White House waffles on Iran
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the Trump administration’s waffling position on Iran’s nuclear program, and report on Columbia University’s handling of an anti-Israel protest in the school’s library during finals week. We also talk to experts about Israel’s military approach to Syria, and report on yesterday’s meeting between senior Justice Department officials and Orthodox Jewish leaders in Washington. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Jay Sanderson and Arizona state Rep. Alma Hernandez.
What We’re Watching
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and James Lankford (R-OK) and Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Brian Mast (R-FL) are slated to speak at an event this morning on Capitol Hill hosted by United Against Nuclear Iran, which will display an Iranian Shahed-136 drone in the Cannon Office Building.
- Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) are hosting a press conference at 10:30 this morning on their resolution “affirming the acceptable outcomes of the United States’ negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program.”
- The Senate Appropriations Committee is holding hearings at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. with FBI Director Kash Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, respectively.
- Former President Joe Biden will give his first televised interview since leaving office when he appears on “The View” this morning alongside former First Lady Jill Biden.
- America Abroad Media is holding its annual awards dinner tonight in Washington. Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner and Iran International are among the honorees at this year’s dinner.
- The Library of Congress is hosting an event to mark Jewish-American Heritage Month with the New York Andalus Ensemble, which will perform a medley of songs in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish and Ladino.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
There’s an ongoing parlor game in Washington: Trying to figure out President Donald Trump’s Iran policy. More specifically, trying to decipher his endgame for ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, which are set to enter their fourth round in Oman this weekend.
Does Trump support allowing Iran to enrich uranium at a low level, as Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said last month, before he walked that position back? Will he seek a “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, as he told “Meet the Press” last weekend? Or will he allow Iran to have a “civil nuclear program,” as Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday, by importing enriched material from abroad (as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated)?
Trump offered the latest clue to Iran watchers on Wednesday afternoon. Or, more accurately, he pretty much shut down the entire game — because trying to guess what the Trump administration wants is a fool’s errand if Trump himself has not made up his mind.
“We haven’t made that decision yet,” Trump said in the West Wing on Wednesday when asked by a reporter whether it is Washington’s position that Iran can maintain an enrichment program as long as it doesn’t enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels. “We will, but we haven’t made that decision yet.”
What’s particularly striking is that Trump’s comment came hours after he seemed to suggest something different to radio host Hugh Hewitt, saying the only options are to “blow them up nicely or blow them up viciously,” apparently referring to Iran’s nuclear program.
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium at a low level, rather than forcing the Islamic Republic to give up its nuclear program entirely. This was one of the key reasons foreign policy hawks opposed the deal so strongly — including Trump, who pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018. But the regional landscape has changed since then. Iran is weaker, but it is also bolder.
“Even if you agreed with the JCPOA, you have to note that Iran is different today, and it’s different because it’s now a country that will directly attack Israel, and it’s now a country that will directly try to kill American presidents,” said William Wechsler, director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.
Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel who worked on Iran policy at the Pentagon in the Biden administration, said Trump administration officials shouldn’t negotiate in public. “Pick a line — preferably full dismantlement, with the military option available if they refuse — stick with it, and try to hammer out a deal in private negotiations. When it comes to public commentary, less is more,” Shapiro told Jewish Insider.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the House and Senate have been gathering signatures for letters calling for full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, JI’s Marc Rod scooped on Wednesday.
What’s clear is that there is not yet a consensus even among Republicans in Washington about the best way to handle the question of enrichment in a nuclear deal with Iran. And amid all the hubbub about enrichment, chatter about other major issues, such as Iran’s support for terror proxies across the Middle East, has died down entirely.
PROTESTS PERSIST
Over 75 anti-Israel protesters arrested after storming Columbia library during finals
More than 100 masked anti-Israel demonstrators stormed Columbia University’s main library on Wednesday afternoon — disrupting students studying for finals by banging on drums and chanting “Free Palestine.” As public safety officers attempted to clear out the protesters, several of the officers were forcefully pushed to the ground near the building’s front entrance. “The sense of entitlement and sheer ignorance of these students remains astonishing, and it is an embarrassment that they were even admitted to this university in the first place,” Eden Yadegar, a senior studying Middle East studies and modern Jewish studies — who was in the library as the chaos began — told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen.
Arrests in the library: By Wednesday evening, New York Police Department officers arrested around 75 of the protesters after Acting President Claire Shipman authorized the NYPD to enter the library. Two individuals were led off campus by Columbia University Emergency Medical Service on stretchers, one of whom had their face covered by a keffiyeh and the other had their face covered by a sheet, Columbia’s student newspaper, The Spectator, reported. New York City Mayor Eric Adams praised the NYPD’s swift response and called on parents of students protesting to “call your children and make clear that breaking the law is wrong and they should exit the building immediately.”
Congressional questioning: Haverford College President Wendy Raymond took the brunt of congressional questioning and criticism at a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on Wednesday on campus antisemitism, repeatedly dodging questions from committee members, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
DAMASCUS DEALINGS
Israeli presence in Syria ‘a direct lesson of Oct. 7’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa made a surprising admission during a visit to Paris on Wednesday: that Damascus and Jerusalem have been engaged in indirect negotiations in recent days. Al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Al-Qaida offshoot in Syria whose nom de guerre was Mohammed Al-Jolani, was welcomed by friendly crowds to the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday evening, a potent symbol of his growing acceptance in the international community. French President Emmanuel Macron said that he is looking to have the EU lift sanctions on Syria and would advocate for the Trump administration to do the same. Israel, however, continues to be deeply suspicious of al-Sharaa. The IDF maintains a presence over the border and miles into Syria, which Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said will continue “indefinitely,” Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Military action: Last week, Israel struck an area on the outskirts of Damascus, to protect the Druze community, whose militias had been clashing with Syrian government-affiliated forces. “Israel is in Syria as a direct lesson from Oct. 7 [2023],” Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Research and Education Center, specializing in Israel’s northern border, told JI this week. “On Oct. 7, Israel understood that we can no longer let radical elements build military capabilities on the other side of our border … If we’re not there, we’ll have radical Sunni bases on our border. We can’t let the monster grow. We have to cut it down while it’s small. That’s the basic idea,” she added.
double talk
Vance: Iran can have ‘civil nuclear power’ but no weapon
Vice President JD Vance said at a conference in Washington on Wednesday that Iran can have a “civil nuclear program” but not a “nuclear weapons program,” offering yet another confusing signal about the Trump administration’s position on Iran’s nuclear capabilities as negotiations with the Islamic Republic are set to enter their fourth round this weekend. Several Trump administration officials have in recent weeks offered competing messages about the goal of the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. Vance’s comments come days after President Donald Trump said the outcome of the negotiations must be “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
What Vance said: Vance’s remarks, at the Munich Security Conference’s D.C. confab, suggested that the White House believes Iran does not need to entirely give up its nuclear program. “Our proposition is very simple. We don’t care if people want nuclear power. We’re fine with that,” said Vance. “But you can’t have the kind of enrichment program that allows you to get to a nuclear weapon, and that’s where we draw the line,” the vice president added. Vance said the negotiations will end with “Iran eliminating their nuclear program,” before he seemed to stop himself and clarify that he meant only their “nuclear weapons program.” He continued, “This is going to end somewhere, and it will end either in Iran eliminating their nuclear program — their nuclear weapons program. They can have civil nuclear power, OK? We don’t mind that.”
Senator’s soapbox: Speaking at an Orthodox Union luncheon on Capitol Hill, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said that Iran must be fully stripped of any nuclear capacity. He also vowed to work to revive the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which faces an uncertain path ahead in the Senate after a chaotic committee hearing last week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
SCOOP
Senate, House Republicans circulate letters calling for full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program
Prominent Senate and House Republicans are collecting signatures on nearly identical draft letters to President Donald Trump insisting that any nuclear deal with Iran must include the full dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear program and that the verification protocols from the original 2015 nuclear deal are no longer a viable option, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod has learned. The letters indicate a concerted effort among congressional Republicans to emphasize to the Trump administration that they expect that any deal with Iran will mandate full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, in the wake of inconsistent comments from top administration officials on that issue.
Simultaneous efforts: The draft Senate letter is led by Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Ricketts and Cruz both sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and have taken a hard line toward Iran. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has emerged as a prominent voice for full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, is also supportive, JI has learned. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) is circulating a similar letter for signatures in the House, a copy of which was also reviewed by JI. He chairs the influential conservative Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in the House, which counts nearly three-quarters of House Republicans among its membership. A military veteran, Pfluger is also a prominent hawkish voice in the House GOP on national security matters.
MILKEN MOMENTS
Former hostage Noa Argamani: ‘I’m thinking about the hostages all the time’
Former hostage Noa Argamani and author Noa Tishby spoke about anti-Israel activism and antisemitism on Wednesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., with Argamani saying that an anti-Israel performance at the Coachella music festival “broke her heart” and Tishby arguing that antisemitism “is nothing short of a cultural conflict,” Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen reports.
Coachella controversy: Argamani, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, said that she had intended to attend Coachella last month, where the Irish band Kneecap led the crowd in chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and displayed messages on the stage that read, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes” and “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.” Argamani said of the event, “It’s really hard and breaking my heart to see that this is still happening. I’m like all of the people that come for Coachella, and we are the same people. It could happen to each one of us, and if people will not share sympathy [for] each other, for all these people just going to festivals of love, peace and community, that’s what we need to do. We didn’t choose to be kidnapped, we didn’t choose to be born in Israel. We just want to go to a festival to dance and have fun.”
Money matters: Financial experts and regulators touted the strength of the Israeli economy, tech sector and stock exchange after a year and a half of war during a panel at the Milken conference, saying that “resilience” is a “very core characteristic of the Israeli market.”
justice agenda
DOJ officials tell Orthodox leaders they have launched probes into antisemitic discrimination
Senior Justice Department officials revealed on Wednesday that they have “several open investigations involving Orthodox Jewish communities across the country.” During a meeting between Trump administration officials and Orthodox Jewish leaders at the Justice Department, Michael Gates, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, told attendees that the DOJ is looking into several matters impacting the Orthodox community, including how some municipalities’ use of zoning laws had affected individual religious communities’ ability to operate normally, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Open investigations: “We currently have several open investigations involving Orthodox Jewish communities across the country. These investigations include municipalities that have restricted building or operation of houses of worship or other religious land uses, and we are investigating cities that have made changes to zoning laws that negatively impact religious communities. In another matter, we are investigating antisemitic discrimination in public accommodations, including whether a restaurant, believe it or not, has engaged in a pattern practice of religious discrimination for refusing service to Jewish patrons,” Gates said.
Worthy Reads
Let’s Make a (Bad) Deal: In The Wall Street Journal, Israeli journalist and political commentator Amit Segal raises concerns about President Donald Trump’s approach to malign actors in the Middle East. “What’s happening is that Iran is drawing great encouragement from Mr. Trump’s conduct. The shaken regime — whose proxies have been hammered by Israel and whose air defense systems have been destroyed by advanced weaponry it can’t even identify — may be about to receive a deal similar to the one Barack Obama pursued. That would be more favorable to Tehran, since in the decade since Mr. Obama’s deal, the Iranian nuclear program has only surged ahead. If this were President Biden, the Israeli right, led by Mr. Netanyahu, would be accusing the American leader of throwing Israel under the bus. The prime minister would fly to Washington to address Congress and rally senators to petition against the president. But who is Mr. Netanyahu going to persuade now — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?” [WSJ]
The Gaza Bind: The New York Times’ David French considers Israel’s strategic options as it pursues the defeat of Hamas and the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. “Israel is facing a terrible choice. If it wants to remove Hamas from power, it almost certainly has to pursue an occupation that would divide the nation and further enrage the international community. If it wants to secure the release of the hostages, it will almost certainly have to agree to a cease-fire that leaves Hamas in place and sets the stage for future conflicts. It remains to be seen whether Israel’s new approach is anything more than bluster. Perhaps Israel’s threats are little more than negotiation tactics. Perhaps Israel will ultimately prioritize releasing the remaining hostages over ending Hamas’s despotic rule. But one thing is crystal clear. There are no shortcuts in war.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump withdrew the nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, the sister-in-law of former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, to be surgeon general; Nesheiwat had faced criticism from far-right provocateur Laura Loomer over her support for vaccines and allegedly misrepresenting her education background…
FBI Director Kash Patel was pressed on Wednesday about the exclusion of Ed Martin’s ties to an alleged Nazi sympathizer in his FBI background check after Martin was nominated to be U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The U.S. signed off on a plan for Qatar to fund the salaries of Syrian civil servants; Doha’s financial support will not extend to the Damascus’ defense and interior ministeries…
A group of 96 House Democrats has signed onto a letter to Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter blasting as both a moral and strategic failure Israel’s blockage of humanitarian aid moving into Gaza in recent months, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
Bloomberg looks at how the ceasefire between the U.S. and the Houthis will impact Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week, allowing senior officials and the U.S. delegation, which also includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to prioritize economic cooperation in their meetings…
A new Anti-Defamation League report indicates that Jewish members of Congress have experienced a five-fold increase in antisemitic harassment on Facebook this year since Meta loosened its content moderation guidelines and dialed back enforcement…
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced the launch of a strategic partnership with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to build a new health-care accelerator in the state…
The San Marcos, Texas, City Council voted down a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel, weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold state grants if the resolution passed, citing the state’s anti-boycott laws…
A federal appeals court ruled that the Tufts student being held at a detention facility in Louisiana must be moved to Vermont…
Prosecutors in New York charged a self-described “Jew hater” who on three separate occasions physically assaulted Jewish people, including a Columbia University student, with federal hate crimes; a search of Tarek Bazrouk’s Manhattan home uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars, brass knuckles, an airsoft gun and real bullets, while a probe of his phone uncovered writings sympathetic to Hamas and Hezbollah…
Temple University issued an interim suspension to a second student involved in an antisemitic incident that took place over the weekend at a Philadelphia bar owned by Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy…
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law legislation banning the erection of encampments on public universities in the state; the bill, which had bipartisan support, was first introduced by state Rep. Alma Hernandez…
In an appearance on conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s talk show earlier this month, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen addressed a question from Carlson about his faith, saying, “I was born a Jew. I love Jesus Christ. I think the words that he said are wonderful, are amazing. And, you know, I’m kind of distressed that a lot of organized Christian religions are not really, I don’t know, abiding by the words of Jesus Christ”…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that 21 hostages in Gaza are believed to be alive, while the statuses of three others remain uncertain, confirming past comments from his wife and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, as well as a recent comment from President Donald Trump…
Israel’s National Security Council warned Israelis attending the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, next week against wearing Israeli or Jewish symbols in public, talking about their military service or posting their location on social media…
U.K. officials said that five Iranian nationals arrested earlier this week in London had been plotting an attack on Israel’s embassy in the country…
A Houthi spokesperson confirmed that the Iran-backed terror group’s ceasefire agreement with the Trump administration does not include Israel, the same day that a missile launched at the Jewish state by the group fell short in Saudi Arabia…
Jay Sanderson was named interim president of the American Jewish University, succeeding Jeffrey Herbst…
Former American Jewish Committee Board of Governors Chair Bobby Lapin was named the organization’s next president, succeeding Michael Tichnor…
Pic of the Day
A group of Zanzibari children slated to travel to Israel earlier this week to receive life-saving treatment through the Save a Child’s Heart nonprofit was stranded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for 24 hours after their flight to Israel was canceled following a Houthi ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday morning.
The group connected with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who was in Ethiopia for meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Foreign Minister Gedion Timotheos, and joined Saar on his flight back to Israel, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judith Sudilovsky reports.
Birthdays
Retired USDOJ official, for many years he was the director of the Office of Special Investigations focused on deporting Nazi war criminals, Eli M. Rosenbaum turns 70…
Retired senior British judge, Baron Leonard Hubert “Lennie” Hoffmann turns 91… Former chairman of the board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Stanley A. Rabin turns 87… International chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, he is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Irwin Cotler turns 85… MIT biologist and 2002 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, H. Robert Horvitz turns 78… Former MLB pitcher who played for the Angels, Rangers and White Sox, Lloyd Allen turns 75… Rabbi in Dusseldorf, Germany, until moving to Israel in 2021, Rabbi Raphael Evers turns 71… CFO for The Manischewitz Company for 13 years until 2024, Thomas E. Keogh… Past president of Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs, Ga., Janice Perils Telling… Third-generation furniture retailer in Springfield, Ill., Barry Saidman… President of Clayton, Mo.-based JurisTemps, Andrew J. Koshner, J.D., Ph.D…. CEO and founder of NSG/SWAT, a high-profile boutique branding agency launched in 2011, Richard Kirshenbaum turns 64… Novelist, author of If I Could Tell You and movie critic for The Jerusalem Post since 2001, Hannah Brown… Co-founder and director of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund and a Maryland climate commissioner, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi turns 61… Israeli journalist, anchorwoman and attorney, she is best known as host of the investigative program “Uvda” (“Fact”) on Israeli television, Ilana Dayan-Orbach turns 61… Longtime litigator and political fundraiser in Florida, now serving as a mediator and arbitrator, Benjamin W. Newman… Canadian social activist and documentary filmmaker, Naomi Klein turns 55… Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2015 to 2020 and again since last August, Ambassador Danny Danon turns 54… Stand-up comedian, writer, actress and author, Jodi Miller turns 54… Novelist and memoirist, Joanna Rakoff turns 53… Senior advisor at West End Strategy Team, Ari Geller turns 52… Director of strategic initiatives at J Street, Josh Lockman turns 43… Ice hockey player, now the assistant coach of the New Hampshire Wildcats women’s ice hockey program, Samantha Faber turns 38… Canadian beach volleyball player, he competed in the 2016 and 2024 Summer Olympics, Sam Schachter turns 35… Keren Hajioff… Founder and CEO at Axion Ray, Daniel First… Former White House senior policy advisor, now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Amiel Fields-Meyer…
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