Mamdani’s wife liked posts celebrating Oct. 7

Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the scoop on New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji’s social media support for posts celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, and profile Democratic political consultant Morris Katz, who has helped elevate a number of candidates with anti-Israel leanings. We spotlight podcaster Jack Cocchiarella, who has become increasingly critical of Israel as he has gained prominence in recent months, and report on the failed House effort to pass a war powers resolution. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Alan Greenspan, Yoav Gallant and Noam Bettan.

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.

For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Trump posthumously honors WWII Sgt. Roddie Edmonds for saving American Jews; Gavin Newsom shifts hard left on Israel policy amid presidential primary considerations; and Vast majority of Israelis support the war against Iran, while most Americans oppose it, polls find. Print the latest edition here.

What We’re Watching

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are expected to meet this afternoon at the White House.
Team Israel takes the field tomorrow night against Venezuela at the World Baseball Classic in Miami.
On Sunday, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, former Biden administration official Anne Neuberger and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg will give the keynote addresses at Birthright’s Excelerate26 summit taking place in Manhattan.
Elsewhere in New York on Sunday, Israeli Olympic bobsledder AJ Edelman will sit in conversation with Neil Goldman at Chabad West Village.
Cardozo Law School’s two-day Law and Antisemitism Conference kicks off on Sunday.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

The rapid turn within the Democratic Party against Israel — especially from several of its prospective presidential candidates — is awfully reminiscent of right-wing Republicans’ growing agitation against Ukraine several years ago when the Biden administration provided support to Kyiv as it defended itself from Russian aggression.

Both situations involved an activist faction of the party out of the White House speaking out against a longtime ally, fueled by conspiracy theories and memes floating online. It was propelled by a growing isolationist vibe within both parties that the country should focus on domestic concerns instead of dealing with national security challenges abroad. And it led many politically ambitious elected officials who knew better to spout some of the most poisonous slander against close partners who are (literally) under fire from enemies.

In our polarized political landscape, support for Israel and Ukraine are now becoming partisan issues — Republican elected officials and voters are overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, while Democrats are standing by Ukraine.

As The Atlantic’s David Frum put it: “The two most militarily capable US allies are Ukraine and Israel. Weird to have a political system where one of the two parties despises the first, and the other is deciding it hates and resents the second. America needs and benefits from both those friendships!”

There were plenty of senior Republican figures who withstood political pressure to vote for military funding for Ukraine despite the tough internal politics, and now Democrats are facing that same type of pressure to abandon the Jewish state for short-term political gain.

Given that California Gov. Gavin Newsom — one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates — is now saying the U.S. should reconsider its military support for Israel, and that it’s reasonable to consider Israel as an apartheid state, it’s clear that the party is facing a moment of choosing.

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

control of the skies

Israel, U.S. have ‘near-total air superiority’ over Iran, IDF chief says

Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir salutes during the funeral of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin who was killed during the six-week 2014 war in Gaza, at a military cemetery in Kfar Saba on November 11, 2025.

The U.S. and Israel have almost total control of Iranian airspace, the IDF’s chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, said in a video statement on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports. They “achieved near-complete air superiority over Iranian skies,” and Operation Roaring Lion, as Israel named the war with Iran, is entering its second phase, Zamir said.

What’s next: Also on Thursday, the IDF launched its 26th wave of strikes in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut —a stronghold of the Hezbollah terrorist militia — hitting over 500 targets, including some in residential buildings in the Lebanese capital that the military said were used for terrorist infrastructure and UAV storage. Israel killed the head of Hezbollah’s firepower array, known as Fidaa, whom Zamir said was “responsible for the deaths of many Israelis.” Meanwhile, President Donald Trump told Politico he plans to have a decisive influence on the next leader of Iran. “I’m going to have a big impact [on Iran’s future leadership], or they’re not going to have any settlement, because we’re not going to have to do this again,” Trump said. “We’ll work with the people and the regime to make sure that somebody gets there that can nicely build Iran but without nuclear weapons.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus: The New York Times profiles Zamir, describing him as the “architect” of Israel’s war strategy in Iran.

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scoop

Zohran Mamdani’s wife liked social media posts celebrating Oct. 7 attacks

Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, and his wife Rama Duwaji during a news conference at Gracie Mansion in New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the mayoral campaign distancing himself from the most radical anti-Israel elements of his leftist movement, but an examination of his wife’s social media activity reveals she liked multiple Instagram posts cheering on Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports. The posts liked by Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, unambiguously celebrated the terrorist attack, which saw nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign workers killed, thousands wounded, 251 civilians and military personnel kidnapped and numerous episodes of sexual assault.

Problematic posts: The first post, shared on the day of Hamas’ onslaught, came from The Slow Factory, and shows stills from participants’ livestreamed footage of the attack with the words “Breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation,” and on the latter “Resisting apartheid since 1948,” and on both the slogan “Systemic change for collective liberation.” It is unclear when Duwaji liked the Slow Factory post, or the materials that the People’s Forum posted to Instagram on Oct. 8, 2023, from protests the organization led alongside the Democratic Socialists of America and allied organizations in Times Square one day after the attack on Israel.

Read the full story here.