‘A shameful endorsement of terrorists'

Good Friday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Republicans on Capitol Hill about France’s plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this year and report on the daylight between Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Arizona’s pro-Israel community as he throws his support behind candidates with histories of being critical of Israel. We interview U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as he navigates his first months on the job, and report on Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D-NH) support for Mike Waltz to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N., bypassing a delay imposed by Sen. Rand Paul. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Mandela Barnes, Tanya Simon and Elad Gil.

What We’re Watching

We’re keeping an eye on the unfolding dispute regarding humanitarian aid in Gaza, as Israel and the U.N. accuse each other of holding up distribution efforts in the enclave amid broader concerns of worsening malnutrition among the Strip’s most vulnerable.
In Istanbul, Turkey, today, France, Germany and the U.K. are holding nuclear talks.
And in Washington, the Israel on Campus Coalition’s National Leadership Summit kicks off on Sunday afternoon in Washington.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S GABBY DEUTCH

With a unanimous vote last week rejecting a measure that would’ve cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, the board of directors of the National Education Association extended an olive branch to frustrated Jewish educators and parents who are concerned about creeping antisemitism within the union’s ranks.

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Jewish Insider earlier this week that he was “pleased” to see the NEA reject the anti-ADL measure. But, he added, the union still has a “long way to go” toward making clear that it respects the Jewish community.

Greenblatt’s lingering concern is a sign that the NEA — the largest teachers’ union in the country, with more than 3 million members — has not entirely placated Jewish communal stakeholders. In fact, additional questions have continued to emerge in light of an NEA document that encourages teaching the “Nakba” and that erases antisemitism from the history of the Holocaust.

The Washington Free Beacon reported this week on the NEA’s 2025 handbook, a 434-page report outlining the organization’s “visionary goals” and “strategic objectives.” Among the items included in the dense document are dozens of measures that passed at last year’s “representative assembly,” a convening of the organization’s top leaders from around the country — the same group that, this year, voted to censure the ADL. Several of them have raised eyebrows in the Jewish community.

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

Q&A

Huckabee: United Nations more interested in self-preservation than getting food into Gaza

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee speaks to journalists with Director General of Soroka Medical Center Dr. Shlomi Codish, left, outside a hospital building that was struck by an Iranian missile, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Beersheba, Israel. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo)

Since his arrival in Israel in April, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has made his mark as the first evangelical U.S. ambassador to Israel — and possibly the most effusive in his remarks about the Jewish state. Following issues with work visas for Christian organizations and several incidents involving Palestinian Christians, Huckabee issued some strongly worded statements directed toward Israeli officials. But with the visa issue resolved and the world’s attention on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the latest round of collapsed negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, Huckabee was back to standing firmly behind Israel in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov in his office at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Thursday.

On the issues surrounding aid distribution: “Well, we just want people to get the truth and to get the food, but we don’t want Hamas to steal it, which is what they have done through the U.N. model, which has been an absolute disaster. Maybe the U.N. is more interested in preserving the machinery of the U.N. than they are in feeding people,” Huckabee said. “And I know that sounds harsh, but I absolutely am on the record for that, because when I see just thousands of pallets, thousands of tons of food sitting that could be consumed by people, it’s sitting there because the U.N. doesn’t really have any incentive to go out and actually get it to the people.”

Read the full interview here.

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SUPPORTER SCRUTINY

Cracks in the coalition: Pro-Israel Arizonans wary of Sen. Mark Kelly’s endorsements

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) talks to campaign volunteers on Election Day on November 08, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is facing new scrutiny from some Jewish community leaders in Arizona who are frustrated by his endorsements boosting the activist left in a series of recent House primaries in which he has withheld support for pro-Israel candidates and has even worked to actively oppose their campaigns behind the scenes, according to people familiar with the matter, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Tensed-up ties: Kelly’s engagement has strained what had been seen as a positive relationship with the pro-Israel community in Arizona, according to multiple local Jewish leaders who have voiced disappointment with his approach. Meanwhile, his recent interventions have raised questions about the political motivations of the Democratic senator in a key battleground state who has long been associated with his party’s moderate, centrist wing. The most recent source of tension with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders stems from Kelly’s endorsement of Adelita Grijalva in a Tucson House primary this month to succeed her late father, former Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), a longtime critic of Israel who died in March.

Read the full story here.