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Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview Tuesday’s GOP primary in Kentucky, where Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) faces the fight of his political life against Ed Gallrein, and look closely at the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in local politics. We cover the testimony of Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, about the achievements of the U.S. and Israel in the war against Iran, and speak to former U.S. diplomatic officials and Middle East experts about the dozens of ambassador-level Middle East posts that remain empty. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Rep. Dan Goldman, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and Reps. Brad Schneider and Craig Goldman.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Melissa Weiss, Danielle Cohen-Kanik and 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: Longtime ADL head Abe Foxman remembered as ‘the kind of leader that all of us aspire to be’; Race to replace Pelosi offers early test of whether progressive Jews welcomed on the left; and Minnesota Vikings owner Mark Wilf leads players, high school students on Holocaust Museum trip. Print the latest edition here.

Evening intelligence, exclusively for subscribers — what we're tracking and what's coming next.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) will enter Tuesday’s closely watched primary against Ed Gallrein, a Navy veteran and farmer backed by President Donald Trump, politically damaged — but it remains to be seen whether he’s taken enough hits to end his career in Congress.

Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist and CNN political analyst, said that he’s spoken to operatives on both sides of the race who are very confident in victory. “Based on some of the polling I've personally seen and heard about, it feels like Massie’s image has been severely degraded by the sustained campaign that's been run against him,” Jennings told Jewish Insider.

The question is whether Massie’s image has been tarnished enough to cause his defeat, or if he’ll emerge wounded but still standing. Jennings said that Massie has built a “popular brand” in the district during his seven terms in office, but also hasn’t before faced a full-frontal assault from Trump and the associated avalanche of spending.

Al Cross, a professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and a political columnist, said he’s “loath to make predictions about that race, but Gallrein clearly has the momentum.”

He explained that Gallrein has received significant positive coverage in pro-Trump media, has stronger support among older voters, who are more likely to turn out, has a significant advantage in outside spending and has Trump’s influential endorsement. 

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

On paper, the two leading candidates for mayor of Washington, D.C. — Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie — appear almost identical, both touting affordability and safety on the campaign trail, with promises to build more housing and stand up against President Donald Trump. But if elected, Lewis George’s victory would hand a major win to Washington’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter, of which Lewis George has been a member for years — the latest front in a battle over the Democratic Party's soul that stretches from city councils to the halls of Congress, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Pushing back: The centrist Democratic group Third Way plans to launch a major PR campaign against the DSA in the coming months, arguing that its far-left positions and incendiary brand of politics will be harmful for the party’s electoral prospects. “We are going to raise money and develop a plan over the course of the next few months to try to make them toxic, to make it unacceptable for major figures in the party or anybody actually running for office to be affiliated with the DSA, the way it should be unacceptable to be affiliated with [neo-Nazi influencer] Nick Fuentes if you're running as Republican,” Third Way’s senior vice president for public affairs, Matt Bennett, said. 

Read the full story here.

Former U.S. diplomatic officials and Middle East experts, in interviews with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea, called on the Trump administration to fill dozens of ambassador-level Middle East posts, warning that not doing so could carry damaging consequences for U.S. influence and diplomacy in the region, while other former Trump officials argued the administration can manage regional diplomacy in its current format.

Weighing in: Elliott Abrams, who served as Iran envoy during the first Trump administration and is now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, called the vacancies a “huge mistake.” Abrams told JI, “It’s a foolish and damaging failure by the Trump administration, and there’s no excuse for it. There are top career diplomats, such as the ones the administration has sent to Jordan, Bahrain and Oman, who could be sent, and surely there are potential political appointees who’d love to be in Riyadh or Abu Dhabi.”

Read the full story here.

Brainstorm session: Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Craig Goldman (R-TX), co-chairs of the Abraham Accords Caucus, convened on Thursday with former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Yael Lempert and Karen Young, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, to discuss the global energy crisis stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The lawmakers raised ideas for how Congress could assist, including diversifying energy routes.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, testified on Thursday that the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran had severely degraded its capabilities across a variety of fronts, to the extent that it will take years to reconstitute, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Achieved objectives: Cooper told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that 90% of Iran’s defense industrial base had been destroyed, setting the country back years, and that support to key Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and and the Houthis had been “completely cut off.” He said that the operation had also set back Iran’s nuclear breakout time. “We met every military objective for Epic Fury,” Cooper said.

But: Pressed on reports that Iran still has access to nearly three-quarters of its missiles and missile launchers, Cooper declined to discuss specific numbers in a public setting, but said that open source data on the subject were not accurate.

Read the full story here.

A House divided: The House voted by the narrowest possible margin to reject Democrats’ latest effort to force an end to the war in Iran, with a final tied vote of 212-212, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a pro-Israel Democrat facing a formidable primary challenge from former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander next month, won a key endorsement on Thursday from the United Federation of Teachers, a union representing around 200,000 members, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.  

UFT statement: “Dan Goldman has the integrity we need in Washington,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “He fought to curb Trump’s abuses and supported raising taxes on the wealthy — like himself — to level the playing field so all Americans can live with dignity. We are proud to support Dan Goldman for New York’s 10th Congressional District.”

Read the full story here.

Flag flashpoint: The NYPD is investigating an incident where a flag displaying swastikas and a Star of David was flown atop an NYU building on Wednesday, JI’s Haley Cohen reports.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) plans to force a House vote next week on a war powers resolution blocking any U.S. involvement in or support for Israeli military operations in Lebanon, according to a memo distributed by Tlaib’s office to progressive lawmakers and obtained by Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod.

About the resolution: Tlaib’s resolution, co-led by Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), aims to prevent any U.S. assistance to Israel in its operations in Lebanon, including intelligence sharing and targeting assistance for operations against Hezbollah. Neither the legislation nor Tlaib’s memo make mention of Hezbollah nor acknowledge its attacks on Israel or its refusal to disarm.

Read the full story here.

An antisemitism task force championed by UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk released a report on Thursday urging the university to intensify its crackdown on anti-Jewish harassment, as the school continues to be enmeshed in legal battles with the Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. 

Committee recommendations: The 42-page set of recommendations, issued by the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism action group, suggested that UCLA set a deadline of 120 days to resolve disciplinary cases. It also said the university should more clearly define consequences for violations to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The committee further urged UCLA to prevent faculty groups from using university resources or authority to express institutional support for anti-Zionism or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into rule enforcement and policy formation.

Read the full story here.

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Conspiracy Nation: Tablet Magazine’s Izabella Tabarovsky writes about the growing conspiracism in American politics, on both the far left and far right: “It should be clear by now that what is taking shape in American public discourse is in no way a conventional political disagreement over the rightness or real-world effectiveness or this or that Israeli policy. It is the normalization of a way of thinking that flattens reality into a single, self-confirming narrative that has always led to the same place: the mental and political unraveling of the societies that embrace it.” [Tablet]

UAEasy Does It: The Wall Street Journal’s Anat Peled and Stephen Kalin consider the limits of Israel’s relationship with the United Arab Emirates, following the latter’s denial that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited the country during the war with Iran. “Such disagreements are extremely unusual in the world of high-level international diplomacy. The prickly back-and-forth shows that while Israel has proven a valuable security partner for the U.A.E., there are still political considerations that need to be managed in the relationship … The Gulf monarchy had likely wanted to keep the meeting quiet and continued with quieter and unpublicized coordination, analysts said. The U.A.E. was displeased with the Israeli announcement and saw it as embarrassing, according to a person close to Emirati officials.” [WSJ]

The Abbas Paradox: In Commentary, Seth Mandel analyzes the complex intersection of Israeli domestic politics, Arab-Israeli civic integration and the strategic calculus of Middle Eastern governance through his profile of Ra’am party head Mansour Abbas. “A leader can’t get too far in front of his constituents, I suppose. The problem is that Abbas is arguably a once-in-a-generation figure in Arab politics, someone who has legitimacy within the Islamic movement and among working-class Arabs alike and can retain that legitimacy while integrating his party into mainstream Israeli politics. So there isn’t really time for incrementalism. He isn’t just working within a brief window; he is the window.” [Commentary]

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President Donald Trump departed Beijing following his three-day trip to China. The White House said Trump had a “good meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, highlighting that “the two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open,” that Xi “made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use” and that “both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon”...

Xi, according to the Chinese readout, flagged Taiwan as the “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” warning that it could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries if not “handled properly”…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other Israeli military officials visited the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran, Israeli broadcaster Kan reported on Friday, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s revelation earlier this week that he had visited the UAE during the war in late March…

The UAE was left frustrated after it tried in vain to convince some of its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to participate in a joint military response to Iran’s strikes, Bloomberg reports…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights efforts by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to clean house following the removal of his predecessor, Kristi Noem, from the post, firing officials linked to her and reviewing her spending decisions…

Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a rally in Maine, praised Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — despite her strained relationship with the president — as she heads to a competitive general election against presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner…

The New York Times looks under the hood of the campaign of Jack Schlossberg, running in New York’s 12th Congressional District Democratic primary, which sources described as “so erratic and plagued by turnover that it raises questions about how he might handle himself as a member of Congress”...

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is at risk of finishing in third place in Saturday’s Louisiana GOP primary, with the senator trailing Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and state Treasurer John Fleming, according to Punchbowl News… 

Tune Inn, the D.C. bar where William Paul, son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), accosted Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) with an antisemitic rant, announced that the younger Paul would be barred from the establishment going forward. The elder Paul hasn't made any statement on the confrontation…

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, received the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Charles Eisenman Award for Exceptional Civic Contributions at the Federation’s 122nd Annual Meeting on Tuesday…

Highlighting Spain's efforts to hamper U.S. operations against Iran, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) urged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to "reconsider existing arrangements with Spanish entities, especially major government contracts benefitting Spanish companies at the expense of the American taxpayer." Gooden's letter focused on ACS Group, Spain's largest construction company and a U.S. military contractor…

The Israeli government said it is initiating a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof alleging widespread Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, which critics said used dubious sourcing and elevated conspiracy theories, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…

The Times dismissed Israel’s stated intention to sue “as part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative”…

More than 200 people demonstrated outside the Times headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday, demanding a retraction of the article, an event organized by pro-Israel groups…

The U.S. government is suing a Chick-fil-A franchisee for religious discrimination over the employer’s alleged refusal for a Christian employee to take Saturdays off to observe the Sabbath, as her denomination observes…

Saudi Arabia has begun to consider a nonaggression pact between Middle East countries and Iran for when the war against the Islamic Republic ends, according to the Financial Times, fearing that the conflict will leave Iran weaker but more hard-line and conflict-prone. Several European countries are reportedly supporting the effort…

Iraq voted on Thursday — six months after its election — to approve a new government, led by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi alongside 14 ministers, though parliament failed to reach consensus on several key posts including interior and defense...

Scandal-plagued filmmaker Brett Ratner, who moved to Israel after being accused of sexual misconduct, joined Trump’s delegation to China this week to scout out locations for the newest “Rush Hour” movie, JI’s Haley Cohen reports…

Richard Attias, a Moroccan-born consultant and longtime advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also reportedly joined the delegation…

The Financial Times spotlights tensions surrounding Israel’s participation in Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest, over which the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland have pulled out of this year’s event…

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has previously been mired in antisemitism scandals, is set to perform in Tbilisi, Georgia, at a June concert produced by Live Nation Israel…

Richard Pohle-WPA Pool/Getty Images

King Charles III met with Michael Shine, a victim of a stabbing attack, and his sister Doreen, during a visit on Thursday to the Jewish Care charity in Golders Green, two weeks after the antisemitic attack in the London suburb.

JEWISH CARE 

JI wine columnist Yitz Applbaum reviews the Yonatan Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot:

Thirty-two years ago, I celebrated the cutting of my son's hair on Lag B’Omer in Meron, Israel. A memorable moment in life. I still recall the bottle we opened the following Friday night, a 1984 Yarden Cabernet, and I can taste it to this day. These days, in the current situation, we did not have the opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Mount Meron on Lag B’Omer, and so we marked my my 3-year-old grandson's first haircut in Tel Aviv, over a new bottle of wine. G-d willing, I shall be present for my great-grandson's in turn.

Charley Winery in the Judean Hills is a new discovery for me, and I suspect it will feature regularly in my reviews in the months to come. The Yonatan Cabernet, lifted by a whisper of petit verdot, awakened a passion in me that had been dormant for some time. The opening was unmistakably Judean Hills, generous in fruit, with tannins of considerable poise; the mid-palate offered a sumptuous course of blackberry; and the finish revealed something altogether unexpected: a serene, earthen, fleshy register more often encountered in Bordeaux. The wine held me in contemplation from first sip to last. Pair it with bison, or with a cut of meat worthy of the occasion. This is a wine built to age for many years to come.

Hannes P Albert/picture alliance via Getty Images

First lady of Israel, Michal Herzog turns 65 today...

FRIDAY: Chairman of Queens-based Muss Development, a major real estate development company founded by his grandfather Isaac in 1906, Joshua Lawrence Muss turns 85... Chairman emeritus of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, a human rights organization in NYC, Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim turns 83... Chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, he was born in a DP camp as a child of Holocaust survivors, Martin Oliner turns 79... Retired major general in the IDF, he served as Israel's national security advisor and is now a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Yaakov Amidror turns 78... Israeli diplomat who served as Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy turns 78... CEO of Emigrant Bank, real estate developer, financier and philanthropist, he has co-chaired the annual campaign for the UJA-Federation of New York, Howard Philip Milstein turns 75... Professor of pathology and genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he is the author of Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People, Harry Ostrer turns 75... Professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College who is serving as visiting professor at Harvard for the 2025-26 academic year, she is the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah Heschel turns 70... Owner of Midnight Music Management and one of the founders of The Happy Minyan in Los Angeles, Stuart Wax... Former editor and columnist at The Washington Post, Ruth Allyn Marcus turns 68... Five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer, filmmaker and Latin media marketing entrepreneur, Giselle Fernandez turns 65... Founding rabbi of The Shtiebel in NYC and a member of the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Maharat, Adam Mintz turns 65... Owner/president of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, he is the chairman of the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Mark Wilf turns 64... Former member of the Nevada Assembly, she served as secretary of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, Ellen Barre Spiegel turns 64... Director, screenwriter and former film critic, Rod Lurie turns 64... Actor and filmmaker known for his collaborations with George Clooney, Grant Heslov turns 63... Vice chancellor of Brown University, she is the founder of Reeves Advisory, Pamela Ress Reeves... Actor and comedian, David Krumholtz turns 48... Executive director in the Office of Crime Victim Services at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Shira Rosenthal Phelps... Noam Finger turns 48... Director of the center for civics, education and opportunity at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, Daniel M. Rothschild... Actor best known for her role as Tony Soprano's daughter, Meadow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler turns 45... Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-at-large for The New York Times, Eli Eric Saslow turns 44... Senior editor at Vogue, Chloe F. Schama turns 43... Director of career services at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, Lisa Dubler turns 39... Rochelle Wilner... Ofir Richman... 

SATURDAY: Scholar, author and rabbi, he is the founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Irving "Yitz" Greenberg turns 93... Retired judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, she has served as president and chair of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Ellen Moses Heller turns 85... Senior official in the Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama administrations, Bernard W. Aronson turns 80... Member of the New York state Assembly for 52 years (longest tenure ever), his term ended in 2022, Richard N. Gottfried turns 79... Chairman of NBC News and MSNBC from 2015 to 2020, Andrew Lack turns 79... Member of the House of Representatives since 2013 (D-FL), she was previously the mayor of West Palm Beach, Lois Frankel turns 78... Harvard history professor, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England, Emma Georgina Rothschild turns 78... Proto-punk singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jonathan Richman turns 75... Radio voice of the Texas Rangers baseball organization since 1979, Eric Nadel turns 75... Rochester, N.Y., resident and advisor to NYC-based Ezras Nashim volunteer ambulance service, Michael E. Pollock... U.S. ambassador to France and machatunim of President Trump, Charles Kushner turns 72... Managing partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm, he served as executive chairman of Fubo TV until its October 2025 merger with Disney, Edgar Bronfman Jr. turns 71... Film and stage actor, noted for "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Terms of Endearment," Debra Winger turns 71... President of Tribe Media, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal, David Suissa... Real estate mogul and collector of modern and contemporary art, Aby J. Rosen turns 66... Executive assistant at Los Angeles-based FaceCake Marketing Technologies, Esther Bushey... U.S. ambassador to the European Union in the Obama administration, he had a bar mitzvah-like ceremony in Venice in 2017, Anthony Luzzatto Gardner turns 63... Social entrepreneur, Jonathan Shawn Landres turns 54... Actor, television personality and author, Victoria Davey “Tori” Spelling turns 53... Host of programs on the Travel Channel and the History Channel, Adam Richman turns 52... VP and associate general counsel at CNN, Drew Shenkman... Managing director at FTI Consulting, Jeff Bechdel... Chef and food blogger, her husband Ryan played baseball for Team Israel, Jamie Neistat Lavarnway... Composer, conductor and music producer known for his film and television scores, Daniel Alexander Slatkin turns 32... 

SUNDAY: Founder of the Philadelphia-based Honickman Foundation, her family owns one of the largest soft drink bottlers in the U.S., Lynne Korman Honickman turns 90... Annapolis, Md., attorney, Robert M. Pollock... News anchor for 46 years at WPVI-TV (ABC Channel 6) in Philadelphia until he retired in 2022, known professionally as Jim Gardner, James Goldman turns 78... Canadian philanthropist and the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Myra Ava Freeman turns 77... Corporate and securities attorney at NYC's Eilenberg & Krause, he serves as counsel for Israeli technology companies doing business in the U.S., Sheldon Krause turns 71... Comedian, puppeteer and actor, Marc Weiner turns 71... Founder and president of ENS Resources, a D.C.-based consulting and lobbying firm focused on natural resources and sustainable energy, Eric Sapirstein turns 70... Special correspondent for Marketplace by American Public Media, David Brancaccio turns 66... Author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish and a 2017 book about Jewish holidays, she is an honorary president of NYC's Central Synagogue, Abigail Pogrebin... and her identical twin sister, Robin Pogrebin, reporter on the culture desk for The New York Times, both turn 61... Formerly the general manager for corporate strategy at Microsoft and an EVP at Hillel, she is mounting a bid for Washington's congressional delegate seat, Kinney Zalesne turns 60… Retired CPA and founder of the Baltimore Hunger Project, it provides food packs for the weekend that are discretely slipped into poverty-stricken public-school children's backpacks each Friday, Lynne Berkowitz Kahn... Israeli author and playwright, Sarah Blau turns 53... Reporter for The New York Times covering politics, campaigns and elections, Reid J. Epstein... Former member of Knesset, when elected in 2013 she became the youngest female Knesset member in Israel's history, Stav Shaffir turns 41... Founder of Sound Strategies and digital strategy advisor to Democratic organizations and candidates, Jenna Ruth Lowenstein... Social media and content integration brand strategist at AARP, Sarah Sonies... Senior writer at Microsoft's AI at Work group, Rebecca Rose Nelson Kay... Retired Israeli judoka, he was the 2019 World Champion and won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics, Sagi Aharon Muki turns 34... Director of congregational engagement at Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation in St. Paul, Minn., Heather Renetzky... Senior communications manager at Rystad Energy, she was an assistant area director in the Houston office of AIPAC, Katherine “Katie” Keenan...