Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how American pro-Israel groups are differing from Jerusalem in their views of the new Syrian government, and report on the antisemitic conspiracy theories spread by the Pentagon’s new deputy press secretary. We report from yesterday’s antisemitism hearing on Capitol Hill and cover legislators’ reactions to direct U.S.-Hamas negotiations. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jason Isaacson, Andrew Cuomo and Iair Horn.
What We’re Watching
- President Donald Trump could issue an executive order as soon as today eliminating the Department of Education. The Wall Street Journal reported on a draft copy of the order that called for Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department” within “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
- The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote this morning on advancing the nomination of Harmeet Dhillon to be deputy attorney general for civil rights.
- New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is expected to announce her entry into the city’s mayoral race today. Adams is joining a crowded Democratic primary field to unseat embattled Mayor Eric Adams.
What You Should Know
Reports on Wednesday that Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage affairs, had secretly met with Hamas officials in Qatar in recent weeks to negotiate the release of the remaining American hostages — and possibly the end of the Israel-Hamas war — were met with surprise in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
“If Biden did that he would have been crucified,” a former Obama White House official told JI yesterday afternoon, reflecting frustration over a perceived double standard since President Donald Trump returned to office.
But the news, first reported by Axios and confirmed soon after by the White House, was not a surprise in Israel, though the extent of Jerusalem’s knowledge of the talks is unclear. The Prime Minister’s Office released a short, blunt statement: “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Israel had been “consulted” about the Doha meetings, but did not elaborate.
Hours after the report, Trump met with a group of released hostages in the Oval Office. He issued a warning, directed at Hamas, on his Truth Social site, instructing the terrorist group to release the remaining hostages and threatening “HELL TO PAY” if the group continues to hold hostages. More below on the Oval Office meeting.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim responded to Trump’s message, saying, “These threats complicate matters regarding the ceasefire agreement and encourage the occupation to avoid implementing its terms,” and urged the U.S. to pressure Israel to continue to the second phase of the deal.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News that Trump “has lost his patience with it … he doesn’t say these things and not mean it, as folks are finding out around the world. If he says he’s going to do something he’ll do it — he’ll do it — so they better take this seriously.”
Overnight, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, continued the discussions with Hamas leaders and mediators from Egypt and Qatar, two Egyptian sources told Reuters, asserting that they are getting close to reaching an agreement on the second phase of the deal.
The meetings between U.S. and Hamas officials aren’t the first time in recent weeks that Trump has circumvented traditional allies to negotiate with hostile actors whose interests run counter to those of the U.S. and its allies.
The decision to cut aid to Ukraine while engaging Russia as a potential middleman to negotiate nuclear talks with Iran underscores the degree to which the Trump administration is bucking norms — and worrying allies in the process.
Trump’s biggest wins have relied upon unpredictability and unconventional thinking. It’s the argument his backers made during the reelection campaign, and a factor that made him an attractive candidate to voters disenchanted with politics as usual.
The Abraham Accords would have been an unthinkable possibility in the years prior to their 2020 signing. But shrugging off diplomatic norms and conventional wisdom, Trump and his team of senior advisors, which was led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, negotiated one of the most consequential agreements in the region in history.
But with a different, more disruptive team of advisors in his second term, Trump has blown up numerous political and diplomatic norms. He’s spent as much political capital threatening allies like Ukraine, Canada and Denmark as deterring the axis of autocracy of China, Russia and Iran.
At his core, Trump is a dealmaker. But his desire to seal deals at all costs — even if it means pressuring and browbeating allies to do so — also means any peace that comes from such diplomacy may only last so long.
damascus dilemma
Leading American pro-Israel groups diverge from Israel on Syria
Two of the leading pro-Israel groups in the United States — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) — have adopted a cautiously hopeful approach toward the new Syrian government, even as Israel is growing increasingly alarmed by new Syrian leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, a former Al-Qaida official, and his effort to unify the country, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Marc Rod report.
Peace prospects: Jason Isaacson, chief policy and political affairs officer at the American Jewish Committee, told JI that the organization “hopes for a peaceful, stable and independent Syria, one in which its diverse population, oppressed for half a century by a corrupt and brutal dictatorship, is protected and represented — and one that does not threaten, or allow other states to use its territory to threaten, neighboring states.” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann, asked by JI about the potential relief of sanctions against Syria, said that “any change in policy must be based on a sustained demonstration of positive behavior from the new Syrian government.”
What Israel is saying: Jerusalem is far more skeptical of Jolani and his government, with Israeli officials repeatedly highlighting his ties to Al-Qaida. Earlier in the week, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar referred to the new Syrian government as “a bunch of jihadists” who were “not elected … by the Syrian people” and to the Israel-Syria border as a potential “terror border.”
Bonus:The Wall Street Journal reports on Israel’s efforts to lobby world powers around the idea of a decentralized federation system in Syria, with the southern areas near Israel’s border demilitarized.
confirmation hearing
Pentagon deputy press secretary Kingsley Wilson is a prolific purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories
Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon’s new deputy press secretary, is facing backlash over a series of recent social media comments in which she has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, opposed U.S. aid to Israel and amplified Kremlin talking points, among several other remarks that raise questions about her elevation to a key role at the Defense Department, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
ADL dispute: In social media posts that are now drawing particularly fierce scrutiny, Wilson attacked the Anti-Defamation League for memorializing the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who is widely believed to have been wrongly convicted of raping and murdering a child over a century ago in Atlanta. “Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl,” Wilson wrote in response to the ADL in 2023, repeating her claim just over a year later. “He also tried to frame a black man for his crime. The ADL is despicable.” In a statement to JI on Tuesday, an ADL spokesperson said that “white supremacists and other antisemites have long used conspiracy theories about the Leo Frank case to cast doubt on the circumstances of” his “antisemitic lynching.” The spokesperson added, “We are deeply disturbed that any public official would parrot these hateful and false conspiracy theories and we hope Kingsley Wilson will immediately retract her remarks.”
Read the full story here.
talking to the enemy
Trump hostage envoy’s secret negotiations with Hamas draw muted Republican reaction
Reaction on Capitol Hill to the news that the Trump administration is negotiating directly with Hamas for the release of hostages held in Gaza was decidedly mixed on Wednesday, with some Republicans who typically would reject meeting with a U.S.-designated terrorist group expressing an openness to the strategy, while others were more skeptical of that approach, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report. Democrats were also split over the effort, with some expressing concern that Israel was being left out of the loop.
What they’re saying: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told JI, “I don’t care, as long as it works. Hamas is short for the world.” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) said he hadn’t heard the news and “I don’t see how Hamas can be part of the future, but anything that helps lead to peace, I would be supportive of.” On the other side of the debate, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said, “We’d have to know more about the facts, but at the end of the day, Hamas is about as trustworthy as Vladimir Putin. We shouldn’t be doing anything with them.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said, “Israel understandably has said no to direct talks and I wouldn’t favor it unless Israel for some reason decides it wants to talk directly.”
Read the full story here for additional comments from Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), John Kennedy (R-LA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Fetterman (D-PA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
Oval audience: A delegation of seven former Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas met with Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Doron Steinbrecher, Eli Sharabi, Naama Levi, Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov and Keith and Aviva Siegel were present at the meeting, which came one day after several of the released hostages attended Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress in his second term on Tuesday night, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
rerouting resources
Shifting priorities at the FBI raise concerns about U.S. counterterror capabilities
In President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday, he announced a major counterterrorism victory: the arrest of an ISIS member allegedly responsible for the murder of 13 American servicemembers and 169 Afghan civilians in Kabul in 2021. “America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism,” he boasted. But national security experts are taking a more cautious approach in their assessments of the Trump administration’s posture when it comes to combating terrorist threats, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
New focus: As FBI Director Kash Patel has begun to shake up the bureau to bring America’s top law enforcement agency more in line with Trump’s priorities, concerns have emerged about whether the removal of top personnel and the rerouting of resources to immigration enforcement could lead to gaps in the agency’s counterterrorism work. “One way he’s addressed it is to put a great number of agents with counterterrorism experience on ice because of their involvement [investigating] Jan. 6,” said Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law School professor who served as an advisor to former FBI Director James Comey. “Another way he’s addressed it is to take some of the most senior leaders who would help coordinate counterterrorism efforts and remove them.”
eye on ankara
House hearing highlights tensions and opportunities in U.S.-Turkey relationship
A House hearing on the U.S.-Turkey relationship on Wednesday underscored the myriad disputes and concerns that U.S. lawmakers have with the country and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while also highlighting the difficulties that legislators are having in finding consensus on how to deal with those issues,Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Long list: Some lawmakers and witnesses argued that, while problematic, Turkey remains a critical ally that supports U.S. goals, arguing that Washington must find ways to pressure and work with Turkey toward a more positive outcome, while others urged a more aggressive approach to pressure Ankara into compliance with U.S. priorities. Among the issues raised during the hearing were Turkey’s aggression towards Israel and support for Hamas, its promotion of an expansionist neo-Ottoman Islamist vision for the region, its ties to and support for the Muslim Brotherhood and many more.
Read the full story here.
Addressing antisemitism
Senate holds first dedicated antisemitism hearing since Oct. 7
The Senate Judiciary Committee broke little new ground on addressing the surge of antisemitism on college campuses on Wednesday as it examined the issue at the Senate’s first dedicated antisemitism hearing since Oct. 7, 2023. Wednesday’s proceedings saw minimal disruption beyond a few moments that garnered applause from the audience on both sides of the aisle, a marked shift in tone from the hearing organized by Democrats last September on religious-based hate crimes. That hearing was repeatedly disrupted by anti-Israel agitators in the crowd who repeatedly heckled Republicans and the lone GOP witness as they tried to discuss antisemitism. Despite this, the antisemitism hearing failed to deliver any bipartisan consensus on how to respond to the crisis, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
One point of agreement: The sole issue that all participants seemed to agree on was the scope of the problem. “Antisemitism is now an industry. It is an industry that is being perpetuated, unfortunately, by organizations that even have nonprofit status in America,” Asra Nomani, the editor of the Pearl Project and a GOP witness, said in response to a question from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the committee’s chairman. “These are organizations that are belying their own mission in order to use, as a trojan horse, this opposition to Israel to perpetuate this.” Still, the committee and speakers failed to come to any agreement on who or what was responsible for the skyrocketing rates of domestic antisemitism and how to address it.
Shady scholar: Yale Law School has placed an employee on “immediate administrative leave” and launched an investigation into her membership in the designated terrorist network Samidoun, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s fundraising arm in North America, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Worthy Reads
Don’t Walk Away: In The Wall Street Journal, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argues against a lesser U.S. role in the Middle East. “None of this makes sense. It ignores Israel’s limitations and exaggerates its strength. Further, the Abraham Accords won’t add Saudi Arabia as a signatory, let alone become a foundation for an anti-Iran alliance, unless America first defeats the Islamic Republic. And Israeli military action against Iran without substantial U.S. participation would [be] likely to trigger a military conflict that Washington would be hard-pressed to avoid. Despite a recurring desire to do less in the Middle East, America hasn’t really scaled down in the region since it ramped up its presence in the 1950s. This is because of an enduring reality that is still likely to limit even President Trump: the region remains too important to leave to the natives. The Middle East is still the indispensable source of the oil that fuels most of the world’s big economies. U.S. production can’t make it irrelevant even if kicked into high gear. For all its military prowess, Jerusalem can’t defend the Persian Gulf or defeat its main threat—Iran.” [WSJ]
Best Buds in Budapest: The Atlantic’s Isaac Stanley-Becker reports on the shared goals of and collaboration between Hungary and the U.S. in cracking down on USAID. “Hungary recently escalated its efforts to stamp out pro-democracy groups and media organizations that rely on foreign funding by naming a government minister to investigate USAID’s activities. Today, that minister, András László, was received in Washington by Peter Marocco, the top American official disassembling the agency from the inside. The meeting, which was confirmed to me by a U.S. official and another person familiar with the gathering, reflects the convergence of interests between Budapest and Washington. Like the Trump administration, the Hungarian government has giddily embraced the idea that U.S. aid programs are not only wasteful and unnecessary but also criminal.” [TheAtlantic]
Word on the Street
The U.S. and Israel rejected a $53 billion Gaza reconstruction proposal put forth by a group of Arab states who met in Cairo earlier this week to discuss postwar administration and rebuilding of the enclave…
NPR talks to Arab American voters in Michigan who voted for President Donald Trump in November about their concerns over how he is handling Middle Eastern issues…
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced the PAGER Act, a bill to ban U.S. funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces until the Lebanese government cuts ties with Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran and bars Hezbollah members from ministerial positions, among other conditions…
Reps. French Hill (R-AR) and Dina Titus (D-NV) reintroduced legislation to stop U.S. hostages from facing tax penalties for their time in captivity…
The Justice Department is opening an investigation into whether the University of California system engaged in patterns of discrimination against Jewish students and faculty…
Princeton’s board of trustees will not consider a proposal to divest the university’s financial investments from companies that operate in Israel, following a decision by a university committee not to advance the proposal over a lack of campus consensus on the issue…
Podcaster Joe Rogan hosted antisemitic conspiracy theorist Ian Carroll on his show, where Carroll claimed that convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli agent, spread other claims that Israel and the Jewish people are involved in a malign global conspiracy theory and invoked claims that Israel had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks…
A new Quinnipiac University poll of candidates in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary found former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo leading with 31%, followed by Mayor Eric Adams with 11%…
A Maryland man pleaded guilty to charges of arson and destroying a religious structure tied to an incident in which he set a fire outside of the Jewish Museum of Maryland; Assadollah Hashemi, who said he suffers from bipolar disorder, said he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident…
The Israeli hit series “Fauda”will begin filming its fifth season at the end of April for a January 2026 release; development of the new season was delayed by the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack and Israel-Hamas war…
The Washington Post reports from the neighborhoods of Damascus, Syria, where mass graves — containing victims of the Assad regime — are being uncovered in basements by residents returning after years of war…
Qatar Airways is expanding its service to Syria, adding an additional daily flight to Damascus beginning in June…
The U.S. redeployed the USS Harry S. Truman to the Red Sea, a month after the aircraft carrier was initially repositioned following a cessation of Houthi attacks on Israel as well as vessels transiting through the waters…
The U.K., France and German warned Iran against further advancing its nuclear program and alleged that Tehran’s increased stockpiles of enriched uranium had created a “crisis”…
Moscow said on Wednesday that the Iranian nuclear program would be a topic in future conversations with American officials, confirming a Bloomberg report earlier in the week that said Russia had agreed to serve as an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran…
Iranian singer Mehdi Yarrahi received a sentence of 74 lashes as part of a settlement over charges brought against him following the release in 2023 of a song marking the anniversary of the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests…
The New York Post‘s Jon Levine is joining the Washington Free Beacon as a politics reporter…
Pic of the Day
Recently released hostage Eli Sharabi, during a visit yesterday to the White House, gifted President Donald Trump a framed cartoon that juxtaposed an image of himself and two other released hostages, all emaciated, next to an image of Holocaust survivors.
Birthdays
Israeli fashion model, Esti Ginzburg turns 35…
Former chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States for 18 years, Alan Greenspan turns 99… Writer, lecturer and professor emeritus of Jewish communal service at HUC-JIR, Steven Windmueller turns 83… Actor, writer, director, producer and political activist, he directed “When Harry Met Sally” and “A Few Good Men,” Rob Reiner turns 78… Television personality, author and libertarian pundit, he is a winner of 19 Emmy Awards, John Stossel turns 78… Musical theatre lyricist and composer, he is the winner of three Oscars, three Grammys and received six Tony Award nominations, Stephen Schwartz turns 77… Member of the New York State Senate since 2018, Shelley Mayer turns 73… Actor, comedian and sports show host, Tom Arnold turns 66… Aliza Tendler… Senior leadership development manager at Momentum Unlimited, Judy Victor… Israeli swimmer, who competed in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics, he is the founder of a sports ticketing and travel company, Yoav Bruck turns 53… Founder of Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto which he sold to Unilever in 2014, he has since co-founded Iris Brands, Joshua Hochschuler turns 52… Head of innovation communication at Bloomberg LP, Chaim Haas turns 50… VP of philanthropic services at NYC-based Jewish Communal Fund, Michelle Lebowits… Former football quarterback who played on six NFL teams, he is member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Sage Rosenfels turns 47… Israeli journalist and author of the book Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization, Nadav Asher Eyal turns 46… Managing director at Berkshire Partners, he was the body man and then deputy chief of staff for former President George W. Bush, Blake L. Gottesman turns 45… Fourth generation developer, owner, and operator of commercial real estate throughout the Eastern U.S., Daniel Klein turns 44… Natalie Lazaroff… Artist, Tova Suissa… Associate at Freedman Normand Friedland, Riley Clafton… Film actor, he finished in second place on season 27 of “Dancing with the Stars,” Milo Manheim turns 24… Sandra Brown…
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