Rubio’s high-stakes Jerusalem-Beirut huddle

👋 Good Tuesday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview today’s high-level talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon, and talk to Senate Republicans about reports of a U.S. request for Iran to pause its enrichment of uranium for 20 years. We report on a call from Rep. Angie Craig, who is mounting a Senate bid, for Minnesota Democrats to investigate antisemitic activity ahead of the state party’s convention, and look at what the election in Hungary of Péter Magyar could portend for Budapest-Jerusalem relations. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Gov. Wes Moore, Noah Wyle and Elkana and Rebecca Bohbot.

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

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will oversee talks in Washington this morning with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh. U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and State Department Counselor Michael Needham will also join the talks, slated to start at 11 a.m. Read more here.
Ahead of the talks, a senior Hezbollah official said the Iran-backed group would not abide by any agreement reached between Beirut and Jerusalem. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has continued since the implementation of the Iran ceasefire, but has largely occurred in southern Lebanon and northern Israel following pressure from the White House for Israel to scale back its attacks in Beirut.
A second round of in-person negotiations between the U.S. and Iran could take place as soon as this week — days before the April 21 expiration of the current ceasefire — following President Donald Trump’s comments yesterday that “we’ve been called by the other side,” who would “like to make a deal very badly, very badly.”
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is hosting its annual Yom HaShoah commemoration on Capitol Hill this morning, with more than 30 Holocaust survivors slated to attend. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Lois Frankel (D-FL) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will participate in the ceremony, during which Ben Ferencz, who served as the U.S.’ chief prosecutor in Nuremberg, will be posthumously honored.
The Atlantic Council is hosting Jacob Helberg, the State Department’s under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, this evening for a discussion on U.S. economic leadership in the Middle East.
Semafor’s World Economy Summit continues today in Washington. Speakers include Helberg, Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and Gary Peters (D-MI), former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Michael Dell, Reid Hoffman, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, Forum AI’s Campbell Brown and Citadel’s Ken Griffin.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S JOSH KRAUSHAAR

Tomorrow (April 15) isn’t just Tax Day, but it’s also the deadline for candidates vying in the pivotal midterms to report their latest fundraising figures — an important marker on the political calendar in determining which candidates are raising enough money to run credible campaigns and which will be left financially behind.

Historically, having a critical mass of prominent, well-heeled supporters was a prerequisite for a congressional candidate being able to get their message out to the public.

Not long ago, candidates with extreme or exotic views — such as those affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America on the left or those embracing conspiracy theories on the far right — would have a hard time being taken seriously by rank-and-file donors, who typically want a back a winner and would shy away from those with far-out-of-the-mainstream views.

Similarly, the pro-Israel community historically benefited from the presence of strong organizations like AIPAC that helped pool supporters’ money to favored candidates, giving them outsized impact within both parties. More recently, AIPAC’s super PAC has led the way in engaging directly in political campaigns, directly spending money on behalf of favored candidates and attacking some of the most radical candidates on the ballot.

But in our brave new decentralized world of politics and media, where a critical mass of small-dollar donations from passionate individuals can easily be amassed online (especially through an incendiary video clip or well-timed fundraising appeal), the comparative advantage of having a defined group of reliable donors can be neutralized by an online feeding frenzy that galvanizes enough individuals to give to a radical cause or candidate.

At the same time, the social media-driven public conversation — without any guardrails and few standards — has totally transformed what is viewed as normal. One recent example: 27-year-old Kat Abughazaleh, a far-left social media influencer without any roots in the Chicago-area district she was running in, raised well over $3 million for her (unsuccessful) primary campaign, fueled by high-volume, low-dollar, largely out-of-state contributions.

If former House Speaker Tip O’Neill once said all politics is local, the opposite is true today. All politics is now nationalized, with the most outlandish hot takes and incendiary commentary most likely to go viral.

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

TEHRAN TALKS

Senate Republicans maintain Iran should have no enrichment capacity, amid reports of 20-year pause proposal

Vice President JD Vance (C) is welcomed by Ishak Dar (R), Pakistan Foreign Minister, and Asim Munir (L), Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, as the US delegation arrive in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, for high-stakes talks with Iran to end the Middle East conflict amid the ongoing two-week ceasefire on April 11, 2026. (Min. of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images)

Senate Republicans maintained the position on Monday that Iran should never be allowed to possess nuclear enrichment capacity, following reports that the administration had proposed a 20-year pause in enrichment — rather than a permanent end to Iran’s enrichment capacity — as part of peace talks in Islamabad over the weekend, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What they’re saying: Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) told JI that he hadn’t seen the reports about the administration’s negotiating position and declined to comment on it specifically, but said more broadly that he does not believe that Iran has any legitimate need for enrichment. “There’s no civilian reason for Iran to have an enrichment program,” Ricketts said. “They’re getting their uranium right now for their civilian program from Russia, and the fact that they have admitted they’ve enriched uranium to near bomb-grade potential demonstrates that this is for nuclear weapon production, not civilian use.”

Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Budd (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-FL), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK) and John Curtis (R-UT).