Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s itinerary in Washington, where he arrived last night. We report on a call from Rep. Josh Gottheimer for the Department of Justice to investigate a New Jersey group that hosted a speaker with suspected ties to a Palestinian terror group, talk to former Arizona state Rep. Daniel Hernandez about his congressional run and cover the newly signed MOUs between the National Black Empowerment Council and Israeli universities. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Bruce Pearl, Katrina Armstrong and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie.
What We’re Watching
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington today, following an invitation from President Donald Trump late last week while Netanyahu was in Budapest, Hungary. Netanyahu and Trump will hold a joint press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET. More below.
- Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who had been slated to travel to the Middle East this week, nixed his trip to stay in Washington.
- Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) will keynote a symposium this afternoon in Washington, hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and The National Union for Democracy in Iran.
- On Capitol Hill, we expect the Senate to hold confirmation votes for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel and Elbridge Colby to be undersecretary of defense for policy, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) filed motions over the weekend to move forward on the votes.
- The MEAD Summit is taking place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
- Operation Benjamin will be at Arlington National Cemetery today to replace the headstones of two Jewish soldiers who were killed in action in World War I.
- The University of Florida and University of Houston will face off tonight in the NCAA championship game.
- A Vermont judge will hear the deportation case today of a Tufts student from Turkey whose visa was revoked, with Department of Homeland Security officials citing her activities in support of Hamas but not releasing any evidence of that support.
What You Should Know
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a transatlantic detour on the way back to Israel from his visit to Budapest, Hungary, landing in Washington on Sunday afternoon, reports Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, who is traveling with Netanyahu’s delegation.
When President Donald Trump and Netanyahu spoke on the phone on Thursday, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the line, Netanyahu asked Trump about the 17% tariffs that had been slapped on Israel, and the president suggested they talk about it in person.
On Netanyahu’s agenda: a White House meeting and press conference on Monday, with a two-night stay at the Blair House, plus meetings with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Netanyahu will head back home on Tuesday afternoon, landing in Israel the next day, right on time to testify in his corruption cases in the morning. The judge agreed to postpone the testimony from its planned date on Monday to Wednesday, but no longer than that.
Netanyahu said on the tarmac ahead of his flight to Washington that he plans to discuss with Trump “the hostages, completing the victory in Gaza and of course on the tariffs that were also placed on Israel.”
“I hope I can help on this matter. That’s my intention,” Netanyahu added, with a note of uncertainty rarely heard in prime ministerial proclamations.
A diplomatic source said ahead of the flight to the U.S. that other topics on the agenda include Turkey’s growing presence in Syria, the Iranian nuclear threat — Israel is skeptical about Trump’s push for direct talks with Tehran (more on that here) — and the International Criminal Court, but tariffs are the reason for the trip’s urgency.
Netanyahu seeks to convince Trump to lower the tariffs on Israel before they’re implemented, from the current 17% to the baseline 10%.
Israel tried to avoid this situation by eliminating all remaining tariffs on American goods last week. However, the chart Trump presented on “Liberation Day” said “Tariffs Charged to the U.S.A.,” and then in smaller letters: “including currency manipulation and trade barriers,” and the figures were calculated based on the trade deficit between the U.S. and each country.
One way Netanyahu can make the case for lower tariffs is to point out the unique nature of Israel-U.S. trade relations. Anyone who has a basic familiarity with Israel’s economy understands that the trade deficit is not based on Americans buying more Israeli goods than vice versa. The U.S. is Israel’s largest trading partner (though it’s in second place when considering the EU as a bloc).
Most of the trade deficit consists of exports of services from Israel to the U.S., meaning it’s about high-tech, the engine of Israel’s economic growth. Services are, according to multiple Israeli media reports, excluded from the tariffs, as is the defense industry, another economic driver. That makes the news less bad for Israel’s economy, if not for the average Israeli consumer.
If these two major industries are exempt from the tariffs anyway, Netanyahu could argue, why were they included in the tariff rate calculation?
Still, Israel has a lot of trade barriers, whether it’s value-added tax, which Trump is said to despise, monopolies or unique standards for imports.
Netanyahu has long been a crusader for freeing Israel’s markets, with much success over the years. In the past decade he has faced resistance not only from the usual sectors — unions and farmers — but within his own governing coalition, that has slowed down the opening of Israel’s economy. Trump’s tariffs could be the impetus Netanyahu needs to — borrowing a metaphor from Argentine President Javier Milei — take a chainsaw to Israel’s own protectionism.
ARIZONA ELECTION
Daniel Hernandez pitches himself to Tucson voters — and pro-Israel backers
Former Arizona state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, who is running for the congressional seat vacated by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), who died last month after 22 years in office, grew up in a working-class home in Tucson, a child of the desert Southwest. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) was raised 2,500 miles away in a public housing complex in the southeast Bronx, a child of that borough’s notoriously mean streets. As different as their sense of place might seem, the two are tied together in a tricky political project that spans their hometowns: trying to carve out a space in the progressive movement for pro-Israel voices in a changing Democratic Party, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Voter priorities: But Hernandez, an outspoken supporter of Israel who was recently named the board chair of the Zionist LGBTQ organization A Wider Bridge, is betting that running as a fiercely pro-Israel progressive — in the mold of Torres, who endorsed Hernandez and called him “the embodiment of the American dream” — is both the right thing to do, as well as good politics. At the same time, Hernandez knows that the issues of antisemitism and the war between Israel and Hamas are not top of mind for the voters he is trying to woo. He hopes to reach them with an anti-Trump message, pointing out how the president’s policies, such as shuttering large parts of the Education Department, will impact constituents who rely on federal resources. “When we’re looking at what the needs of this district are, it’s going to be a high focus on cost of living,” Hernandez, 35, said in an interview with JI this week. “When we’re looking at this district, it’s one where it’s predominantly working class and it’s predominantly Latino, and that’s my background.”
CONFERENCE CONTROVERSY
Gottheimer asks DOJ to investigate group, that hosted Tlaib, for terror support
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) asked the Department of Justice on Sunday to investigate a New Jersey-based Palestinian group for potentially violating U.S. law banning material support for terrorism for hosting an alleged affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at a conference last week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was also among the speakers at the conference, hosted by the Palestinian American Community Center.
Accusations: Gottheimer’s letter, which does not mention Tlaib’s name or involvement in the conference, focuses on PACC’s featuring of Wisam Rafeedie, outlining links between him and the PFLP and its officials, as well as his past comments defending Hamas and downplaying its atrocities and calling to end the State of Israel. “Rafeedie has a long history of supporting terrorism and engaging in antisemitic rhetoric,” Gottheimer wrote. “Rafeedie’s continued association with PFLP is a matter of public record.”
CAMPUS BEAT
Dozens of student visas terminated across UC schools
Several University of California campuses on Friday became the latest targets of the Trump administration’s ongoing terminations of international student visas. The University of California said in a statement that it “is aware that international students across several of our campuses have been impacted by recent SEVIS [Student and Exchange Visitor Information System] terminations.” The UC system, which is composed of 10 campuses, called the situation “fluid,” noting that it continues “to monitor and assess its implications for the UC community and the students affected,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Who is affected: UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Irvine confirmed that their campuses have been impacted by visa cancellations, noting that the federal government has not offered explanations for the terminations. A Berkeley spokesperson confirmed that two students and two recent graduates have had their visas revoked. UCSD said in a statement that five students had their F-1 visas terminated “without warning” and that a sixth student “was detained at the border, denied entry and deported to their home country.” The crackdown comes days after the UC system announced a system-wide hiring freeze.
campus concerns
Brown University poised to lose more than $500 million in federal funding over antisemitism issues
With the Trump administration reportedly poised to slash more than $500 million from Brown University for failure to address what it considers antisemitism on campus, Jewish leaders at the Providence, R.I., Ivy League school are vigorously pushing back against the allegations, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. A White House official told Brown’s student newspaper that $510 million of federal funding to the university would be halted over alleged antisemitism on campus and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In an email Thursday to campus leaders, Brown Provost Frank Doyle said the university was aware of “troubling rumors” about “government action” on its research money. “At this moment, we have no information to substantiate any of these rumors,” Doyle said. Brian Clark, a spokesperson for Brown, confirmed to JI over the weekend that the university still had “no information to substantiate” the White House’s announcement.
Pushing back: Jewish community leaders at Brown, as well as members of the Brown Corporation — the university’s governing body — responded to the allegations in a campus-wide email on Thursday, arguing that Brown has upheld its commitment to religious freedom and Jewish life on campus. “Brown University is home to a vibrant Jewish community that continues to flourish with the steadfast support of the administration,” the statement said. Signatories included Rabbi Josh Bolton, executive director of Brown-RISD Hillel; Rabbi Mendel Laufer, director of Chabad of College Hill; and Brian Moynihan, Brown’s chancellor and Bank of America CEO.
forging ties
National Black Empowerment Council connects Black students to Israeli universities
The National Black Empowerment Council and a series of Israeli universities are signing agreements to establish new exchange programs and other ventures with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a move that runs in sharp contrast to the overall anti-Israel sentiment at many elite colleges, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New initiative: The first agreements, signed between the NBEC and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, were finalized as part of an NBEC delegation trip to Israel earlier this year, which included leaders and staff from several HBCUs. Additional agreements are in the works with Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa. The NBEC is a national network of Black leaders whose ranks include senior political and business figures, founded by Darius Jones, a former senior AIPAC official. Its programming includes trips to Israel for every member of the network.
Worthy Reads
Forcing Iran to the Table: In The New York Times, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the former head of U.S. Central Command, posits that the ongoing degradation of Iran’s proxy network, including the recent U.S. strikes on Houthi targets, are pushing Tehran to the negotiating table. “The Trump administration’s operations against the Houthis are the opening act in what could be another very bad year for Iran. To be sure, 2024 was perhaps the worst year in recent history for its leaders: Their allies and proxies were depleted, their ballistic missile force were exposed as ineffective against their major adversary, Israel, and they were unable to defend their skies against highly effective Israeli counterstrikes. … Iran respects force. The Suleimani strike five years ago and now the strikes against the Houthis clearly show the United States has a president who isn’t paralyzed by the potential for escalation. Because of these developments, we now have an opportunity to bring Iran to the table for substantive negotiations over its nuclear ambitions — negotiations that must be conducted directly, not through third-party interlocutors, and with no scene-setting preconditions or concessions. Even as we strike back against the Houthis, the time is also ripe to pressure Iran to renounce any potential pursuit of nuclear weapons.” [NYTimes]
Said’s Sway on Campus: In The Free Press, Eli Lake looks at how Orientalism author Edward Said’s efforts to reshape how the West approaches the Middle East laid the groundwork for today’s campus anti-Israel protest movement. “However, as much as the Middle East has changed since the publication of Orientalism, the ivory towers of America remain frozen in time. Over the last 18 months, American students have insisted on viewing Islamic fundamentalists as an anti-imperialist force for good — and, in doing so, have ignored important realities of the Middle East. Since October 7, 2023, the building occupiers and slogan shouters on American campuses have claimed to oppose oppression, even as they have walked in lockstep solidarity with Hamas. … What about the many Gazans who consider themselves oppressed by Hamas? It’s a question that will likely be ignored. Because on American campuses, the opinion of the regular Palestinians who oppose the regime that foisted a disastrous war upon them is unimportant. They are mere props in a larger drama about Western imperialism, objects in a narrative rather than subjects in their own right.” [FreePress]
The New Exodus: The Wall Street Journal’s Emma Osman reflects on a recent conversation with former Israeli American hostage Keith Siegel and his wife, Aviva, ahead of the Passover holiday. “As they recounted stories of their time in Hamas captivity, they shared another meaningful numerical list. For Keith, 484 days in captivity. Thirty-three relocations throughout Gazan tunnels and apartments. One hundred-eighty days in complete solitude, in a room with no windows. For Aviva, 51 days in captivity. Thirteen relocations. Three days on which she was allowed to brush her teeth. And for the couple, 41 years spent living in peace at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, just over a mile from Gaza. Sixty-four neighbors murdered on Oct. 7, 2023. Next week, Jews will sit around the Seder table and tell the story of our ancestors’ journey out of Egypt. Our ritual will include the same numbers I’ve counted since childhood. But this year, Jews will incorporate new figures into the list, and these numbers won’t be ancient history. We will remember the 59 hostages who remain in the shadows of Gaza, starved and abused. We will count the 553 days throughout which they’ve been isolated underground.” [WSJ]
Weaponizing Antisemitism: In The New York Times, Wesleyan University President Michael Roth examines the politicization of antisemitism against the backdrop of efforts by the Trump administration to punish schools for their responses to antisemitism. “Today I encounter many young Jews who are shocked by anti-Israel attitudes (even from fellow Jews, part of the long history of Jewish antizionism). They are shocked by how many progressives decry ethnostates but somehow mention only Israel, or how readily people, when given half a chance, will express what the historian Deborah Lipstadt has called ‘clueless’ antisemitism. Political events seem to expand their license to do so. If you feel righteous about being an anti-colonialist, why worry about a little antisemitism? Like the white supremacists liberated by mainstream anti-D.E.I. language, these antisemites hear perfectly legitimate criticism of, say, the Israeli government, and regard it as an opportunity to unfurl the true extent of their prejudice. … In the second and first century B.C., the Jewish kingdom of Judea aligned itself with Rome to protect itself from the domination of Greek culture. Rome obliged, and conquered Judea for itself. The enemy of our enemy was not our friend. There’s a lesson there, if we can heed it.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
The U.S. is continuing to push for direct talks between Washington and Tehran as the Trump administration increases pressure on Iran…
Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) introduced legislation to establish a security cooperation structure including counterterrorism and maritime security among the United States, Israel, Greece and Cyprus and to establish parliamentary and executive cooperation structures…
A federal judge ruled that Columbia University must give students 30 days’ notice before submitting disciplinary records and other documents to Congress, following a legal effort by anti-Israel students at the school to bar administrators from sharing the information with legislators…
Former Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong, who last month stepped down from her position to resume her role as CEO of the university’s medical center, is taking a sabbatical; Armstrong was questioned last week by a government lawyer as the Trump administration investigates Columbia’s handling of antisemitism…
A senior Justice Department official was placed on leave for insubordination after acknowledging under oath that a Maryland man who was apprehended by immigration officials and sent to a prison in El Salvador should not have been arrested; Erez Reuveni had been serving as the acting deputy director of the Justice Department’s immigration litigation division…
Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl was named the Associated Press’ coach of the year, sharing the honor with St. John’s coach Rick Pitino…
The BBC spotlights Thessaloniki, Greece, which was prior to World War II the hub of the country’s Jewish community…
Two lawmakers from the U.K.’s Labour Party were denied entry to Israel over what the Israeli immigration ministry said were plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred”…
U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese was reappointed to another three-year term; the U.S. Mission to the U.N. had opposed her reappointment, calling her “unfit” to serve in the role and citing Albanese’s “virulent antisemitism, which demonizes Israel and supports Hamas”…
Israel walked back its account of an incident last month that killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza traveling in emergency vehicles after The New York Times released footage that appeared to contradict the IDF’s initial account…
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met over the weekend with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi…
Ali Al Nuaimi, the chair of the UAE’s Defense, Interior, and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council, met with a group of foreign officials, including Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, on the sidelines of Association For the Union in Tashkent, Uzbekistan…
The Iranian rial hit a new record low on Saturday against the U.S. dollar…
CNN reports that the cost of the U.S. strikes on Houthi facilities over the last month is nearing $1 billion…
Artist Marcia Marcus, a popular artist of the 1960s who experienced a resurgence of fame in recent years, died at 97…
Writer and journalist Jesse Kornbluth died at 79…
Pic of the Day
The parents and brother of Israeli American hostage Omer Neutra participated in a ceremony on Sunday in Plainview, N.Y., to rename a street after Neutra, who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and whose body has been held in Gaza for 18 months.
Birthdays
Professional golfer who joined the PGA Tour in 2015 when he won Rookie of the Year, he has since won four tournaments, Daniel Berger turns 32…
Professor emerita of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, Marilyn Ann Friedman turns 80… President of Yale University for 20 years, then CEO of Coursera, an education-focused technology company, Richard Charles “Rick” Levin turns 78… Consultant on aging, longevity, law and policy, Naomi Karp turns 75… Software engineer at FlightView, Jonathan Ruby… Professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, he was born in Haifa, Simon J. Bronner turns 71… Los Angeles-based casting director, Jane Sobo… Director of project staffing at Tower Legal Solutions in Addison, Texas, until three months ago, Ilene Robin Breitbarth… Member of the House of Commons of Canada from the Winnipeg area, Martin B. Morantz turns 63… Screenwriter, actress and director, Andrea Berloff turns 51… White House and Congress editor for USA Today, Darren Samuelsohn… Chicago-based progressive activist, he is a co-founder of Project Shema, Oren Jacobson… Director of business development at Storytel Thailand, Justin Ross Lee… Communications director for the national security sector at Leidos, Gregory Hellman… Reporter covering the White House and Washington for Politico, Daniel Lippman… Executive director of Camp Seneca Lake for the JCC of Greater Rochester, Marissa Wizig Klegman… Managing partner of Reno-based Mazal Capital, David Farahi… Pitcher and first baseman for Team Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Ben Wanger turns 28…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
