Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we highlight tensions between Egypt and Israel surrounding the war in Gaza and cover the emerging Minnesota Senate race to succeed outgoing Sen. Tina Smith. We also go behind the scenes of the new House Jewish caucus and report on an event that Sen. Bernie Moreno will host for Israeli orphans who lost parents in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Andy Kim, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Jonathan Dekel-Chen.
What We’re Watching
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the final leg of his Middle East tour, met with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi this morning. Rubio’s meetings have been focused on the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
- The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, on its annual mission to Israel, is in northern Israel today for a series of security briefings and meetings with civil society leaders.
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled from Hungary to Italy today where he will hold diplomatic meetings with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Discussions are due to focus on efforts to free the hostages and regional developments, as well as increasing pressure on Iran and combating rising antisemitism. Herzog will also address an event with Italy’s Jewish community at the Great Synagogue of Rome.
- The Saudi-organized FII PRIORITY Summit begins today in Miami Beach, Fla. President Donald Trump is expected to deliver an address at the event, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner is listed as a featured speaker. A number of Israel-born executives are also scheduled to speak at the summit, including Oracle CEO Safra Catz and Bridgewater head Nir Bar Dea.
What You Should Know
After a series of uplifting and heartwarming reunions between released hostages and their loved ones every week for the past month, Israel is bracing for the tragic release of four deceased hostages on Thursday, which Hamas has said will include the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her children Ariel, kidnapped at age 4, and Kfir, kidnapped at 9 months.
The redheaded children, filmed clutched in their mother’s arms during their kidnapping on Oct. 7, 2023, have become a symbol of the 16-month-long battle for the release of the hostages and are deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of the nation, Jewish Insider’s Israel editor Tamara Zieve reports.
In November 2023, Hamas released a video of Yarden Bibas, who was released from captivity last weekend, breaking down as his captors told him that his wife and children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. But since this was one of many propaganda videos and statements released by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups who have waged a psychological war against the citizens of Israel, many were skeptical of its truth and the Bibas family have to this day awaited Israeli confirmation of the status of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir.
In November 2023, Palestinian Islamic Jihad said former hostage Hana Katzir had died, but she was released alive several days later. Daniella Gilboa, one of the lookout soldiers released earlier this month, revealed that her captors had forced to stage her own death for a video released by Hamas in November last year, in which she was covered in powder and debris to make it look as though she had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
And Yarden Bibas himself was reportedly previously told by his captors that his wife and children had been seen in Tel Aviv and constantly tormented about the fate of his family. Many held onto the hope that Hamas’ claim that Yarden’s family was dead was another cruel lie.
The Bibas family released a statement yesterday saying, “In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil following Hamas spokesperson’s announcement about the planned return of our Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday as part of the hostages’ remains release phase. We want to make it clear that while we are aware of these reports, we have not yet received any official confirmation regarding this matter. Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over.”
Health Minister Uriel Buso told Israeli news outlet Walla that the identification of the released hostages’ bodies could take time. “The process can take a short time to a very long time, since we do not have accurate information about the condition of the bodies,” he said. “The most important thing is that we receive a clear identification, that we can ascertain the cause of death as much as possible, and that we bring them for burial in Israel,” Buso said.
The Israeli Education Ministry released a letter to help parents prepare for their children’s exposure to the news. The ministry said its staff was preparing for conversations with students surrounding the release, while advising educators in kindergartens and elementary schools not to raise the subject, except for in communities closely connected to the victims in which professional guidance will be provided.
In addition to the release of the four bodies on Thursday, Hamas confirmed that on Saturday it will hand over the six remaining living hostages due to be released in the first phase of the deal, instead of the three originally planned. This comes after Israel’s security cabinet agreed to start negotiations on the second phase of the cease-fire agreement with Hamas.
Hamas confirmed the six to be released are Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen — all kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023 — as well as Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held by Hamas since 2014 and 2015.
While Saturday’s release will reunite six families, two of whom have been split apart for as long as a decade, the days prior will be wrought with emotion as the country’s worst fears look likely to be realized.
a fragile peace
Alleged violations of Israel-Egypt peace treaty ring alarm bells in Israel
Diplomatic tensions between Egypt and Israel have risen to the surface in recent months surrounding the war in Gaza, a territory that borders both countries. Officials in Cairo and Jerusalem have tried to keep the tensions behind the scenes, but a series of recent events and comments have brought them into public view, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi rejected the possibility of taking in refugees from Gaza since the start of the war, an insistence that has continued even as President Donald Trump announced his plan to have Gaza evacuated and rebuilt.
Military buildup: Meanwhile, Egypt has amassed large numbers of tanks and other military equipment and personnel, including constructing three new airfields, in Sinai, beginning even before the war. The Egyptian Army recently deployed tanks near the Gaza border, reportedly in protest against Israel’s continued presence in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border and to stop a mass exodus of Palestinians to Egypt from the enclave. Both Egypt’s military buildup and Israel’s holding of the Philadelphi Corridor may constitute violations of the 1979 peace treaty between the countries.
Read the full story here.
north star matchup
Minnesota Senate race turning into proxy battle between moderates and progressives
The emerging race to succeed outgoing Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), who announced last week that she would not seek reelection, is setting the stage for an ideologically divisive Democratic primary, with rival members of the party’s progressive and moderate wings now eyeing the rare open seat. While just one candidate, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, has so far entered the primary, a range of state and federal lawmakers are expressing interest in joining the race — most recently Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), a moderate Democrat who on Monday said that she is “giving serious consideration to” a campaign and “will make a decision in the near future,” Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Israel positions: If Craig chooses to run, she would likely emerge as the favored candidate among pro-Israel activists in Minnesota, Jewish community leaders say, citing a strong record of support. The four-term lawmaker, who represents a swing district covering the Twin Cities’ southern suburbs, is an ally of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC and has been willing to speak out against Democratic colleagues amid Middle East policy disagreements. By contrast, Flanagan, a prominent progressive who announced on Thursday that she intends to run for Senate, is seen as largely aligned with J Street, the left-wing Israel advocacy group that has frequently clashed with AIPAC.
coming to life
Behind the scenes of the new House Jewish caucus
The first-ever House Jewish caucus, announced earlier this month, came together following more than a year of behind-the-scenes discussions and negotiations between key leaders and other members, some of whom began as opponents of the idea of having such a group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Inside the room: Every Jewish Democratic member has joined or plans to join the caucus, which will be chaired by Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Schneider. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was a founder of the group alongside Nadler, but isn’t taking a leadership position now that it has been created. No Republican Jewish members are expected to join at this point. Among the thorniest issues that the group — divided on key issues like Israel and antisemitism policy — had to work through was how it would approach and take positions on issues where there is not a consensus among Jewish members. Leaders predicted that the caucus may not frequently take public positions on contested issues.
showing solidarity
Sen. Bernie Moreno to host Oct. 7 orphans at Republican Senate meeting
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) will host 12 Israeli orphans who lost parents in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel at the Senate Republican Conference’s lunch meeting on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Honoring those lost: “We must never forget the unimaginable suffering depraved Hamas terrorists inflicted on innocent Israeli families during the October 7th attacks and I’m proud to play a small role in honoring those lost,” Moreno said in a statement to JI. “Hamas started this war and is solely responsible for the death [and] destruction.”
kim’s call
Sen. Andy Kim says release of New Jersey hostage Edan Alexander still not finalized
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said on Tuesday that Edan Alexander, the Tenafly, N.J., native who has been held hostage by Hamas since Oct. 7, has not yet been released because he is “tied in with phase two” of the cease-fire deal. Kim was part of a bipartisan group of senators who traveled to Israel after attending the Munich Security Conference to meet with Israeli leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Jerusalem meetings: Speaking to JI at the Capitol shortly after landing back in Washington, the New Jersey senator said that he “did not get any update” on Alexander’s status in hostage-release negotiations. “I met with Edan’s mother, and then I raised his name in every single one of the meetings. The challenge there is that he’s kind of tied in with phase two. I did not get a sense of where those negotiations stand,” Kim said. “When we met with Netanyahu, he said that he was going to be meeting with his counsel about what to do about phase two.”
Read the full story here.
On the other side: Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Cohen who was released from Hamas captivity on Saturday, spoke in an interview on NewsNation’s “Morning in America” about getting his son back almost 500 days after he was kidnapped. “He has been, in a sense, sort of born again as a human being in the world that we inhabit. And that’s joyous. It’s joyous for himself. It’s joyous for his wife, his three little girls, and our family, our community,” he said.
problematic pick
DeSantis pick for university board chair suggested Jews shouldn’t be considered for ‘national leadership’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing criticism for his controversial pick to chair the board of trustees at the University of West Florida, with a bipartisan group of Jewish lawmakers raising concerns about the appointee’s “history of antisemitic and misogynistic rhetoric.” Scott Yenor, a political scientist at Boise State University and a staffer at the right-wing Claremont Institute, is under fire for suggesting last month that only straight white men under 65 are capable of rising to political leadership positions. The Florida Senate has approval power over appointments to university boards, including UWF, a public university in Pensacola, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Problematic posts: In a series of tweets Yenor posted during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearings in January, he described Democrats’ “slim pickin’s” for “national leadership or for reforming the party.” “Of the 47 Democrat Senators, only six are straight white men under the age of sixty-five,” Yenor wrote. “Nine are Jews, two of whom are women and four of whom are 65-years-old or older.” Then, he named “the six straight, white non-Jews,” and added that the “three male Jews under sixty could also fall into the category of party reformers.”
Worthy Reads
Jake’s Take:The New York Times’ Ezra Klein interviewed Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) on his vision of how the Democrats should rethink their electoral strategy in the wake of the party’s 2024 defeat. Auchincloss told Klein: “We are not going to play the outrage Olympics. … We are not going to chase every single ball that [Trump] throws. We’re not going to play fetch. We are going to constantly, with discipline, be drawing contrasts between who he is helping and who he is working for, and who we are helping and who we are working for. … When [Democrats] roll our eyes or we shrug our shoulders, we are stopping the conversation before it can start. People are not going to listen to us about economic theories of cost disease and how we’re going to lower the cost of living if they don’t first feel heard about shared values — meritocracy, fair play, hard work. And what they have felt like is that rather than being enlisted to a party, they are being lectured to by elites.” [NYTimes]
Will the Center-(Right) Hold?: In The Free Press’ Bari Weiss’ address to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, she argued that “the far left destroyed the center-left in America,” and that the center-right must resist the same fate by its own extreme flank by “polic[ing] its ranks” and “defend[ing] its sacred values”: “[American] values are not left or right. They are foundational. They are civilizational. And they have always required constant vigilance to preserve. But that’s not the sense you get online these days — and some places offline, too — where power is celebrated instead of principle. Where power is quickly becoming the only principle. If that continues without being challenged, we may wind up spending the next few years watching the same story we just lived through on the other side, as the far right (not the one defined by cable news, which includes most of us here today) devours what remains of the center-right.” [FreePress]
Double Standards: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens condemned Vice President J.D. Vance for a speech in Munich last week where he “lectured his audience about Europe’s retreat from democratic values” and then met with the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party: “How does a free society guard against being used, and possibly destroyed, by the rights and privileges it grants the enemies of freedom? … For countries with a totalitarian past, finding the right answers to these questions is hard. Few have done it better than Germany, which remains unmistakably democratic not because it unthinkingly honors a principle of unfettered liberty (no democracy does) but because it vigilantly monitors the enemies of democracy while maintaining a memory of what the nation once was. It’s something for which all Americans should feel especially grateful, given the price we paid in lives to defeat Germany’s previous political incarnations. … [A]n American vice president went to Munich to carry on about his idealism while breaking bread with those who would obliterate democratic ideals. A disgrace.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tapped Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer to lead negotiations on the second phase of the hostage-release and cease-fire deal with Hamas, replacing Mossad chief David Barnea…
President Donald Trump reposted a video addressed to him by released Israeli hostage Agam Berger, thanking him for his work to bring about the release of hostages from Gaza and urging him to continue until all the hostages are home…
The Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick to be Trump’s commerce secretary on Tuesday in a 51-45 vote. Lutnick, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, has emerged as a leading pro-Israel champion in the president’s orbit…
The Senate also voted 48-45 to advance Kash Patel’s nomination to be FBI director, setting up a final vote to confirm him on Thursday…
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) became the new co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism…
Dan Caldwell, an Iraq War veteran and defense policy advisor with deep ties to the Koch network, has been appointed senior advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with a special focus on Ukraine policy, Politico reports. The two have previously worked together at another Koch-backed group, Concerned Veterans for America…
Netanyahu met yesterday with a congressional delegation organized by AIPAC, and with a bipartisan delegation led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Over the past two days, Netanyahu has met with 23 members of the Congress and “thanked them for their steadfast bipartisan support for Israel,” his office said in a statement…
The Israeli Ministry of Defense is attending the International Defense Exhibition (Idex) in Abu Dhabi along with 29 Israeli defense contractors, including Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit. One executive of an Israeli-American drone company said there is still business potential for Israeli firms across the Middle East, but “the optics [are] a bit more sensitive”…
Fifty prominent Muslim groups in Australia wrote a letter defending two nurses who were fired last week for saying they would kill Israeli patients. The groups criticized the “selective outrage” about the nurses and said they were only being “emotional and hyperbolic”…
Violent clashes broke out last night at an anti-Israel protest in the Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., which is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population. The protest organizers issued a call to “Flood Boro Park to stop the sale of stolen Palestinian land” and its participants hurled offensive slurs at Jewish residents of the neighborhood and counterprotesters…
Beth Davidson, a Jewish New York legislator from Rockland County, is entering the Democratic primary for Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) congressional seat in the 2026 midterms. Lawler is reportedly considering running against Gov. Kathy Hochul for the governorship…
Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch met with Columbia University Interim President Katrina Armstrong to discuss antisemitism on campus and strengthening U.S.-Israel academic collaboration…
Dana Blumberg, wife of Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner and founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, joined the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center in Washington. Trump was elected chair of the prestigious cultural institution by his newly appointed board last week…
American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference over the weekend and said they had a “helpful exchange of ideas.” Deutch and other AJC leaders spoke with leaders from Kosovo, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, the European Council, France and Bulgaria during the conference and among other issues, highlighted the urgency of the release of all the remaining hostages held in Gaza…
The Israeli Military Advocate General’s Office indicted five IDF reserve soldiers on charges of causing severe injury and assault to a Palestinian security prisoner at the Sde Teiman military detention facility in July…
A Russian drone strike over the weekend caused significant damage to a water purification station that had been set up by the Israeli humanitarian relief group IsraAid in a southern Ukraine village; the strike knocked out the station, which provided water for roughly 1,000 people, for at least several weeks, a Ukrainian spokesperson for the group told eJewishPhilanthropy…
Leonard H. Cohen, former president of Congregation Knesset Israel in Pittsfield, Mass., and renowned lawyer in the Northeast, died last week at 89…
Pic of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog, during a state visit to Hungary yesterday, took part in an official ceremony at the “Shoes on the Danube Bank,” a memorial in Budapest commemorating the thousands of Jews murdered by the Hungarian Arrow Cross militia during the Holocaust.
Birthdays
Tight end for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, he played college football at Harvard, Anthony Firkser turns 30…
2004 Nobel Prize laureate in physics, he is a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, David Jonathan Gross turns 84… Former chairman of the board and CEO of Sony Corporation, chairman of the board of trustees of the American Film Institute, Sir Howard Stringer turns 83… Retired co-founder of integrated digital marketing agency Hawkeye / Mosaic, now known as Publicis Hawkeye, Sharon Edelman… Former President of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology from 2009 until 2019, Peretz Lavie turns 76… Founder and president of the eponymous Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, she is on the boards of the NFL’s NY Giants, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Aspen Institute, Laurie M. Tisch… and also, the birthday of her first cousin once removed, co-founder and CEO of Atria, Alan Tisch… Managing partner of Encino, Calif.-based Hager Pacific Properties, Adam Tuvia Milstein turns 73… Former Goldman Sachs partner and then a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, he now serves on various corporate and non-profit boards, Barry L. Zubrow turns 72… International CEO of Taglit Birthright Israel since 2008, Gidi Mark turns 69… Novelist, essayist and short story writer, he was a winner of a 2005 MacArthur genius fellowship, Jonathan Allen Lethem turns 61… Retired U.S. District Court judge, he was a law clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy (1993-1994) alongside future justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Gary Scott Feinerman turns 60… SVP of government relations at Las Vegas Sands Corp., Andy Abboud… Co-founder of the band Phish where he was the lead drummer and frequent song writer, Jon Fishman turns 60… Former communications director for 27 years for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), now a consultant, Kevin D. Bishop… Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel turns 54… Canadian media personality, writer and activist, Ezra Levant turns 53… Partner at InfraStrategies and senior fellow at the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies, Joshua Levi Schank, Ph.D…. Founder of NYT’s DealBook and CNBC anchor, Andrew Ross Sorkin turns 48… Hollywood writer and producer, Gideon Yago turns 47… Jewish rapper, part of the alternative hip hop group Darshan, better known by his stage name Eprhyme (pronounced “E-Prime”), Eden Daniel Pearlstein turns 45… Writer of the “In the Know” gossip column for The Hill, Judy Kurtz Altscher… Founder of a Middle East NGO, Regional Organization for Peace, Economics & Security (ROPES), Ben Birnbaum… Former MLB pitcher for the Phillies (2011-2012), he now runs Big League Advance, a company that invests in minor league players in exchange for a percentage of their future MLB earnings, Michael Schwimer turns 39… Samantha Zalaznick… Actor who played the young autistic Jacob “Jake” Bohm in the Fox TV series “Touch,” later portraying a young Bruce Wayne in another Fox series “Gotham,” David Mazouz turns 24… Daniel Blum..
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