Rice says put Iran in pressure cooker
Plus, meet Trump’s Jewish UFO czar
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In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s suggestion that the U.S. forgo diplomacy with Iran and continue to pressure Tehran, and cover a meeting this week between the Board of Peace’s Nickolay Mladenov and Aryeh Lightstone and the executive board of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States. We report on the House’s passage of a bill opposed by some Orthodox Jewish groups that would permanently institute daylight saving time, and interview Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who is now serving as the Trump administration’s UFO czar. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Michael Diamond, Elena Kagan and George Deek.
We have also launched a new on-demand Live Briefing that you can access throughout the day via our new app (on Apple and Android) and on our website.
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
- President Donald Trump is slated to speak at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, organized by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), at the U.S. Army War College today. Additional speakers include Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
- A vote on Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) legislation to strip all U.S. aid to Israel out of the 2027 State Department appropriations bill could come for a vote as soon as today. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Tuesday that he opposes the legislation, but also argued for “urgent change” in the U.S.-Israel relationship, including changes to U.S. aid going forward. Read more here.
- The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold its rescheduled confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, the Trump administration’s nominee to be director of national intelligence. Originally slated to testify before the committee last month, Clayton heeded a directive from Trump not to appear as the president battled Congress on voter-ID legislation.
- The Hudson Institute is hosting a fireside chat this morning with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY).
- The Aspen Security Forum continues today in Colorado, with sessions focused on a range of issues including China, Europe and trade challenges. Later in the day, the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka and Marc Thiessen will record an episode of their “What the Hell Is Going On” podcast with former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy and former National Security Advisors Stephen Hadley and Robert O’Brien.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH
As Maine Democrats pick up the pieces of Graham Platner’s failed Senate campaign and quickly try to find a replacement for the scandal-tarred candidate on the ballot, moderate Democrats in Michigan, where a primary is fast approaching, are in a race against time to prevent another far-left Senate candidate from capturing a valuable nomination.
The final three weeks of the Michigan primary will be 2026’s most consequential test yet for the power the party establishment still holds, particularly in a pivotal swing state. After socialist candidates scored a number of surprise victories in heavily blue districts in New York City, Philadelphia and Denver, party leaders are fighting with renewed vigor to rally behind Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the primary against her left-wing challenger, Abdul El-Sayed.
Retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) endorsed Stevens on Monday, a pivot from his announcement in May that he planned to stay out of the race, joining Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had already backed the congresswoman. The party’s left flank — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) — is backing El-Sayed.
“The change of heart is we just know that we have to hold Michigan,” Peters said on “Morning Joe” on Tuesday of his decision to endorse, with Stevens sitting beside him. “She’s an outstanding candidate and I certainly hope that folks get behind her around the country and understand that she’s the right person to be the next senator from the state of Michigan.”
There are fresh signs that the late push for Stevens from Democratic leaders — along with millions in ad spending from pro-Stevens outside groups — has given the congresswoman momentum in the closing stretch of the race. A new poll commissioned by the Detroit News found Stevens pulling ahead of El-Sayed by seven points, 48-41%, after she trailed in most public polls this year.
LITMUS TEST
Khanna pressed to support Oct. 7 attacks in Drop Site interview
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), fresh off a trip to the West Bank where he alleges he was unjustly detained by Israeli settlers and Israeli military forces, faced a barrage of criticism in a Drop Site News interview on Tuesday for refusing to endorse Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Back-and-forth: In the lengthy exchange, Drop Site co-founder Jeremy Scahill repeatedly questioned Khanna, a 2028 presidential hopeful, on why he would not express support for Hamas attacks on Israeli soldiers. Scahill framed the Oct. 7 attacks as primarily targeting Israeli military bases and soldiers, despite the fact that the group attacked many civilian communities and fired thousands of rockets at civilian centers. Further angering Scahill, Khanna said he believed Israel had a right to go after Hamas terrorists “who killed the civilians” on Oct. 7, “but not in the way they went about it, which I said is genocide.”
WAR WORRIES
Amid Iran war concerns, Democrats pump brakes on Senate defense bill
Citing concerns about the Iran war and the administration’s elevated defense funding request, Senate Democrats voted in lockstep on Tuesday evening to block a procedural motion to open debate on the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, despite the bill passing out of the Armed Services Committee with bipartisan support, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Why it matters: The decision to block the start of debate on the NDAA — an annual must-pass bill which typically garners strong bipartisan support — is a rare and significant step by Democrats signaling significant frustrations with the Trump administration’s ongoing war against Iran. Some anti-Israel voices have sought to cast the vote as a rejection of a provision in the bill expanding U.S.-Israel military cooperation but only a handful of Democrats have cited that as part of their reasoning for opposing the bill.
Trade-off: President Donald Trump on Tuesday walked back his announcement, made the previous day, that the U.S. would institute a 20% fee on cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz, saying the toll would be replaced by trade deals with Gulf states, but providing no details, JI’s Christina Sher reports.
HEARD AT ASPEN
Condoleezza Rice warns against any Iran deal, urges to keep the pressure on
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday opposed any nuclear deal with Iran, arguing that the U.S. should continue pressure on Iran’s economy and “see what happens,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports from the Aspen Security Forum.
Assessment: Meanwhile, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, speaking alongside Rice on a panel, suggested that the U.S. had potentially overestimated its capabilities in the war, agreeing that continued economic pressure and a renewed blockade are the best strategy going forward. Both also offered strong criticisms of U.S. allies for not joining with and even attempting to obstruct the U.S. campaign against Iran. “I would not buy a nuclear agreement under any circumstances. I’d let them sit there and stew in their lousy economy … and let’s just see what happens,” Rice said.
DST DEBATE
House passes permanent daylight saving time bill, concerning Orthodox Jewish groups
In a bipartisan vote pushed in part by President Donald Trump, the House passed the Sunshine Protection Act, making daylight saving time permanent, a situation that raises concerns for Orthodox Jewish groups that have long warned that such a move would have negative impacts for Jewish morning prayer and potentially raise dangers for school children who have to travel to school before daybreak, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
State of play: The bill passed the House by a 308-117 vote, with 95 Democrats and 22 Republicans voting no. The issue has been a priority for Trump, and lawmakers have also included the same legislation in a must-pass transportation bill, with near unanimous support in committee. Orthodox groups now say they’re placing their hopes on the Senate to stop the bill from passing, where the policy has some vocal opponents.
SPACE MAN
The Israeli scientist at the center of Trump’s search for answers on UFOs
President Donald Trump has a border czar, a government official leading the crackdown on undocumented immigrants — whom the White House calls “illegal aliens” — crossing the southern border. The president, who likes to go big, now also has a UFO czar, a Harvard astrophysicist who is scanning the cosmos in search of aliens of the science-fiction variety, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
From farm to universe: It’s a stunning if improbable career highlight for Avi Loeb, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi Germany and settled in a communal farm in central Israel. As a child, Loeb had a lot of time alone with his thoughts — walking around to collect eggs from the chickens, or driving a tractor to the surrounding hills, where he would sit and read philosophy books. “I was deeply interested in the most fundamental questions of our existence,” Loeb told JI in a recent interview.
BRUSSELS BUNCH
Mladenov, Lightstone meet with Middle East rabbis in Brussels
Nickolay Mladenov and Aryeh Lightstone, respectively the high representative for the Board of Peace and the body’s senior advisor, met in Brussels earlier this week with rabbis representing Jewish communities across the Islamic world, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports.
Money for Gaza: Mladenov and Lightstone met with the executive board of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States at the group’s annual two-day board meeting. On Monday, the two also attended the second convening of the EU-backed Palestine Donor Group, as the collective of some 65 delegations launched a billion-dollar initiative to begin the economic recovery of the Gaza Strip. Jared Kushner joined the donor conference by video. Among those in attendance at the board meeting were rabbis from Morocco and Turkey.
Worthy Reads
Stroke of the PEN: In The Wall Street Journal, author Meg Keene addresses a recent article from PEN America that detailed the isolation of Israeli and Jewish writers following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, the publication of which prompted the resignation of the organization’s president. “The article acknowledges that the accounts reveal ‘blatant hostility, discrimination, and hate.’ That should have been the thesis, not an aside. PEN can see the discrimination; it struggles to name it when the targets are Jews and Israelis and the method is anti-Zionist exclusion. PEN America’s article claims to describe a silent moratorium. Its president’s resignation broke that silence. The scandal, apparently, wasn’t the marginalization of Jewish and Israeli writers; it was PEN’s willingness to acknowledge, even tentatively, that it is going on.” [WSJ]
Don’t Chase the Iranians: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius suggests that President Donald Trump should not rush diplomacy with Iran, arguing that Tehran is headed toward eventual collapse. “I’m usually an enthusiast for diplomacy, but for now, we should stop chasing the Iranians — through the front channel, back channel or anything in between. Let’s wait and see. The Iranian government is obviously split. … A genuine peace with Iran ‘will come in two weeks, or two months, or two years,’ as one U.S. negotiator puts it. Trying to rush that timetable hasn’t worked. But I think the Iranian regime is still on a one-way street to an eventual demise, however long that takes.” [WashPost]
Beyond the Startup Nation: In Time, Frayda Leibtag looks at the economic impact of nearly three years of war on Israelis who work outside the country’s high-tech bubble. “The high-tech sector driving the headline numbers is small. It employs only about one in nine Israeli workers, pays them close to three times the average wage in the rest of the economy, and earns most of its revenue from customers abroad, who keep paying when the sirens sound. The other eight out of nine Israeli workers make their living in shops, farms, and one-person businesses that depend on local customers, the ones who stay home and lose a day’s income every time the fighting flares up. Those Israelis have borne much of the toll of the war.” [Time]
A larger selection of Worthy Reads is available in our Live Briefing.
Word on the Street
President Donald Trump held a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday night ahead of a fresh bombing campaign targeting Iran this morning, including rare daylight strikes…
Following a complaint by the U.S., Israel lifted its restriction on the number of American refueling jets permitted at Ben Gurion Airport, a day after Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced that no more than 20 refuelers would be permitted to land at the airport due to overcrowding that threatened to cancel commercial flights in the coming weeks…
Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that Israel should begin redeploying its troops currently stationed in southern Syria, suggesting that the IDF’s presence threatens to escalate tensions in the area; Trump also said that the IDF should withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon to avoid a similar escalation there…
Israeli media reports that Netanyahu is planning to travel to the U.S. this weekend, and will attend the funeral of late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), expected to be held on Tuesday…
Trump hosted five Holocaust survivors in the Oval Office on Tuesday; the group also met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Jared Kushner…
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Kushner were spotted in the Senate chambers during the swearing-in of Graham‘s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill the remainder of her brother’s Senate term following his death over the weekend…
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who along with Justice Amy Coney Barrett testified on Capitol Hill yesterday about the Supreme Court’s budget request, reflected on her now-viral exchange with Graham during her 2010 confirmation hearing, during which he asked her how she spent Christmas and she responded that she spent the day “like all Jews … probably at a Chinese restaurant”; testifying on Tuesday, Kagan said, “Many people have talked about how funny Senator Graham was… What I remember about that hearing was that somehow Senator Graham made me look funny, which is a harder thing entirely”…
Former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the school’s anti-Israel protests, is suing the federal government, the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar, alleging a coordinated campaign targeting student activists who organized against Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza…
The New York Times spotlights Michael Diamond — known to Beastie Boy fans as Mike D — ahead of the release of the performer’s first solo album following the 2012 death of bandmate Adam Yauch…
An 82-year-old Israeli man who was wounded in an Iranian missile attack that struck his apartment building in Haifa in April died of his injuries earlier today…
The Israeli government announced the allocation of $431 million to fund the construction of several dozen new West Bank settlements over the next four years…
The Wall Street Journal reports on allegations from human rights groups that the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel significantly deteriorated following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks…
Gabe Stutman has joined Inside Political Money as a senior reporter…
Leonard Abramson, who pioneered the industry of HMOs following his creation of U.S. Healthcare, died at 93…
Pic of the Day
George Deek, who serves as Israel’s special envoy to the Christian world, on Tuesday inaugurated a new trauma center at the English Hospital in Nazareth, Israel, that had been funded by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Birthdays
Immediate past board chair of The Jewish Federations of North America, Julie Beren Platt (pictured with her husband, Marc, and Barbra Streisand)…
Member of the British House of Lords, he is a professor, medical doctor, scientist, television anchor and Labour party politician, Baron Robert Maurice Lipson Winston turns 86… Israeli composer and conductor, he composed and conducted the winning entry at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, Kobi Oshrat turns 82… Professional sports bettor and poker player, he is a four-time winner of World Series of Poker bracelets, Mickey Appleman turns 81… Physician and life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. David Harris Lippman… Co-rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., one of the largest yeshivas in the world, Rabbi Dovid Schustal turns 79… Congresswoman from Florida for 30 years ending in 2019, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen turns 74… Senior fellow at the Aspen Institute, Elliot Gerson… Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2021-2025, Michael “Mike” Herzog turns 74… Retired California-based appellate attorney, Feris M. Greenberger… Executive director of Friends of OU (Orthodox Union) Israel, Miriam Baron “Mimi” Jankovits… Professor at the UCLA School of Law, Richard Harold Steinberg turns 66… Former political news director at Bloomberg, Jodi Schneider… Member of Congress (D-RI) until 2023, his mother is Sabra née Peskin, David Nicola Cicilline turns 65… Anchorage, Alaska-based attorney, a member of the Alaska House of Representatives since 2012, Andrew Lewis “Andy” Josephson turns 62… Former U.K. Labour party MP including three years as foreign secretary, now CEO of NYC-based International Rescue Committee, David Miliband turns 61… Co-founder and chief investment officer of Toronto-based EdgeStone Capital Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity firms, Gilbert S. Palter… Israeli actor and singer, she is the 1991 and 1998 winner of the Ophir Award (Israel’s Academy Award) for best actress, Dafna Rechter turns 61… Senior advisor at investment bank Greif & Co., he was the CFO of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, David S. Felman… Senior business development representative at Atera, he served for eight years as the Florida synagogue initiative director of AIPAC, Sam Kalmowicz… Senior correspondent at New York magazine, she is a co-author of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Irin Carmon turns 43… Israeli actor, he played Boaz in Season 1 of “Fauda,” Tomer Kapon turns 41… Filmmaker and co-founder of the Square Peg film production company, Ari Aster turns 40… Managing editor of the U.S. deals team at Bloomberg, Liana Baker… Deputy assistant secretary for travel and tourism at the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Biden administration, now CEO of the FIFA World Cup 26 NYNJ host committee, Alexander Lasry turns 39… SVP of campus solutions at Hillel International, Jonathan Steven “Jon” Falk… Independent journalism consultant, Ariel Zirulnick… Senior NFL reporter at Yahoo Sports, she is also the author of a biography of a Holocaust survivor, Jori Epstein…
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