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Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, JI’s Marc Rod gives a first-person account from inside the chaos of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after an assassination attempt on Trump administration officials. We report on the merger between former Israeli Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid as they seek to oust Benjamin Netanyahu, and talk to University of California regent Jay Sures about the UCLA student government’s recent condemnation of an event with a former Israeli hostage. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Daniel Shapero, Josh Kushner and Tzipi Hotovely.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI 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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Evening intelligence, exclusively for subscribers — what we're tracking and what's coming next.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night began normally enough — a bustle of reporters, administration officials and members of Congress among other A-listers streaming from the packed lobby of the Washington Hilton down into the basement ballroom.

White House Correspondents’ Association President Weija Jiang, a CBS News White House reporter, finished her introductory remarks, and the thousands of guests packed into the ballroom tucked into their salads.

Then, a loud, shattering bang rang out from the other side of the ballroom. Initially, I didn’t think anything of it — I thought someone had dropped a large tray of food (as President Donald Trump said later, he thought the same thing).

Videos and other accounts of the evening indicate that someone from the security staff shouted from the front of the room that guests should get down. I didn’t hear it. My first indication that something was wrong was when I started seeing other guests ducking under the tables and security officers drawing their guns.

I tried to duck under the tablecloth, but no luck — another occupant of the table was already underneath, and there was no room. My heart pounding, I was forced to do my best to stay low — but I was in the backmost row of tables, right by a door, sitting directly in the aisle.

If a shooter came into the ballroom from behind me, I was a sitting duck. I was completely helpless and exposed.

Two thoughts ran through my head. The main one: I’m getting married in six days. I can’t die now. The second: I can’t believe this is happening to me again. (For those readers who are newer to Jewish Insider — I was also on scene for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.)

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

Former Israeli Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid will run in this year’s Knesset election as a joint party called “Together,” led by Bennett, they announced on Sunday. The move comes as the bloc of Zionist parties running against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has recently polled higher than the parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, but with fewer than the 61-seat majority needed to form a government, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Behind the scenes: Sources close to both party leaders told JI that they began discussing a joint run a week ago, and reached the final decision on Saturday night. Bennett will lead the party after having a consistently stronger showing in polls in recent months. Bennett, a former IDF combat officer, described the merger as "the most Zionist and most patriotic thing we have ever done for our country." Lapid said that the country "needs unity like air to breathe."

Read the full story here.

Survey says: A poll conducted for Israel's Walla news site on Monday found that Lapid and Bennett would lose seats if an election were held today, in comparison to previous polls when they were running separately.

Jay Sures, vice chairman of United Talent Agency and a regent of the University of California system, slammed the members of UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Association who authored a letter condemning former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov’s recent campus appearance as “shortsighted, antisemitic or both,” in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen. 

What he said: “Why would anybody send out a letter condemning a hostage who is a student who was held in captivity for over 500 days? You have to be a complete lunatic to sign on to that letter,” Sures told JI on Friday, shortly after he issued a letter to the body stating he was “disgusted and appalled” by its condemnation. 

Read the full story here.

Nika Soon-Shiong, the publisher of Drop Site News who is also the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, is circulating conspiracy theories seeking to tie a California-based Jewish couple behind a major pistachio processor to the recent U.S.-Israeli military strikes in Iran, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Singled out: In a recent social media post that drew more than 1 million views, Soon-Shiong, citing unverified online claims that the United States and Israel had targeted pistachio warehouses in Iran this month, singled out Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the billionaire owners of the Wonderful Company, which grows and processes a large percentage of California’s pistachios as well as other products including almonds and mandarin oranges.

Read the full story here.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani exercised his veto power for the first time since entering office on Friday to block a bill that would standardize NYPD policy around protests at educational institutions, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

What they said: “We are deeply disappointed by Mayor Mamdani’s decision,” said the UJA-Federation of New York, the Anti-Defamation League of New York/New Jersey, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, American Jewish Committee New York, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the New York Board of Rabbis, Orthodox Union, The Rabbinical Assembly, StandWithUs and Teach NYS, in a rare united response. “This veto is a profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”

Read the full story here.

A Virginia state lawmaker with a history of inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric who had been exploring a congressional run announced on Friday that he would instead remain in the state’s House of Delegates. Sam Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who is the son of Palestinian immigrants, said he would hold onto his seat in the state Legislature to continue focusing on his work chairing the Education Committee, a role that has garnered concern from the state’s Jewish community due to his heated comments, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

Zoom out: The decision comes days after Virginia voters approved a new congressional map that is likely to deliver four additional House seats to Democrats, prompting a reshuffling as politicians in the state opt to run — or not to run — for the newly drawn Democratic-friendly seats.

Read the full story here.

Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, has tapped Daniel Shapero, the professional networking site’s current chief operating officer, as its next CEO, current chief executive Ryan Roslansky announced earlier this week, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Announcement: Shapero, who has been serving as COO since 2021, wrote on the platform Wednesday, “Today, I’m taking on the role as CEO of Linkedin. I joined Linkedin in May 2008 as employee #300ish, and it’s easy to say that my time at the company has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.” The network has close to 1.5 billion users worldwide.

Read the full story here.

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Riyadh’s Reluctance: Foreign Policy’s Steven Cook considers why Saudi Arabia is not playing a more central role in the U.S. and Israeli conflict with Iran. “This is not to suggest that Saudi Arabia should get into the fight, but it is revealing that a country that billed itself as a rising power and the most important country in the Middle East is betwixt and between when its neighborhood is burning down. The Saudis clearly have interests at stake, but rather than taking action, they have been issuing strongly worded statements while others, including their adversaries, are shaping the region. It seems that Riyadh would be better off taking concrete steps to protect its interests. What is the saying about it’s better to be at the table than be the meal?” [FP]

Feeding Israel to the Left: In his Substack “The Abrahamic Metacritique,” Hussein Aboubakr Mansour raises concerns about the willingness of Democratic leaders to shift leftward on issues related to Israel amid pressure from the activist left. “The establishment’s reasoning is basic strategic calculation: the left will not relent on Israel; a civil war inside the party over the Jewish state would destroy the coalition; therefore, the rational move is to concede this issue, preserve party unity, and proceed with the moderate agenda on everything else: affordability, climate, migration, AI, etc. Feed this one thing to the beast, and the beast will be satisfied. It is an intelligent calculation, a genius one, really, but it is also a catastrophic one, because it rests on a complete misapprehension of what is being conceded and to whom.” [AbrahamicMetacritique]

Battle Royal: For Fox News, presidential historian Tevi Troy does a deep dive into the history of visits to the U.S. from U.K. royals. “When [Queen Elizabeth II] visited Eisenhower in 1957, she helped smooth over tensions that had emerged between Britain and the U.S. as a result of the Suez Crisis. … And now, as King Charles embarks on his first visit to the U.S. in President Donald Trump's second term, the U.S. and Britain are in the midst of a disagreement over the war with Iran. Charles is not a political ruler, but perhaps his visit, like his mother's in 1957, can smooth over tensions and help maintain the special relationship America has long had with the United Kingdom.” [FoxNews]

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Axios reports that during the active conflict with Iran in March, Israel sent the United Arab Emirates an Iron Dome battery, interceptors and several dozen IDF troops to operate the missile-defense system; a senior Emirati official told Axios, “We are not going to forget it,” while a second official said, "It was a real eye-opening moment. To see who our real friends are"…

A new memo from the State Department acknowledges that the U.S.’ decision to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran came — at least in part — at Israel’s request, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports… 

An 11-year-old Israeli girl who was critically wounded in an Iranian cluster bomb attack on her home in Bnei Brak earlier this month died of her injuries…

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Tucker Carlson suggested that he was given advance notice of the joint U.S.-Israel operation targeting Iran in late February, saying he received a text message at 10 p.m. ET on Feb. 27 — hours before the start of the operation — that read, “We’re going”; Carlson did not say who sent the message, acknowledging only that it was not President Donald Trump or Vice President JD Vance…

The WSJ notes that at the last meeting between Trump and Carlson, the president displayed a letter from evangelical leader Franklin Graham calling Carlson an antisemite…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions on a Chinese oil refinery and more than three dozen shipping firms and vessels tied to Iran’s oil export industry…

The New York Times examines the Trump administration’s “haphazard” approach to sanctions on Russia and Iran as Moscow and Tehran leverage their oil reserves amid a volatile market…

The Financial Times looks at the United Arab Emirates’ recent request that Pakistan repay $3.5 billion in loans, citing Islamabad’s deepening ties with Saudi Arabia and what the UAE “considers Pakistan’s meek response to Iranian attacks on the Gulf”...

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed's son-in-law Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan and EDGE Group CEO Faisal Al Bannai — both of whom advise MBZ — visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., and made a swing through the U.S. to meet with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Jared Kushner, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and defense firm Anduril, The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger reports…

Talks between the U.S. and Israel on the next 10-year memorandum of understanding are expected to begin next month, and will include Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, the director-general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter representing Israel and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and State Department senior advisor Michael Needham…

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) dropped his opposition to Kevin Warsh’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, clearing the way for Warsh to assume the role when Jerome Powell’s term ends next month…

A federal judge in Texas halted the deportations of six family members of an Egyptian man who firebombed demonstrators, killing an elderly woman, at a Boulder, Colo., march last year raising awareness about the Israeli hostages in captivity in Gaza…

Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner announced on Friday the launch of Thrive Eternal, a capital holding company that will acquire a minority, non-controlling stake in the San Francisco Giants as its first major partnership, Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss reports…

The New York Times interviews Hollywood agent Michael Glantz, who went viral after being filmed eating his burrata salad at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday as other guests around him ducked for cover…

Counterterrorism authorities investigating a string of antisemitic attacks in London arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of preparing to carry out terrorist acts; more than two dozen people have been arrested in connection with attacks against the country’s Jewish community since late March…

The Telegraph goes behind the scenes of the Met Police’s effort to track down arsonists targeting synagogues in the London area…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected to push for a mediated resolution to reach a plea deal in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, bucking pressure from the White House to pardon the prime minister…

Israel’s Cabinet signed off on the nomination of Michael Lotam to be the country’s first ambassador to Somaliland, four months after Jerusalem recognized the sovereignty of the East African nation…

The Cabinet also approved the appointment of former Israeli Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely to serve as the head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate within the Prime Minister’s Office, which has been vacant for more than two years…

Israel launched a wide-scale, multimillion-dollar campaign – led by former Trump administration official Brad Parscale — to create pro-Israel web content that would be picked up by AI platforms…

Cardiologist Eugene Braunwald, who as a child fled Nazi Europe and went on to reshape how modern medicine approaches heart attacks, died at 96…

Diplomat Lionel Rosenblatt, whose experiences living in Haifa, Israel, as a child inspired him to join the U.S. Foreign Service and later lead Refugees International, died at 82…

NADAV ZUR

Stars of the upcoming Keshet 12 series “Unconditional” attended the world premiere screening of the drama, about a mother-daughter pair stranded in Russia, ahead of its broadcast tonight, at the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv, Israel.

GARY GERSHOFF/GETTY IMAGES

Showrunner, director, screenwriter and producer, Brian Koppelman turns 60...

Financial executive, he retired in 2014 as head of marketing for money manager Van Eck Global, Harvey Hirsch turns 85... Nonprofit executive who has managed the 92nd Street Y, the Robin Hood Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy turns 81... U.S. senator (R-WV), Jim Justice turns 75... Physician and a former NASA astronaut, she is a veteran of three shuttle flights with more than 686 hours in space, Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, M.D., M.P.H. turns 73... Director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority until 2020, he was previously a member of Knesset and deputy director of the Shin Bet, Yisrael Hasson turns 71... VP at Covington Fabric & Design, Donald Rifkin... Biologist and professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, he won the 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine, Andrew Zachary Fire turns 67... Co-founder of Casamigos Tequila and owner of restaurants, bars and lounges worldwide, Rande Gerber turns 64... Former member of the Knesset for the Shinui party, Yigal Yasinov turns 60... CEO of ZAM Asset Management, Elliot Mayerhoff... Founder and CEO of NYC-based Gotham Ghostwriters, he served as a senior advisor for Sen. Joseph Lieberman in his vice presidential and presidential campaigns, Daniel Gerstein turns 59... Israeli actor, entertainer and television host, Yitzhak "Aki" Avni turns 59... Attorney and journalist, she is a contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick turns 59... Author, political analyst and nationally syndicated op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, Dana Milbank turns 58... U.S. senator (D-NJ) since 2013, he was previously the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker turns 57... Israeli television and radio journalist and former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home party, Yinon Magal turns 57... Professor of science writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seth Mnookin turns 54... Cinematographer and director, Rachel Morrison turns 48... Identical twin brothers, between the two of them they won 11 Israeli championships in the triathlon between 2001 and 2012, Dan and Ran Alterman both turn 46... Israeli screenwriter and producer, she has written numerous advertisements and screenplays, Savion Einstein turns 44... VP of AIPAC’s mid-Atlantic region, Leah Berry... Television and film actress, Ariel Geltman "Ari" Graynor turns 43... Basketball coach, analyst and writer, Benjamin Falk turns 38... Senior creative director at Trilogy Interactive, Jessica Ruby... Head of climate data at Watershed, Jonathan H. Glidden... Research fellow at Emory University law school, David Jonathan Benger... Entrepreneurial investor, Noah Swartz turns 33... Medical resident at UCLA Health, Amir Kashfi...