Israel lands Larijani blow

👋 Good Tuesday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on the breaking news that Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, was killed in an overnight Israeli strike, and cover the IDF’s plans for a limited ground operation in Lebanon. We look at how Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is navigating conversations about Israel in recent podcast interviews, and report on a settlement between the Justice Department and the Iran-linked Alavi Foundation that will allow a successor to the New York-based group to continue to recoup control of its assets. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Kamran Hekmati, Emmanuel Navon and Jon Hornstein.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed this morning that Israel had killed Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council, in overnight strikes. Larijani had been designated in January by since-assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to ensure the regime’s survival. Also killed in the overnight strikes was Basij paramilitary force commander Gholamreza Soleimani. Read more here.
In Washington, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is slated to brief a small bipartisan group of senators on the status of the Iran war in a meeting organized by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
The meeting comes after a report that Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had engaged in direct communication in recent days. On Monday night, Araghchi denied the back channel, saying that their last communication took place prior to the onset of the war late last month.
On Capitol Hill, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on reforming U.S. defense sales with officials from the State and Defense Departments as well as the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
In the wake of last week’s attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., a delegation of Jewish officials from the Detroit area, including Jewish Federations of North America Chair (and Michigan native) Gary Torgow, Jewish Federation of Detroit CEO Steve Ingber, Temple Israel Rabbi Jennifer Lader and Gary Sikorski, the Detroit federation’s security director, will be meeting with legislators.
It’s primary day in Illinois. We’ll be closely watching the results of a handful of high-profile Democratic congressional primaries in the Chicagoland area that will offer an early test of pro-Israel groups’ clout.
The Jewish Funders Network convening wraps up today in San Diego.
The Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference also concludes today. At this morning’s plenary, New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft will be awarded with the group’s Changemaker Award. The Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein and author and former NFL player Emmanuel Acho are also slated to speak. At this afternoon’s closing session, Scott Galloway, Dan Senor, Pamela Nadell and Nancy and Bob Milgrim, the parents of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim, will speak. More below.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Israel has a long history of conflict and military operations in Lebanon, and the IDF is now preparing for a broader ground incursion against Hezbollah.

After Hezbollah joined Hamas in attacking Israel a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Israel launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon and airstrikes against Hezbollah targets throughout the country, most famously killing the terrorist organization’s then-leader Hassan Nasrallah, and conducting its exploding pager operation in the fall of 2024.

But a few months after taking out the group’s entire leadership, leaving in place an uncharismatic and apparently flailing Naim Qassem in charge, Israel, at the behest of the Biden administration, reached a ceasefire with Lebanon in November 2024.

According to that ceasefire, the Lebanese government and military were meant to disarm Hezbollah and ensure it stays out of the area south of the Litani River, some 17 miles north of the border with Israel. Late last year, Israel started to voice concerns that Beirut was not keeping its commitments and that Hezbollah was regrouping.

Now, Israelis are experiencing deja vu: Once again, Hezbollah joined an attack on Israel a day later — this time, from its main patron, Iran — and has frequently launched rockets and missiles at Israel’s north. Israel started out with airstrikes in response, then, over a week later, began limited ground incursions into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government said a million residents — 20% of the country’s population — have been evacuated; the IDF has acknowledged about half that number. Israelis have not been evacuated from Israel’s north — the 2023-2024 policy was unpopular and many residents have not returned — but they are living under constant attack.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

ON PRINCIPLE

Josh Shapiro tests measured, pro-Israel message in progressive podcast tour

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sits for an interview at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on June 11, 2025. (Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

As Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro eyes a 2028 presidential run, he is using a series of big-name podcast interviews to refine and test out his messaging on Israel — and taking aim at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential rival, in the process. In interviews with the “Pod Save America” and “Higher Learning” podcasts that dropped in recent days, Shapiro put himself in the line of fire from interviewers with more left-wing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than he holds. In response, he made the case that, as the starting point for any public political conversation about Israel, the fact of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state must be respected, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Podcast playback: “I think what is dangerous here, and I’m not accusing you of this by any stretch, is for those who think Israel doesn’t have a right to exist in [the] conversation. That to me is a recipe for permanent war,” Shapiro told “Higher Learning” host Van Lathan, who said a national conversation about Israel is needed. At an event earlier this month, Newsom said that Israel could “appropriately” be described as an apartheid state. In response to a question about Newsom’s comment from “Pod Save America” co-host Jon Lovett, Shapiro castigated the California governor — without invoking his name — for using inflammatory language. “If we really want peace, and I believe you want that, then we’ve also got to be acknowledging that language matters here, that words matter.”

Read the full story here.