Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday. We talk to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about support for Israel and the 2024 presidential election, spotlight a Senate roundtable discussion with college students about antisemitism on campus and talk to colleagues and friends of Martin Indyk, who died yesterday at 73. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin and Darius Jones.
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 and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Netanyahu’s Hill speech forcefully rebuts Israel’s detractors, draws polarized response; In Washington, American and Israeli statesmen remember Sen. Joe Lieberman; Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly emerges as top veepstakes contender; A deep dive into the world of Jewish influencers. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago today. It will be the first meeting between the two in years. The relationship between the two men soured when Netanyahu congratulated President Joe Biden on his 2020 win. Last night, Trump told Fox News that Israel needs to end the war in Gaza “and get it done quickly,” citing Israel’s worsening public image as the war nears its 10th month.
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris at noon local time. Later this evening, Herzog will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games — and will walk back to his hotel, as the ceremonies get underway just before the beginning of Shabbat.
What You Should Know
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)sat down with Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs on Thursday for an interview about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, the surging rates of antisemitism in the United States and the foreign-policy divisions within both parties.
Some of the highlights from the conversation:
McConnell, on his differences with Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Ukraine: “On the Ukraine issue, I was pleased that at the end, 32 of our members in the Senate voted for it, the speaker of the House voted for it, the majority leader of the House voted for it, the whip over in the House voted for it. So even though we had entirely too long of a discussion, in which we diverted off the U.S. border issue, at the end it was substantial support for Ukraine. I think that will be the majority view in the next administration if it’s a Trump administration. I have a difference of view on this subject, but I’m not leaving the Senate and intend to be pretty outspoken about it.”
On Vice President Kamala Harris: “My assumption is her policy would be the same as Biden’s. She’s been a part of this administration for the last three and a half years. My assumption is her views are likely to be the same, but if you go back to her Senate career, she was pretty much on the far political left on a whole lot of issues, unrelated to the one we talked about, but pretty far. But the president has been that way too, so I don’t know how to distinguish between them.”
On Democratic infighting over Israel: “I think the Democrats in the United States are confused about which side we ought to be on, unequivocally on. They’re divided between a fanatically sort of anti-Israel crowd. Frankly, I’ve been surprised by the level of antisemitism in this country. I had no idea, I thought this was something we had gotten past years ago. I’m pleased that in my party, there seems to be no confusion about which side we ought to be on.”
On support for Israel becoming a partisan issue: “I’ve been here a long time and on Israel support, it’s always in the past been almost totally bipartisan. There were always some fringe groups usually on the left that saw some kind of moral equivalence between the Palestinian leadership and Israel. I don’t see any. I mean, you had Hamas in Gaza, the PA in the West Bank with corrupt leadership forever … So I’m not confused about this at all. Frequently, we have tough decisions to make around here. I don’t think this should be tough at all.”
Read the full transcript of JI’s interview with McConnell here.
sending a message
Harris affirms ‘unwavering commitment’ to Israel after meeting with Netanyahu

After a 40-minute meeting on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Kamala Harris declared her “unwavering commitment” to the State of Israel, in her first remarks on the Middle East since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee over the weekend, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. “From when I was a young girl, collecting funds to plant trees for Israel, to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel,” Harris said in a six-minute address following the meeting. “I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating. Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters.”
Same page as Biden: Harris’ remarks offered an important look at how the vice president seeks to present her approach to Israel and Gaza. While she spoke emotionally about the scale of humanitarian suffering in Gaza, her pronouncements about the course of the war and efforts to end it largely echoed the beliefs of President Joe Biden: that Washington will continue to support Israel while negotiating a cease-fire deal that leads to the release of Israeli hostages, brings humanitarian relief to Gaza and ensures Israel’s security.
Condemning the protesters: A day after anti-Israel protesters burned flags outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C., and vandalized a statue with pro-Hamas graffiti during Netanyahu’s address to Congress, Harris blasted the “despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters” and condemned “dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric.”