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Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at the implications of Iran’s ballistic missile strikes targeting the U.S.-U.K. base in Diego Garcia, and break down a new poll of GOP voters that found overwhelming support for military action in Iran. We report on a meeting between the Congressional Progressive Staff Association and Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi, and cover the creation of a new PAC created to push back against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Elise Stefanik, Michael Kotlikoff and Yossi Cohen.

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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Iran’s launch over the weekend of two ballistic missiles targeting the joint U.S.-U.K. Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean — hours after London said it would allow the U.S. to use the base to launch strikes on Iranian missile sites — deepened concerns that the Islamic Republic had not been forthcoming in the past about its weapons capabilities and set off alarms in Europe that the continent could find itself on the receiving end of Tehran’s long-range missiles.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last month that the Islamic Republic only had ballistic missiles with the capacity to hit targets within a 2,000-km radius (approximately 1,200 miles) with the country’s state-run media quoting the diplomat as saying “We are not developing long-range missiles … we have limited the range below 2,000 kilometers.”

Diego Garcia is some 2,400 miles from Iran, twice as far as the distance Iran’s top diplomat had claimed the country’s missiles could reach. It’s further from Tehran than most major European capitals — meaning that the bulk of the European continent is potentially within striking range of Iran. (And, critically, without the types of air defenses and civilian protective measures that have been deployed multiple times a day in Israel for the last month.)

The discrepancy didn’t go unnoticed by current and former U.S. officials. Brett McGurk, who served as a senior national security official in the Biden administration, noted Araghchi’s February claim alongside a map showing Diego Garcia’s distance from Iran, saying that Araghchi’s blatant falsehood “speaks for itself.” In a rare show of agreement between the Trump administration and its predecessor, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the White House’s rapid-response account shared McGurk’s post.

Though neither missile reached the Chagos Island base — one fell short and one was intercepted — the weekend launches have elevated concerns that Tehran has developed the capacity to strike deep inside Europe — most of which is much closer to the Islamic Republic than the Diego Garcia base in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Read the rest of 'What You Should Know' here.

Daily Overtime brings you what we’re tracking at the end of the day — and what’s coming next.

Republican voters expressed strong support for President Donald Trump’s military action against Iran, and would decidedly prefer a GOP congressional candidate who advocates for the war’s aims, according to a new survey from pollster J.L. Partners. The poll, which surveyed 1,018 likely GOP voters between March 17-18, finds that an overwhelming share of Republicans (83%) support Trump’s war against Iran, with just 9% opposing. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Republicans said they “strongly support” Trump’s war efforts, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar reports.

Additional findings: The poll also found a sizable share of Republicans holds negative views towards far-right, antisemitic podcaster Tucker Carlson, even as many media outlets claim he speaks for the MAGA movement. Only 40% of Republicans hold a favorable view of Carlson, while nearly one-quarter of respondents view him unfavorably. When GOP voters were asked whether they’d prefer a candidate endorsed by Trump or by Carlson and Megyn Kelly, a whopping 80% preferred a Trump-backed candidate, with just 7% siding with the podcasters. Asked whether voters trust Trump’s position on Iran or Carlson and Kelly’s view, 83% sided with Trump while just 6% sided with the far-right podcasters.

Read the full story here.

The Congressional Progressive Staff Association, a congressional employee group for progressive staffers and prospective staffers, hosted a happy hour this week with Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi, whom the administration has been trying for months to deport, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: The Department of Homeland Security has characterized Mahdawi, who has not been charged with a crime, as a “ringleader” in anti-Israel protests at Columbia and accused him of using "threatening rhetoric and intimidation” against Jewish students. The administration has also claimed that Mahdawi admitted to being involved in and supporting terrorist violence, including telling a gun shop owner more than a decade ago that he had “considerable firearm experience” and used guns to "kill Jews while he was in Palestine,” that he attempted to purchase a rifle and a machine gun, that he claimed to have made guns for Hezbollah and that he said that he enjoyed killing Jews.

Read the full story here.

A veteran operative for former Chicago mayor and congressman Rahm Emanuel has established a new political action committee to fight New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America in the Big Apple — an effort that sources say could involve former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and aides to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

Joining forces: The Next NYC PAC registered with the New York State Board of Elections on March 11, using the address of Gregory Goldner’s home in the Mid-North District of Chicago. Goldner, who helmed Cuomo’s mayoral campaign in the final weeks of the 2025 cycle and ran a PAC aimed at preventing the election of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson two years prior, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. However, sources — who spoke anonymously with JI as Next NYC remains in its formative stages — said that it could fuse the political infrastructure of two candidates who failed to block Mamdani from City Hall last year: Cuomo and Stringer. 

Read the full story here.

Graham Platner, the progressive Maine Senate candidate, in a CNN interview that aired Sunday accused Israel of committing genocide and said the U.S. should cut off all aid, as well as dismissed concerns that bringing the Iran war to a halt would endanger U.S. forces in the region, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Notable quotable: “I fundamentally believe that a nation that is committing a genocide should not be a place that we are putting money. We should be leveraging the fact that we have a lot of power in this relationship due to our funding,” Platner said in the interview. “We should be leveraging that to, frankly, get the Israeli government to stop behaving in such an utterly atrocious fashion.”

Read the full story here.

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), one of the few House Democrats who has supported strikes on Iran and opposed a war powers resolution to bring it to an end earlier this month, now says he wants to see the war wrapped up, and will vote for an upcoming resolution to end the conflict, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Time up: “It’s time to finish the operation in Iran. It’s time to be done,” Landsman said in a statement on Friday. “No expansion of the original operation. No ground troops.” Landsman’s statement comes in advance of an anticipated vote on another war powers resolution to end the conflict this week, led by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY). Landsman said he plans to vote for the war powers resolution, and urged colleagues to do the same. 

Read the full story here.

War worries: As the U.S. deploys thousands of Marines to the Middle East and President Donald Trump continues to send mixed messages about whether he plans for a ground invasion of Iran, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI he’s hoping the administration does not take that step.

The Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University on Friday, claiming that its leadership violated the civil rights of Jewish students by failing to address ongoing antisemitism that has roiled the Ivy League campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

What it says: In the 44-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, the Department of Justice said that Harvard unlawfully discriminated against Jewish students by its “intentional conduct and its deliberate indifference to discriminatory harassment of Jewish and Israeli students and creation of a hostile educational environment” since Oct. 7 and “up to the present day.” Jewish and Israeli students “were repeatedly denied access to educational facilities by antisemitic demonstrators. Fearful for their safety, Jewish students wore baseball caps to conceal their yarmulkes or kept out of sight, effectively denying them access to federally funded educational opportunities,” the lawsuit argues. 

Read the full story here.

Leadership rebuke: Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff rejected a recent Student Assembly resolution calling for the university to boycott its partnership with an Israeli institution, the Technion in Haifa, stating that doing so would “fundamentally conflict with our core commitment to academic freedom” and noting the “political bias” within the resolution “is deeply disturbing.” 

Aiding the Revolution: The Free Press’ Eli Lake looks at Israel’s efforts to align with Iranian opposition efforts. “The Iranian people have voted against the Islamic Republic with their feet since the first student uprisings at Tehran University in 1999. In 2009, Iranians protested a stolen presidential election. Since 2017, uprisings have sprouted throughout the country every few years, only to be crushed by the Basij and Revolutionary Guards. Israel is evening the odds for a revolution by putting its air force in the service of Iran’s dissidents. At least that’s the dream.” [FreePress]

U.K. Concern: In The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland raises concerns about attacks on Jewish institutions conducted under the guise of criticism of Israel. “Every minority faces discrimination – note Tory frontbencher Nick Timothy’s appalling attack on Muslim prayer this week – but next to no other diaspora community goes through this. People can’t stand Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but Russian Orthodox churches don’t require round-the-clock protection. People loathe Donald Trump and his bombing of Iran, but U.S.-branded stores on UK high streets are not smashed and daubed. As for British businesses with investment links to the U.S., including to U.S. security firms, those remain untouched. Israel and Jews are the exception.” [TheGuardian]

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Police in London are investigating a series of overnight fires that damaged four Hatzola Northwest emergency vehicles in Golders Green, one of the city’s most heavily Jewish suburbs; the U.K.-based Community Security Trust said that the Iran-linked Ashab al-Yamin, which said it was behind recent attacks in the Netherlands and Belgium, claimed responsibility for the string of arsons…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on 10 individuals in Lebanon, Syria, Poland, Slovenia, Qatar and Canada accused of laundering more than $100 million in money, arms and telecommunications equipment to Hezbollah…

The U.S. reportedly rejected a proposal from Russia in which Moscow would end its intelligence sharing with Iran on the condition that Washington cease giving intelligence to Ukraine regarding Russia… 

Axios looks at efforts by the CIA, Mossad and other intelligence agencies to assess the status of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he was named his father’s successor earlier this month and is believed to have been injured in the strikes last month that killed the elder Khamenei…

One person was killed and another injured in Israel over the weekend, after two cars caught fire in the Upper Galilee from errant IDF shells that fell inside Israel, rather than Lebanon, an investigation by the military found on Monday. Over 100 people were injured in missile strikes from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…

The Wall Street Journal reports on concerns that the Houthis in Yemen could join the conflict, as the Iran-backed terror group, whose previous attacks on naval vessels in the Red Sea, ramps up its threatening rhetoric, including a warning from a senior Houthi official last week that “Yemen joining the conflict is only a matter of time”… 

Nine Senate Democrats and more than 30 House Democrats wrote to the administration defending Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, describing the protests in which he was involved as "overwhelmingly non-violent expressions of views in opposition to the conduct of the Israeli government in Gaza"...

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) was honored over the weekend at Chabad of Stamford, Conn., with the group’s inaugural Eishet Chayil Award…

The Wall Street Journal looks at frustrations among some progressive Senate Democrats — a group of eight legislators known as the “Fight Club” over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) approach to the midterms as they mull a potential challenge to his leadership…

The Hill explores Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s vocal support for Israel in recent interviews as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid…

President Donald Trump, who spent the weekend in Florida, dropped into the anniversary party being hosted for Gary and Terri Schottenstein over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago...

The New York Times reviews Michael Kimmel’s “Playmakers,” as the distant relative of teddy bear inventors Morris and Rose Michtom looks at the major contributions of Jewish immigrants to the American toy industry…

A Reuters deep dive into decades-old Manhattan police records confirmed the identity of the graffiti artist Banksy… 

Former Mossad head Yossi Cohen and Israel Canada controlling shareholders Barak Rosen and Asaf Touchmair are investing in the Israel-based UAV company Aerodrome Group…

Molecular biologist David Botstein, whose research laid the groundwork for the field of gene-mapping, died at 83…

VANO SHLAMOV/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Israeli judoka Raz Hershko won the gold medal at the women’s over 78 kg final at the Grand Slam judo tournament on Sunday in Tbilisi, Georgia.

GEORGE GOJKOVICH/GETTY IMAGES

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