Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, a look at the fallout from Saturday’s deadly Hezbollah strike on a Druze soccer field in Israel. We also report on how New York City’s Jewish community is approaching Comptroller Brad Lander’s anticipated mayoral bid, plus a campaign by anti-Israel activists against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro amid the veepstakes chatter and a preview of the Arizona congressional primary between Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Barnea, U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Israeli judoka Tohar Butbul.
What We’re Watching
- We’re keeping a close eye on the developing situation in Israel’s north following the weekend Hezbollah strike on a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in Israel’s Golan Heights that killed a dozen children and teenagers. More below.
- Christians United For Israel is holding its annual summit in Washington, D.C. Dr. Miriam Adelson is scheduled to speak at this evening’s “Night to Honor Israel” gala dinner.
What You Should Know
Just over a week ago, Israeli officials were mulling a response to a Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli man in his home — which resulted in a strike on the Yemeni port of Hudaydah.
Now, those same officials must determine whether there will be a further response to the Saturday attack on a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams, where a dozen children and teenagers were killed by a Hezbollah missile — as they face pressure from Washington to rein in any retaliation, Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss reports. Hezbollah said today that Israel had killed two of its members in a drone strike in southern Lebanon.
Within hours of the Hezbollah strike — and before any U.S. official had made public comments condemning the attack — Israel was already facing private warnings from Biden administration officials to temper its response to Hezbollah. On Saturday afternoon, White House senior advisor Amos Hochstein spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is also set to speak to Austin later today, and pressed the Israelis to limit their response, which threatens to further destabilize the situation and drag the region into an all-out war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Turkey could invade Israel in response to the ongoing wars on two of Israel’s borders. “Just as we entered [Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-]Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we might do the same to [Israel]. There is nothing we can’t do. We must only be strong.”
Perhaps most striking to observers of the U.S.-Israel relationship was the delay in — or lack of — public acknowledgment of the attack from high-ranking U.S. officials. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew was the first high-level American official to condemn the attack when he posted on Sunday afternoon in Israel, nearly 24 hours after the strike: “We condemn the horrific attack on Majdal Shams yesterday, in which at least 11 were tragically killed, most of whom were children and teenagers,” Lew wrote. “Our hearts go out to the families of those who lost loved ones, and we are praying for a speedy recovery for those who have been injured.”
Neither Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who are both in Asia for security consultations, have issued statements on the strike, which marked the deadliest attack on Israeli soil since Oct. 7. But responding to a question from a reporter in Japan, Blinken said, “There is no justification for terrorism, period.” Blinken added that there was “every indication” that “the rocket was from Hezbollah.”
Adrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, called the strike “horrific” and blamed Hezbollah for the attack. “It was their rocket, and launched from an area they control. It should be universally condemned.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has issued five tweets from her X account since the attack — on the topics of the economy, the Venezuelan elections, Team USA basketball at the Paris Olympics, reproductive rights and a photo montage of her last week. But she herself has not addressed the strike; instead, Phil Gordon, the vice president’s national security advisor, issued his own statement, saying that Harris “has been briefed and is closely monitoring Hezbollah’s horrific attack on a soccer field in Majdal Shams in northern Israel yesterday which killed a number of children and teenagers. She condemns this horrific attack and mourns for all those killed and wounded.”
“Harris’ support for Israel’s security,” Gordon continued, “is ironclad. The U.S. will continue working on a diplomatic solution to end all attacks once and for all, and allow citizens on both sides of the border to safely return home.”
Gordon’s language that Majdal Shams is located in northern Israel was an acknowledgement that the Biden administration recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The administration has generally been reticent to acknowledge its recognition of the Golan as Israeli, usually saying that it has maintained the same policy as the Trump administration – which recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019 — without specifically laying out what that policy is. President Joe Biden has not made any public statements about the attack.
Former President Donald Trump said at a rally in St. Cloud, Minn., on Saturday that “savage Hezbollah terrorists struck these children. Our hearts go out to the families of these innocent children. No parent should have to suffer the loss of a child at the hands of a terrorist … [Hezbollah] wouldn’t have done this if I were the president.”
How it’s playing in the press: “Fears of Escalation After Rocket From Lebanon Hits Soccer Field” from The New York Times; Attacks in Gaza and Golan Heights kill more than 40, many of them children, from the Washington Post; “Deadly Strike on Soccer Field Raises Risk of Escalation Between Israel and Hezbollah” from The Wall Street Journal; “Children and teens among 12 dead in Golan Heights attack that Israel blames on Hezbollah, raising fears of major escalation” from CNN; “Israel hits Hezbollah targets after football pitch strike kills 12 young people” from the BBC.
wider war
Israel, Lebanon bracing for military escalation after Hezbollah attack kills 12 children

The Middle East was bracing itself for a wider war on Monday morning, as Israel considered its response to a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed a dozen Druze children who had been playing on a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. The air force conducted strikes on Hezbollah targets in the aftermath of the deadly attack, and Israel’s security cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to determine “the manner and timing of the response against the Hezbollah terrorist organization.” The security cabinet met on Sunday evening, after Netanyahu landed in Israel from Washington, taking the unusual step of flying before Shabbat ended following the the worst massacre of civilians in Israel since Oct. 7. Netanyahu said that Israel “will not let this pass in silence.” Visiting Majdal Shams on Sunday, Gallant vowed that Hezbollah “will bear a heavy price for their actions,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Matter of time: Raphael BenLevi, director of the Churchill Program for Strategy, Statesmanship and National Security of the Herut Institute, said that Israel has been laying the groundwork for months for a larger war in Lebanon, but was waiting until after Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress last week, to try to garner greater American support. Hezbollah has been bombarding Israel’s north since Oct. 8, and tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated as a result, creating a “totally unsustainable” situation, BenLevi noted. The Iran-backed terror group’s assault on Majdal Shams was “a clarifying moment for [Israel] and the world, that the situation is untenable and we have to do something,” BenLevi said. “The attack adds legitimacy and urgency” to an Israeli response.
The view from Majdal Shams: Druze leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif told those who gathered to bury their loved ones on Sunday that the attack was the worst disaster in the history of the Druze community in Israel, Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports. “Yesterday was a dark Saturday for the Druze and for residents of the north,” the sheikh said in his address. “It’s a Saturday that will be engraved in memory as a low point in humanity, the killing of children. The scenes of horror will never be erased.”