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.”