Ben-Gvir’s Beltway blitz
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir‘s meetings in Washington, and cover Israel’s rejection of a ceasefire proposal that does not include the full disarmament of Hamas. We report on Rep. Ritchie Torres’ remarks at the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, and look at Fox News’ focus on issues critical to the Jewish community. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. Greg Landsman and Brandon Shorenstein.
What We’re Watching
- Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s day to memorialize fallen soldiers and victims of terror, begins today at sundown. At 8 p.m. local time and again tomorrow morning, a siren will sound across the country.
- The House Homeland and Armed Services Committees will hold reconciliation markups today.
- The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum wraps up in New York today. More below.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR
President Donald Trump is facing growing political backlash to his aggressive agenda and executive actions, according to a flurry of new polling marking his 100th day in office. His job approval average has dipped to 44% (down from 52% when he took office), according to Nate Silver’s polling tracker, with sizable majorities now disapproving of his handling of the economy as well as many other pressing voter concerns.
The polling finds that even on issues Trump touted on the campaign trail to win support — tackling illegal immigration, providing economic security for the working class, targeting government waste and fighting antisemitism — the chaotic policy execution and championing of extreme solutions has sapped him of badly needed political capital.
The New York Times/Siena survey released last weekend finds that a majority of Americans (54%) believe Trump is exceeding the powers available to him as president, while only 43% believe he’s abiding within constitutional norms.
All told, the polling paints a picture of an administration that correctly identified the challenges the country faces, but has badly misdiagnosed the right solutions, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
A few examples from the NYT/Siena survey: Even as most Americans favor tougher crackdowns on illegal immigration, only 10% said they favored sending U.S. criminals to jail in El Salvador, just 17% support deporting immigrants who protested Israel and just 32% approve of the administration’s deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration, once his strongest issue, is now underwater in most national polls.
While there’s been a populist undercurrent in the country in recent decades, Americans are nonetheless worried that Trump’s imposition of tariffs will only make the economy worse: A 56% majority said Trump’s tariff policies have “gone too far,” while only 8% said they haven’t gone far enough. All told, as economic experts warn of a possible recession amid stock market volatility, over half of Americans (55%) now disapprove of Trump’s economic performance, a marked reversal from his first term.
On foreign policy, only 40% of respondents said they approve of Trump’s handling of international conflicts, and just 35% expressed approval of his handling of the war between Russia and Ukraine. And more Americans said they prioritize maintaining important relationships with allies (52%) rather than making sure other countries are paying their fair share (44%).
And on the antisemitism front, the NYT/Siena poll findsthat only one-third of respondents favor withholding federal funds from certain universities, while 58% oppose Trump’s hardball tactics against such schools.
The results from the NYT/Siena poll, consistent with other national surveys, underscore that Trump misread his political mandate, assuming the views of his base matched the mood of the persuadable voters that swung his way. The new polling shows Trump has lost particularly significant ground since the election with Hispanics and Gen Z voters — two groups whose surprising levels of support secured Trump’s second term.
And while Democrats are facing historically low favorability ratings of their own amid a party-wide identity crisis, when voters are asked to look ahead to the 2026 midterms, they hold a three-point lead on the congressional ballot (47-44%). It’s a sign of how far Trump has fallen in the three months since his inauguration.
MEASURED ACCESS
Far-right Israeli minister scores first meetings on Capitol Hill, none with Trump administration
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s firebrand national security minister, was in Washington on Monday to promote President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza — and, in particular, to try to garner support for moving Arabs out of the embattled enclave. But while Ben-Gvir has branded himself a loyal soldier for Trump’s message, the far-right politician has yet to receive an invitation to discuss the matter with anyone in the Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
On the Hill: “We did not meet with anybody from the Trump administration. That wasn’t the main goal,” Ben-Gvir told JIin an interview on Monday on Capitol Hill, speaking through a translator. While the controversial minister did not succeed in reaching the White House, Ben-Gvir, who has long faced criticism over his embrace of Israeli extremists, had better luck in scoring meetings with congressional Republicans, including some in leadership positions. Ben-Gvir met on Monday with Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mike Lawler (R-NY), as well as Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ben-Gvir traveled to Mar-a-Lago last week to meet with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), the third-most powerful House Republican, and Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA).
NO DEAL
Israel rejects 5-year ceasefire, hostage-release deal without Hamas disarming
Israel will not accept a Hamas-proposed five-year ceasefire and hostage-release deal because it does not require the terrorist organization to disarm, a senior Israeli official said in a briefing to journalists on Monday. A Hamas official said on Saturday the group would release at one time all of the remaining hostages in Gaza — 59 total, including at least 21 living — in exchange for a five-year ceasefire. Hamas would not, however, agree to disarming and would only enter an agreement to end the current war in Gaza, rejecting a 45-day ceasefire and hostage deal proposal proffered by Israel earlier this month, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Red line: The Israeli official said that the five-year proposal has been “going around some Arab states.” He said, “There is no chance we will agree to a ceasefire with Hamas that will only allow it to rearm, recover and continue its war against Israel.” Regarding a recent report that Qatar encouraged Hamas to harden its stance in the negotiations, the official said that “the Qataris had a negative influence in the current negotiations.” The official said that the reason Israel has been fighting at a lower intensity in Gaza since the last ceasefire ended on March 18 was to give hostage negotiations a chance. ”We want to exhaust the effort to return the hostages and that influences our patterns of action,” he said.
AWARD ADDRESS
Ritchie Torres at AJC Global Forum: ‘A durable peace is possible’ in the Middle East
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) offered a message of hope that peace in the Middle East is “as close as we have ever been,” in remarks before more than 2,000 people from 60 countries gathered in Midtown Manhattan on Monday for the second day of the American Jewish Committee Global Forum, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. Torres, who was honored with the group’s inaugural Nita M. Lowey Congressional Leadership Award, said that the “future of the Middle East does not belong to the Islamic Republic and its empire of terror.”
‘Abrahamic dream’: “The future of the Middle East belongs to Israel and the Abraham Accords. The future of the Middle East does not belong to hate. The future belongs to hope: hatikva,” Torres continued. “In the grand sweep of history, in the millennia-long Maccabean marathon that is the story of the Jewish people, we are as close as we have ever been to realizing the Abrahamic dream of a world where all the children of Abraham — Jews, Christians and Muslims — can coexist in peace and prosperity. A durable peace is possible, and we as Americans, in the greatest country on earth, have the power — indeed the responsibility — to make it so and make peace.”
hostage concerns
Sen. Andy Kim seeks answers on Edan Alexander amid uncertainty over his condition in Gaza
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) has asked the State Department and intelligence community officials for a status update on the condition and whereabouts of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander, a New Jersey native, after Hamas claimed it had lost contact with his captors inside Gaza, the senator told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs.
Kim’s efforts: Speaking to JI at the Capitol on Monday, both Kim and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said they were seeking more information on Alexander from U.S. and international channels. “We’ve asked the State Department and intel community to try to provide us any and all information that they might have. I talked to his parents about this and we’re just trying to figure out what’s what. Also, we just met with the hostage office at the State Department to try to press on the necessity for us to have a sense of what’s true or not on that front. I’m trying to see if I can meet with the ambassadors of Egypt and Qatar as well to see if they have any information through their own routes in terms of engagement,” Kim told JI.
securing the neighborhood
Rep. Greg Landsman: Ending Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism would transform the Middle East
Following a visit to Israel and Jordan last week, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod that there is a “unique, potentially generational opportunity” to change the Middle East if the U.S. can help put an end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program and its support for regional terrorism. Landsman also told JI he’s working on legislation to create a bipartisan select committee focused on Middle East peace, an initiative he said would help elevate the issue and find bipartisan solutions.
Notable quotable: He said that eliminating Iran’s support for regional terrorism would radically change the lives of the Lebanese, Palestinian, Syria, Jordanian, Yemeni, Iraqi and Israeli people. “Everyone wins. Literally — everyone wins,” Landsman said. “That’s the key, and probably one of the most important things to Middle East peace. If [Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff and the administration have those in play, and they’re willing to pull the right coalition together to get that done, that would be a game changer.” He emphasized that any deal must include ending Iran’s support for regional terrorism as well as any domestic nuclear enrichment and removing Iran’s nuclear stockpiles.
media matters
Fox News woos Jewish viewers amid perceived media bias against Israel
For Fox News host Dana Perino, supporting Israel has been a given since the early days of her career, when she visited the Jewish state multiple times with President George W. Bush as his press secretary. Perino, who first arrived at the White House while the nation was reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, worked alongside Bush, initially as his deputy press secretary, throughout the early years of the war on terror. Two decades later, as co-anchor of Fox’s “America’s Newsroom,” Perino finds herself frequently drawing on those experiences, especially in the past year and a half as she’s reported on the aftermath Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, the ensuing war in Gaza and record-breaking levels of antisemitism in the U.S, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Switching the channel: “Once you learn those issues, they are ingrained in you,” Perino told JI, referring to the threats Jews face, in Israel and around the world. “Plus, if you care about doing the right thing — and an additional plus is working for a place that encourages you to do the right thing, that news comes first.” The sentiment has increasingly caught the eye of liberal-leaning American Jews who believe that much of the mainstream media’s coverage is unfairly hostile to Israel. Weeks after Oct. 7, Fox Corp.’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, told shareholders at the annual meeting that the network must “stand up” to antisemitism.
Worthy Reads
Going Radical in Pittsburgh: Tablet’s Armin Rosen does a deep dive into the background of Talya Lubit, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who along with Mohamad Hamad is facing federal charges tied to the vandalism of a Pittsburgh Chabad. “If Lubit became an anti-Israel radical, it did not happen as the sole result of anything she did or experienced at Dickinson [College] — just as it didn’t happen only because of her parents’ divorce, or the influence of her conspiratorial stepfather, or her horror at Israeli conduct in Gaza, or a romantically self-sacrificing male influence like Hamad. She was radicalized for reasons that are both convenient and inconvenient. Thousands of civilians really have died in Gaza, for instance, though the great majority of people who care about this fact, including ones who blame Israel for every single one of those deaths, haven’t vandalized a synagogue in response. At some point, Lubit’s sympathy for the vulnerable and her insistence on bold truth-telling devoured her sense of judgement and proportion. Long before that, she was a sociable person with a contrarian and humanistic streak who never really fit in. As one college classmate put it, ‘she is someone who I think is always looking for community and has been pushed away.’” [Tablet]
The Oldest Hatred, Anew: In The Washington Post, Clive Gillenson considers the millennia-old existence of antisemitism. “In the end, no theory can fully explain antisemitism, because it is not based on a rational cause. It adapts to each era’s anxieties and insecurities. When Jews are poor, they are despised as beggars; when they are rich, as exploiters; when they are religious, they are portrayed as fanatics; when they are secular, they are dangerous radicals. In every situation, antisemites have no problem adapting their prejudices. Thus, antisemitism, if it is about the need to have someone else to blame, may well not be about Jews at all. Jews have survived because they have no choice but to survive, and in doing so, they have outlasted every empire, ideology and movement that sought to erase them. Perhaps antisemitism still exists only because humanity has so often needed it.” [WashPost]
Class Crisis: The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessey laments the decline of respectful and thoughtful engagement across the political and media spectrums. “Personal qualities once synonymous with good character have fallen so far out of fashion as to seem like rumors from an ancient age. Did athletes really once accept defeat with dignity? Did people really restrain themselves from saying everything that popped into their heads? Did known philanderers refrain from trying to mount political comebacks? Did ex-presidents stay out of the limelight as a courtesy to their successors? Yes, kids, there was a time when prominent people were expected to exhibit grace. You couldn’t smack someone in the face on the Oscars broadcast and expect to resume your career in Hollywood. Shooting a CEO in cold blood earned you no fans. … Let it be acknowledged that the good old days weren’t all class, all the time. Politics, in particular, has always rewarded a degree of ruthlessness. Some of history’s greatest monsters hid their depravity behind a smile. But it was long said that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. There was something laudable about the impulse to couch vulgarity with an apology. It seems we’ve lost even that.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump sat for a wide-ranging interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer weeks after Goldberg was included on a Signal thread with senior Trump administration officials who discussed plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen…
An F-18 fighter jet fell off the USS Harry S. Truman and sank in the Red Sea after the aircraft carrier was forced to make a sharp turn to avoid a missile that had been fired by the Iran-backed Houthis…
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won the country’s federal elections on Monday, beating the Conservative Party and its leader, Pierre Poilievre, who is also projected to lose his own seat in Parliament…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislators reached a compromise over proposed legislation around the use of face masks; the state will create a new charge for individuals who commit a crime while wearing a mask or flee the scene of a crime while masked…
House committees are beginning work this week on Republicans’ reconciliation package, the massive federal budget bill that would implement key elements of the Trump administration’s agenda, including extending tax cuts and implementing budget increases and reductions across the federal government, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) launched her bid for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN)…
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who had battled esophageal cancer, announced he will not seek reelection in 2026 following the disease’s return; Connolly said he will “soon” step down from his position as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee…
The New York Times profiles Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as he and his supporters advocate for a “Resistance 2.0” approach to the Trump administration…
Justice Democrats is backing a primary challenger to Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District as the far-left group looks to target Democrats in the upcoming congressional elections cycle…
A new book by The Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mulled running for political office, including president and governor of California; Altman has denied the claims…
House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) wrote to Northwestern University President Michael Schill on Monday summoning him to appear before the committee for a transcribed interview about alleged failures to protect Jewish students, nearly a year after he gave testimony at a committee hearing, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Harvard University rebranded its office of diversity, equity and inclusion as the Office of Community and Campus Life, headed by the school’s former chief diversity officer, whose new title will be chief community and campus life officer, amid growing tensions between the school and the Trump administration over Harvard’s handling of antisemitism…
Nike apologized for a recent billboard positioned at the end of the London Marathon that read “Never Again. Until Next Year,” following an outcry from Jewish communal leaders over the company’s use of the term, which is often associated with Holocaust remembrance…
Kiss’ Gene Simmons listed his Beverly Hills home for nearly $14 million; the musician purchased the home for $10.5 million in 2021…
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Brandon Shorenstein, who took over his family’s San Francisco-based property company shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic and has overseen it through years of market upheaval…
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in London on Monday…
International Criminal Court judges informed Karim Khan, the court’s chief prosecutor, that he cannot publicize or announce his pursuance of warrants for Israeli officials; the move comes ahead of plans by Khan to seek additional arrest warrants for Israeli officials, following the issuance last year of warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant…
Shin Bet head Ronen Bar said he will step down from his position on June 15, amid a public and polarizing clash with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who tried to dismiss him in March, a move which was suspended by the Supreme Court…
Turkish Airlines, Pegasus and Virgin Atlantic will not resume direct flights to Israel; Virgin Atlantic will maintain its codeshare partnership with El Al despite the cessation of its own flights…
Iran proposed a meeting with British, French and German officials in Rome later this week, ahead of the next scheduled nuclear talks between Iranian and American negotiators…
The Financial Times looks at how Iran is addressing ground subsidence that is increasingly causing safety and infrastructure issues around the country…
The New York Times reports on distrust among the Kurdish population in Syria about the new government, backed by Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham, with which the Kurds’ Syrian Democratic Forces have previously battled in northeastern Syria…
Pic of the Day
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee (right) met this week in Tel Aviv with Emirati Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja.
Birthdays
Israeli-born, NYC resident, stand-up comedian, actor and sometimes chazan, Modi Rosenfeld turns 55…
Nobel Prize-winning economist, professor at MIT, known for his analysis of Social Security policy, Peter Diamond turns 85… Co-founder of the NYSE-traded homebuilding company Toll Brothers, Bruce E. Toll turns 82… Retired U.S. senator (D-MI), she completed her 24 years in the Senate this past January, Debbie Stabenow turns 75… Marcy Smith… SVP of communications and journalist in residence at University of Maryland Global Campus, Michael Freedman… Comedian, actor, writer, producer and director, he is best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the 180 episodes of the sitcom “Seinfeld,” Jerry Seinfeld turns 71… London-born actor with three Academy Awards for best actor, knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2014, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis turns 68… Sportscaster, best known as the radio and television play-by-play announcer for MLB’s New York Mets, Gary Cohen turns 67… Co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, Marc Bernays Randolph turns 67… Israeli diplomat, she was Israel’s ambassador to Latvia and then to Ireland, Lironne Bar Sadeh turns 66… Former NYC comptroller, now a candidate for mayor of NYC, Scott M. Stringer turns 65… CEO and chairman of 20th Century Fox until its acquisition by Disney, Stacey Snider turns 64… CEO of the United Democracy Project, Rob Bassin… Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, he is the author of many books including Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely turns 58… NYC-based award-winning artist who works with sound, kinetics, optics, magnetism and other materials to make sculptures and photographs, Julianne Swartz turns 58… Film and television actor, Paul Adelstein turns 56… Executive at a NYC-based investment management firm, Bennett J. Schachter turns 50… Minister of environmental protection in Israel’s prior government, Tamar “Tami” Zandberg turns 49… SVP of the Leon Levine Foundation and director of operations for the Levine family office, Justin Steinschriber… Israeli model and actress, she has appeared in many American movies, TV shows and advertisements, Bar Paly turns 43… Director of the office of government relations at the Smithsonian Institution, Anne Brachman… Commercial, industrial and residential real estate developer in the Mid-Atlantic region, Samuel A. Neuberger… Director of government affairs for Teach Coalition, Daniel Mitzner… Baseball pitcher for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Jonathan de Marte turns 32… Surfer, she represented Israel at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Anat Lelior turns 25…
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