Trump’s State of Union stemwinder
Plus, Witkoff visits AIPAC
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on President Donald Trump’s remarks on Iran at last night’s State of the Union, and have the scoop of White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s address on Tuesday to attendees at AIPAC’s Congressional Summit. We profile NY-17 congressional candidate John Cappello, an Air Force veteran previously stationed in Israel, and report on a senior Council on American-Islamic Relations official’s remarks before the Ohio Senate accusing Israel of harvesting the skin of Palestinians. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Brad Sherman, Dan Mariaschin and Shira Haas.
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
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel earlier today. He is set to speak at the Knesset this afternoon before having dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David hotel in Jerusalem.
- The New York City Council is holding a hearing today on the potential creation of a buffer zone around places of worship. Read our story about the proposed legislation here.
- Fox Chicago is hosting a debate for the leading Democrats running in IL-9, where outside spending linked to pro-Israel groups is increasingly playing a role in the lead-up to next month’s primary as state Sen. Laura Fine, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh jockey for the nomination.
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog is in Ethiopia today for a one-day visit. While in Addis Ababa, Herzog met with President Taye Atske Selassie.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump maintained his tough talk against Iran, reiterating that he will use force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even though he’s willing to explore diplomatic options to resolve the standoff.
Trump did not — as some online had predicted — make a grand televised announcement of United States strikes on Iran during the speech. Nor did he elaborate further on his plans for the growing U.S. military might in the region, or what specifically would trigger the U.S. to utilize that military power.
”They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump said about Iran. “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror — which they are by far — to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”
A number of moderate House Democrats — around a third of the Democrats in the chamber — as well as the majority of Republicans stood to applaud those comments from the president. Democrats remained largely passive through much of the rest of Trump’s nearly two-hour speech.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are set to resume in Geneva later this week.
Trump also insisted again that the U.S. had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program in its strikes last June, and had warned the regime in Tehran not to attempt to rebuild its weapons programs, including its nuclear program, but it has continued those efforts anyway.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump said. “And no nation should ever doubt America’s resolve. We have the most powerful military on earth. … It’s really called ‘peace through strength’ and it’s been very, very effective.”
In addition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Trump highlighted the Islamic Republic’s manufacture of ballistic missiles, threatening U.S. allies, troops and potentially the U.S. homeland, and its sponsorship of terrorism.
SCOOP
Steve Witkoff speaks at AIPAC as Iran talks enter critical phase
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff addressed the AIPAC Congressional Summit taking place in Washington on Tuesday, two sources with knowledge of the event told Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik, as he prepares for the third round of negotiations with Iran later this week.
Iran issue: AIPAC led lobbying efforts against the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran, including creating a new lobbying group called Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran that spent upwards of $20 million opposing the agreement. Witkoff has led the Trump administration’s negotiations with Tehran during the president’s second term, alongside Jared Kushner, and is set to hold discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Thursday.
Transparency push: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to explain to the public his goals in the accelerating pressure campaign and military buildup targeting Iran, following a classified briefing earlier in the day for senior congressional leaders by Cabinet officials on the developing situation in Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
NUCLEAR NEWS
Brad Sherman pushes for restrictions on potential Saudi nuclear deal, as admin moves forward
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said Tuesday that he’s pushing for legislation to require an affirmative congressional vote prior to the U.S. reaching any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, following a notification from the administration to Congress indicating that it is moving toward a deal that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Sherman said during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the administration notified some House Republicans in November of plans to forge a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia.
Sherman’s stance: Sherman has been a longtime opponent of nuclear cooperation with Riyadh, warning that a Saudi civilian nuclear program would be the first step toward a nuclear weapon that could one day be turned against Israel. The White House announced plans for a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia in November during a Washington visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Such a deal had previously been coupled with Saudi normalization with Israel, as had advanced weapons sales to the kingdom, but the Trump administration has de-linked those initiatives.
PUSHING BACK
Moderate Democrats mock notion that Kamala Harris lost because she wasn’t tougher on Israel
Moderate congressional Democrats are pushing back against claims from anti-Israel activists, sparked by recriminations over an unreleased Democratic National Committee post-2024 election analysis, that the party’s position on Israel during the war in Gaza was a decisive factor in Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Speaking to JI, the lawmakers rejected the notion that the Biden administration and Harris campaign’s approach to Israel was the decisive factor in the defeat, instead pointing to broader political dynamics.
Post-election autopsy: “I don’t think that was the issue in the election. I disagree with that conclusion,” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) told JI. “Israel is our country’s strongest ally in the Middle East, one of the strongest allies in the world, and I can tell you that my colleagues here overwhelmingly support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) echoed those sentiments, telling JI that “the idea that the vice president lost every swing state because she wasn’t more extreme on this issue is laughable.” He called on Democratic officials to “release the report.”
Read the full story here with additional comments from Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
ACADEMIC ADMONISHMENT
Trump administration sues University of California over its handling of antisemitism
Building on a monthslong battle between the Trump administration and the University of California, the Department of Justice filed a suit on Tuesday against the university system, alleging that its Los Angeles campus failed to protect Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff in accordance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
The allegations: The 81-page DOJ complaint, filed in California’s Central District, alleges that since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, UCLA “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations of viewpoint-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions. Jewish and Israeli faculty have been physically threatened, had their classrooms disrupted, and had their workplaces papered with disturbing images.” The suit alleges, “Numerous Jewish and Israeli employees have been forced to take leave, work from home, and even leave their jobs to avoid the hostile work environment.”
TOXIC TALK
Senior CAIR official invokes blood libel in front of Ohio Senate
Jewish groups condemned testimony by the executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations at a recent state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing during which he accused Israel of harvesting skin from deceased Palestinians, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Haley Cohen report. Khalid Turaani testified on Feb. 18 against Senate Bill 87, which would see Ohio adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, asserting that “Israel has the largest human skin bank in the world.”
What he said: “Where do you think they got all this skin from?” Turaani continued. “They have more human skin than China and India. They are literally skinning the dead bodies of my brothers and sisters in Palestine,” he said, without offering evidence. “And if I call them Nazis, your law is going to punish me.” Turanni claimed as his evidence a report by Israel’s Channel 10 from March 2014, though no such report exists. The conspiracy theory of Israeli organ harvesting originated in 2009, when a Swedish tabloid published falsehoods that the IDF kills Palestinians to provide organs to Israeli hospitals, and has been repeated by Palestinian media for years.
CAPPELLO’S CAMPAIGN
Democrat John Cappello brings military experience in Israel to race against Mike Lawler
Democrat John Cappello, an Air Force veteran, brings experience as a senior U.S. military official in Israel to the race against Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in New York’s 17th Congressional District, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. But, entering the race later than most other competitors and lagging behind in fundraising, he has significant ground to make up before the June primary.
Background: Cappello spent six years working as a military official in the U.S. Embassy in Israel, from 2010-2016, first as the Air Force attache and later on missile defense issues. After his time in the military, Cappello became a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, before going on to found his own foreign policy-focused groups. During his first three years at the embassy, Cappello worked under then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, helping to set up and escort delegations of American military officials and business leaders; in his second three years, he helped run the Missile Defense Agency liaison office.
Worthy Reads
AI in the Gulf: In Foreign Policy, Steven Cook examines the geopolitical calculus being made by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the Gulf nations increasingly lean into the AI space. “If they become critical partners with some of the United States’ biggest tech companies in artificial intelligence, it is a lock that the United States will guarantee their security. The folks in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha will not need formal U.S. security guarantees. AI is the mother of all insurance policies. … By making themselves essential in the U.S. effort to win the artificial intelligence competition, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar ensure that their own adversaries become Washington’s adversaries as well. No geopolitical competitor is going to mess with these countries so long as the United States has a vested interest in the preservation of their current leaders. It is good to be on Team America.” [FP]
Go Slow on Iran: In The Atlantic, Thomas Wright, who served as senior director for strategic planning in the Biden administration’s National Security Council, posits that the U.S. can slow-walk its decision on whether to move forward on a deal with Iran. “The United States does not need a comprehensive deal with Iran now. In fact, such an agreement could be counterproductive. The more ambitious the nuclear concessions demanded of Iran, the greater the economic relief required to secure them. A comprehensive nuclear deal that requires Iran to abandon enrichment entirely would almost certainly involve sweeping sanctions relief. That would unlock tens of billions of dollars, reopen global markets, and offer the regime a path out of isolation. Paradoxically, it could provide a lifeline just as internal pressures are mounting. A ‘zero enrichment’ deal could have the unintended effect of prolonging the very system it seeks to constrain.” [TheAtlantic]
Not Very Catholic of Them: The Free Press’ Peter Savodnik, reflecting on his conversations at the recent convening of the newly created Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress, raises concerns about the rise in antisemitism among younger members of the Catholic Church. “The new antisemitism, Catholics I spoke with said, seemed to be a function of the new digital meme culture — fractured, algorithmic, always blurring the dotted line between the earnest and the faux-earnest. And it had a way, with all that content, all those words and unverifiable statements and carefully edited clips, of making the uninitiated feel as if they knew something, had been granted access to some eternal truth that had somehow eluded the older, wiser, more knowledgeable.”[FreePress]
Word on the Street
The U.S. sent a deployment of a dozen advanced F-22 Raptor jets to Israel as part of the buildup of American aerial assets in the region; meanwhile, Iran is nearing a deal to purchase CM-302 anti-ship missiles from China…
Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and environment, told House lawmakers on Tuesday that the administration’s Pax Silica initiative could help pave a path toward normalization between Israel and Qatar, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Somaliland’s U.S. mission praised the “warm welcome” its representative received this week at the AIPAC Congressional Summit in Washington…
Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the Senate companion bill to the Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom and Accountability Act, which aims to disrupt the finances of the Iranian regime and its allies and expand internet access in Iran…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) brought Paramount Skydance CEODavid Ellison as his guest to last night’s State of the Union address…
Warner Bros. Discovery said that Paramount’s new offer — $31 per share — to purchase the media company may best the offer made by Netflix, which had been in advanced talks to acquire Warner Bros. before Paramount made a hostile takeover bid for the company…
Dovid Efune, who with Axel Springer is attempting to purchase the Telegraph Media Group, sent a letter to RedBird, which is overseeing the sale, saying that his consortium would improve its initial offer…
eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher interviews outgoing B’nai B’rith International CEO Dan Mariaschin about his nearly four decades atop the Jewish organization…
AppleTV picked up the Israeli series “Unconditional” and will begin airing the thriller series in May…
Israeli actress Shira Haas has signed onto the film adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale; Haas will star alongside Elle and Dakota Fanning in the film, which follows a pair of sisters in German-occupied France during World War II…
Israeli web intelligence firm Nimble raised $47 million in a Series B financing round led by Norwest…
Israel reportedly warned Lebanon that the country would be hit hard if Hezbollah joins any Iranian military action targeting the Jewish state…
Politico spotlights Reza Pahlavi as the exiled Iranian crown prince works to elevate his profile and draw support for potential day-after leadership of Iran should the regime collapse…
Israeli singer Yishay Ribo postponed his U.S. tour shortly before he was set to depart Israel, telling ticketholders that the postponement was due to “the situation and the high level of alert in Israel”…
A University of Haifa student swimming off the coast of Israel discovered a centuries-old iron sword believed to date back to the Crusades…
The Netherlands summoned the Iranian ambassador in Amsterdam over an incident involving the seizure of a Dutch diplomat’s luggage at Tehran’s airport last month…
The New York Times spotlights ADNOC and its managing director, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, as the United Arab Emirates’ national energy company seeks to expand beyond oil and into natural gas, chemicals and renewables…
Cheryl Stumbo, who was injured in a 2006 shooting at the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, died at 63…
Susan Leeman, a pioneer in the field of neuroendocrinology, died at 95…
Pic of the Day
Brothers and Team USA hockey players Jack Hughes (left) and Quinn Hughes, fresh off their gold-medal victory over Canada at the Olympics over the weekend, attended last night’s State of the Union address in Washington.
Birthdays
Actress best known for her roles in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and Fox’s “Boston Public,” Rashida Jones turns 50…
Former talk show host, Sally Jessy Raphael (born Sally Lowenthal) turns 91… Owner of both the MLB’s Chicago White Sox (since 1981) and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls (since 1985), Jerry M. Reinsdorf turns 90… Former president of the Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, EVP of the UJA-Federation of New York and first-ever CEO of United Jewish Communities, Stephen Solender turns 88… Science and medicine reporter for The New York Times and author of six books, Gina Bari Kolata turns 78… Former CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Steve Gutow turns 77… Jerusalem-based attorney and chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, Marc Zell turns 73… Former Israeli minister of foreign affairs and chief of the general staff of the IDF, Gabi Ashkenazi turns 72… Opinion columnist for The New York Times since 2016, after serving as the paper’s editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal turns 70… Former VP of communications at CNN, Barbara Levin… Policy editor at The Bulwark, Mona Charen Parker turns 69… CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo from 2015-2024, now a senior advisor there, Rob Goldberg… U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2021-2023, Thomas Richard Nides turns 65… Mayor of Burlington, Vt., from 2012-2024, Miro Weinberger turns 56… Founder of “News Not Noise,” she was previously the chief White House correspondent for CNN, Jessica Sage Yellin… Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, she is now VP of product content engineering for Meta, Anne Elise Kornblut turns 53… Co-founder of Singapore-based Alchemist Travel, Lauren Raps… Comedian, actress and writer, Chelsea Joy Handler turns 51… Managing director of Covenant Wines in Berkeley, Calif., Sagie Kleinlerer… Former assistant director at San Francisco-based EUQINOM Gallery, Lyla Rose Holdstein… Founding partner of Parallel Capital and board chair of the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, Guy Lipa… Actor best known for his role in Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle,” Justin Berfield turns 40… Born in Tel Aviv, raised in Arizona, now a business correspondent for CNN, Hadas Gold turns 38… 2013 U.S. national figure skating champion, now a VP at Franklin Templeton, Maxwell Theodore “Max” Aaron turns 34… Julie Goldman… Founder of Ramah in the Rockies and former chairman of National Jewish Health, David Engleberg…
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