Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we have the latest on the scrapped U.S.-Iran talks that had been slated to begin this weekend in Switzerland and on the overnight attack by Hezbollah, in violation of the just-signed memorandum of understanding, in which four Israeli soldiers were killed. We look at how Vice President JD Vance’s rhetoric around the MOU mirrors how Obama administration officials talked about the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and look at the divide among Jewish communal groups over the potential merger of the State Department’s antisemitism and Holocaust affairs offices. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Yoav Gallant and Hillary Clinton.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

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For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: A Lebanese Zionist's longshot bid to reshape the Middle East; 'The single best diaspora experience': Jewish leaders mark America's 250th with open letter; and Ivanka Trump unveils Meta initiative to distribute AI glasses to visually impaired veterans. Print the latest edition here.

The long love affair between Israelis and President Donald Trump, on the rocks over the last few weeks as the U.S. and Iran hammered out an end to the war, appears to be over, with humiliations mounting for Jerusalem. "I call all the shots," not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said earlier this month. More recently, the Israeli leader's bombing campaign in Beirut was "vicious," Trump said. And perhaps most humiliating of all, Trump suggested that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa could better take care of Hezbollah than the IDF.

The Israeli public — the spurned lover who once hailed the U.S. president with billboards hung in the center of Tel Aviv reading "Thank you God & Donald Trump" — is not taking it well. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog told JI, "President Trump, who has been a hero to many Israelis, is now openly criticized from within the Israeli government, including Netanyahu's close circle."

And this criticism is not only expressed behind closed doors. Channel 14, the popular right-wing outlet that promotes Netanyahu, has been criticizing Trump resolutely, with some of its anchors publicly cursing Vice President JD Vance and the president's close advisors, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

It was not always this way. For most of the time since Trump reentered the White House in January 2025, he has been popular in Israel, with polls consistently showing high ratings for the American president. 

For Israelis, Trump is the one who brokered the hostage-release agreement with Hamas; Trump is the one who made the strikes in Iran and the bombing of the nuclear enrichment facilities in Fordow and Natanz a reality; and Trump is the one who established the Abraham Accords and is willing to expand them, giving Israelis the chance to sunbathe in the UAE, and perhaps in other countries in the Gulf in the near future. And although some won’t admit it, many Israelis also like his tendency to speak very bluntly, and crudely: a president born in Queens, full of Israeli chutzpah.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

As Vice President JD Vance takes on the role of chief defender of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding and forthcoming talks, he has begun to sound a lot like someone whom the Trump administration has lately spent a lot of time attacking: former President Barack Obama, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Vance and President Donald Trump have both made clear that they view the MOU as fundamentally different from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Sounds familiar: But as the White House faces criticism from hawkish members of the Republican Party, the language Vance is using to defend the burgeoning deal closely resembles the arguments made by Obama 11 years ago. “If you think this is a bad deal, what is your alternative?” Vance said in an interview this week with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. Flashback to a 2015 press conference at the White House soon after the JCPOA was announced. “I’m hearing a lot of talking points being repeated about ‘this is a bad deal,’” Obama said. “What I haven’t heard is, what is your preferred alternative?”

Read the full story here and watch a side-by-side video comparison here.

Bonus: In The Washington Post, the Hudson Institute’s Douglas Feith, who served in the George W. Bush administration, posits that Vance’s defense of the agreement resembles “the standard reassurance Western leaders over the past century have offered when they make deals of this kind with bad actors — but it has generally proved hollow.”

Jewish Republican donors and activists are voicing their strong disappointment with President Donald Trump’s newly announced memorandum of understanding with Iran, which has been met with criticism from GOP lawmakers as well as influential hawkish conservatives, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Flagging concerns: In interviews with JI on Thursday, several Jewish conservatives who supported the war expressed misgivings about the deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz, saying that it had granted too many concessions to a weakened Iran — including waiving sanctions on oil exports — while neglecting to broach the regime’s funding of terror proxies and its ballistic missile arsenal. They also raised concerns that the memorandum of understanding with Tehran had not been favorable to Israel, a U.S. partner in the war, pointing to a term of the preliminary agreement that calls for a permanent end to military operations in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah, a key Iranian ally.

Read the full story here.

MOU blues: Senate Republicans continued on Thursday to air concerns about the U.S. memorandum of understanding with Iran, in some cases fueled further by Vice President JD Vance’s comments dismissing the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions and lambasting Israeli government officials who have objected to the deal, JI’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Thursday blamed Iran for what he described as “ruthless” cyberattacks, warning that Tehran has sowed unrest and amplified false information about environmental protests over a new luxury development project in the country from President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. 

Details: The project, which has been preliminarily approved, has not obtained building permits, but has drawn fierce backlash and sparked daily protests from thousands of demonstrators outside Rama’s office due to environmental concerns. “The amount of posts that have been entering there from our enemy, we have only one enemy, which is the [Islamic] Republic of Iran, and they are engaged in three years in a ruthless cyber-attack against Albania,” Rama said. “They [Iran] entered also in this game…freedom of reach is what every regime, through every propaganda, has done to go in every brain and to put the lie in the brain.”

Read the full story here.

Jewish communal groups are at loggerheads over the possibility of merging two related but distinct State Department offices: the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism and special envoy for Holocaust issues. Some Jewish groups recently sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in support of the concept of merging the two offices, while others have sent letters in recent  months opposing such a move, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

For and against: Proponents of combining the two offices say that doing so consolidates linked issues under the authority of one envoy with ambassador-rank status, while maintaining the work of both offices. Opponents say that combining the two teams would undermine and diminish the work of the Holocaust affairs envoy and risk politicizing critical work on Holocaust restitution. The reexamination of the two roles comes ahead of the expected retirement of Ellen Germain, who has served as special envoy for Holocaust issues since 2021.

Read the full story here.

American Priorities, a new super PAC created as a progressive counterweight to pro-Israel spending in Democratic primaries, has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for accepting contributions from donors who have given to Republicans — even as its allies on the far left have accused AIPAC, a chief rival, of serving as a Trojan horse to advance GOP-linked interests in safe blue districts, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Follow the money: Meanwhile, filings show that the anti-Israel group has received $250,000 from a tech executive whose firm is developing AI data centers in New York State. That money has boosted two democratic socialist House candidates in New York City who oppose efforts to expand data centers. Claire Valdez, a state assemblymember running to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), and Darializa Avila Chevalier, an anti-Israel activist who is challenging Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), have benefited from over $2 million in estimated support from American Priorities in the final stretch of their closely contested primaries set for next Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

The Department of Energy is leaning on Israel’s offshore gas resources and cybersecurity prowess to help an emerging Eastern Mediterranean energy alliance, with officials telling Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea that Israeli participation uniquely “strengthens” the newly formed coalition. Earlier this month, the U.S., Cyprus, Greece and Israel formalized the partnership, announcing the establishment of the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center (EMEC) on the campus of Rice University in Houston.

Aims: The center will serve as a permanent hub for research, policy dialogue, technical cooperation, and public‑private partnerships focused on infrastructure, investment, emerging technologies, and regional connectivity, according to the department. A spokesperson for the Department of Energy told JI that the agreement was part of a “longstanding effort to deepen cooperation” and that Israel’s involvement in the newly established EMEC partnership is vital to the coalition's geopolitical objectives.

Read the full story here.

Getting Going in Gaza: In the Financial Times, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posits that the West should embrace the Trump administration’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza and the Board of Peace’s efforts in the enclave, arguing that they offer the most viable opportunity for progress. “The gleeful anticipation of failure is not just unhelpful. It is strategically self-defeating. The Board of Peace is an improbable vehicle, and the 20-point plan leaves many legitimate concerns unresolved. Governments will continue to disagree with important elements of both. But diplomacy rarely offers a choice between good options and bad ones. The international community cannot claim concern for Palestinian civilians while refusing to engage with the only mechanism currently capable of shifting conditions on the ground.” [FT]

Wrong on U.S. Aid: In The Free Press, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant clarifies the contours of U.S. military aid to Israel. “No matter where you fall on this issue, almost everyone seems to agree on the premise that American support for Israel is a donation, and that the only remaining question is how generous the benefactor should be. But that premise is wrong. It has been wrong for a long time. And because it is wrong, the debate built on top of it misrepresents to the American people what their money has actually been doing for the past half-century. … But U.S. aid to Israel is not charity. American dollars flow into American factories; American assistance frees Israeli capital for innovation; and American forces eventually receive Israeli-developed capabilities refined in real combat.” [FreePress]

Strait Jacket: In The New York Times, Ed Fishman warns that other countries will use Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a blueprint for exacting economic and military concessions of their own. “Even if the deal holds, Iran is poised to emerge from the war battered militarily and economically but strengthened strategically, the newly empowered gatekeeper of the world’s most important energy chokepoint. Other countries will take note — and seek their own chokepoints to exploit. … The irony is that Iran’s success at the Strait of Hormuz may set off a different kind of arms race — one in which every country searches for chokepoints to convert into money and power.” [NYTimes]

Wrong Turn for the Left: In The Atlantic, Adam Louis-Klein argues that anti-Zionism runs counter to progressive values. “How can it be that an ideology that has produced repeated acts of discrimination, dispossession, and violence now bears the mantle of progressivism in the West and has been normalized within the Democratic Party? Like Stalinism or the Khmer Rouge, anti-Zionism represents a wrong turn for the left. Anti-Zionism claims to be concerned with rights of minorities, opposition to racism, and universal justice. In truth, though, it has appropriated the language of anti-colonial liberation to justify oppression, transformed anti-racism into a racist accusation, and turned hatred of Israel into a global ritual.” [TheAtlantic]

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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded rhetorically to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s comments that Israel should halt its attacks on Hezbollah by asking, “Does France get all its info from Hezbollah?” adding that “Ceasefire happens when Hezbollah stops shooting & killing”...

The New York Times spotlights the “last-minute scramble” that produced the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran; at one point last weekend, the Times reports, President Donald Trump “placed a call to a New York Times reporter to explain the deal, even as, he said, his ‘wonderful family’ was waiting for his birthday dinner to begin”...

Spotted at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday: Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden; former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Tony Blinken, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff; Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former U.S. Ambassadors to Israel Dan Shapiro, Jack Lew and Tom Nides; former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Karlie Kloss...

J Street is slated to host a virtual briefing for congressional staff on the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding with Iran featuring former Biden administration special envoy for Iran Rob Malley, who was suspended from his State Department role amid an investigation over his handling of classified materials, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Associated Press projected Washington, D.C., Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, to win the city’s Democratic mayoral primary, shortly after former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie conceded…

A federal grand jury indicted a Florida man facing hate crime charges over a foiled plot to attack Jewish employees of a pro-Israel nonprofit organization…

Lion Raisins condemned the recent antisemitic and racist behavior by Bruce Lion, one of the company’s heirs, who was arrested last week on charges of making criminal threats targeting a neighbor in his Pacific Palisades, Calif., community who is a rabbi; Lion, who was charged with three felony hate crimes, faces up to nine years in prison if convicted…

The New York Times Magazine does a deep dive into the term “goyslop,” which was popularized as an antisemitic trope by the far right and has increasingly become part of the discourse among the Zoomer generation…

Police in Canada arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with a shooting in March targeting the U.S. consulate in Toronto…

The U.K. government is pledging £1 million to support the Jewish Museum London; U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the funding would go to sharing the “stories, the connections and the understanding that are the basis of a cohesive society and the future of our country”...

U.K. Labour party member Andy Burnham won a special parliamentary election, positioning the Greater Manchester mayor to mount a challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer…

The Koum Family Foundation donated $36 million to Los Angeles’ Milken Community School, one of the largest non-Orthodox Jewish day schools in the country, as part of a major capital campaign, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports…

Shalev Hulio and Sebastian Kurz’s Israeli AI cybersecurity firm Dream, whose technology works to protect governments against cyberattacks, raised $260 million, at a $3 billion valuation, in a private round of funding…

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Tens of thousands of people participated in this week’s annual pilgrimage to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Queens, N.Y., to mark the 32nd anniversary of his death yesterday.

YANIV HOFFMAN

Singer-songwriter known as Jeryko, Yaniv Hoffman turns 35 on Sunday... 

FRIDAY: Attorney, investment banker, film producer and former deputy mayor of NYC, Kenneth Lipper turns 85... Rabbi emeritus of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, N.J., Rabbi Bennett F. Miller... Historian of the Jews in Muslim lands in the modern era, he won the Israel Prize in 2025 for Jewish history, Yaron Tsur turns 78... Retired president and CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, he is now the president of American Jewish University, Jay Sanderson turns 69... Inna N. Zalevsky... Former director of communications for Kings Bay Y, Adrienne M. Knoll... Member of the European Jewish Parliament for Latvia, Valery Engel, Ph.D. turns 65... Physician specializing in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Jessica Rosenberg Brown, MD... Co-founder of Centerview Partners, a boutique investment bank based in NYC, Blair Effron turns 64... Singer-songwriter, actor and television personality, she was a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18, Paula Abdul turns 64... Former member of Knesset for the Zionist Union party, in the 1990s she was an assistant legal advisor to then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin turns 56... Human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, Marjan Keypour Greenblatt... Co-founder of nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water and biotechnology industries, Andrew T. Perlman turns 51... Consul general of Israel to the Southeastern United States, Eitan Weiss... Staff writer at The New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner... Director of affinities and major gifts at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Tslil Shtulsaft... Founder of JSwipe, a Jewish dating app created in 2014, David Austin Yarus... Retired rhythmic gymnast from Israel who competed in the 2008 (Beijing), 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio) Olympics, Neta Rivkin turns 35... VP at Jewish Federations of North America, Anna Langer... COO at Lightning Inspiration, Alex Jakubowski... Organization director at Senate Leadership Fund & One Nation, Cydney Couch... Singer, popular on video and streaming services, known as Skye for short, Daniel Skye turns 26… Vice president for education at the American Jewish Committee and director of its Center for Education Advocacy, Laura Shaw Frank…

SATURDAY: Weston, Fla., resident Harold Kurte turns 97... Former member of Knesset for the Meretz party, Ran Cohen turns 89... Owner of Schulman Small Business Services in Atlanta, Alan Schulman... Detroit-based pawnbroker, reality TV star, author and speaker, Leslie "Les" Gold turns 76... Chef, baker and author of eight books, she popularized sourdough and artisan breads in the U.S., Nancy Silverton turns 72... Writer of the “Bully Pulpit” Substack from Booksmart Studios, Bob Garfield turns 71... Former assistant managing editor for politics at NBC News, now an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and FIU, Gregg Birnbaum... Co-founder of Brilliant Detroit (helping children out of poverty) and owner of Riverstone Communities, James Bellinson... Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Bergenfield, N.J., Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky turns 61... Israeli-American screenwriter, film director, writer and producer of 20 films, Boaz Yakin turns 60... Senior legal affairs reporter at Politico, Josh Gerstein... Governor of Pennsylvania, one of three current Jewish governors that are named Josh, Joshua David Shapiro turns 53... U.S. Sen. Eric Stephen Schmitt (R-MO) turns 51... Singer, songwriter and hazzan, he is a co-founder of the band Moshav, Yehuda Solomon turns 49... Senior program director of civic initiatives at The Teagle Foundation, Tamara Mann Tweel, Ph.D.... Israeli author of crime and thriller books that have sold more than 2.5 million copies in more than 20 languages, Mike Omer turns 47... Journalist, blogger and EMT in NYC, formerly editor for Gawker and director of public relations for the Village Voice, Maggie Shnayerson turns 45... EVP of Moxie Strategies, Pearl Gabel... French-Israeli singer and songwriter, Amir Haddad turns 42... Deputy communications director in the Trump 45 White House, now head of corporate affairs at Standard Industries, Josh Raffel... Jennifer Bernstein... Photographer, producer and digital strategist, she is a supervising producer at HardPin, Sara Pearl Kenigsberg... Writer, director, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster and mental health advocate, Allison Beth Raskin turns 37... Team captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, John DiBartolomeo turns 35... Chief campus and culture officer at Hillel Ontario, Bev Shimansky Ades... Development Director at Ashkenaz Foundation, Jaime Reich...

SUNDAY: Former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, she is the mother-in-law of Chelsea Clinton, Marjorie Margolies turns 84... Investment banker, he was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the Bush 43 administration, Charles L. Glazer turns 83... Philanthropist, she is vice chair of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Ingeborg Hanna Rennert... British businessman, co-founder with his brother Charles of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi which became the largest in the world, appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, Baron Maurice Saatchi turns 80... U.K. Cabinet minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind turns 80... Retired creditors rights attorney in the Chicago area, David Stephen Miller... Retired senior editor and writer at The Washington Post for 33 years, now chief editor at The Reis Group, Peter Perl... Member of the Knesset since 2013 for the Yesh Atid party, Mickey Levy turns 75... Susan Gutman... CEO of Amir Development Company in Beverly Hills, he is a member of the national council of AIPAC, Keenan L. Wolens... Punk rock singer and songwriter, known as the Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman turns 68... Washington Institute director and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, David Makovsky turns 66... Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, David L. Marcus... Co-founder and executive editor of Axios since 2016, Mike Allen turns 62... National education writer for The Washington Post, Laura Meckler... Founder and leader of Beautifully Jewish, Tanya Rebecca Singer... Actor, singer and entrepreneur, who now raises awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Aaron Scott Lazar turns 50... Yale Law School graduate, journalist and author, Abigail Krauser Shrier turns 48... Public affairs consultant based in Manhattan, Sam Nunberg turns 45... Co-founder and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science platform acquired by Google in 2017, Anthony Goldbloom turns 43... Former member of the Knesset where she was the first-ever Druze woman, she then became a Jewish Agency shlicha to Washington, Gadeer Kamal Mreeh turns 42... Head of Communications for Paramount+, Jacqueline (Jackie) Berkowitz... Chief of staff to the chairman and CEO at Saban Capital Group, Amitai Raziel... Award-winning Israeli classical pianist, Boris Giltburg turns 42... Executive director at Hunter Hillel, Merav Fine Braun... Editor for the global programming team at CNN, Madeleine Morgenstern... Singer-songwriter and actor, known by his mononym Max, Maxwell George Schneider turns 34...