Daily Kickoff
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to experts about the possibility of renewed war with Iran before the upcoming Israeli and U.S. elections, report on the Heritage Foundation’s hiring of a critic of U.S. involvement in the Middle East and aide to former DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and cover a debate between former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer over U.S. aid for Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Douglas Keith, Joel Kaplan and Lana Nusseibeh.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Tamara Zieve and Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today's Agenda
Talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials at CENTCOM’s Tampa, Fla., headquarters are underway as the parties attempt to get closer to an agreement on the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Michigan Senate candidates Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed are slated to participate in a debate tonight hosted by Detroit’s WXYZ-TV.
Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate is holding its inaugural benefit tonight in New York City, where the group will honor Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.
A review commissioned by the British government and set to be delivered to Parliament today will call for schools and colleges to treat antisemitism as a distinct category of harm, dedicated teacher training on antisemitism, more consistent recording of incidents and better education about antisemitism and modern Jewish life, among its 27 recommendations that are all expected to be accepted.
In Israel, voting is underway at military polling stations around the country ahead of Election Day next week.
One Thing to Know
The battle for the Senate majority is going down to the wire, and the outcome will be determined by two major questions.
How successful will Democrats be in picking off GOP-held seats in deeply red states, including several (such as Kansas and Texas), which haven’t elected a Democrat in a Senate race in decades?
And will Republicans be able to score a surprise in Maine, Michigan or Minnesota, where left-wing Democratic nominees are badly underperforming but are being bolstered by the very favorable national Democratic environment?
The Big Reads
WAR WORRIES
Could another war with Iran be the October surprise of the Israeli election?
Escalating threats between Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran seem to have raised the prospect of another military confrontation with Iran — an October surprise that could reshape Israel’s political landscape, as the country is set to head to the polls next week, and complicate President Donald Trump’s political calculations ahead of the midterm elections in November. Yet former Trump administration officials suggest that renewed hostilities are unlikely ahead of the upcoming U.S. and Israeli elections, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea and Lahav Harkov report. “While President Trump has always used the perception of his unpredictability to advance American interests, the reality of the President’s successful economic strategy against Iran lends itself toward a delay in further kinetic operations,” said Alexander Gray, who served as National Security Council chief of staff during Trump’s first administration.
Regional responsibility: U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said Tuesday at the Global Security Forum in Doha, Qatar, that it is “not America’s job” to resolve the threats posed by Iranian-backed terror groups and militias across the Middle East, arguing that regional governments must take greater responsibility for their own security rather than relying on U.S. military intervention, JI’s Matthew Shea reports.
AID ARGUMENTS
Michael Oren, Jonathan Schanzer split over when Israel should move past U.S. aid
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and Foundation for Defense of Democracies Executive Director Jonathan Schanzer squared off Monday evening in New York over whether Israel would be better off weaning itself from U.S. military aid, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports. Oren argued that Jerusalem should shift toward a strategic partnership before political winds in Washington dictate more unfavorable terms, while Schanzer warned that abandoning the arrangement mid-war could leave Israel exposed. Audience members were unswayed by either argument: Polled before and after the debate, 39% still agreed that Israel would be better off without American aid, while 61% disagreed. The discussion, part of the 92nd Street Y’s Sapir Debates series, was moderated by Bret Stephens, editor-in-chief of Sapir and a New York Times columnist.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Heritage Foundation taps critic of U.S. involvement in Middle East as distinguished fellow
The Heritage Foundation announced the hiring of Will Ruger, a critic of U.S. military engagement who served as a key deputy to former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, as a distinguished fellow, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. The conservative think tank announced on Monday that Ruger’s new role “will contribute to policy work, bringing the perspective of a scholar-practitioner” to the Heritage team. Ruger defended Israel’s war in Gaza as “justified” given Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks but was also a vocal opponent of both the maximum pressure sanctions campaign against Iran and potential U.S. military operations against the regime.
The Rundown
The rest of today’s original stories from Jewish Insider — full stories, all published on the site.
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The Financial Times reports that former Emirati Ambassador to the U.N. Lana Nusseibeh, who now serves as a minister of state at the UAE’s foreign ministry, is emerging as a potential candidate to succeed U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres when his term concludes at the end of this year, amid deadlock among U.N. Security Council permanent members — who hold veto power over secretary-general candidates…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly instructed the military to prepare for an Israeli strike on Iranian civilian infrastructure, nuclear facilities and military sites earlier this month; the attack did not move forward amid President Donald Trump’s opposition to renewed strikes on Iran prior to the Nov. 3 midterms…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating approximately $80 million to help Democratic candidates around the country in the midterm elections, including $50 million for House races to ensure Democrats have a sizable majority; Bloomberg's team said he is not directing money toward candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Douglas Keith to oversee the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, months after the mayor’s office faced criticism over the absence of any Jewish members of the 19-person committee…
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, speaking at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference’s leadership summit on Tuesday, announced an expansion of the two groups’ partnership, including working together on federal buffer zone legislation, a bilingual Sunday school curriculum and new connections between churches and synagogues…
A New York man charged with manslaughter in the death of a Jewish pedestrian in Queens in May was indicted this week on hate crime charges tied to two incidents of vandalism at a local kosher bagel shop in the days before the hit-and-run accident that killed Cara Trager…
Counterterrorism officials in the U.K. rearrested two men on suspicion of working with Iran’s intelligence service; the men had previously been arrested in connection with a security incident near RAF Fairford last month and released on bail…
Germany’s Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s envoy in Berlin after two men were convicted of spying on behalf of Tehran and plotting terror attacks on the head of the interfaith German-Israeli Society as well as a prominent Jewish leader in the country…
Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, ruled out the possibility of Tehran allowing its enriched nuclear material to be moved out of the country; Rezaei made the comments while meeting with Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir…
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is advancing efforts to send troops to Saudi Arabia to assist Riyadh as it fends off attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen…
Meanwhile, the U.K. said it would send fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to defend against Houthi attacks…
Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, who served as Meta’s conduit to conservatives, is departing the company after 15 years; Kaplan’s departure comes as Meta has begun donating to Democrats ahead of the midterms and 2028 presidential election…
Haitian-Jewish businessman Gilbert Bigio, the country’s first billionaire who also courted controversy over his ties to criminal gangs, died at 91…
JI Live Briefing · Free preview
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The Live Briefing is JI’s real-time feed — breaking news, notable content from across the web, video clips, images and more, all day. The items above are just a taste.
Community Comms
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Black Market Bust: In The Wall Street Journal, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Miad Maleki, who served as a senior sanctions official at the Treasury Department until last year, considers how the U.S. can strategically counter Iran’s “shadow fleet” that illicitly transports oil out of the Islamic Republic. “In eight years at the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, I learned that offering owners an exit can help enforce sanctions. We delisted ships and companies on a case-by-case basis when they changed hands. But we didn’t have a blockade that made the fleet’s Iranian business worthless. That lever exists now. … Washington should scale up this model and start recruiting buyers for the fleet: U.S.-aligned operators that would put these hulls to work on the Hormuz run.” [WSJ]
A House Divided: The Atlantic’s Vivian Salama and Ashley Parker look at how Donald Trump Jr.’s break with his father over the Iran war underscores tensions within the Republican Party and MAGA movement surrounding the issue. “The White House’s decision to ally with Israel against Tehran has exposed a deepening rift within MAGA — not just over Iran, but also over what ‘America First’ actually means. The divide pits nationalists who see foreign wars as a betrayal of domestic priorities against hawks who argue that American power must be wielded more aggressively against its adversaries. … ‘Don Jr. is the most MAGA of them all,’ one of the people who spoke with him about his opposition to the Iran war told us.” [TheAtlantic]
Picture of the Day
Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) met on Tuesday in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar. The trip is Herzog’s first to Hungary since Magyar, who during the meeting pledged to visit Israel, was elected earlier this year. Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO
Birthdays
Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, he was born and raised in a Sephardic family in Thessaloniki, Greece, turns 65
LEIGH VOGEL/GETTY IMAGES FOR CONCORDIA SUMMIT
Judith Sheindlin, Emmy Award-winning reality courtroom personality known as “Judge Judy,” turns 84
Larry Kane, news anchor who worked for 36 years in Philadelphia and author of three books on the Beatles, turns 84
Shaye Cohen, professor emeritus of Hebrew literature and philosophy at Harvard University, turns 78
Terri Smooke, commissioner of the Architectural and Design Review Commission of Beverly Hills
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, turns 77
Amy Ephron, novelist, screenwriter, journalist and film producer, turns 74
Nieca Goldberg, cardiologist and clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, turns 69
Brian Rosman, legislative analyst at InstaTrac, a leading Massachusetts legislative tracking and information service
Ari Bergmann, managing principal and chief investment officer at Penso Advisors, turns 65
Mitch Davis, Austin-based commercial insurance consultant
David L. Bernstein, founder and CEO of the North American Values Institute, formerly known as the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, turns 60
Marci Klein, Emmy Award-winning television producer best known for her work on “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock,” turns 59
Ethan Daniel Davidson, folk and folk-rock musician, he serves as the treasurer of The William Davidson Foundation (founded by his father), turns 57
Dafna Linzer, former editorial director at U.S. News & World Report, now advisor to the CEO, turns 56
Ted Budd, U.S. senator (R-NC) since 2023, turns 55
Lera Auerbach, classical composer, conductor and pianist, she is a graduate of Juilliard, turns 53
Alison Barkoff, associate professor at The George Washington University
Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., turns 45
Ninet Tayeb, Israeli musician, model and actor, turns 43
Yael Applebaum, occupational therapist
Joshua Sayles, VP of external affairs at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Hari Nef, actor, model and writer, turns 34
Dan Hazony, consultant for nonprofits after stints at the Orthodox Union and then Aish Global
Eliana Rudee, manager of marketing and communications at the Union for Reform Judaism
Shimmy Jesin, internal medicine resident at Maimonides Hospital in NYC
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