Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning. Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s comments at a New York synagogue on Sunday regarding Israel’s fragile cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, and spotlight a meeting between an Israeli Bedouin man and the parents of a Nova survivor whose life he saved on Oct. 7, 2023. We also profile principal Deputy National Security Advisor Alex Wong and talk to Rep. Johnny Olszewski about how the Trump administration should approach Iran. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Rabbi Elie Abadie, Mitchell Rales and Ludo Hood.
What We’re Watching
- Jewish communities and governments around the world will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day today. At the U.N., Israeli President Isaac Herzog is participating in a special U.N. assembly gathering to mark the day.
- At Auschwitz, dozens of world leaders, including King Charles, will commemorate the anniversary in a ceremony at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp.
- President Donald Trump is slated to meet with congressional Republicans at Trump National Doral Miami to discuss the party’s legislative agenda. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is expected to lead today’s meetings.
- JLI’s Jewish Leadership Summit continues today in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the Trump administration’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel, will address the gathering this afternoon, as will Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon.
- Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin refused to recognize Supreme Court Justice Isaac Amit as chief justice after the selection committee chose Amit yesterday following a court order, potentially sparking another crisis in Israel’s judiciary. Read more here.
What You Should Know
Israelis endured emotional whiplash over a weekend that started with the release of four hostages, followed by concerns that the country’s two cease-fires — with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — would collapse, followed by a resolution late Sunday night, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
When Liri Albag, Karina Ariyev, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa were freed from Gaza on Saturday, Israelis across the country rejoiced as the kidnapped IDF lookouts reunited with their families. But 90 hostages are still in Gaza, and many of their families remain in distress and suspense about their loved ones’ conditions.
One of those hostages is Arbel Yehud, 29, who was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, on Oct. 7. Yehud and Shiri Bibas – mother of hostages Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2 – are the only remaining civilian women held hostage who are not confirmed by the Israeli authorities to be deceased. Another IDF lookout, Agam Berger, also remains in Gaza.
The cease-fire deal stated that civilian women would be freed before soldiers, and Hamas should have released Arbel, who is being held hostage by another Gazan terrorist group, on Saturday. Hamas was also supposed to have given Israel a list on Saturday of which hostages out of the 33 meant to be freed in the initial stage of the deal are alive or dead. The Gazan terrorists did neither.
After the four hostages were freed on Saturday, Israel freed 200 Palestinian prisoners — more than half of whom were serving life sentences for their roles in deadly terror attacks — and was supposed to allow Gazans from northern Gaza to cross the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday, following inspections to ensure those returning north were not bringing weapons with them.
Since Hamas did not fully keep up its end of the deal, Israel responded in kind. Tens of thousands of Gazans gathered at the Netzarim Corridor bisecting Gaza on Sunday, but the IDF did not open it.
Following a day of negotiations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that Yehud, Berger and one more hostage — reportedly U.S. citizen Keith Siegel — will be released on Thursday, and three more will be released on Saturday. The IDF opened the Netzarim crossing on Monday. Netanyahu’s office also said it had received from Hamas a list that includes the status of all of the hostages due to be released in the first stage.”
While Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman,said on Saturday that Israel would make sure that Yehud and the Bibas family – “whose welfare we are extremely concerned about” – are released soon, further statements from the Israeli government have not mentioned the family.
Bibas’ relatives wrote in an Instagram post that their “world came crashing down” when Shiri and her sons were not on the list of hostages freed Saturday. “Do the grave concerns for their lives cancel the fact that the government is committed in this deal to give us certainty?” they wrote.
While a steady flow of Gazans passed through the inspection point in the Netzarim Corridor today, President Donald Trump made waves on Sunday with a different proposal for where they should go. Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he asked Jordanian King Abdullah II and planned to ask Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to take in Gazan refugees to help “clean out that whole thing.”
”Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change,” he said, adding that the arrangement “could be temporary” or “could be long term.”
Trump’s remarks evoked plans floated by some Israeli officials in the months after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, as well as comments by his son-in-law and former advisor Jared Kushner, that Gazans should be temporarily moved to the Negev, in Israel, so that Gaza can be razed and rebuilt. Both Trump and Kushner spoke to the real estate potential of waterfront property in Gaza.
Israel’s other cease-fire, with Lebanon, was also on shaky ground on Sunday, which marked 60 days since its implementation. According to the terms of the agreement, the IDF was meant to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon on Sunday, after the Lebanese Armed Forces moved into the area to prevent Hezbollah from regaining control.
However, the LAF did not fully deploy in the areas covered by the cease-fire, and the IDF remained in southern Lebanon on Sunday. Hundreds of Lebanese people, some holding Hezbollah flags, tried to return to their villages, clashing with Israeli forces. French President Emmanuel Macron called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to implore him to have the IDF withdraw from Lebanon, in order not to undermine the new government in Beirut’s ability to extend its authority throughout the country.
Later Sunday, the White House said that the deal was extended until Feb. 18. In that time, the LAF is supposed to move in and the IDF is meant to continue its gradual withdrawal until it is complete.
words of caution
Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff warns that Israel-Hamas cease-fire is ‘fragile’
As approximately 600 congregants and New York Jewish leaders packed the Altneu synagogue’s new home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Sunday evening, President Donald Trump’s newly appointed Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, cautioned that the ongoing cease-fire and hostage-release agreement between Israel and Hamas is “fragile,” with risks of a “flare-up” if not implemented correctly, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
What he said: “We have to get them [the hostages] all out. We have to implement the agreement in the correct way,” said Witkoff, who is slated to travel to Israel on Wednesday after visiting Auschwitz to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation. “The implementation here is the critical thing. The execution of the agreement was important, the first step, but without the implementation correct, we’re not going to get it right, we’re going to have a flare-up.”
emotional encounter
Parents of Nova survivor meet their son’s savior, a Bedouin Israeli, for first time
When Tamar Biton met Yunis Alkarnawi for the first time, at the Bedouin Israeli’s home in Rahat, in southern Israel, last week, she cried. “I don’t know how to thank this man,” she told Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve. “He saved my son’s life. It’s a gift.” Yunis saved the life of Shalev Biton, 25, along with seven other young adults who had escaped from the Nova music festival, as well as 24 Thai workers who were working on the farm he manages when the Hamas massacres began on Oct. 7, 2023. Yunis’ family hosted a group of some 140 representatives from the Israel Educational Travel Alliance at his family’s home on Wednesday, as part of a leadership summit aimed at discussing how to adapt educational trips to the country in the new post-Oct. 7 reality.
‘Take out the naked Jews’: On Oct. 7, the Nova festivalgoers had run the five miles from the party in Reim — where 364 people were murdered and 40 kidnapped — before seeking refuge on the farm. Around midday, one of the Thai workers came to tell Yunis that a motorcycle was approaching the farm. Yunis went out on his own to see who it was. A terrorist demanded that Yunis “take out the naked Jews that you’re hiding here,” Yunis recalled, relating that in that moment he started shaking because he thought the terrorist had seen that there were Jews in the building — some of the Nova survivors had shed some of their clothes as they were running away from the festival site in the heat. Yunis insisted that there were no Jews on the farm.
NSC’s No. 2
Deputy National Security Advisor Alex Wong wins accolades across the GOP divide
As the Trump administration has in recent days sidelined dozens of career officials on the White House National Security Council amid an internal review of their loyalty to the president’s “America First” agenda, one top foreign policy advisor with more traditional conservative credentials has thrived. Alex Wong, a seasoned foreign policy hand serving as principal deputy national security advisor under National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, is a familiar face in the new administration, having worked in the State Department as the deputy special representative for North Korea during President Donald Trump’s first term, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Across the board: The newly appointed deputy advisor — whose career trajectory over more than the past decade helps illustrate the evolution of many government bureaucrats who have survived Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party — has won positive reviews from a diverse range of GOP foreign policy experts, including MAGA converts as well as critics who have questioned some recent national security picks. Robert O’Brien, who served as a national security advisor in Trump’s first term and remains loyal to the president, described Wong as a “highly skilled MAGA diplomat” who is capable of communicating the administration’s “message to the establishment that might otherwise tune out someone espousing Donald Trump’s policies or try to mock them or belittle them. They can’t do that with Alex,” O’Brien explained in an interview with JI on Saturday. “He’s an exception to the rule.”
tehran talk
U.S. must ‘act boldly to address’ Iran’s provocations, nuclear program, Olszewski says
Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), a freshman congressman joining the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod the U.S. needs to take all steps necessary to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
What he said: Olszewski said the U.S. must be “mindful of and act boldly to address” and use “all the tools at America’s disposal” Iran’s support for regional terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, warning that there are “perhaps few greater threats to American security” than Iranian nuclear weapons.He expressed support for a strengthened “maximum-pressure” sanctions regime from the Trump administration. “I do believe in conversations and diplomacy, generally,” Olszewski continued, addressing the possibility of a new nuclear deal. But he also said, “I don’t think we should rule anything out. I obviously think that use of force should be a last-resort option. But again, all of these things need to be in the toolbox for America to make sure that we can prevent Iran from becoming nuclear-equipped.”
gop Divisions emerge
Lindsey Graham rebukes Elon Musk for calling on Germany to ‘move beyond’ Nazi guilt
One day after Elon Musk called for Germans to “move beyond” guilt for the actions of the Nazis, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Sunday — the day before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz — that he wants “every German child, every American child, to know what happened [during the Holocaust] and that it’s true, not a lie and we never do it again,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. “His [Musk’s] comments did bother me,” Graham told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Graham’s concerns: Musk made the statement during a video appearance at a campaign event Saturday for the Alternative for Germany party, where he reiterated his support for the far-right party ahead of next month’s elections. “Holocaust-deniers are full of crap. I’m worried that we’re losing 80 years on that, that we’re rewriting history here,”Graham said. “There are 15 million Jews on the planet because every generation seems to want to go after the Jewish people so they can’t grow and survive. So the last thing I want facing the [anniversary] is to be equivocal.”
Confirmed: The Senate voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense on Friday evening, salvaging a nomination that had previously appeared to be on the verge of collapsing over insufficient GOP support, JI’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.
exclusive
More than 60 lawmakers to reintroduce bipartisan Holocaust education bill
A bipartisan group of more than 60 House lawmakers is set to reintroduce the HEAL Act, a bipartisan bill examining Holocaust education efforts across the country, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Bill background: The piece of legislation, whose title is an acronym for the Holocaust Education and Antisemitism Lessons Act, is led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), joined by Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Young Kim (R-CA) and 56 other co-sponsors. The legislation requires the director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to conduct an audit of Holocaust education programs nationwide, including where Holocaust education is required and the curricula and standards used and other information, and report to Congress on the results.
Worthy Reads
Antisemitism as a Cudgel: In The New York Times, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, reflects on her tenure and the politicization of antisemitism. “As the new administration begins and I leave this position, I have come to see, more clearly, that this oft-debated left/right question — that is, which side is worse — often serves as a political smoke screen. The problem is that many on both the left and the right fail to call out antisemitism when it appears on their side of the political spectrum: Too many on the left are silent when it rears its head on university campuses. Too many on the right fail to condemn the overt antisemitism expressed by white nationalists. When I encounter this, it is clear to me that the intent is not to fight antisemitism but to use antisemitism as a cudgel against political opponents. This is far too narrow a prism through which to acknowledge, assess and call out this hateful phenomenon. In the past few years, having witnessed the continued harm of antisemitism worldwide, I have become convinced that these double standards, which reduce the fight against antisemitism to partisan bickering, obscure the far greater threat that is Jew hatred.” [NYTimes]
The Zionist From the Bronx: In The Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan interviews Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) about his progression from the Democratic Party’s far-left flank toward its center over his decade in politics. His turn to the center seems more pronounced against the backdrop of his party’s lurch to the left in recent years — especially on Israel, the topic on which he stands most apart. ‘I am celebrating the 10-year anniversary of my Zionism,’ he says. ‘The first time I went to Israel was in February of 2015,” when he was in his first term on the New York City Council. He describes the visit — his first trip abroad — as ‘one of the most formative and transformative experiences of my life.’ In Sderot, a city of some 30,000 northeast of Gaza, he ‘came to realize that Israel faces a level of insecurity that has no analog to the American experience,’ he recalls. ‘I come from the Bronx, where families live in fear of bullets and guns. But no one anywhere in the United States lives in fear of rockets.’” [WSJ]
U.S. Muscle vs. U.S. Retreat:The Free Press’ Eli Lake looks at concerns over a slew of recent hires at the Pentagon who believe in a minimized American footprint in the Middle East. “In some ways this argument inside the GOP echoes the battles between isolationists and interventionists in the aftermath of World War II. Since the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, this inward-looking wing of the GOP has been in retreat. It was the Democrats who were the anti-interventionists in the Cold War after Vietnam, and also in the aftermath of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But over the last decade the neo-isolationists have been ascendant. In part this is because the 9/11 wars in the Middle East did not end in victory. … For now, Republicans on the Hill who fret about this group’s potential influence are trying to warn [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth directly. ‘Lots of people are reaching out to Hegseth and asking about [Dan] Caldwell and these picks,’ a Senate Republican aide told The Free Press. ‘Hegseth keeps saying, don’t worry, I’m in charge, you know where I stand.’ We will find out soon enough.” [FreePress]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump officially lifted the hold on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel; the shipment had been halted by the Biden administration last spring…
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) urged Trump to reinstate the security detail provided to former administration officials targeted by Iran; Trump removed the security detail from former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook last week…
The U.S. shared intelligence on the Islamic State with Syria’s new government despite Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s designation as a terrorist organization; the intelligence helped thwart an IS attack outside of Damascus earlier this month…
Reps. Greg Meeks (D-NY) and Lois Frankel (D-FL), respectively the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Appropriations subcommittee on National Security, State Department and Related Programs, urged the Trump administration to lift its freeze on most foreign assistance…
Senate Democrats are remaining tight-lipped about how they plan to approach anticipated votes on legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court this week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report…
The New York Times reports on the vast business dealings of Howard Lutnick, the Trump administration’s nominee to be secretary of commerce; according to financial disclosures, Lutnick has at least $800 million in assets and former and current executive roles at more than 800 firms…
An Israeli researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, is suing the campus’ branch of United Auto Workers, alleging that the union’s anti-Israel efforts had “created a hostile work environment”…
Delta Airlines will restart daily nonstop service to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from JFK Airport in New York on April 1, the carrier said in a statement on Friday, days after the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas began, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Palestinian construction magnate and activist Samer Khoury gave credit to Trump for securing the cease-fire and hostage-release deal underway between Israel and Hamas, while downplaying President Joe Biden’s willingness to engage, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports…
Local elected officials, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), came out in support of Miriam, an Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood that was vandalized over the weekend…
A Tennessee man who was arrested earlier this month after entering a Jewish community center in a costume meant to resemble an observant Jewish man was indicted on two counts of civil rights intimidation…
Washington Commanders’ co-owners Mitchell Rales and Mark Ein greeted all the team’s members and staff outside their locker room following the Commanders’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game; ESPN looked at how former owner Dan Snyder is said to be viewing the team’s success this season…
CNN spotlights the sole Jewish resident of Oświęcim, Poland, where Auschwitz is located; Hila Weisz-Gut’s grandmother was one of the only members of her family to survive the Holocaust…
Several Jewish protesters were removed from an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in Dublin when they stood up and turned their backs to Irish President Michael Higgins when he mentioned Israel and the war in Gaza during his speech…
The head of Lebanon’s military intelligence in the southern part of the country reportedly leaked information to Hezbollah that he had obtained from a security room run by the U.S., France and the U.N. agency tasked with maintaining the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon…
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani spoke of his country’s role as mediator between Hamas and Israel, and said he was saddened that it took so long to reach an agreement which was ultimately the same framework set in December 2023; Al-Thani also said a two-state solution is the only path forward for the region…
In The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Elie Abadie, whose parents fled Syria in 1947, considers the future of religious pluralism in a post-Assad Syria…
International shipping companies are still reportedly avoiding routes that transit through the Red Sea over concerns that their vessels may be attacked by Iran-backed Houthis, despite a Houthi pledge to limit attacks during the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas…
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi met with senior Taliban leaders in Kabul over the weekend, marking the first visit of an Iranian foreign minister to the Afghan capital in eight years…
Ludovic Hood, who most recently was a senior advisor in the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, will serve as chief of staff and counselor to Special Presidential Envoy for Russia and Ukraine Keith Kellogg…
Pic of the Day
Released hostage Liri Albag made a heart with her hands from the helicopter transporting her to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah, Israel, on Saturday following her release from Hamas captivity.
Birthdays
Communications director at C-SPAN and author of When Rabbis Bless Congress, a history of rabbinical invocations in Congress, Howard Mortman…
Auschwitz survivor, retired professor of child psychiatry at Harvard and the University of Cincinnati, Anna Ornstein turns 98… Senior counsel focused on mergers and acquisitions in the NYC office of Fried, Frank, Arthur Fleischer turns 92… Businessman and real estate investor, Paul Sislin turns 90… Winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics, he is a professor emeritus at California Institute of Technology, Barry Clark Barish turns 89… Builder and operator of luxury casinos and hotels, Steve Wynn (born Stephen Alan Weinberg) turns 83… Corporate venture capitalist and scientist, he served as VP at Intel Corporation where he co-founded Intel Capital, Avram Miller turns 80… Topanga, Calif., resident, Joseph Helfer… Columbia, S.C., resident, Charles Geffen… VP at Elnat Equity Liquidity Providers, following 20 years as COO at the Orthodox Union, Eliezer Edelman… Professor of medieval Judaism and Islam at the Los Angeles campus of HUC-JIR, Reuven Firestone turns 73… Cookbook author and attorney, she is a co-founder of Foundation for Jewish Camp, Elisa Spungen Bildner… Chief justice of the United States, John Roberts turns 70… Member of the Missouri State Senate until 2023, Jill Schupp turns 70… President and CEO at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Abby Jane Leibman… Television writer and producer best known as the creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” more recently he stars in the Netflix series “Somebody Feed Phil,” Philip Rosenthal turns 65… Founder, chairman and former CEO of Och-Ziff Capital, now investing through Willoughby Capital, Daniel Och turns 64… Founder and managing member of Liberty Peak Capital and co-founder and lead investor of Multiplier Capital, Ezra M. Friedberg… Chief growth officer at Coordinated Care Services after five years as CEO of the JCC of Greater Rochester, Josh Weinstein… Editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, Lisa Daftari… Jerusalem-born rapper and YouTuber with 502 million views, Rucka Rucka Ali turns 38… English fashion model, Daisy Rebecca Lowe turns 36… Former basketball point guard including for the Israeli women’s national basketball team, she is now a coordinator at Herzl Camp in Wisconsin, Jacqui Kalin turns 36… Community engagement coordinator at the Raleigh-Cary (N.C.) JCC, Grace Fantle Kaplan… Managing partner of Kerem Capital, Lia Michal Weiner Tsur… Manager at Deloitte, Joshua Henderson…
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