughtered more than 1,400 people in Israel, including at least 35 U.S. citizens, and took more than 230 hostages, President Biden has consistently affirmed Israel’s right — indeed, its obligation — to defend itself and prevent Hamas from carrying out such an attack ever again,” Blinken wrote. “The president has made clear that the United States will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend its people against all threats, including from Iran and its proxy groups.”
“As with civilians in any conflict, the lives of Palestinian civilians must be protected,” Blinken wrote. “That means the flow of food, water, medicine, fuel and other essential humanitarian aid into Gaza must increase — immediately and significantly. It means Palestinian civilians must be able to stay out of harm’s way. It means every possible precaution must be taken to safeguard humanitarian sites. And it means humanitarian pauses must be considered for these purposes.”
Blinken warned that without aid, “the conflict is much more likely to spread, suffering will grow, and Hamas and its sponsors will benefit by fashioning themselves as saviors amid the very desperation they created.”
Reports emerged earlier today that Qatar brokered an agreement with Israel, Egypt and Hamas to allow some evacuations from Gaza. The evacuees would be limited to foreign passport holders and seriously ill individuals; footage taken earlier today from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza showed injured Palestinians leaving the enclave.
Blinken told Senate Appropriations Committee members on Tuesday that approximately 1,000 Americans and their family members have been unable to leave the Gaza Strip. (More below on Blinken’s appearance on Capitol Hill.) On Sunday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Hamas was “preventing their departure and making a series of demands.”
At yesterday’s White House press briefing, National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby addressed questions about evacuating Americans from Gaza. “Beyond putting the blame on Hamas,” a reporter asked Kirby, “what more can you say about what’s going on here and what the progress is?”
“How about if I just put the blame on Hamas?” Kirby responded, adding that the terror group was “putting obstacles up to allow us to get folks out. It’s not Israel. It’s not Egypt. It’s not places like Jordan. Hamas has been making it difficult to do this.”
fair-weather friends
Israel learns the hard way that Russia, China are not its friends

Israel’s close alliance with the U.S., and the West more broadly, has proven its worth in recent weeks, with American aid arriving in Israel and aircraft carriers in the region, plus a long list of Western leaders visiting Israel to demonstrate solidarity. They have been treating the Jewish state like the new Ukraine, a symbol of Western unity and determination, and affirming that Israel is a close ally. Not so Russia and China. As Len Khodorkovsky, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration who dealt with Iran sanctions and issues relating to China, told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov: “Israel tried to have it both ways: reap the benefits of its friendships with the U.S. and the West while flirting with Russia and China. But when you’re down, you find out who your true friends are. Democracies are standing by Israel’s side. Autocracies are supporting Israel’s enemies.”
Different blocs: The Atlantic Council’s Ksenia Svetlova, a senior research nonresident fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, told JI that Israel’s attempt to “satisfy both sides” during the Ukraine war was a failure. It should be “totally clear that Israel and Russia are in totally different blocs,” she said, with Russia forming a bloc of “rejects” with Iran, North Korea and Belarus, as well as close ties with Hezbollah and Hamas. Hamas is not on Russia’s list of terrorist organizations and there have been close relations between them since 2006. As such, Svetlova said, “Don’t be surprised that they watched the terrible massacre and refused to condemn it.” In addition, Russian officers fought alongside Hezbollah terrorists in Syria. “What did we think, that the coordination would stop?” Svetlova said.
Policy failure: Carice Witte, executive director of SIGNAL Group, an Israeli policy and organization specializing in China-Israel affairs, lamented to JI that experts are not formulating Jerusalem’s policy towards Beijing. “Without understanding China’s thinking, it is impossible to deal with it effectively,” she said. “We now see that in neon lights with the way China is addressing this issue. Israel has shied away from formulating an official policy on China. Something as narrow as economic growth is not really a policy. Everyone wants good economic development with China, even America.”