Tuck, Huck and the muck
Plus, Dems' shifting Overton Window on Israel
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the fallout from the interview between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Tucker Carlson, and talk to prominent Jewish Democrats about their concerns over how the party’s leftward shift on Israel is providing cover for elements of antisemitism to creep in. We report on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s invitation to Hanan Lischinsky, the brother of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky, to the State of the Union, and share the deets on a Shabbat dinner hosted on Friday by the State Department whose attendees included the UAE and Saudi ambassadors to Washington as well as senior Trump officials. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Shira Kupperman Boehler, Idan Roll and Jack Hughes.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.
What We’re Watching
- AIPAC’s annual Congressional Summit is taking place this week in Washington, with U.S. Ambassador to the U. N. Mike Waltz, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R‑LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D‑NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D‑NY) and Sens. Tom Cotton (R‑AR) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) slated to address the crowd. Read our curtain-raiser on the off-the-record confab here.
- We’re watching the continued influx of U.S. military assets to the Middle East as the White House prepares for a third round of talks with Iran, set to be brokered by Oman in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday.
- The Iran question could come up as soon as this morning, with President Donald Trump set to briefly address the media at a White House ceremony honoring individuals whose relatives have been killed by undocumented immigrants.
- We’re also monitoring how the winter storm hitting the East Coast today is disrupting everything from congressional votes to events and hearings up and down the Northeast corridor. To our readers from Washington to Boston: stay warm and safe!
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MELISSA WEISS
Tucker Carlson’s interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee last week seemed to get off to a rough start before the commentator had even touched down in Israel, when it became known that Carlson would be conducting the interview from Ben Gurion Airport without plans to leave the complex to engage with the country — about which he spends significant airtime discussing — itself.
The troubles began before the interview aired, with Carlson alleging on social media that the passports belonging to his team members had been taken by Israeli security and that the group had been interrogated at the airport. But Carlson flew into Ben Gurion’s VIP Fattal Terminal, where passports are taken by airport officials to be expedited through a special processing service that avoids the immigration lines at Ben Gurion’s regular terminal. Questioning, as anyone who has flown into or out of Israel knows, is standard procedure and has been for decades.
But it was the release of the interview — nearly three hours long — that caused the most issue for Carlson. The initially released edition of the podcast included comments from Carlson to Huckabee alleging that Israeli President Isaac Herzog had ties to Jeffrey Epstein. “The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘Pedo Island,” Carlson claimed. “That’s what it says.”
That was, in fact, *not* what it — it being the Epstein files released earlier this month — said. Carlson appeared to be referencing an email in the trove of documents that referenced “Herzog,” despite no actual linkage between the Israeli president and the disgraced financier.
The outcry, as well as a letter from Herzog’s team and a statement from Huckabee, prompted a swift apology from Carlson, and a rerelease of the interview with that portion of the conversation removed. “They didn’t know each other, they never emailed with each other, never been in the same room. They had no relationship of any kind,” Carlson said. “So I just want to say clearly I’m sorry to imply that I knew something I didn’t know.”
But it was a conversation about the Bible that dominated headlines. The Tucker Carlson Network posted a partial clip on Saturday in which Carlson spoke at length about a passage in Genesis in which God tells Abraham, “to your descendants I will give this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river Euphrates,” and then asked Huckabee if he believed that the Jewish people therefore have the right to the land that includes modern-day Jordan and parts of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said before the video cuts off mid-sentence. The rest of the sentence that was omitted from the clip includes Huckabee saying, “But I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today,” adding “they” — meaning Israel — “don’t want to take it over; they’re not asking to take it over.”
The cavalcade of stories framing Huckabee as supporting an imagined Israeli territorial conquest of the Middle East prompted a response from a group of Arab and Muslim states and multinational organizations, led by Saudi Arabia, condemning the comments. Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — all of whom have peace agreements with Israel — signed onto the statement.
OVERTON WINDOW
Jewish Democrats alarmed about whether their party will remain welcoming
The debate over Israel within the Democratic Party has long been a particularly acute source of tension, in the wake of a protracted war in Gaza that deepened internal divisions over America’s increasingly contested relationship with one of its closest allies. Recently, however, many Jewish and pro-Israel Democrats say they have observed a distinct and troubling new shift in that debate, as the range of politically acceptable opinions on Israel has strayed far outside the mainstream, with little pushback from party leaders, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Cause for concern: Amid growing claims of Israel committing genocide as settled fact, openly pro-Hamas demonstrations, ongoing efforts to demonize pro-Israel engagement in Democratic primaries and rejections of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, the political atmosphere is raising questions about whether the party is willing to collectively draw red lines around creeping extremism or if it is now accommodating anti-Israel sentiment that until not long ago had been more commonly viewed as off-limits. “For those of us who care about a strong U.S-Israel relationship, there is reason to be concerned,” said Howard Wolfson, a longtime advisor to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “The challenge is profound.”
TAXING TALK
JFNA presses Democratic governors to embrace federal tax credit that could benefit Jewish day schools
As governors from across the country convened in Washington over the weekend for the annual National Governors Association summit, representatives from the Jewish Federations of North America held dozens of sideline meetings with Democratic officials to lobby them on a new education tax initiative, Josh Nason, JFNA’s senior director of political affairs, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen. Their goal was to educate those governors, some of whom were skeptical of the credit, and urge them to participate in the first-of-its-kind supplemental federal funding that could help pay for Jewish day school and yeshiva education.
Window of opportunity: Starting in the 2027 tax year, the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, part of President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, provides a dollar-for-dollar tax credit — up to $1,700 annually — for donations to approved Scholarship Granting Organizations. These SGOs offer scholarships for a variety of K-12 public and private education expenses, including private school tuition, transportation and tutoring. If states don’t opt in, taxpayers can still donate, but residents of that state won’t have the ability to be beneficiaries. “For Jewish day schools, it’s a huge opportunity,” Nason told JI following his meetings with governors — the first time JFNA had a presence at NGA.
BIG TENT SHABBAT
State Dept. Shabbat dinner draws UAE, Saudi ambassadors and senior Trump officials
Several dozen diplomats, senior Trump administration officials and Jewish communal leaders gathered at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Friday night for a Shabbat dinner hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy, according to a source who attended the dinner, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
In the room: The gathering brought together a coterie of Washington officials, including Princess Reema, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., and United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, even though ties between the two Gulf nations have been strained in recent months. Other diplomats in the room came from France, Germany, Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon and Jordan, according to the source. Kaploun, who started at the State Department in December after being confirmed by the Senate, spoke at the event. Reed Rubinstein, the State Department legal advisor, also spoke, as did Princess Reema. The Saudi diplomat talked about how close Israel and Saudi Arabia were to normalization before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel and that she hoped to get back to that point, although normalization efforts have stalled.
Bonus: Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed met with State Department antisemitism envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun in Washington earlier this week, during which the two “discussed the importance of the Abraham Accords as a platform for promoting tolerance and coexistence, building bridges of trust, and consolidating a culture of peace in the region,” according to a readout from the UAE’s Foreign Ministry.
GUEST OF HONOR
Mike Johnson to host brother of Capital Jewish Museum shooting victim at State of the Union
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring Hanan Lischinsky, the brother of an Israeli Embassy staffer shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last May, as his guest to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Lischinsky is the brother of Yaron Lischinsky, who was killed alongside Sarah Milgrim, his girlfriend and a fellow embassy staffer, while exiting a museum event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Johnson’s statement: “On May 21, 2025, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C. These two young diplomats of the Israeli Embassy, devoted to the cause of peace and to one another, had their futures stolen in a violent act of antisemitism,” Johnson said in a statement. “Yaron’s brother, Hanan Lischinsky, has shown remarkable courage in shedding light on the extremism that took his brother’s life,” the statement continued. “I am honored to invite him as my guest for President Trump’s State of the Union address.”
SCOOP
Moskowitz, Gottheimer oppose Iran war powers resolution, breaking with most Dems
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider on Friday afternoon that he’ll vote against a resolution blocking military action against Iran, expected to come to a vote on the House floor this week, JI’s Marc Rod reports. Moskowitz joins Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who issued a joint statement with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) earlier in the day, as the only Democrats who are thus far publicly opposing the war powers resolution, which Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) plan to introduce.
Notable quotable: “I am a no [vote]. I am not willing to preemptively tell the supreme leader that he has nothing to worry about, no reason to negotiate because you are totally safe, and that the people of Iran can’t depend on us. They should just rename it the Ayatollah Protection Act because that’s what it does,” Moskowitz told JI.
EXCLUSIVE
Lawler, Sherman bill targets finances of Iranian oligarchs and supports internet freedom
Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), the chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, are set to introduce a bill on Monday to disrupt the finances of the Iranian regime and its allies and expand internet access in Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What it does: The Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom and Accountability Act would create a dedicated “Iran Kleptocracy Initiative” unit within the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau within the Treasury Department. To expand internet access, it directs the Defense Innovation Unit and the Defense Acquisition University to “support the development of low-cost, easily scalable, and rapidly deployable technologies to counter internet shutdowns or limitations in Iran.”
Worthy Reads
Risk Assessment: In The Wall Street Journal, former White House intelligence chief Marc Gustafson, who headed the Situation Room from 2022-2025, argues that the chances of U.S. strikes on Iran growing into an extended regional conflict are less than they were when he served in the White House. “For the Trump administration, the upside of acting at a moment of Iranian vulnerability is plainly alluring. It could further erode proxy networks, blunt the nuclear threat, and help tip the global balance of power in America’s favor. An attack on Iran would still entail risk. The regime’s identity is rooted in resistance to foreign interference. An external attack could trigger pockets of fierce backlash. U.S. personnel remain within range of thousands of Iran’s short-range missiles. Oil markets could convulse if Tehran disrupted Gulf shipping. The trauma of past Middle East wars has shaped Washington’s Iran policy for decades. But today Iran’s proxies are weakened, its economy is fragile, its population is restless and its leadership is superannuated.” [WSJ]
Help Should Be on Its Way: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens suggests that a strike on Iran is “crucial,” citing Tehran’s treatment of protesters in addition to the threats it poses to regional and global stability, and noting the recent student protests that have again broken out in the country. “But it’s not a stretch to assume those protests are also a signal to [President Donald] Trump that his promise last month to Iranians that ‘help is on its way’ hasn’t been forgotten, and that ordinary Iranians are prepared to join the fight for their own liberation. If so, then there is at least a reasonable chance that a sustained military operation that not only further degrades the regime’s nuclear, missile and military capabilities — a desirable outcome in its own right — but also targets its apparatus of domestic repression could embolden the type of sustained mass protests that could finally bring the regime down.” [NYTimes]
Leap of Faith: The Associated Press’ Steve Peoples looks at how Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro leans on his faith amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment. “Shapiro’s allies acknowledge the risks, but they ultimately believe his faith will help him connect with more Americans as he takes the next step in his political career. ‘He is intentionally choosing to go a different route and to be a different person, and it’s authentic to who he is and also what he believes,’ said Baptist Pastor Marshall Mitchell, a close friend and spiritual adviser to Shapiro. ‘Great elected officials, great Americans, great thinkers, never discount the influence and impact of faith.’” [AP]
Catholic Teaching: In The Washington Post, First Things Editor R.R. Reno, who identifies as a Catholic and a Zionist, counters recent anti-Israel rhetoric from Candace Owens and public figures associated with the Catholic Church who cite their faith in their opposition to Israel. “The Catholic Church urges me to bring my political judgments into accord with moral principles. In affairs of state, the most important norm is peace. This norm strongly favors support for established states. (This is why, for most of her existence, the Catholic Church rejected revolution and required obedience to existing governments.) The state of Israel exists. Undermining its legitimacy and aiding those who seek its destruction is far more likely to lead to widespread violence and inhumanity than its continued existence, whatever one thinks of the circumstances of the nation’s founding or its present policies.” [WashPost]
Word on the Street
The White House notified Congress earlier this month that it intends to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, 14 years after it was shuttered amid the start of the country’s civil war…
A new super PAC that intends to counter pro-Israel PAC-supported candidates has spent more than $500,000 to boost far-left Democrat Nida Allam in her primary challenge to Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), who lost support from AIPAC’s PAC this cycle after shifting left on Israel-related policy issues; the American Priorities PAC has also spent $72,000 backing Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a candidate for a Dallas-area House seat who preached about alleged “apartheid” in Israel in a sermon on the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks…
The Elect Chicago Women super PAC, rumored to have ties to pro-Israel groups, began an ad campaign in the Chicago area on Saturday attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports; the ads, which political experts said could boost anti-Israel activist Kat Abughazaleh in the crowded primary, come weeks after a similar effort in New Jersey by AIPAC’s super PAC to target former Rep. Tom Malinowski helped far-left activist Analilia Mejia to win the district’s special election primary…
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attended last night’s opening and ribbon-cutting at The Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Chabad Student Center…
The “Today” Show interviews Shira Kupperman Boehler, wife of Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage response, about her early-stage diagnosis, at age 44, of lung cancer last year and subsequent treatment…
Jewish American hockey player Jack Hughes scored the winning goal in the Olympic finals of Team USA’s overtime win over Canada…
Israel’s National Olympic Committee disqualified its four-man bobsled team after one of the team’s members lied about a medical injury in order to allow the team’s alternate a chance to compete; captain AJ Edelman said in a statement that “[g]iven that our placement going into the final run was all but predetermined, it was more important to us that our alternate could have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics”…
Australian officials charged a man who allegedly ran a car into a Brisbane synagogue with committing a hate crime…
At least eight Hezbollah members were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon over the weekend as the IDF scales up its activity targeting the Iranian terror proxy…
The New York Times reports on Iran’s succession plan and other contingency efforts should the U.S. strike the country; the Times reports that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has entrusted Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, with key decision-making powers since the rise of the country’s student protest movement in December…
The Washington Post looks at how Israelis are preparing for the possibility of a renewed war with Iran, less than a year after the 12-day war between the countries…
The Wall Street Journal talks to Iranian student protesters who took part in the wave of protests — and subsequently faced the forceful government crackdown on the demonstrations — and examines how neither Moscow nor Beijing, both traditional allies of Tehran, are expressing reticence in fully backing Iran amid deepening tensions with the U.S.…
U.S. and Western officials are warning that Iran could use its proxies to target American assets abroad should the White House move forward with a strike targeting the Islamic Republic…
The New York Times’ “Vows” section spotlights the Los Angeles nuptials of influencer Caroline Goldfarb and shofar player Michael Gropper, the latter of whom is the Western states development director of American Friends of Bar-Ilan University…
Former Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Idan Roll is joining the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security as an expert on a range of issues including national security and public diplomacy; read our 2023 interview with Roll here…
Philadelphia artist Isaiah Zagar, who designed dreamscape mosaics around his hometown, died at 86…
NPR host Michael Silverblatt, whose “Bookworm” program ran for 33 years, died at 73…
Pic of the Day
Former Israeli hostages Matan Zangauker (left), Segev Kalfon and Ilana Gritzewsky led thousands of teenagers in the Shema prayer during Chabad’s CTeen annual Jewish Pride Takeover of Times Square on Saturday night in New York City.
Birthdays
Grammy Award-winning actor, comedian and singer, Josh Gad turns 45…
Retired senior counsel in the Baltimore office of DLA Piper, he served as president of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Shale D. Stiller turns 91… EVP emeritus of the Orthodox Union and editor-in-chief of the Koren Talmud Bavli, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb turns 86… Bethesda, Md., resident, Lois Copeland… Dean of a yeshiva high school in Israel, in 1967 he co-founded a popular band called The Rabbis’ Sons, Rabbi Baruch “Burry” Chait turns 80… Philosopher, novelist and public intellectual, she was a winner of a MacArthur Genius Fellowship in 1996, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein turns 76… Chairman of Agudath Israel of America and CEO of the OuterStuff sportswear line, Sol Werdiger turns 75… Film director, writer and producer, he is the president emeritus of the Producers Guild of America, Marshall Schreiber Herskovitz turns 74… 25-year veteran of USAID’s Foreign Service, she was the mission director for USAID in the West Bank and Gaza, Monica Stein-Olson turns 69… Strategic communications consultant, he was previously director of communications and PR for the Jewish Federations of North America, Joe Berkofsky… Political consultant and pollster, he is the founder of Luntz Global, Frank Luntz turns 64… Founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, he is the 10th richest person in the world according to Bloomberg, Michael Dell turns 61… U.S. senator (D-MD), Angela Alsobrooks turns 55… Best-selling author of young adult novels, Nova Ren Suma turns 51… CEO of film production firm Benaroya Pictures, Michael Benaroya turns 45… Founder of Tahrir Scarf, Johnathan Morpurgo… COO and director of research at The Lawfare Project, Benjamin Ryberg… Member of the Knesset for the Likud party, Dan Illouz turns 40… Former chief of staff at USAID, now a senior advisor at RF Catalytic Capital, Rebecca Chalif… Reporter at Bloomberg covering residential real estate with a focus on NYC’s housing market, Jennifer Epstein turns 40… Founder of an eponymous real estate brokerage in Tel Aviv, Barak Daon… AIPAC alum, now an engineering manager at Business Insider, Reuben A. Ingber… Senior strategy officer at Walton Enterprises, Mary Ann Weiss… Former national politics breaking news reporter at The Washington Post, Patrick Svitek… Director of policy and business development at Polymateria, Gidon Feen…
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