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Good Thursday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview tomorrow’s presidential election in Ireland and look at front-runner Catherine Connolly’s history of criticizing Israel and the West, and report on today’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing for Amer Ghalib, who has questioned Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait. We talk to experts about the carousel of senior U.S. officials traveling to Israel this week as the ceasefire holds, and talk to legislators on Capitol Hill about Vice President JD Vance’s suggestion that Turkish troops could play an on-the-ground role in postwar Gaza. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and Joel Rayburn.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Danielle Cohen-Kanik. Have a tip? Email us here.

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Ireland is set to elect a new president tomorrow. Like in Israel, the role of president is largely ceremonial, but unlike in Israel, where the Knesset elects the president and the choice is mostly the result of backroom political deals, the Irish president is directly elected by the people.

That means the choice reflects the mood of the Irish public — and after the news coming out of the Emerald Isle over the past two years, it may come as no surprise that the country appears to be on the verge of choosing a candidate with anti-Israel, antisemitic and even anti-Western views.

The current president, Michael D. Higgins, is no friend of Israel or the Jews, having called antisemitism accusations an Israeli “PR exercise.” When the Jewish community asked him not to attend a Holocaust remembrance ceremony out of a concern that he would politicize it, he went anyway and gave a speech comparing Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza to the Holocaust.

The country’s former justice minister, Alan Shatter, told Jewish Insider that the leading candidate for the presidency, Catherine Connolly, “if elected, will present as Michael D. Higgins on steroids.”

Connolly, a legislator representing Galway West since 2016, is a hard-left candidate running as an independent, and led a recent Irish Times poll by 18 points. 

The front-runner’s anti-Israel history goes back to before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, and includes remarks that crossed the line into antisemitism. In 2021, Connolly wrote in a parliamentary question that Israel is “attempt[ing] to accomplish Jewish supremacy,” using language associated with centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theories.

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Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, is expected to face a frosty reception when he appears today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing. The hearing comes after months of private pushback from GOP senators to Ghalib’s nomination over his anti-Israel record, which includes him questioning reports of Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and for liking antisemitic comments on social media, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Pushback: Ghalib was given a date for his confirmation hearing in early October after months of delays. During that time, several committee Republicans unsuccessfully lobbied the White House to withdraw Ghalib from consideration for the Kuwait post, according to a senior GOP defense staffer familiar with the conversations. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the committee, said earlier this month that Ghalib’s nomination had been delayed. Ghalib acknowledged at the time that he was facing objections but said that Trump had called him to offer his continued support for his nomination, and the hearing was scheduled shortly after. With the hearing moving ahead, senators on both sides of the aisle have prepared questions for Ghalib about his history of incendiary public statements criticizing Israel and appearing to justify Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state and deny that sexual violence took place, as well as his record as mayor of Hamtramck. 

Read the full story here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Israel on Thursday, becoming the latest senior official dispatched to the country by President Donald Trump as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas extends into its second week, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Rubio joins several other administration officials and representatives who have made the journey to Israel this past week, on the heels of the signing of the first phase of Trump’s peace proposal, including Vice President JD Vance, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and advisor Jared Kushner.

Administration’s aims: The swift mobilization of U.S. officials comes as the Trump administration aims to lay the groundwork for the second phase of the deal and works to keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from reigniting fighting in the Gaza Strip and fracturing a delicate peace deal, amid Hamas’ repeated violations of the agreement. Vance, in his meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday, emphasized that Israel is not a “vassal state” that needs to be told what to do. The string of high-level visits is “not about monitoring in the sense of, you know, monitoring a toddler,” Vance told reporters alongside Netanyahu. “It’s about monitoring in the sense that there’s a lot of work.” Charles Frielich, an associate professor of political science at Columbia University, told JI he sees it as a form of U.S. oversight, or “Bibi-sitting,” something he says is “long-standing tradition” in the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Read the full story here.

Vice President JD Vance’s suggestion on Tuesday that the U.S. would welcome Turkish troops playing a role in the proposed stabilization force in Gaza was met with skepticism from leading Republican lawmakers and experts in Washington, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea and Emily Jacobs report. Vance told reporters in Israel that while the U.S. would not “force” Israel to accept Turkish troops “on their soil,” the Trump administration believed “that there’s a constructive role for the Turks to play.” 

Expressing doubts: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told JI, “I appreciate Turkey and Qatar as allies, but when it comes to Israel, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s been terrible in terms of rhetoric. I appreciate the role they played in trying to get the ceasefire, but the appetite in Israel for Turkey and Qatar to have a major role is pretty limited, given the history.” Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow for American strategy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, expressed similar doubts. “Having Turkish forces in there particularly strikes me as a bad idea. Turkey is not an impartial force. They are a capable and experienced military, but mostly doing things the United States and Israel don’t want them to be doing.” 

Read the full story here.

As the New York City mayoral race nears its end, Manhattan Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch has a message for his colleagues: It’s not too late to provide “leadership and clarity of perspective” to voters to oppose Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, citing the candidate’s hostility towards Israel and refusal to recognize it as a Jewish state. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen on Wednesday, the senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, said there is still time for left-wing Jewish leaders to find their voice. Even without initiatives and statements from the Reform movement, progressive Jewish leaders can still “make a difference” by “laying out the stakes” — even as early voting begins this Saturday. 

Sense of duty: “We’ve been slow to respond to widespread, pervasive, global anti-Zionism and we’ve been slow inside the Jewish community in countering Jewish voices who are anti-Zionist,” Hirsch told JI. “We, the mainstream of the Jewish community, have an obligation to counter that ideology. If it’s not countered, it intensifies and exacerbates the problem and that relates to public candidates as well. It’s imperative for the American Jewish community to stand up and express the kinds of views that I expressed. I think more are doing so. It is a responsibility at this historic moment in time for Jewish leadership to do so.” 

Read the full interview here.

Rabbinic rebuke: Over 650 rabbis from around the country signed on to an open letter on Wednesday voicing concern that, if elected New York City mayor, Mamdani would threaten “the safety and dignity of Jews in every city,” citing the Democratic nominee and front-runner’s antagonistic views towards Israel, JI’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, confirmed that he would ask Jessica Tisch to stay on as the city’s police commissioner if elected, ending long-standing speculation over his plans for a key role in his potential administration, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. 

What he said: Tisch, appointed last year by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, “took on a broken status quo, started to deliver accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the five boroughs,” Mamdani said at the second and final general election debate on Wednesday evening. “I have said time and again that my litmus test for that position will be excellence, and the alignment will be of that position,” Mamdani added. “And I am confident that under a Mamdani administration, we would continue to deliver on that same mission.” Mamdani’s choice could assuage concerns among moderate Democrats and other crime-conscious New Yorkers who had been hopeful that he would choose Tisch, a widely respected technocrat who previously led the Department of Sanitation. Tisch, 44, who is Jewish, has not said whether she would plan to continue in her position if Mamdani is elected on Nov. 4. 

Read the full story here.

Democrats divided: Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) said on Tuesday that he is still not ready to endorse Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, as he hasn’t seen the candidate assuage Jewish communal concerns, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports. Appearing on CNN, Goldman said he wasn’t sure if he would vote for Mamdani or his rival, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and that he’s “trying to work through” outstanding issues he has with the candidates.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and other top New Jersey officials are urging the state’s largest teachers’ union to reverse its decision to appoint Ayat Oraby as an editor of its NJEA Review magazine, citing a series of antisemitic and pro-Hamas posts on social media, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Gottheimer has engaged repeatedly with the New Jersey Education Association in recent weeks, sending two letters to union leadership outlining his concerns, but Oraby, who was appointed in August, has remained in her position at the Review — a magazine distributed to roughly 200,000 educators statewide.

Online archive: Oraby’s since-deleted posts on X, screenshots of which were viewed by JI, hold Israel — not Hamas — responsible for the deaths of Israelis during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, claiming Israel “killed many of its citizens,” and voiced her support of Hamas, praising their actions on social media as “resistance” in August 2025. “While the criminal occupation gang kills children in the streets and treats Muslims with no mercy, you find liberated prisoners hugging and kissing HAMAS soldiers, which indicates the good treatment they received,” Oraby posted, referring to videos of Israeli hostages staged by Hamas. In other posts, Oraby explicitly called for violence against Israeli officials and claimed in July 2025 that the Jewish state “surpassed Nazism by far.” She also referred to journalists as “the filthy Hebrew media.”

Read the full story here.

Problematic Poster Boy: The Free Press’ Eli Lake examines the mainstreaming of far-right conspiracy theorist Nick Fuentes, who had previously faced ostracization over a litany of antisemitic, racist and misogynist comments. “Fuentes became the avatar of the canceled during his time in the wilderness. For his superfans, or Groypers, he is the Sex Pistols in 1977, reveling in broken shibboleths. And these anonymous low-follower accounts repost short clips from his livestreams on YouTube, X, Facebook, and TikTok. Fuentes is not just an influencer; he leads a dedicated movement of obsessive shitposters. … Part of the Fuentes appeal is that he presents himself as the ultimate martyr in a movement built on the social martyrdom of right-wingers. He is also willing to turn his sights on beloved MAGA influencers and politicians — to his fans, that makes him seem authentic.” [FreePress]

Alarm Bell: In his “Clarity” Substack, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren raises concerns about New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy weeks before the election. “Yes, the candidate is young, charismatic, and brimming with new ideas. So, too, are many of the Jew-hating influencers followed by millions. There can be no obscuring the fact that the candidate wants to see my state, my family, and the home of the world’s largest Jewish community erased from the map. And clearly the candidate would not care if that erasure were accomplished with violence. The candidate’s vicious positions on Israel come after the two years in which the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism has virtually disappeared. In that time, New York Jews have been threatened almost daily by the haters of both the Jewish people and the Jewish state. For them, the candidate’s constant condemnations of Israel are not merely dog whistles but clarion calls to action.” [Clarity]

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MAAYAN TOAF/GPO

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CHELSEA GUGLIELMINO/GETTY IMAGES

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