Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the apparent ouster of a State Department employee with a history of antisemitic and racist blog posts, have the exclusive on a new federal complaint filed by the Anti-Defamation League against Jewish Voice for Peace and preview a bipartisan House effort to sanction the International Criminal Court over its pursuit of charges against Israeli officials. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Claudia Sheinbaum, Michael Douglas and Rupert Murdoch.
As Israel nears its eighth month of war with Hamas, President Joe Biden’s call on Friday afternoon for a winding down of hostilities increased the pressure on both Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement aimed at ending the conflict and securing the release of the remaining hostages, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports.
Biden suggested — in an address delivered on Friday afternoon local time, after Shabbat had begun in Israel — that Israel had offered the new proposal, and called on Hamas to accept it as well. Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, and per a readout from the State Department, “commended Israel’s readiness to conclude a deal and affirmed that the onus is on Hamas.”
The exact contours of the agreement have not been released, but a tweet posted from the president’s account on Friday laid out the plan’s three stages — and made no mention of Hamas. The first stage of the agreement — lasting six weeks, and including the release of some hostages as well as a withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas of the enclave — is meant to be temporary, with the second stage, which includes the release of all remaining living hostages as well as a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, meant to be more permanent.
The agreement is, per an Israeli official with knowledge of the deal, what was proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks. Biden’s Friday speech, the individual said, was meant to pressure Hamas to accept the terms of the agreement.
The official told JI: “You cannot pressure Hamas with rhetoric, you can only pressure them with actions,” adding that “it’s unlikely Biden’s plan will work if it’s not accompanied by a maximum pressure campaign — or even a minimal pressure campaign — on Hamas, but specifically on [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar.”
In Israel, the announcement of the proposal drew pushback from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, who threatened to topple the government if the prime minister moves forward with the deal.
Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, described the deal as “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them,” in an interview with the U.K.’s Sunday Times. Falk added, “There are a lot of details to be worked out and that includes there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met,” which he named as “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization.”
How it’s playing: The New York Times: “Netanyahu May Face a Choice Between a Truce and His Government’s Survival” … Washington Post: “Biden’s cease-fire plan tightens political squeeze for Netanyahu in Israel” … Associated Press: “Israeli leader Netanyahu faces growing pressure at home after Biden’s Gaza proposal” … The Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Presses Two-Lane Diplomacy on Gaza, Facing Road Bumps in Both” … The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg: “Biden’s Bold Gaza Cease-Fire Gambit” … The Times of Israel’s David Horovitz: “Biden’s fateful, carefully timed, and highly complex challenge to Netanyahu and Hamas.”
Biden’s announcement came the same day as House and Senate leaders extended an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. Netanyahu accepted the invitation the following day. More below.
Netanyahu’s looming speech opens up a number of questions: Which legislators plan to boycott the speech? (Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-VT] was the first to announce he does not plan to attend, calling Netanyahu a “war criminal.”) How will Netanyahu’s reception — good or bad — affect his image back home, where thousands again rally on Saturday nights calling for new elections?
Meanwhile, thousands gathered in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Saturday night, calling for the release of the remaining 125 hostages and calling on both Israel and Hamas to accept the agreement.
scoop
Fritz Berggren, diplomat with racist and antisemitic blog, says he no longer works at State Dept.

Fritz Berggren, a U.S. foreign service officer who for years has drawn the scrutiny of lawmakers, Jewish diplomats and senior State Department officials over a racist and antisemitic blog he publishes, said in a video posted to his website on Friday that he no longer works at the State Department, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Employment mystery: At BloodAndFaith.com, Berggren frequently castigates Jews, Blacks, the LGBTQ community and immigrants, and uses biblical language to describe his vision of a Christian white ethno-state in America. Since Politico revealed Berggren’s ties to the blog in February 2021, State Department officials have declined to discuss the details of his employment. The department confirmed as recently as March that he was still employed at Foggy Bottom.
Pushed out: On Friday, Berggren said that his career as a foreign service officer has ended after more than 15 years in the diplomatic corps. “This was at the demands of the Department of State,” Berggren said at the start of the nine-minute video, titled “The End of the Beginning.” Berggren added that he was “pushed out.” A State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday about Berggren’s employment status.
Conspiracy lens: In the video, Berggren spoke in a conspiratorial tone, blaming a shadowy “cabal” for ending his tenure at State. He heavily hinted that he placed the blame on Jews — and compared himself to Jesus Christ in the process.