Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight tomorrow’s Colorado Democratic primaries as far-left insurgents target two of the state’s top Democrats, and report on the weekend clashes between the U.S. and Iran following Tehran's violations of the MOU signed earlier this month. We look at an effort by the California Faculty Association to repeal restrictions on gatherings put into place after the wave of anti-Israel encampments on college campuses, and report on the pivot by Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, to oppose a U.S.-Israel cooperation provision in the 2027 NDAA. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Scott Wiener, Mike Waltz and Robby Hoffman.
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.
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- We’re keeping a close eye on the situation in the Gulf, following Iran’s targeting of commercial vessels last week and retaliatory U.S. strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Earlier today, Iranian state media published comments from President Masoud Pezeshkian calling the agreement with the U.S. — which will include the unfreezing of some $6 billion in Iranian funds — “a great victory for the Iranian people.”
- It’s the final day of campaigning ahead of Colorado’s primaries on Tuesday. More below on the top races we’re watching.
- Elsewhere in Colorado, the Aspen Ideas Festival continues today. This afternoon, Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will sit for a conversation about the role of government in the cryptocurrency market, followed by a conversation between Kim Ghattas, Karim Sadjadpour and Mark Dubowitz about Iran.
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A QUICK WORD WITH JI'S MELISSA WEISS |
As tensions run high in the Gulf following exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend, a vastly different security situation is taking shape in Lebanon, with the Trump administration’s top officials — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — taking responsibility for the respective outcomes.
Vance, who led last week’s negotiations with Iran in Switzerland, said upon his departure from the talks that a “good foundation” had been established between the countries. But that foundation displayed its first cracks just three days later, when Iranian drones fired on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the U.S. to strike Iranian military infrastructure.
The vice president’s tone changed by the weekend, when he said that if Iran had “disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence.” The Iranians skipped technical talks slated for Sunday, saying that the U.S. had not fulfilled the condition of the MOU that would release billions in frozen funds.
Now, officials say that the U.S. and Iranian delegations have agreed to hold fire and will meet in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday to discuss the status of the Strait of Hormuz.
In Washington, officials are meanwhile celebrating the signing of a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon that would see Israel scale back its presence in southern Lebanon, creating two “pilot zones” for the Lebanese Armed Forces to administer.
Read the rest of 'What You Should Know' here.
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Will Colorado’s primaries be the far-left insurgency’s next big wins? |
The wave of victories for Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates in New York City on Tuesday is buoying the hopes of progressives that the far left can pull off upsets against two Democratic incumbents in Colorado’s Tuesday primary elections, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Off to the races: Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) is facing a challenge from Melat Kiros, whose campaign has attracted substantial national attention and backing from several anti-Israel organizations and individuals. Just this week, she declined to describe the firebombing of a Boulder, Colo., hostage awareness march as antisemitic. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) is also facing a DSA-aligned challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, though her campaign hasn’t garnered as much attention as Kiros’. A local Democratic strategist said that he expects DeGette to be victorious but that the race is the most serious challenge she’s faced in her time in office. He also predicted a Hickenlooper victory.
Read the full story here.
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Scott Wiener becomes the latest progressive Jewish Democrat to face antisemitic harassment |
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, the front-runner to succeed retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in Congress, has become the target of antisemitic harassment twice in the last week in his San Francisco district, marking the latest example of a high-profile progressive Jewish politician being singled out and facing threats for his background, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.
Forced out: On Friday, Wiener, on his way to participate in a Pride Shabbat service at a transgender march in San Francisco, was chased out of the event by anti-Israel activists. In a video posted by one local anti-Israel activist, the activist follows Wiener around, attacking him for “being terrible on Gaza,” adding, “You do not belong here anymore, Scott. And it breaks my f—ing heart.” Soon after the initial engagement, other even-more hostile activists start cursing at Wiener, with one calling him a “genocidal piece of sh—” and another saying, “F— you and your Zionist handlers.” Two days earlier, Wiener, while watching a World Cup game with staffers at a local bar, was berated by another anti-Israel activist who demanded he say the words “Free Palestine” on camera.
Read the full story here.
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U.S., Iran trade weekend strikes, testing fragile peace deal |
The U.S. and Iran traded strikes over the weekend, testing the fragile memorandum of understanding signed between the countries earlier this month. The U.S. first accused Iran of violating the ceasefire after it launched drone attacks on a Singapore-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Tit for tat: In a “powerful response” to Iran’s “unwarranted aggression,” CENTCOM said, the U.S. struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites on Friday. On Saturday, CENTCOM said Iran was “given [another] chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to” when it launched another one-way attack drone on a Panama-flagged oil tanker earlier that morning. In retaliation, the U.S. targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air-defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities, CENTCOM said. By Sunday afternoon, the U.S. and Iran had agreed to cease their strikes and meet on Tuesday in Qatar to discuss the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reported.
Read the full story here.
Policy shift: As the Trump administration moves to dismantle much of the decades-old U.S. sanctions regime imposed on Syria, the White House and lawmakers have signaled that it could soon lift its designation of Damascus as a state sponsor of terrorism, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
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Top Armed Services Democrat flips on U.S.-Israel cooperation provision in defense bill |
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, now says he plans to support efforts to strip a provision on U.S.-Israel cooperation from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, after arguing strenuously against similar efforts during the committee’s markup of the same bill weeks ago, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Breaking it down: The provision, based on the FUTURES Act, is relatively routine, creating a single official to oversee all U.S.-Israel cooperative programs in developing and acquiring defense technologies, and builds on existing programs. But critics have falsely claimed the provision would irrevocably link the U.S. and Israeli militaries and undermine American sovereignty. Smith himself said during the committee markup that the way critics have described the amendment “is simply not accurate” and that the provision should not be treated as a referendum on the U.S.-Israel relationship. In a message to constituents viewed by JI, Smith said he now supports removing the provision.
Read the full story here.
Elsewhere on the Hill: Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee are warning that an effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to cut aid to Israel from the State Department’s annual funding bill could have further-reaching consequences than intended and could impact a range of other programs and issues, JI has learned.
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At Aspen Ideas, Robert Kagan says U.S.’ Israel support was ‘never for strategic reasons’ |
Historian and prominent neoconservative foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan claimed the U.S. was “never supporting Israel for strategic reasons” and that American strategy in the Middle East has come “to be about defending the interests of Israel,” during a live taping on Friday of “The Long Game” podcast — hosted by former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his former deputy, Jon Finer — at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.
Podcast playback: Finer, who served as principal deputy national security advisor in the Biden administration and also worked with him under President Barack Obama, asked Kagan if he believes Israel is still a democracy and if Israel is still a U.S. ally, “given [their] increasingly divergent interests.” Calling Israel “at least an imperfect democracy,” Kagan said, “Our discussion of Israel [has become] one in which we began to believe that we had a vital interest in supporting Israel. We started supporting Israel out of a sense of moral obligation. And I think that was a noble thing to do after World War II and the Holocaust, etc. But we never were supporting Israel for strategic reasons.”
Read the full story here.
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California faculty union leads backdoor maneuver to repeal campus protest restrictions |
The 29,000-member California Faculty Association, California State University’s teachers’ union, is spearheading a backdoor legislative push to repeal the time, place and manner restrictions implemented across the state’s university system following its 2024 anti-Israel encampments, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Campus beat: The California Faculty Association, which represents faculty across the 23 campuses of the California State University system, announced it would sponsor AB 2551, authored by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary. AB 2551 would repeal SB 1287 — California’s landmark campus safety and civil rights law — in its entirety by Jan. 1, 2029. Under SB 1287, which was introduced in 2024, California’s public universities and colleges must adopt and enforce rules against violence, harassment, intimidation and discrimination.
Read the full story here.
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Perks for Pakistan: The Financial Times’ Humza Jilani spotlights Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir’s efforts to position Islamabad to financially benefit from a deal between the U.S. and Iran. “The larger hope is to ensure the country remains sufficiently relevant to its key partners in the U.S. and the Gulf to guarantee steady support and wean the country off a mountain of external debt, analysts and officials say. The relationship with the Trump administration helped position ‘Pakistan as a long-term stakeholder in West Asian security and stability, and provides a major opportunity to reap the economic dividends that will come with the role,’ said Kamran Bokhari, senior resident fellow with the Middle East Policy Council in Washington.” [FT]
Lesson From Louisiana: In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Kovacs, the former editor of New Orleans’ Times-Picayune, contrasts Democrats’ embrace of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, whose tattoo of a Nazi totenkopf has drawn widespread scrutiny, with Republicans’ rejection of former KKK leader David Duke, the party’s candidate in Louisiana’s 1991 gubernatorial runoff. “Republicans gave up the Louisiana governorship, but they achieved something more important: David Duke faded from the scene, though he kept running for office until 2016, when he finished seventh in a U.S. Senate jungle primary. … Democrats may wish they had followed the GOP’s 1991 example. Mr. Platner could win, but Republicans and their media supporters will make [Sens. Bernie] Sanders and [Chuck] Schumer — and their party’s presidential nominees — wear that tattoo for years.” [WSJ]
Slip, Sliding Away: The New York Times’ David Halbfinger talks to Israeli officials and analysts about Washington’s slipping support for the country following the latest wave of Democratic Socialists of America primary wins. “[Asaf] Zamir, the Tel Aviv deputy mayor, said, ‘I’m waking up and hearing that we’re “genocidal” and “apartheid.” I’m a left wing, two-state, pro-peace Israeli, but I’m not blind or crazy,’ he added. ‘I know what the situation in Israel is, and we’re not those things we’re being called. And yet, more and more Americans are buying into and voting on those grounds. That troubles me.’” [NYTimes]
Bondi and Beyond: In The New Yorker, Oscar Schwartz looks at how last year’s terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney ignited a political debate in Australia that goes beyond the events at Bondi Beach. “In the immediate fallout of the mass shooting, Australia’s political discourse was dominated by two topics, gun control and antisemitism, with some casting the issues in oppositional terms. … The political backlash to the shooting at Bondi can be seen as a product of fear stoked by the attack, of course, but beneath that a deeper anxiety about the transformations occurring in Australian society can be detected.” [NewYorker]
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to express support for Israel as a Jewish state in an interview with ABC News aired Sunday, saying, “Any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can't tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else”...
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz posted a photo from Saturday’s Argentina-Jordan World Cup match alongside his wife, former Homeland Security Advisor Julia Nesheiwat — whose parents immigrated from Jordan — and the Jordanian royal family, writing, “Only in America!”...
The Washington Post does a deep dive into the “extraordinary feud” between leading Senate Republicans and Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy; the Post also reports that Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is continuing to block the nominations of Colby acolytes Alex Velez-Green and Austin Dahmer…
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) raised concerns about Qatar's relationship with Iran and role as an intermediary in U.S.-Iran talks, telling "Fox News Sunday" that Doha is "not our friend"...
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced a resolution requesting information on Israel’s human rights practices in its campaign in Lebanon and whether Israel has used U.S.-provided equipment in such activities…
Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced a bill to expand the BARD program, which supports joint U.S.-Israel agricultural cooperation, to support mid-stage research…
U.C. Berkeley announced the planned launch of the Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy, a nonpartisan institute named after the former House speaker that will focus on civic engagement…
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it is conducting a review of its database of journalists killed during the Israel-Hamas war after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad posted obituaries for combatants who had been listed by CPJ as journalists in Gaza…
Montgomery County, Md., Councilmember Will Jawondo on Friday declared victory in the race for county executive, having secured 40% of the tallied vote; County Councilmember Andrew Friedson, who had 34% of the vote, conceded on Sunday…
The New York Times Magazine profiles comic Robby Hoffman about the “Hacks” star’s religious upbringing in Crown Heights and career trajectory…
The head of Venezuela’s largest Ashkenazi congregation said that three members of the country’s 5,000-strong Jewish community were confirmed to have been killed in the dual earthquakes that rocked the country last week…
Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market and H-E-B will begin selling products from plant-based meat company Chunk Foods as the Israeli company, founded by Amos Golan, continues its U.S. expansion…
More than two dozen people were killed in clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after Pakistani forces launched strikes and a ground operation it said targeted militant hideouts; Afghan officials said women and children were killed and injured in the attack...
The Israeli government approved a NIS 100 million ($33.4 million) budget, which will be matched by philanthropic donations, to support Jewish day school education in the United States and Canada through the Jewish Federations of North America, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…
The Financial Times spotlights U.S. efforts to modernize the production of its military arsenal and shift from expensive and time-intensive weapons to artillery that can be quickly mass-produced…
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are reportedly using the recent calm in the region to conduct missile tests in preparation for potential future conflict with Israel…
The U.K.'s Times reports that Qatar provided all-expenses-paid trips to the World Cup for 1,000 “fake” fans to support the Gulf team at its matches…
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The Jewish War Veterans Department of Michigan, alongside the leaders of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., held a ceremony on Sunday honoring the first responders to the March terror attack at the synagogue by a Hezbollah sympathizer.
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ARAYA DOHENY/VARIETY VIA GETTY IMAGES
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Screenwriter, director and producer, he has won nine Emmy Awards for his work on AMC's "Mad Men" and HBO's "The Sopranos," Matthew Hoffman Weiner turns 61...
Baltimore-area gastroenterologist, he is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Marshall S. Bedine, M.D.... Chairman of Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise ship operator (includes Carnival, Cunard, Holland America and others), and owner of the NBA's Miami Heat, Micky Arison turns 77... Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Jerusalem, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik turns 77... Former assistant surgeon general of the U.S. and deputy assistant secretary of HHS for women's health, Susan Jane Blumenthal, M.D. turns 74... Former SVP and counsel at Columbus, Ohio-based L Brands for almost 30 years, now a consultant, Bruce A. Soll... CEO of two firms including Aliya Marketing Group, Joshua Karlin... Israeli actor, screenwriter, playwright and film director, Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari turns 66... Founder and president of Medallion Financial Corp., Andrew Murstein turns 62... Senior rabbi of Toronto's Beth Tzedec Congregation, Rabbi Steven C. Wernick turns 59... Theater, film and television screenwriter, his credits include the 2017 film “Wonder Woman,” Allan Heinberg turns 59... Israeli political consultant and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ari Harow turns 53... Consultant, facilitator, trainer and coach, Nanette Rochelle Fridman... Rabbi of The Young Israel of Bal Harbour (Fla.), Gidon Moskovitz... Film and television director and writer, she is known for writing and directing the films “Obvious Child” and “Landline,” Gillian Robespierre turns 48... Former member of the U.K. Parliament for the Labour party, she is now a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Ruth Smeeth turns 47... Israeli actor and model, Yehuda Levi turns 47... President and dean of Phoenix-based Valley Beit Midrash and author of 30 books, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz... Partner at FGS Global, Andrew Duberstein... Pitcher for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he then played in the Mexican League, Charles Irvin "Bubby" Rossman turns 34... Campaign finance consultant, who has raised money for Hillary Clinton and the DNC, David Wolf... Steven Kohn... Sara Sansone... Fred Gruber...
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