Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on questions that Democratic officials supporting Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner are facing following new allegations surrounding his past romantic relationships, and spotlight Cliff Sims, who last month was tapped to serve as Vice President JD Vance’s national security advisor. We report on the launch of talks between Israel and the U.S. to discuss a new partnership framework that will succeed the expiring 10-year memorandum of understanding between the countries, and talk to the Israeli startup founders who attended last week’s New York Tech Week. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Steven Spielberg, Sen. Rick Scott and Ron Klain.

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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Millions of people across northern Israel heard a familiar sound from their phones late Sunday night: an alert from Israel’s Homefront Command, notifying them for the first time in two months, of an incoming ballistic missile attack from Iran.

Just after sunrise, residents of Israel’s center — from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — received the same notification, and groggily huddled in shelters as Iran, joined by its Houthi proxy in Yemen, launched fresh salvos at Israel. Shortly after, Israel struck a petrochemical plant in southwest Iran.

Last night’s initial Iranian attack came in response to Israeli strikes in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold that had in recent weeks been off-limits to the IDF in accordance with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Lebanon that limited Israeli action to southern Lebanon, another Hezbollah stronghold. 

What matters more than how the latest round of fighting started is what will happen next. Israeli media reported that its overnight strikes on Iran had been coordinated with the U.S., even as President Donald Trump spent Sunday afternoon on the phone with reporters trying to publicly de-escalate the situation. But early this afternoon local time, Iran reportedly said it was halting its fire against Israel.

Shortly after Iran’s initial missile attack on Sunday, Trump told Fox News that the incident was “certainly not going to help” the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. He continued, “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”

Trump’s comments could be taken at face value — or viewed with some skepticism in light of the Israeli media reports that the strikes were coordinated with Washington. It would not, after all, be the first time in which the U.S. and Israel publicly emphasized their differences while privately remaining aligned — even amid alleged fissures in the relationship. That includes leaks to NBC News and The New York Times over the weekend that the Defense Department’s Defense Intelligence Agency had raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to the highest level. The Times named three U.S. officials that were allegedly being tracked for information on the Iran negotiations: White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby and Colby's deputy, Michael DiMino.

But things move fast in the Middle East. Recall that last June, after 12 days of intensive strikes between Israel and Iran, joined by the U.S., a ceasefire was announced mere hours after Iran launched missiles at a U.S. airbase in Qatar. Addressing the overnight escalation between Israel and Iran — and Iran’s continued intransigence in the region — is likely to be the White House’s top order of business today. Indeed, Trump issued his first comments of the day shortly before 6 a.m. ET, posting on his Truth Social site that “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’"

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

Top Democrats faced questions on Sunday over Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s scandals, days after The New York Times shared details of abusive behavior alleged by past romantic partners, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Reactions: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who has endorsed Platner, said he continues to support him even as he criticized Platner’s past behavior and said his campaign should not attack his accusers, while Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to offer any support for Platner and said that Platner and Maine voters will need to address the scandal.

Read the full story here.

Progressive-pilled: Ron Klain, who served as chief of staff in the Biden administration, is reportedly advising Khanna as the California Democrat and Israel critic weighs a 2028 presidential bid. Klain, Politico reports, had also signed on to prepare Platner for a Democratic primary debate with Gov. Janet Mills, which did not materialize after the governor dropped her Senate bid.

Vice President JD Vance tapped Cliff Sims last month as his national security advisor, picking a longtime GOP operative with close relationships across the party’s ideological spectrum on foreign policy. The hire bolsters Vance’s foreign policy operation at a time when intraparty fissures are widening over the lack of diplomatic or military progress in the war with Iran and the broader question of American engagement abroad, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

Ratcliffe’s reference: In addition to being a Vance confidante, Sims, 42, has advised or worked with President Donald Trump, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, most recently serving as chairman of the CIA’s external advisory board. "Cliff served as one of my deputies when I was DNI and I saw firsthand his exceptional judgment and command of the most sensitive national security matters,” Ratcliffe told JI. Vance's appointment of Sims also received praise from Jeff Miller, a leading Republican lobbyist and the board chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Dan Conston, former president of the Congressional Leadership Fund. Both worked alongside him at Watchtower Strategy, the consulting firm they cofounded last year.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Trump administration have launched formal talks on a “new security cooperation framework” to replace the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding on military aid upon its expiration in 2028, the ministry said in a statement on Friday, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.

Details: The Israeli team will be led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, while the U.S. team will be led by State Department counselor Daniel Holler and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. The two sides held a formal inaugural meeting this week and have further discussions planned in both countries in the coming weeks, the ministry said, without specifying a timeline for when the talks might conclude.

Read the full story here.

Regional rebuilding: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is examining pathways to repurpose Iranian assets to compensate the U.S.’ Gulf allies for damage inflicted by Iranian attacks during the war, and potential future damages, a source familiar with Bessent’s thinking told JI’s Marc Rod.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidate to unseat Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), on Friday defended her attendance at an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, denied knowledge regarding her own history of posting anti-U.S. and pro-Russian sentiments online and maintained she owed nothing to the Texas tycoon underwriting a PAC backing her campaign, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.

What she said: The Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed congressional contender faced questions from reporters following a press conference, including over her decision to participate in an anti-Israel protest organized by pro-China, pro-Iran groups on Oct. 8, 2023. “I was at this rally because I have always, as someone who has followed the issues that happened in the region, I have seen a pattern in which whenever there is an incident, the State of Israel engages in a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life,” she said. “And that is what I was there to stand against.”

Read the full story here.

The four leading Democrats running in a closely contested Manhattan primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) all declined to describe Israel’s military conduct in Gaza as genocide during their first televised debate on Thursday evening, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. Micah Lasher, an assemblyman who is backed by Nadler and other Democratic leaders in New York, called the number of Palestinian casualties “horrific” but characterized the question as “one of a set of definitional debates that does more to divide people of good faith than it does to find common ground.”

Choice of words: Alex Bores, a fellow assemblyman who has gained left-wing endorsements even as a defender of Israel, said he was “not comfortable” using the word, while Jack Schlossberg, a Kennedy scion and social media influencer, told the PIX11 debate moderator that he was “less interested in what we call it than what we do about it.” George Conway, a former Republican who is now an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, said he did not think Israel’s war “meets the threshold” for genocide.

Read the full story here.

There’s a mantra in the Israeli startup world that its founders are months behind their American counterparts. New York Tech Week gave them a chance to close that gap, according to investors who descended on Manhattan last week. Michael Morgenstern, head of startups at financial technology platform Airwallex, which teamed up with Andreessen Horowitz — one of the world's leading venture capital firms — to bring a delegation of Israeli founders to tech week for the first time, told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen that VCs are looking to see more AI products come out of Israel, which historically has been security focused. 

AI aspirations: “It would be interesting to see an AI lab out of Israel,” Morgenstern said. “Why haven’t we seen an OpenAI or Claude, something of that status, coming out of the Israeli ecosystem? It makes me wonder if we are stagnating as an ecosystem. So exposing the Israeli market to what’s going on on the ground gives Israeli entrepreneurs the chance to get months ahead.” 

Read the full story here.

No Room for Debate: In his Substack, commentator and “Making Sense” podcast host Sam Harris explains why he refuses to debate critics of Israel. “What do the Jews and Muslims in the region really yearn to accomplish? What are they willing to sacrifice for? What are they willing to die for? And what are they willing to let their children die for? When we focus on the present this way, if we’re being honest, we must concede that there are two very different realities on either side of this conflict: culturally, psychologically, ethically, spiritually — in every way that matters. Yes, Israel has its religious fanatics too. But they aren’t the same sort of fanatics we find in Hamas or Hezbollah, and they’re far less representative of the surrounding culture.” [Substack]

The Platner Paradox: The Washington Post’s Ramesh Ponnuru reacts to efforts by some supporters of embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who last week was the subject of a lengthy New York Times piece in which former girlfriends raised concerns about his behavior, to defend Platner in spite of the latest reporting. “Progressives, who went all in on ‘believe women’ just a few years ago, have in many cases decided that certain exceptions apply. Conservative women whose testimony is inconvenient for Democratic hopes of running the Senate apparently are on that list. … Maine voters are free to support Platner, of course, as are progressive political commentators — notwithstanding the tattoo, the lying about it, the lying about his home loan, the extramarital sexting and everything else. But it’s a strange race to jettison moral standards for.” [WashPost]

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Axios spotlights growing concerns among Jewish Democratic officials and political staffers over growing antisemitism — and its acceptance — within the party…

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is calling on the Tampa Sports Authority to reconsider the city’s plans to host two upcoming Kanye West concerts, citing concerns that taxpayer funds will go to support performances by West, who has made numerous antisemitic remarks in recent years…

The Boulder, Colo., Jewish community unveiled a plaque during the Boulder Jewish Film Festival paying tribute to the victims of last year’s antisemitic firebombing targeting a hostage-awareness rally, in which one woman was killed…

The New York Times Magazine profiles director Steven Spielberg ahead of the release of his 35th film, “Disclosure Day,” this weekend…

Actor John Lithgow won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for his portrayal of antisemitic author Roald Dahl in "Giant"...

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein married Caryn Zucker on Friday; the couple first exchanged vows in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, followed by a religious ceremony at Washington’s Sixth and I synagogue officiated by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt… 

Police in Canada arrested a man in connection with last week’s arson attack at Montreal’s Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, one of the city’s oldest synagogues…

The Bank of Israel purchased approximately $800 million in May in an effort to stem the growing strength of the shekel; the move came as some Israel-based companies and NGOs were forced to downsize as a result of the currency’s appreciating value against a weakening dollar…

Ireland will issue travel bans prohibiting far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering the country… 

One person was killed and five injured in what is believed to be a terror attack in central Israel; the alleged assailant, an Arab Israeli man from the town of Tayibe, was killed by police soon after the spree…

Heedo Abu Laban is joining The New York Times as a reporter and researcher in the outlet’s Jerusalem bureau; Abu Laban previously worked at Israel’s Kan broadcaster and i24News…

Israeli singer Yishai Levi, known for his contributions over the decades to Mizrahi music, died at 63…

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COURTESY

William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem on Sunday. Daroff told JI it was a “warm meeting that discussed a wide range of issues of concern to American Jewry and to the diaspora, generally."

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