Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on EPA head Lee Zeldin’s ties to Qatar following the release of financial disclosures linking the former congressman to Doha’s ruling family, and report on the Supreme Court’s plans to take up a case tied to the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” program. We also talk to freshman Rep. Laura Gillen about her approach to Iran, and look at a restitution project that seeks to reunite the descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors with books owned by their relatives. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Tom Rose, Alex Isenstadt and Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Morgan Ortagus.
What We’re Watching
- A full Senate vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence is expected to take place this week.
- Israeli negotiators returned from Qatar this morning following discussions on the implementation of the ongoing hostage-release and cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. More below.
- The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is hosting a web event at noon focused on Turkey’s expansionist efforts across the Middle East.
- In Paris, France is hosting the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit today and tomorrow. Vice President J.D. Vance is slated to attend before traveling on to Germany later this week for the Munich Security Conference.
What You Should Know
What was meant to be a joyous homecoming of three Israeli hostages on Saturday quickly turned into concern — and a renewed sense of urgency to free those remaining in captivity — as the first images of the men, who appeared frail and gaunt, shocked Israelis watching the live proceedings.
Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy were released in a spectacle that mirrored those that have taken place over the last several weeks: Red Cross officials, appearing onstage in front of a banner reading, in English, “WE’RE THE FLOOD .. THE WAR’S NEXT DAY,” participated in a ceremony in which the three men, severely weakened by nearly 16 months in captivity, were paraded onstage before being handed over to the aid agency, which shuttled them to the IDF to be reunited with their families and receive medical treatment.
Ben Ami was reunited with his wife, who was also taken hostage and freed in November 2023, and daughters. But the celebration over his homecoming was overshadowed by the more emotionally complex returns of Levy and Sharabi. Levy, who had arrived at the Nova music festival shortly before Hamas began its massacre, survived repeated attacks on the bomb shelter in which he and his wife, Einav, were hiding. Einav Levy was killed in the attack, which Levy, who was reunited with the couple’s 3-year-old son on Saturday, only learned upon his release. Sharabi’s wife and daughters were killed in their Kibbutz Be’eri home on Oct. 7; Sharabi first learned of their deaths upon his release.
Their release comes as discussions over the second phase of the cease-fire and hostage-release agreement, during which Hamas would free the remaining living hostages in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from key locations in the Gaza Strip, are supposed to be underway, as per the deal.
But an Israeli negotiating team that arrived in Qatar on Sunday and returned on Monday had a a limited mandate, restricted to technical aspects of the first stage of the deal and the possibility of extending it and adding more hostages to the list of 33 releases set to be complete by the end of the first six weeks of the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to hold an assessment today with a small group of officials about Israel’s current position — on the heels of the prime minister’s D.C. visit — on the second phase of the deal. Tomorrow, the security cabinet is set to meet to discuss the topic.
As pressure mounts from the opposition, hostage families and members of the public to complete the deal, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned against crossing a “red line” that would incentivize future hostage-taking and even tougher demands for their release. That warning came as new detailscame to light over the weekend about the conditions in which some of the male hostages are kept in — some are held in chains, starved, gagged, tortured and with untreated injuries from the Oct. 7 attacks.
Speaking to reporters en route to the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday, President Donald Trump aired his own concerns about the state of the three returned hostages, saying the men “looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that.”
Trump also doubled down on his suggestion to relocate the entire Gaza population, saying he was “committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back. There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that Cairo plans to host a summit for Arab leaders at the end of the month focused on the future of Gaza. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, rejected a suggestion made by Netanyahu last week that the kingdom absorb displaced Gazans.
doha dealings
Lee Zeldin reveals Qatar ties in financial disclosures
Newly confirmed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin recently revealed in financial disclosure forms that he was paid consulting fees by an investor who is a member of the Qatari royal family. Heritage Advisors, Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani’s London-based venture capital firm, paid Zeldin “compensation exceeding $5,000” from April of 2023 through December of that year, according to documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics as required for Cabinet nominees, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
What we know: Zeldin did not specify what work he did for the fund or exactly how much he was compensated in the filing, though he did state that the role did not require him to register as a foreign agent. A spokesperson for Zeldin did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the work or if it impacted his position on Qatari state sponsorship of U.S. think tanks and universities, which the former New York congressman once vocally opposed. Zeldin was a vocal critic of the Gulf monarchy during his time as a member of Congress from 2015-2023, publicly cautioning against Qatari government influence in the U.S. amid its ongoing global influence campaign, in which the Qataris have spent billions targeting U.S. academia, politics and critical industries.
Read the full story here.
pay-for-slay program
Supreme Court to hear case on Palestinian Authority’s ‘martyr’ payments
The Supreme Court is set to hear a case in the coming months to decide whether American victims of Palestinian terror attacks can sue the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority for damages based on support for such attacks through the “pay-to-slay” program that compensates individuals who have carried out attacks as well as their families, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Background: The Supreme Court cases — Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization and United States v. Palestine Liberation Organization, which the court will hear jointly — pertain to a decades-long series of litigation efforts by American terror victims and their families to sue the PLO and PA. Federal courts have repeatedly struck down legislation passed by Congress to enable such efforts, generating what amounts to a back-and-forth between Congress and the courts. The current case pertains to a 2019 law, the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA), which Congress passed on a bipartisan basis specifically in response to those previous court rulings, which would assert jurisdiction over the PLO and PA in U.S. courts so long as they conducted activity inside the United States.
Read the full story here.
tough talk
Gillen: U.S. needs to ‘get more hawkish and get more aggressive against Iran’
Freshman Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) expressed support for some of the Trump administration’s recent moves against Iran and its proxy groups in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod last week, saying the U.S. needs to “get more hawkish and get more aggressive against Iran.”
Iran angle: Gillen, during a sit-down in her new congressional office, described herself as “hawkish” on Iran, calling for the U.S. to be “really tough” on the regime, through strong sanctions cutting off funding to the regime and its proxy groups. She said she supported the Trump administration’s maximum-pressure sanctions campaign and its redesignation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization — something the Biden administration refused to do. She said she didn’t “think the United States did enough in response to attacks by the Houthis.” But she was more skeptical of President Donald Trump’s interest in a new nuclear deal with Iran, saying that she was “very much against” the original nuclear agreement and that Iran can’t be trusted.
Read the full interview here.
Bibi’s boost
Netanyahu to Jewish students in D.C.: ‘You’ve gotta fight’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a straightforward message for the 30 Jewish college students and recent graduates he met with on Friday in Washington to hear their concerns about antisemitism: Fight back. “If you fight, you’ll be respected. If you bow your head, you’ll be despised and not respected. You’ve gotta fight. That’s the most important thing,” Netanyahu told the roundtable of students, who came from universities including Harvard, Georgetown Law School, George Washington University and University of Pennsylvania, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Haley Cohen report.
Who was there: The meeting, which took place at the Willard InterContinental Hotel near the White House, was organized by the Israeli Embassy. Attendees included Sara Netanyahu, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Netanyahu advisor Caroline Glick and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). Student speakers included Julia Wax Vanderwiel, founder and president of Georgetown Law Zionists; Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who is suing the university over its handling of antisemitism; and Sabrina Soffer, president of Chabad at GW. “Watching the energy and the interaction between the prime minister and these future leaders was uplifting and full of hope,” said Shemtov.
Shabbat with the PM: Several of Netanyahu’s donors and associates joined him for Shabbat at the Willard, including: Simon Falic and members of his family; Sonny Sassoon; Moshe Levy; and former WeWork CEO-turned-real estate investor Adam Neumann, who gave the dvar Torah at Shabbat morning services and led singing and dancing. (Netanyahu attended Friday night kiddush, but not Saturday morning services.) The Falic family prepared siddurs and tallit cases prepared with “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Visit to Washington – Shvat 5785” printed on them in Hebrew.
warsaw watch
Trump names former Jerusalem Post CEO Tom Rose as ambassador to Poland
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he had tapped Tom Rose, former publisher and CEO of The Jerusalem Post and a close confidant of former Vice President Mike Pence, as the next U.S. ambassador to Poland, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Background: Rose, an Orthodox Jew and a pro-Israel stalwart, has been a personal friend of Pence’s for over three decades and a top advisor going back to his days as governor of Indiana. He served as Pence’s chief strategist and senior advisor during his vice presidency in the first Trump administration. After Trump and Pence left office in 2021, Rose told JI that he was engaged in several professional ventures, including newspaper investments and consulting for private equity firms.
final chapter
Restitution project genealogists track down rightful heirs of Nazi-looted books
When Amos Guiora saw the email drop into his inbox he had no idea what to make of it. He didn’t recognize the sender, but the subject line startled him: Schlomo Nathan Goldberg, the name of his paternal grandfather who perished in Auschwitz in 1944. The message came from an amateur genealogist who was volunteering with the Looted Books Project, a joint initiative of JewishGen’s Kalikow Genealogy Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Leo Baeck Institute, both in New York. The project has come to the aid of Leibl Rosenberg, an official representative of the Jewish community in Nuremberg, Germany, who has made it his life’s mission to restitute 9,000 books that were looted from victims of the Nazi regime and found in the library of the notorious Nazi Julius Streicher at the end of World War II, Lianne Kolirin reports for Jewish Insider.
Decades of work: Rosenberg has spent more than 30 years researching the provenance of these books, which are currently held at the Nuremberg Municipal Library, in order to return them to their rightful heirs. The number of books being repatriated is now on the rise thanks to the scores of volunteers who have come onboard. In just three months they have tracked down 87 heirs — some of whom are inheriting multiple titles — including Guiora. Guiora is now eagerly awaiting the arrival of four volumes of Talmudic text, all of which bear his grandfather’s name in Hebrew and are being dispatched at the expense of the German government.
Worthy Reads
With Blood on Their Hands: In The New York Times, Meytal Ofer, whose father was killed by a Palestinian 12 years ago, reflects on the terrorist’s release as part of the cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas and considers the long-term prospects for peace. “Many of the 1,000 prisoners who are being released in exchange for the remaining Israeli hostages have the blood of people like my father on their hands, some of it barely dry. Behind every heartwarming video of a hostage embracing family members is a family like mine, being forced to relive our own grief. Knowing that the man who killed my father will walk out of prison stirs complex emotions, but I know it is the right decision to release these prisoners, if that is what it takes to save the hostages who have been held for almost 500 days. I believe nothing could be more sacred than bringing the hostages home — not my grief, which will not end, and not even my father, whose life I cannot restore. Not if we can bring back to life my fellow countrymen who are still held in the tunnels under Gaza.” [NYTimes]
Who Should Own Auschwitz?: In The Wall Street Journal, David Mamet posits that ownership of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp should be given to Israel, citing the precedent set by France and Canada in World War I. “The true lesson of the Nazis’ depravity is that all of us have a proclivity for atrocity. Our human capacity for evil is neither limited nor expungeable. It surfaced, undeniably, in the massacre of Oct. 7, and continued in the world’s reaction: hatred of Israel and the Jews. Human depravity is universal. Approaching 80, I wonder less at its presence than at its absence. The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place over three days in April 1917. It was fought and won in France by Canadian troops, four divisions fighting together, with 3,598 killed and some 7,000 wounded. It was a signal victory of Canadian arms. … Canadian forces were fighting in France, for France. In 1922 France ceded the site of the battlefield to Canada for use as a memorial park. The names of the Canadian fallen are carved on the Vimy Ridge Monument and it is maintained by Canada.” [WSJ]
Power Play:The Financial Times’ Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper and Richard Salame look at how Hezbollah is using its control of social services to rebuild support following its degradation by Israel. “Hizbollah, long Lebanon’s most powerful political and military force, is reeling from its worst ever defeat. In over a year of conflict before a ceasefire in November, Israel not only killed thousands of fighters and decimated its senior leadership, but caused enormous destruction in Shia-majority communities from which Hizbollah draws support. The fall of ally Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria dealt another blow, cutting off vital supply chains between Hizbollah and its patron Iran. With the group now under pressure, keeping the faith of constituents such as Umm Hassan is vital to its future. Central to this effort is Hizbollah’s sprawling network of social welfare organisations including schools, hospitals, and its construction arm Jihad al-Bina, which has deployed hundreds of engineers to survey damaged homes and start repairing its heartland.” [FT]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump revoked the security clearances of a number of senior Biden administration officials, including former Secretary of State Tony Blinken and former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan…
The State Department announced a $7 billion arms sale to Israel; Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Foggy Bottom circumvented the congressional approval process in authorizing the sale…
Trumpannounced plans on Friday to remove members of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center, including Chairman David Rubenstein, whose position Trump will assume…
Elon Musk announced he would rehire the former DOGE staffer who had resigned after his past racist social media posts had been made public…
A new book by Axios’ Alex Isenstadt, slated for release on March 18, includes a deep dive into Iranian threats against Trump — and how they impacted the president…
Reps. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) reintroduced the DETERRENT Act, which tightens requirements to report foreign donations…
Reps. Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Hillary Scholten (D-MI), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Dan Meuser (R-PA) introduced the PROTECT Jewish Student and Faculty Act, which requires schools receiving federal funding to state in their student and employee conduct policies that antisemitism is banned and can result in expulsion or termination…
Senate Republicans released a plan on Friday for a budget reconciliation bill that includes $150 billion in additional defense spending over four years. House Republicans, meanwhile, have been consumed by infighting as they try to put together their own reconciliation proposal…
A dozen House Republicans led by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) urged the administration to implement sanctions against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that are part of the Iraqi security forces, as well as designate them as terrorist groups and halt security assistance to Iraq until all such groups are removed from the government…
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced a bill to designate the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, which housed Holocaust refugees, as a national park…
Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduced a resolution to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Roddie Edmonds, a World War II soldier who saved hundreds of Jewish-American troops…
A backup dancer in the Super Bowl Sunday halftime show unfurled a joint Sudanese/Palestinian flag with Sudan and Gaza written on it; the individual, one of hundreds of performers on the field during Kendrick Lamar’s set, was removed by security…
The New York Times looks at efforts by OpenAI’s Sam Altman to circumvent Elon Musk, with whom he has butted heads in the past, and liaise directly with Trump…
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, posted dozens of antisemitic, racist and homophobic social media posts on X over the weekend; the artist’s X account was no longer online by Monday…
The Wall Street Journal reports on clashes between Soho House investors Dan Loeb and Ron Burkle as the company mulls a possible buyout in the face of mounting financial losses and member concerns over the company’s standards…
U.K. Health Minister Andrew Gwynne was fired from his position and suspended from the Labour party over the weekend following the publication of messages Gwynne sent in a WhatsApp group in which he suggested that the name of an American Jewish psychologist sounded “too militaristic and too Jewish” and asked if the man was in the Mossad…
A second member of Parliament for Labour, Oliver Ryan, apologized for his participation in the WhatsApp group, in which legislators also made racist and sexist statements, and will meet with party officials to determine next steps…
Israeli police raided a well-known Palestinian-owned bookshop in east Jerusalem last night, confiscated books and arrested the owners, sparking backlash; a police spokesman said the owners were suspected of selling books with inciting content and support for terrorism, citing a children’s coloring book titled From the River to the Sea…
Israeli Foreign Minster Gideon Sa’ar met with Morgan Ortagus, the Trump administration’s Lebanon envoy, on Sunday; Ortagus had, days earlier, met with Lebanon’s new government in Beirut last week…
Calcalist looks at the collapse of Israeli startup Habana Labs following its purchase, for $2 billion, by Intel…
The Wall Street Journal interviews Palestinians in Gaza about Trump’s proposal to relocate the enclave’s population…
The USS Harry S. Truman departed from the Red Sea as the Houthis scale back their attacks on vessels transiting through the commercial waterway…
Iran held celebrations marking the 46th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the country’s shah…
Actor Tony Roberts, who frequently appeared in Woody Allen films, died at 85…
Pic of the Day
Bannawat Saethao, one of the Thai hostages released from Hamas captivity last week, reunites with his family after arriving at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday.
Birthdays
Swimmer who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Mark Spitz turns 75…
Founder and owner of the River Island fashion brand and clothing chain, Bernard Lewis turns 99… CEO of Metromedia Company and a board member of cruise line operator Carnival Corporation, Stuart Subotnick turns 83… Rabbi in Vienna, Austria, in the 1980s, in Munich in the 1990s and in Berlin since 1997, Yitshak Ehrenberg turns 75… CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Robert Allen “Bob” Iger turns 74… Miami-based philanthropist Jayne Harris Abess… Host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” James J. “Jim” Cramer turns 70… CEO emerita of D.C.-based Jewish Women International, Loribeth Weinstein… Ethiopian-born, former member of Knesset for the Likud party, he is an activist for the Falash Mura community, Avraham Neguise turns 67… Syndicated newspaper columnist for the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby turns 66… U.S. senator (D-DE) since the beginning of this year, Lisa Blunt Rochester turns 63… Former NASA astronaut, famous for his mezuzah in the International Space Station, he is a consultant for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Garrett Reisman turns 57… Member of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2003, Anne R. Kaiser turns 57… Senior director of philanthropic engagement for the central division of the Anti-Defamation League, Matthew Feldman… Executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities, Howie Beigelman… Israeli pop star and part of the duo “TYP” also known as The Young Professionals, Ivri Lider turns 51… Co-founder and principal at the bipartisan public policy firm Klein/Johnson Group, Israel “Izzy” Klein… Israeli musician, David “Dudu” Tassa turns 48… CEO at Citizen Data, Mindy Finn turns 44… COO of Richmond-based Untangled Media Group, Michelle Levi Noe… Partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Venable where he leads the firm’s autonomous and connected mobility group, Ariel S. Wolf… Manager of global sales operations at Sygnia, Avital Mannis Eyal… Retired NFL quarterback, he was the tenth overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, now an MBA candidate at Wharton, Josh Rosen turns 28… Israeli singer, songwriter and dancer, Jonathan Ya’akov Mergui turns 25…
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