Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the criticism faced by the Washington Post over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, and report on a meeting between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the leaders of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. and Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur.
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: Assassinated Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri was key conduit between Hamas, Iran; Washington Post under fire for repeated anti-Israel bias, systemic sloppiness in Middle East coverage; Lihi Lapid: ‘I expect all women to support all women’Print the latest edition here.
To CAIR or not to CAIR?
That’s the question facing Democrats as leadership of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) comes under increased scrutiny for comments its top official made defending the barbaric Oct. 7 terror attacks.
While most Democrats are now distancing themselves from the controversial Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, the organization has previously been welcome in some of the party’s circles despite a history of antisemitic rhetoric.
Just this week,Jewish Insider reported that a 2023 Maryland law required CAIR to be represented on a hate crimes commission — an embarrassing provision that some Maryland Democratic lawmakers are scrambling to fix. We reported yesterday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom met with statewide CAIR leaders even after the group’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy to see” Hamas’ terror attack against Israel.
Even the Biden White House included CAIR in afact sheet that listed the group as committed to helping implement its strategy to combat antisemitism — a fact that was downplayed as an administrative snafu. After JI reported on Awad’s extremist comments, the White House removed CAIR from the document on the White House website and pledged not to include the group in conversations about an upcoming national strategy on Islamophobia.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) was one of the most prominent progressive Democrats to condemn Awad’s comments, completely cutting ties with the group. Baldwin said at the time that Awad’s remarks had led her to “completely losing faith in the organization and its work.”
That CAIR officials are engaging in antisemitic rhetoric is not new — CAIR San Francisco Executive Director Zahra Billoo, speaking at an American Muslims for Palestine conference in 2021, infamously referred to “Zionist synagogues,” the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International and other organizations as “enemies.”
Newsom’s Dec. 15 meeting with CAIR was notable because it has become rare for elected officials to hold an event with the group since Awad’s comments. Newsom met with CAIR California Director Hussar Ayloush during the event — a meeting that was not included on the governor’s public schedule. On social media, Ayloush has drawn comparisons between the plight of the Palestinians and the Holocaust, sharing an Al Jazeera op-ed headlined “Gaza 2023: Our Warsaw Uprising moment.” Read our full story about the Newsom meeting here.
That the meeting was kept under wraps is indicative of the challenges Democrats will have to navigate in the run-up to November. One of the biggest: Finding an alternative Muslim civil rights organization to work with that represents the political mainstream.
wapo and the war
Washington Post under fire for repeated anti-Israel bias, systemic sloppiness in Middle East coverage

As leading mainstream news outlets continue to navigate the pitfalls of covering the Israel-Hamas war, The Washington Post is facing particularly intense scrutiny over a growing number of issues connected to its reporting on the conflict, fueling mounting concerns among Jewish leaders, foreign policy experts and even some staffers, among other critics, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Acknowledging errors: The most prominent source of contention has in recent weeks centered on a factually challenged front-page story, published in mid-November, that detailed the struggles of premature Palestinian infants born in the West Bank and Israel who were separated from their parents amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. In an extensive editor’s note added to the story last week after more than a month’s delay, the paper listed multiple inaccuracies in the original article, effectively undermining its core thesis — that Palestinian mothers were required by the Israeli government to return to Gaza when their travel permits had expired. Meanwhile, the note also acknowledged that the triple-bylined feature had not initially sought comment from Israeli officials, “an omission that fell short of the Post’s standards for fairness.”
More corrections: In addition to the story on Palestinian infants, at least two other articles authored by its lead reporter, Louisa Loveluck, have drawn significant corrections in recent weeks, raising questions about the paper’s commitment to accurate and balanced coverage of the evolving war between Israel and Hamas. The paper has also faced accusations that its Middle East coverage has veered into activism, presenting a one-sided picture of the conflict that has differed in many ways from the stories seen in competing outlets like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — which have produced some of the most searing coverage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack while also reporting aggressively on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Wider problem: Robert Satloff, the executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy whose sustainedcriticism of the recent Post story helped contribute to the publication of the editor’s note, said he was pleased that the paper had ultimately recognized some of its mistakes. But he added that he remains frustrated with the broader thrust of its Middle East coverage, which he views as flawed. “I believe the egregious violations of journalistic standards I highlighted in my critique of the Nov. 17 story is regrettably not limited to this article,” he said in an email to JI.
Embassy meeting: The paper’s approach to Middle East coverage has been an ongoing source of frustration among Israeli officials in Washington. In an early November meeting, for instance, top Israeli Embassy officials met with newsroom leadership — including Sally Buzbee, the paper’s executive editor, and Douglas Jehl, who directs international coverage — to privately air their concerns, according to a source familiar with the matter.