| | Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza, and cover Capitol Hill’s reaction to his proposal. We talk to Josh Kraft, who yesterday announced his bid for mayor of Boston, and cover today’s reintroduction of the Antisemitism Awareness Act in Congress. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Steve Fulop, Iris Apfel and Ian Epstein.
Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Vice President J.D. Vance in Washington today, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov scooped yesterday. Read more here.
- Netanyahu will also meet this morning with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and this afternoon with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
- Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) are holding a press conference this afternoon on Capitol Hill to announce the reintroduction of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. More below.
- Chabad of Charlotte, N.C., will hold a funeral for American Airlines crew member Ian Epstein, who was killed in last week’s midair collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport.
| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the White House optimistic on Wednesday, telling his advisers that, out of dozens of such visits, the one taking place this week is the most important and historic. A Netanyahu spokesman said just before the meeting that the prime minister and President Donald Trump “see eye to eye.” Yet even in his most optimistic moment, Netanyahu couldn’t have imagined a day that kept getting “better and better and better,” as per a hit song that far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as a couple of right-wing Israeli media figures, quoted in reaction to Trump’s statements, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Netanyahu — still frail from his recent prostate surgery — appeared elated, smiling and chuckling at Trump’s comments. It was as though Trump was checking off items on Netanyahu’s wish list, and when he finished with those, he moved on to the Israeli far right’s list for good measure.
A deal to bring back all the hostages that won’t stop Israel from removing Hamas from Gaza? Check. Maximum pressure on Iran? Check. Vowing Iran won’t get a nuclear weapon? Check. Saudi-Israeli normalization? Check. Dropping his 2020 call for a Palestinian state? Check. Considering Israeli annexation of the West Bank? Check — and keep an eye out for an announcement in the coming weeks.
Netanyahu went into the meeting knowing that Trump was serious about a plan to evacuate Gazans to allow for reconstruction, but the details that the president revealed, first in a photo-op and then in a press conference hours later, sounded like the fever dreams of Rabbi Meir Kahane disciple and former Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Kahane, banned from the Knesset in the 1980s on grounds of racism, advocated for Israel to pay Arabs to leave. In Trump’s formulation, the nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza would be permanently removed to other countries — and wealthy Arab states would be the ones to foot the bill.
In such a scenario, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer would no longer need to work on formulating a “day-after plan” for Gaza, because Trump said the U.S. was going to “take over” and “own” the territory, turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” for people from all over the world to move into. And if that would require U.S. boots on the ground, “we’ll do it if it’s necessary,” Trump said.
As with many of Trump’s most emphatic declarations, this one left many unanswered questions in its wake.
Egypt and Jordan have already stated they won’t take in Gazans, and experts have said doing so could destabilize the neighboring regimes with which Israel has peace. Where are the “five, six, seven” places that Trump wants to send Gazans? Could Qatar house many of them in the vacant lodgings built for laborers who built the country’s World Cup infrastructure? Would the Saudis or the Emiratis really put money into what is essentially the polar opposite of the Palestinians’ nationalism? What about the Saudis’ response to the proposal that they oppose “attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land” and won’t normalize ties with Israel until a Palestinian state is established?
As the euphoria on the Israeli right started to settle, there were those who remembered the similarly ecstatic reaction to Trump’s 2020 “deal of the century” peace plan. Netanyahu’s spokesman at the time said the plan meant Israel would be annexing West Bank settlements the following week — something that never actually ended up happening. Could Trump be bluffing by describing an extreme scenario in order to get something more moderate that he wanted, like threatening Canada and Mexico with a trade war and settling for them sending troops to the border?
Netanyahu applauded Trump’s “willingness to puncture conventional thinking that has failed time and again, to think outside the box…[and] say things others refuse to say.” Even if reality ends up falling short of Trump’s vision, the president may have just scared the Arab world enough to move the region’s Overton window and end up with a more standard “day-after” plan that is relatively favorable to Israel. | confusion circulates Trump’s Gaza takeover plan met with bafflement, skepticism from Senate lawmakers  JOSHUA SUKOFF/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE President Donald Trump’s surprise comments at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. would take control of the Gaza Strip and lead its redevelopment, with potential deployments of American troops to the area, were largely met with a mix of bafflement and skepticism from Senate lawmakers on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
What they’re saying: “I think that might be problematic,” for both Arab allies and U.S. citizens, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told JI, while Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, “I don’t know that I think it’s the best use of United States resources to spend a bunch of money in Gaza.” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said he was “speechless, that’s insane. I can’t think of a place on Earth that would welcome American troops less and where any positive outcome is less likely.” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) seemed open to the idea, saying, “It's a provocative part of the conversation, but it's part of the conversation, and that's where we are” and that he’d potentially support a U.S. troop deployment. But some current and former Republican lawmakers, as senior as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, came out in support of the plan.
Read the full story here for additional comments from Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rand Paul (R-KY), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). in the room Inside Netanyahu’s meeting with evangelical leaders in Washington  CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with more than a dozen evangelical Christian leaders on Monday at the Blair House — just steps away from the White House — young evangelicals were not present, an Israeli source in attendance noted. Recent surveys have found that support for Israel among evangelicals under 30 has declined. Netanyahu addressed the issue, according to an evangelical Christian attendee, Mike Evans, founder of The Friends of Zion Heritage Center, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen and Lahav Harkov report. “The prime minister said the two most important things are ‘speaking up with your voice’ and ‘the next generation of young people; to mobilize them to support Israel.’ So I know he understands that very clearly,” Evans told JI.
Topics of discussion: The meeting — which one attendee said came at a “historic time to make decisions” — was organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, one day before the prime minister’s meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. No meeting with American Jewish leaders had been scheduled yet for Netanyahu’s six-day visit. A source in Netanyahu’s entourage told JI that topics addressed in the 90-minute meeting also included Iran, the hostage deal and support for strengthening Trump — whose heart, Netanyahu said, is “in the right place,” according to the source.
Read the full story here. aid arguments Middle East experts split over recent moves to slash U.S. foreign aid, USAID  KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES Middle East experts are split on the potential impacts of the Trump administration’s near-blanket halt of U.S. foreign assistance and efforts to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development as an independent agency, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
The two sides: Proponents of the recent shakeups say that they will help reform and realign the priorities of an agency beset by cumbersome bureaucracy and systemic mismanagement, including support for groups and individuals who have supported terrorism. Opponents argue that the disruption to and pauses in U.S. aid programs in the Middle East could have destabilizing effects on the region and U.S. efforts to bring stability and build partnerships in areas like Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and Jordan, undermining U.S. influence and boosting adversaries.
Read the full story here for additional comments from Heather Johnston, Dana Stroul, and Ilan Goldenberg. kraft-ing a campaign New England Patriots scion Josh Kraft wants to be Boston’s first Jewish mayor  Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images When Josh Kraft announced on Tuesday that he would be entering the Boston mayoral race, a small blue pin — part of the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign created by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, an organization funded by his father, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — on his lapel was the only hint at the historic nature of his campaign. If elected, Kraft, who has never held public office, would be Boston’s first Jewish mayor. But first, the Democrat must defeat incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, a progressive Democrat and the first woman of color to hold the post in Boston. While she is not particularly popular, it’s still difficult to defeat a sitting mayor in a primary, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Lessons in philanthropy: Kraft, who is 57, has spent his whole career working in community nonprofits, including 12 years as the CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. Now, as the president of the New England Patriots Foundation, he is leaning into his family’s philanthropic legacy. Kraft said his mother, Myra, who died in 2011, taught him the most important lessons about giving back. “She'd go to a community-based organization, either here or in the Ukraine or somewhere, and they'd roll out the carpet. She would just ignore it all, get her hands dirty,” Kraft told JI in an interview.
Read the full interview here. AAA Action Lawler, Gottheimer to reintroduce Antisemitism Awareness Act  ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES/TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and 55 other House members are set to reintroduce the Antisemitism Awareness Act on Wednesday, a priority piece of legislation for the Jewish community that ultimately failed to pass the Senate last year after securing bipartisan support in the House, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Trying again: Lawler told JI that, in the wake of continuing antisemitic activity on campus, “it’s critically important to ensure that Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is upheld and that these universities and colleges are held to account and that they uphold federal law,” something he said administrators had repeatedly failed to do. He said that reintroducing and passing the bill “sends a message nationwide that antisemitism is not going to be tolerated.” The bill is expected to be reintroduced in the Senate soon as well, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV).
Read the full story here. garden state race Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop campaigned with multiple anti-Israel figures, reflecting primary pressures  KYLE MAZZA/SOPA IMAGES/SIPA USA VIA AP IMAGES Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey, has been outspoken in his public career about his Jewish identity and — though he’s mostly stayed away from foreign affairs in his current role — has maintained a pro-Israel stance. But Fulop has endorsed or been endorsed by multiple state officials and candidates who have expressed strident criticisms of Israel, reflecting the tricky Democratic primary politics that he and others in the gubernatorial primary are facing, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
First backer: Shortly after his 2023 campaign launch, Sadaf Jaffer, then a Democratic assemblywoman, was the first sitting legislator to endorse Fulop. Jaffer has an extensive history of comments on social media criticizing Israel and demanding an end of U.S. support for Israel. She has routinely accused Israel of genocide and said that “American taxpayer $ is being used to unrelentingly kill, maim, starve tens of thousands of Palestinian children for months on end.” She also accused Israel of deliberately killing aid workers as its “goal” and of seeking to colonize Gaza. She has described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “wanted war criminal.”
Read the full story here. | The Next MOU: In Defense One, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro suggests that the Trump administration begin negotiations on the next 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel, ahead of the current MOU's expiration in 2028. “These negotiations will be complex. First, it will be challenging for Israel to assess its future defense needs. Israel’s longest war, which began in October 2023, has not fully wrapped up, but it has reshaped the Middle East. It has also forced the IDF into a much-higher-than-normal operating tempo, increasing wear and tear on its equipment and expending a huge volume of munitions. … How will the threats evolve, whether from Iran, its terrorist proxies, or other actors? What new offensive technologies could proliferate, as unmanned aerial vehicles have in recent years? What capabilities will be needed to defend against them? And how should Israel apportion its defense spending across its forces? These questions require deep discussions between U.S. and Israeli teams, and they will take time.” [DefenseOne]
Double Threat: In Foreign Affairs, David Makovsky and Dennis Ross consider how President Donald Trump could address the dueling Middle East challenges of the Iranian threat as well as the situation in Gaza. “Both are serious in their own right, and Iran’s nuclear program is one of the biggest threats to global security. Should Iran go nuclear, Saudi Arabia will likely pursue a bomb, as well, adding even more danger to what is already one of the world’s most volatile regions. But the easiest way to handle Gaza and Iran might just be to address them together. Netanyahu is hesitant to move toward a permanent cease-fire, in part because he fears it will cause his government to collapse and trigger early elections. But for the prime minister, there is no issue more important than stopping Iran from going nuclear. It has been the central purpose of his long political career. In Knesset remarks years ago, for example, Netanyahu declared that halting the Iranian nuclear program was the reason he gets up in the morning. The more Trump can show he is prepared to work with Israel on Iran, the easier it will be for Netanyahu to make difficult decisions on Gaza.” [ForeignAffairs]
Talking Tehran: On a recent episode of Dan Senor’s “Call Me Back” podcast, Walter Russell Mead examines how Iran’s weakened position could affect the Abraham Accords. “The weakness of Iran weakens the strategic case for the Abraham Accords among the Arabs, because for the Arab Gulf states and all, there are basically two reasons for the Abraham Accords. One is economics, and that remains, that economic technological cooperation with Israel and a climate of regional peace that encourages investment are both necessary for the kind of economic development that [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] and [United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed] both see, in slightly different ways, as necessary for the perpetuation of their regimes and for the well being, as they see it, of their peoples. But the military side, that with America looking kind of weak and uncertain, Israel is the only power around — that's really going to help you against this overwhelming threat from Iran. Well, you're not worried about the overwhelming threat from Iran anymore. … And when Iran looked very threatening, someone like MBS could say to the Sunni clerics in Saudi Arabia, ‘Now look, what Israel's doing to the Palestinians in Gaza is sad and bad and x and y and z, but the heretic Shia are a much greater threat to Islam and the holy places than is Israel, which, after all, a small country could ever be.’” [CallMeBack]
House of Hate: In The Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan reflects on his visit to the home where Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss lived with his family during WWII, which has since been repurposed as a center for antisemitism and extremism research and education. “The Höss house, as reconceived, stands as a triumph of Jewish resilience over Nazi Germany and as a challenge to global amnesia. The era that followed Höss’s hanging has been a golden age for the Jewish people. It has been marked by Israel’s astonishing successes, and the unprecedented acceptance of Jews into Western society — particularly in America, the most powerful country in history. After suffering what Churchill called the single greatest crime in human history, what better rebuke to Nazism than this Jewish flourishing? But civilization is a veneer. If one picks at it, antisemitism quickly resurfaces. Before World War I, Germany arguably represented the most vibrant and elevated culture in Europe. Nazism dehumanized its people, culminating in the Holocaust. The present-day ideology of radical Islam is no less a threat to the Jews than the Nazis were. If anything, the language and deeds of jihadists are more explicit in their genocidal aspirations than the Nazis were in the 1930s. The epicenter for that intent is the regime in Tehran.” [WSJ] | Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) reintroduced legislation to require the U.S. to refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, the biblical name for the territory…
The Senate confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi by a 54-46 vote, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) as the only Democrat supporting her…
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Philippe and Alex Bouaziz’s Deel raised $300 million from dual investments by General Catalyst and Mubadala, one of the sovereign wealth funds in Abu Dhabi…
The Washington Post spotlights some of the items from the personal collection of Iris Apfel that are being auctioned off by Christie’s…
United Airlines announced plans on Tuesday to resume its service to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey beginning on March 15, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that Iran and its regional forces were destabilizing the broader Middle East…
B’nai B’rith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn, who led the organization since 2014, died at 50…
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Rabbi Levi Wolosow, who served as an adult education coordinator at Chabad in Manalapan, N.J., died at 43… |  Shlomi Amsalem Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) and Moldova’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Mihai Popșo, inaugurated Israel’s new embassy in Moldova on Tuesday. |  Mike Pont/WireImage Actor, singer, voice actor, puppeteer and comedian, best known as the voice of Jafar in Disney's “Aladdin” franchise, Jonathan Freeman turns 75...
Former member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and the United Torah Judaism alliance, Shmuel "Shmelka" Halpert turns 86... Member of the Virginia Senate for 44 years until last year, Richard Lawrence (Dick) Saslaw turns 85... Director, screenwriter and producer of movies and television, Michael Kenneth Mann turns 82... Outfielder from 1965 to 1974 for the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves, later in his career he served in the Astros' front office, Norm Miller turns 79... Israeli engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, he is a founding partner of Rainbow Medical, an operational investment company, Yossi Gross turns 78... Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, he wrote a 2015 essay titled "The Making of a Libertarian, Contrarian, Nonobservant, but Self-Identified Jew," Randy E. Barnett turns 73... Past chair of the board of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, she was also national campaign chair for JFNA, Linda Adler Hurwitz... Ellen Braun... Movie, television and stage actress, writer, producer and director, Jennifer Jason Leigh (family name was Morozoff) turns 63... Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of Napa Valley, Niles Elliot Goldstein... Member of the New York State Assembly representing the East Side of Manhattan since 2018, Harvey David Epstein turns 58... Canadian environmental activist, Tzeporah Berman turns 56... Educator, writer, columnist, lecturer, public speaker and pro-Israel activist, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki... Baltimore-area sommelier, he curates kosher food and wine events and researches synagogue history, Dr. Kenneth S. Friedman turns 52... Member of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, now a NYC attorney, Benjamin Kallos turns 44... President and COO of American Signature, the parent company of Value City Furniture, Jonathan Schottenstein turns 43... Israeli swimmer, she competed in the 2000 Olympics, Adi Maia Bichman turns 42... CEO at the American Journalism Project, Sarabeth Berman... Partner for political and strategic communications at Number 10 Strategies, Joshua Hantman... Olympic sprinter, born in Los Angeles and now an Israeli citizen, specializing in the 400-meter dash, Donald Sanford turns 38... Actor and singer, Alex Brightman turns 38... Director of communications and intergovernmental affairs at NYC's Correctional Health Services, Nicole A. Levy... Israeli golfer, Laetitia Beck turns 33... Team USA ice dancer from 2014 until 2019, now an assistant clinical research coordinator at Stanford Medicine, Eliana Gropman turns 24…
BIRTHWEEK: Regional director of the American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta office, Dov Wilker turned 43 on Monday... | | | | | |
