Good Monday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how the ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran announced yesterday is playing in Washington and Jerusalem, and report on how officials in World Cup host cities are addressing security concerns around the Iranian national team’s U.S. matches. We profile former White House official Hagar Hajjar Chemali as she launches the Lebanon-Israel Peace Alliance, and spotlight the GOP Senate runoff taking place tomorrow in Georgia. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Tony Blair, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Brig. Gen. Hisam Ibrahim.

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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A year and a day after Israeli fighter jets first opened fire above Iran, setting off a year of intermittent fighting and numerous failed negotiations, President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that an agreement with Iran to end the war had been reached. A signing ceremony set for later this week in Switzerland — which is expected to be attended by Vice President JD Vance — will kick off a 60-day negotiation period to address Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

For Americans, the deal closes a chapter that saw high gas and food prices as well as schisms in the GOP as the party’s wings fought over how the war should be fought and ended. Among Democrats, legislators and activists from the party’s progressive wing — from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to the National Iranian American Council’s Trita Parsi (who additionally gloated, “Netanyahu failed!”) — praised the deal.

But Israel was not part of the negotiations, nor did it have final say in what was in the agreement inked between Washington and Tehran. As the Is were dotted and Ts were crossed on the agreement, tensions between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — already on display following Israel’s threatened escalation last week in Beirut, followed by an actual escalation on Sunday when Israel struck Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood — deepened.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on X on Sunday that he was “somewhat concerned” that Iran’s account of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal diverges sharply from what the U.S. negotiators are claiming, and demanded Vice President JD Vance personally present the deal to Congress. More below.

The vice president, who two months ago traveled to Pakistan for high-level negotiations with Iranian officials, has increasingly become the public face of the Iran talks. In an interview last week that aired yesterday on “CBS Sunday Morning,” Vance said he believed “that we are in a position to get a deal that is good for the United States economically and that really does deal with the Iranian nuclear program” in the long term.

For Vance, the success or failure of the deal, and of the negotiations to follow, could become one of the defining political issues of his rumored 2028 presidential bid — one in which he will likely find himself up against Secretary of State Marco Rubio in what could be a bruising primary.

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

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Sunday he is “somewhat concerned” that Iran’s account of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal diverges sharply from what the U.S. negotiators are claiming, and demanded Vice President JD Vance personally present the deal to Congress, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Notable quotable: “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming,” Graham said on X. “I look forward to reviewing the final product and I believe it is imperative that the architect of the deal, Vice President Vance and his negotiating partners, be part of the process in presenting the final deal to Congress.”

Read the full story here.

As the Iranian national soccer team begins the 2026 World Cup amid high-level diplomatic negotiations to end the war between the U.S. and Iran, American security officials — and American Jewish communities already operating under elevated threat conditions — are facing challenges beyond soccer, Jewish Insider’s Danielle Cohen-Kanik reports.

Measures taken: The team is not allowed to stay on U.S. soil overnight; it relocated its training camp from Tucson, Ariz., to Tijuana, Mexico, and will return to Mexico after the final whistle of each of its matches. The host cities are already on alert: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, a Democrat, said she was briefed on a “credible threat” to the city during the World Cup, which so alarmed her that she decided to turn on CCTV cameras around the soccer stadium for the duration of the games, counter to her longstanding opposition to the surveillance system.

Read the full story here.

Hagar Hajjar Chemali, a self-described “Lebanese Zionist” who is half Jewish and half Christian, is betting that a historic opening can help break through the distrust that has long defined relations between Lebanon and Israel. The former Bush and Obama administration official recently launched the Lebanon-Israel Peace Alliance, an unofficial effort to support the first direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials since 1983, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. 

Unique ability: “It's about the art of the possible. Lebanese-Israeli peace is not particularly easy to achieve,” said Daniel Glaser, a former assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. He hired Chemali for her first job at the Treasury Department. “What's going to get it done is the ability to understand what's possible, and how to get to that possible within the U.S. system, within Israel and the Israeli system, within Lebanon and the infinitely complicated Lebanese system. There's not a lot of people that have the ability to do that more than Hagar.” 

Read the full story here.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who has repeatedly faced controversy during his time in the House, appears favored to win the Republican Senate primary runoff in Georgia against Derek Dooley, a former college football coach backed by popular moderate GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

State of play: Collins led Dooley 41-30% in the May 19 Republican primary, with Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) coming in at 25%. The runoff is Tuesday, with the winner to face Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November. President Donald Trump endorsed Collins — generally seen as the more MAGA-aligned candidate — late on Saturday, while Kemp — who national Republicans initially sought to recruit for the race — has been aggressively campaigning around the Peach State in support of Dooley. 

Read the full story here.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is set to join a rally in New York City on Thursday with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a trio of candidates he is backing in closely watched New York City House races, The New York Times reports. The event, which will be held five days before the June 23 primary at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, will lend a jolt of momentum to Mamdani’s preferred slate of far-left congressional candidates — including democratic socialists Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander, a former New York City comptroller who also ran for mayor last election cycle, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Zoom out: The senator’s decision to appear at the rally next week is notable in part because he will be aiding Mamdani in his efforts to unseat two Democratic incumbents, Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), who have drawn backlash from the left over their support for Israel and ties to the pro-Israel group AIPAC, a chief source of criticism in the races.

Read the full story here.

Jewish advocacy groups are celebrating a new set of wonky tax guidelines released last week by the Treasury Department that offer clarity into a new federal education tax credit that they hope will help more Jewish families access day school education, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Sneak peek: Education-focused nonprofits have been awaiting guidance from the federal government about the program, which provides a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for people who donate up to $1,700 to organizations that fund certain approved education expenses, like private school tuition and tutoring costs. Last week, Kevin Salinger, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for tax policy, did a whirlwind tour of virtual briefings with nonprofits to preview the forthcoming new guidance.

Read the full story here.

Losing Battle: The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols posits that the U.S. has lost the war with Iran following President Donald Trump's announcement that an agreement between the countries had been reached. “But even before we have the details, it is clear that Trump has failed to achieve every one of the goals he put forward for this war of choice, and now he is determined to sign, seal, and deliver America’s capitulation as quickly as possible. … Indeed, the United States has perhaps done worse than gaining nothing. Iran, while temporarily weakened, is now an even more powerful political actor: The regime in Tehran stood up to a massive U.S. onslaught, survived, and then inflicted pain on various states in the Gulf as punishment for going along with Trump’s war.” [TheAtlantic]

Power Broker: The Wall Street Journal’s Benoit Faucon and Summer Said spotlight Ahmad Vahidi, the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who has played a key role in U.S.-Iran talks. “For months, Vahidi, an enigmatic commander whose predecessor was killed on the first day of the war, has tussled with more public-facing, political figures in the Iranian leadership. Each time, he has come out on top. Vahidi’s position at the top of the regime’s most powerful armed force means his perspective is now shaping Iran’s stance in negotiations to end the war, say mediators involved in the talks. His forces are in charge of imposing Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the regime’s strongest card in negotiations.” [WSJ]

Life of Service: In Sapir, Anne Neuberger, who served as deputy national security advisor for cyber in the Biden administration, calls for the Jewish community to prioritize public service, calling it a “religious imperative” in addition to a civic necessity. “My commitment  —  and that of many of my colleagues  —  to public service was rooted in the spiritual idea that each person has a divine mission that requires channeling her personal gifts toward the public good. For me, that was in the realm of security, but there are so many aspects of public service that have nothing to do with security: law, accounting, engineering, economics, you name it. … The American Jewish community should encourage our children to see a badge, a security clearance, or a civil service ID as a form of kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God’s name.” [Sapir]

The Art of Erasure: The New York Times’ Sharon Waxman interviews Israeli artists about the challenges they face as anti-Israel sentiment balloons across the arts, largely sidelining Israeli creatives regardless of their political beliefs. “The five I met at the hotel have concluded they can no longer have a good-faith discussion with the outside world since they believe their own survival is at stake. Their reactions struck me as a kind of emotional armor against the judgment of the West. ‘After Oct. 7, you realize you have no one else to trust. We are on our own,’ said the songwriter Aya Korem. … Ms. Korem noted how nearly everyone in Israeli society has been affected by the war. ‘You become humble in front of that and you remember what is important. Your art is the continuation of that. And our moral obligation is to that humility, and to the stories of people who paid actual prices.’” [NYTimes]

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Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sits on the Board of Peace‘s executive board, is set to take on a larger role in the organization, overseeing postwar management in the Gaza Strip…

A spokesperson for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Kentucky senator was hospitalized on Sunday and is receiving “excellent care”...

The head of the Florida Republican Party said the group had rescinded an invitation to far-right gubernatorial candidate James Fishback for the party’s upcoming Sunshine State Showdown as well as “all other official gubernatorial primary activities,” adding, “Racism and antisemitism have no place in our Party”...

Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, suggested at an event on Friday that the Trump administration had indicted a group of anti-Israel demonstrators at the University of Michigan for their beliefs, rather than their actions, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The heir to the Lion Raisins brand was arrested by police in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and charged with making criminal threats to a neighbor who is a rabbi; video shared by the New York Post and its local affiliate appear to show Bruce Lion shouting antisemitic slurs from a balcony that overlooked the rabbi’s property, interrupting gatherings…

Four British activists associated with the Palestine Action group were sentenced to prison terms between four and eight years for their participation in a 2024 raid at an Elbit Systems compound in Bristol that caused more than £1 million in damage at the Israeli defense firm’s facility… 

Fifteen people were arrested amid protests outside a synagogue in the Edgware neighborhood of London that was hosting an Israeli real estate event; more than 1,000 people were estimated to have taken part in the protest and counter-demonstration…

In The Wall Street Journal, Phelim McAleer, who with his wife Ann wrote a play about the survivors of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, reflects on antisemitism in his native Ireland ahead of “Bloomsday,” an unofficial holiday celebrating author James Joyce’s Ulysses and its main character, a Jewish man named Leopold Bloom…

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz named Brig. Gen. Hisam Ibrahim to serve as the next IDF military secretary; Ibrahim, currently the head of the IDF’s Civil Administration, is one of the most senior Druze officers in the army…

Film critic Gene Shalit, a fixture on NBC’s “Today” show for more than 40 years, died at 100…

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi after the African leader arrived in Israel on Sunday. Abdullahi’s visit comes six months after Israel recognized Hargeisa’s sovereignty, becoming the first country to officially do so.

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