Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the latest on the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and talk to the head of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks following the Trump administration’s cessation of funding to U.S.-funded networks. We also report on the anti-Israel social media posts of a Washington Post reporter covering the Israel-Hamas war, and talk to Rep. Jim Jordan about his recent trip to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Nikki Haley, David Kramer and Ruth Porat.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to speak today to discuss a possible 30-day ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
- United Arab Emirates National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed is in Washington this week, where he’s expected to meet with senior Trump administration officials, including National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Elon Musk, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; the Emirati leader will also meet with business executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Karp, Larry Fink, Larry Ellison and Jeff Bezos.
- New York City comptroller candidates Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, and Justin Brannan, a city councilmember from south Brooklyn, will face off in a debate this morning at the New York Law School. The debate is being hosted by the school and the Citizens Budget Commission.
- Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s hostage envoy, is hosting a summit in Montana this week for his counterparts from countries including Israel, the U.K., Canada, Australia and Austria. Israel’s hostage envoy, Gal Hirsch, sent a lower-level staffer, reportedly due to tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over Boehler’s recent direct talks with Hamas and ensuing media blitz. Days after his appearances on U.S. and Israeli TV discussing his meetings with Hamas officials garnered widespread criticism, Boehler withdrew his nomination for the post, which requires Senate confirmation, but will continue working with the administration on hostage issues more broadly.
What You Should Know
Israel struck Hamas targets across Gaza overnight, ending a two-month ceasefire after the collapse of negotiations for the release of additional hostages held by the Palestinian terrorist group, leaving hostage families fearful for their loved ones’ lives, Jewish Insider‘s Lahav Harkov reports.
The airstrikes on Hamas targets in Khan Younis, Gaza City and Deir al-Balah were meant to “achieve the objectives of the war … including the release of all our hostages, the living and the deceased,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office said.
Israel notified the Trump administration before striking Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
“As President Trump has made it clear: Hamas, the Houthis, Iran — all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she said.
The IDF and Shin Bet – whose chief Netanyahu is trying to fire – took “strong action” that the Prime Minister’s Office said “follows Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators,” Qatar and Egypt.
With 59 hostages remaining in Gaza — 21-24 thought to be living — Hamas rejected all proposals to continue the ceasefire through Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began at the end of February, and Passover, which ends on April 19.
Qatar-based Hamas senior official Izzat al-Rishq said that the renewed fighting was a “death sentence” for the hostages.
The Hostages Families Forumexpressed deep concerns that the renewed fighting put their loved ones held in Gaza at risk, saying that they are “shocked, furious and anxious from the [Israeli government’s] proactive disruption of the process to return our loved ones from terrible Hamas captivity.”
The renewed airstrikes in Gaza also took place days before the Knesset plans to begin voting on the 2025 state budget. It remains unclear whether Netanyahu has the votes he needs to pass the budget and avoid an election.
However, the prime minister may have the opportunity to expand his coalition. When the government entered the ceasefire in January, former National Security Advisor Itamar Ben-Gvir withdrew his Otzma Yehudit party from the coalition, saying he will only return if the fighting is renewed in Gaza.
An Otzma Yehudit spokesperson said that renewing the fighting in Gaza “is the right step, the moral and most justified one, in order to destroy the Hamas terror organization and bring back our hostages. We cannot accept the existence of Hamas and must demolish it.”
open views
Washington Post reporter faces scrutiny over anti-Israel social media commentary
A Middle East reporter for The Washington Post is facing scrutiny for online commentary in which she has called Israel an illegal state, openly identified as an anti-Zionist and signaled support for Hamas and Hezbollah, among other posts now raising questions about the objectivity of her coverage on the region, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Online presence: In an extensive series of social media remarks mostly published between 2012 and 2014, Heba Farouk Mahfouz, a reporter and researcher in the Post’s Cairo bureau whose recent coverage largely focuses on Israel and Hamas, frequently inveighed against Israel, saying it was “not a point of view” but “a fact” that the country is a “colonial, illegal” state. She also described Zionism as “racism,” while dismissing her critics as “Zio-Nazis” — a pejorative deemed by some watchdog groups as antisemitic. “If my anti-Zionist views hurt your Zio-Nazi feelings, FUCK OFF & SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Elsewhere, Mahfouz claimed that Israel “despises #African #Jews and any dark skinned Jew,” and compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust. “‘Never again,’ said the Zionist settler who is killing Palestinians now in a genocide,” she wrote in November 2012, ending her comment with the words “Holocaust” and “Gaza.” Mahfouz has otherwise expressed alignment with Hamas and Hezbollah, according to translated posts first written in Arabic.
media maters
Leaders warn that cuts to Middle East Broadcasting Networks surrender ground to anti-American, anti-Israel adversaries
Leaders at the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) are warning that the Trump administration’s sudden move to cut off funding to public broadcasters imperils U.S. efforts to communicate its interests and priorities to the region and to compete with adversaries, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Pushback: Jeffrey Gedmin, the president and CEO of MBN, emphasized to JI that MBN competes in the Middle East across with outlets such as Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Sky Arabia and other networks unfriendly or outright hostile to the United States and Israel. “You’re vacating the field to the opponent. You’re leaving the goal free and open. They’re already better-resourced than we are … but that’s OK,” Gedmin said. “We can be sharp, shrewd and asymmetrical, but to quit is a problem for me.”
wiki worries
New ADL report reveals ‘malicious’ Wikipedia editors conspired to impose anti-Israel bias across site
In 2025, all it takes to answer any factual question, no matter how trivial — Who won the 1974 World Series? Where was Taylor Swift born? — is a quick Google search and, usually, a click to Wikipedia, which has 62 million pages in English alone. But a new report from the Anti-Defamation League urges people to think twice before using the popular free encyclopedia, arguing its administrators have failed to prevent biased editors from manipulating entries related to Israel and Judaism, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Edit wars: “Despite Wikipedia’s efforts to ensure neutrality and impartiality, malicious editors frequently introduce biased or misleading information, which persists across hundreds if not more entries,” the report stated. For instance, in the main Wikipedia page on Hamas, an editor removed a reference to a 2018 incident describing how a Palestinian prepared to launch an incendiary balloon with a swastika on it. A series of edit wars on Wikipedia’s main Zionism page has, since 2022, sought “to reframe Israel’s founding,” according to the report.
scoop
ADL chief vanishes from Israel’s antisemitism conference schedule amid uproar over inclusion of European far right
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has been removed from the schedule of an upcoming antisemitism conference being hosted by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem later this month amid growing controversy over the inclusion of several far-right European politicians in the event, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross has learned. Greenblatt, who was slated to deliver a keynote address, had originally appeared in the conference’s speakers list. On Monday afternoon, his photograph was removed, and later his keynote address was also taken down from the event’s website. Greenblatt’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.
Growing list: A growing number of speakers and participants have canceled their appearances at the gathering. They include: British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, British antisemitism scholar David Hirsh, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, German antisemitism envoy Felix Klein and head of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association, German Volker Beck. “Having been made aware of the attendance of a number of far-right populist politicians at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, the Chief Rabbi will no longer be attending,” Mirvis’ office told eJP.
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
florida fever
Republicans target Moskowitz’s district as potential pickup opportunity
The National Republican Congressional Committee announced on Monday that it’s targeting Rep. Jared Moskowitz’s (D-FL) South Florida district as a potential opportunity to flip a Democratic-held seat in the 2026 midterms, honing in on one of the most heavily Jewish congressional districts in the country, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: The district, once safely Democratic, has been trending increasingly competitive in recent years. Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist in Florida, said that the district is “a jump ball,” noting that President Donald Trump and Republicans continue to gain ground in the state, but said that “the biggest issue the Republicans are going to have is that Jared is pretty skilled” as a politician. Jewish Democratic leaders in the district largely argue that Moskowitz is popular enough locally — particularly when it comes to pro-Israel policy — that he should be relatively safe from a challenge.
firm friends
Jim Jordan: Israel stands ‘in a category all by themselves’ among U.S. allies
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), an influential member of the conservative wing of the House Republican Conference, said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod last week that Israel stands in a unique place among U.S. allies and said the U.S. should always be ready to assist it when it needs help.
Notable quotable: Asked after a recent trip to Israel about potential additional avenues for Congress to support Israel, including future aid packages, Jordan described Israel as “in a category all by themselves.” “When they need help, we should be helping Israel because there’s this special bond that exists between the Jewish people and Americans, and Israel and the United States. It’s just a special relationship. And a lot of it is because of the Judeo-Christian connection and heritage that we have,” he continued. The Ohio Republican, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, helped found the right-wing Freedom Caucus earlier in his term in Congress, went on to gain influence and support across the GOP conference and is seen as having leadership ambitions.
Worthy Reads
Schumer’s Survival Instincts:Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian does a deep dive into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) political career — and longevity — as New York’s senior senator faces criticism from the progressive wing of his party. “Schumer’s done his work in perhaps the most unforgiving arena in politics. He’s coexisted with two junior senators who have run for president (not to mention Daniel Patrick Moynihan). He shared a media market with Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani in their prime. Two New York governors have been taken down in spectacular fashion since Schumer first joined the Senate and at least a half-dozen New York congressmen have resigned in disgrace or been expelled. Through it all, Schumer has been a constant. Endurance alone doesn’t make for a successful party leader. When he arrived in the Senate, Schumer carried baggage from his 18-year House tenure that obscured his record. He was a serious and energetic lawmaker who left his mark on trade, crime, housing, immigration, farm and banking policy under both Republican and Democratic presidents, but his ambition and thirst for attention rubbed many colleagues the wrong way. His stewardship of the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm helped change that — and altered the national party’s trajectory.” [Politico]
A Bridge to Trump: The New York Times’ Greg Jaffe looks at how Republicans have evolved on Elbridge Colby’s nomination to be undersecretary of defense for policy. “Beyond the insular world of Washington think tanks, where he spent much of his career, Mr. Colby is not well known. The job he is poised to take, under secretary of defense for policy, is critical but not the sort of position that typically stirs the passions of political activists. The back-and-forth over Mr. Colby’s nomination, though, has become a proxy for something bigger: a battle over how America should wield its power and influence globally. … [On conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast,] Mr. Colby made his case for a new foreign policy approach that prioritized preparing for a potential war with China and shifted U.S. military resources from Europe and the Middle East. ‘We stand on the possible precipice of World War III, and we need a fundamental change before we ram right into the iceberg,’ he warned. Together, he and Mr. Carlson criticized much of the U.S. foreign policy elite as moralistic, war-obsessed and weak. Its approach, they maintained, had produced failed wars, trillion-dollar deficits and enormous trade imbalances.” [NYTimes]
Hate on the Right: In The Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker reflects on the antisemitism of the right, citing figures including Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson. “Sheer dumbness is part of the problem. Our culture is dominated by people with epic levels of historical, economic and scientific ignorance. Mr. Rogan is unimaginably successful and doesn’t need my critical approval, so he won’t mind when I say I doubt he has read a book of real history in his life or can see the difference between the charlatans he promotes and actual historians of the Third Reich such as Richard Evans or Ian Kershaw. Nor would he or his followers understand the difference between the historiography required of a genuine authority and the kind of drivel produced by a dilettante opportunist. The larger problem is the steady undermining of truth itself. So much contemporary ideology rests on eradicated standards of objective reality, so people can believe all kinds of impossible things. The abandonment of academic truth is partially to blame. The tendentious and dishonest nonsense that holds sway at most of our top universities and the intolerance with which its adherents exclude dissent have undermined faith in academic truth and debased the currency of scholarship so that anyone with access to a social media account can propagate his own ‘learning.’” [WSJ]
Poison Ivy: The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer looks at Columbia University’s handling of the explosion of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity on the campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war. “Over the past two years, Columbia’s institutional life has become more and more absurd. Confronted with a war on the other side of the world, the course of which the university has zero capacity to affect, a broad swath of the community acted as if the school’s trustees and administrators could determine the fate of innocent families in Gaza. To force the university into acceding to demands — ending study abroad in Israel, severing a partnership with Tel Aviv University, divesting from companies with holdings in Israel — protesters attempted to shut down campus activity. For the sake of entirely symbolic victories, they were willing to risk their academic careers and even arrest. Because the protesters treated the war as a local issue, they trained their anger on Jewish and Israeli students and faculty, including Shilon, some of whom have been accused of complicity with genocide on the basis of their religious affiliation or national origin. More than any other American university, Columbia experienced a breakdown in the fabric of its community that demanded a firm response from administrators — but these administrators tended to choke on their own fears.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump blasted Iran for its support of the Houthis in Yemen, amid U.S. airstrikes targeting the Yemeni group; Trump said that “Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control … They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying [the Houthis] with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence’”…
Vice President J.D. Vance met on Monday with the United Arab Emirates’ Ambassador to the U.S.Yousef Al Otaiba and UAE Minister of IndustrySultan Al Jaber…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) book tour, slated to begin Monday night, was postponed as the New York Democrat faces blowback over his recent vote to avert a government shutdown, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports; a spokesperson for Schumer cited “security concerns” surrounding the events, which were expected to draw protesters…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Punchbowl News that he intends to mount a primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)…
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley is overseeing a new joint initiative between Clemson University,Hebrew University and Sapir College in Israel; the project will focus on shared agricultural challenges and opportunities in the Negev and South Carolina…
Harris County (Texas) Attorney Christian Menefee announced his entry into the race to succeed Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX), who died earlier this year, in Texas’ 18th Congressional District…
A Lebanese Brown University professor with a U.S. visa was deported upon returning from a visit to Lebanon; Dr. Rasha Alawieh told federal agents that she had attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, whom she said she agreed with from “a religious perspective”…
Following Alawieh’s deportation, administrators at Brown warned international faculty and students against traveling outside the country…
Federal officials are conducting an investigation into Columbia University following the filing of a complaint from two janitors at the university who were forced to repeatedly clean graffiti of swastikas and were briefly barred by a group of anti-Israel protesters from leaving an administrative building on campus…
Anti-Israel vandals graffitied the home of University of Michigan Provost Laurie McCauley with phrases including “Free Palestine,” “Divest” and “No Honor in Genocide” and threw an object through a bedroom window of the home…
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pulled in $1.5 million since announcing his campaign for mayor of New York City earlier this month; far-left state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani confirmed a haul of $840,000 over the last two months…
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie tapped former First Republic Bank President Katherine August-deWilde, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and Alphabet President and CIO Ruth Porat to lead a pair of initiatives focused on revitalizing the city’s beleaguered downtown…
Alphabet is in advanced talks to purchase Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz for $30 billion, nearly a year after an initial $23 billion acquisition deal fell apart last summer over regulatory issues…
Israeli startup Kela Technologies, which developed a platform to allow militaries to source commercial technology, completed an $11 million seed round of funding led by Sequoia; the company was founded after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks…
United Talent Agency President David Kramer has been tapped to succeed outgoing UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer, who will remain on UTA’s board of directors, effective June 1…
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations voted unanimously to admit the Israeli-American Council, the first group to be added to the conference in more than a decade…
The Miami Herald spotlights the efforts of the Surfside, Fla.-based Aleph Institute to support Jewish members of the U.S. military…
Model Karlie Kloss announced that she and her husband, Josh Kushner, are expecting their third child…
“Pod Save America host” Jon Lovett announced his engagement to Crooked Media chief of staff Ari Schwartz…
Pic of the Day
A ceremony on Monday at Israeli Embassy Square in Buenos Aires, Argentina, commemorated the 33rd anniversary of the bombing at the Israeli Embassy, in which 29 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. Pictured are, from left: Israeli Ambassador to Argentina Eyal Sela, Argentinian Secretary-General of the Presidency Karina Milei, Argentinian Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan and Argentinian Justice and Human Rights Minister Mariano Cuneo Libarona.
Birthdays
Head coach of the Auburn Tigers men’s basketball team, his Hebrew name is Mordechai as he was born in the week of Purim, Bruce Pearl turns 65…
Screenwriter, actor, comedian and film executive, he is best known for co-writing the screenplay for “Jaws” and its first two sequels, Carl Gottlieb turns 87… U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism during the Biden administration, Ambassador Deborah Esther Lipstadt… National columnist with Creators Syndicate and contributor to CNN Opinion, Froma Harrop turns 75… One-half of the eponymous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Bennett “Ben” Cohen turns 74… Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Howard E. Gendelman, MD turns 71… French businessman, Jean-Bernard Lévy turns 70… Former crisis response team manager for the City of Los Angeles and now a consultant for nonprofit organizations, Jeffrey Zimerman, MSW… Head of School at Golda Och Academy in West Orange, N.J., Rabbi Daniel S. Nevins turns 59… Filmmaker, writer and stand-up comedian, Jake David Shapiro turns 56… Identical twin brothers, singers and songwriters who recorded as “Evan and Jaron,” Evan Lowenstein and Jaron Lowenstein turn 51… Lead vocalist for the pop rock band Maroon 5, Adam Levine turns 46… Actor, comedian and writer, Adam Pally turns 43… COO at Roofmart, Ariel Koschitzky… Actor known for his roles in “24” and “House of Sand and Fog,” Jonathan Ahdout turns 36… Chief of staff and communications director at the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Samuel Crystal… Senior business transformation consultant at EY, Michael Schapiro… Actor and television producer, best known for his role on the Netflix original series “Orange Is the New Black,” Alan Aisenberg turns 32… Israeli actor, singer and television presenter, Shahar Tavoch turns 26…
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