Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from the Israeli Embassy’s Hanukkah event last night and dig into the latest clash between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Menachem Rosensaft, Sen. Joni Ernst and Ambassador Jacob Lew.
Washington’s official Hanukkah celebrations continued on Tuesday evening at the Israeli Embassy, where the mood was somber. The event, billed as an “evening of solidarity,” focused on the 135 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, reports Jewish Insider Washington correspondent Gabby Deutch.
Attendees had to walk by several confrontational protestors waving Palestinian flags to enter the embassy complex, where they were greeted by a table full of menorahs. People paused to light the candles and quietly recite the blessings in front of a wall that showed photos of the hostages.
Inside, a pared-down Hanukkah event featured little decoration or fanfare, aside from a table stacked with several varieties of elaborate sufganiyot meant to mimic the donuts sold across Israel this week.
Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, offered a heartfelt plea at the start of the event, urging attendees to remember their son — and to pray for his return.
“We pray for a Hanukkah miracle that will bring Omer back to us, together with the remaining hostages,” Orna said. “We pray that the light we spread is stronger and more powerful than the evil and darkness overshadowing right now.”
The event’s official menorah lighting brought up different honored guests for each of the night’s six candles: the family members of hostages; survivors of the Oct. 7 terror attacks; Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington; Hadassah President Rhoda Smolow and National Council of Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz; John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications; and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog and his wife, Shirin. Kirby, a retired rear admiral with a reputation for moral straight talk about Israel’s war against Hamas, was later spotted wearing a dog tag that read “Bring them home.”
“I want to take the opportunity to express our deep gratitude to the United States, to the U.S. government, to Congress on both sides of the aisle and to the American people for the very steadfast support to Israel,” Herzog said. “As we light the Hanukkah candles, let us hope and pray that light will drive away darkness.”
The event’s featured speaker, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), acknowledged the loud shouts and disruptive music of the protestors before delivering a speech touting bipartisan support for unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel and pleading for the release of the remaining hostages. Earlier in the day, President Joe Biden warned that Israel was losing support in its war. (As people left the event, one protestor shouted, “We will kill you all, occupiers.”)
“We are living in a turbulent time. And that time for the Maccabees, they were not allowed to practice their traditions. In fact, they were persecuted for their beliefs,” Rosen said. “But in the face of oppression, what do the Jewish people do? We persevere. They persevered, we persevere, we will persevere.”

two-state debate
With Netanyahu gov’t vocally opposing a Palestinian state, Biden calls for political ‘change

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued via public statements about the Palestinian Authority’s role in a post-war Gaza, with the U.S. president calling on Netanyahu to change his government to enable a two-state solution. Yet, Netanyahu has opposed plans of the kind the Biden administration is promoting for decades, and switching his coalition partners would be unlikely to be enough to get Washington and Jerusalem aligned on the matter, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Gabby Deutch report.
Biden’s comments: In remarks delivered at a Washington fundraiser on Tuesday, Biden described Netanyahu as a “good friend,” but said “I think he has to change,” and called on the prime minister to think about changing his coalition partners — specifically, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his allies. “This government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move,” Biden said of Netanyahu. “Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution,” he said. “We have to work toward bringing Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of an option of a two-state solution.”
Ongoing dispute: Biden’s remarks followed weeks of disagreement between Washington, which sees a central role for the Palestinian Authority in the reconstruction of Gaza and on a path to a two-state solution, and Jerusalem, which opposes a Palestinian state and does not see the PA as it currently stands as a partner.
Bibi’s comments: Netanyahu released a video on Tuesday thanking the U.S. and Biden for their “full backing” of Israel’s war against Hamas. However, Netanyahu said, “there is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas’ and I hope that we will reach [an] agreement here as well. I would like to clarify my position,” he added. “I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo. After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Palestinian Authority.” That video came a day after Israeli TV news reported leaked comments from a closed Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting in which Netanyahu equated the death toll from Hamas’ massacre – 1,200 Israelis – to that of the Oslo Accords, “though over a longer period.”