Jewish Insider

Read today's #DailyKickoff: Welcome to March Meshugas Full briefing 👇 https://ji.news/3FzADCP

Rep. Jim Jordan, an influential member of the conservative wing of the House Republican Conference, said in an interview with Jewish Insider that Israel stands in a unique place among U.S. allies and that the U.S. should always be ready to assist Jerusalem when it needs help. Asked after a recent trip to Israel about potential additional avenues for Congress to support Israel, including future aid packages, Jordan described Israel as “in a category all by themselves.” “When they need help, we should be helping Israel because there’s this special bond that exists between the Jewish people and Americans, and Israel and the United States. It’s just a special relationship. And a lot of it is because of the Judeo-Christian connection and heritage that we have,” he continued. https://ji.news/4c1FcSd

The National Republican Congressional Committee has announced that it’s targeting Rep. Jared Moskowitz’s South Florida district as a potential opportunity to flip a Democratic-held seat in the 2026 midterms, honing in on one of the most heavily Jewish congressional districts in the country. The district, once safely Democratic, has been trending increasingly competitive in recent years. https://ji.news/4bEHXZI

The Justice Department’s newly formed Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism filed a statement of interest in court supporting Jewish students and a professor in their case alleging that UCLA permitted antisemitism on campus. The brief marks the first time the federal government has filed a statement of interest in court to argue that a university should be held accountable for the campus antisemitism that has skyrocketed across the country since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. https://ji.news/4iXcwvU

Leaders at the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) are warning that the Trump administration’s sudden move to cut off funding to public broadcasters imperils U.S. efforts to communicate its interests and priorities to the region and to compete with adversaries. MBN is an independent nonprofit but operates based on government grants. It broadcasts and publishes in Arabic through outlets including Alhurra, Radio Sawa and Elsaha. Jeffrey Gedmin, the president and CEO of MBN, emphasized to Jewish Insider that MBN competes in the Middle East across with outlets such as Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Sky Arabia and other networks unfriendly or outright hostile to the United States and Israel. “You’re vacating the field to the opponent. You’re leaving the goal free and open. They’re already better-resourced than we are … but that’s OK,” Gedmin said. “We can be sharp, shrewd and asymmetrical, but to quit is a problem for me.” https://ji.news/4kz10Zw

A Middle East reporter for The Washington Post is facing scrutiny for online commentary in which she has called Israel an illegal state, openly identified as an anti-Zionist and signaled support for Hamas and Hezbollah, among other posts now raising questions about the objectivity of her coverage on the region. In an extensive series of social media remarks mostly published between 2012 and 2014, Heba Farouk Mahfouz, a reporter and researcher in the Post’s Cairo bureau whose recent coverage largely focuses on Israel and Hamas, frequently inveighed against Israel, saying it was “not a point of view” but “a fact” that the country is a “colonial, illegal” state. https://ji.news/3FDAz4P

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League urges people to think twice before using Wikipedia, arguing its administrators have failed to prevent biased editors from manipulating entries related to Israel and Judaism. Wikipedia is maintained by an army of volunteer editors, many of whom have spent years amassing knowledge of the site’s wonky rules in order to keep its pages up-to-date and accurate. But that honor system is vulnerable to bias. The ADL found that a group of 30 editors collaborated to insert anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives and falsehoods into articles, working together in a way that may have violated Wikipedia’s policies. Gabby Deutch has more: https://ji.news/4iYKccE

Israel struck Hamas targets across Gaza overnight Tuesday, ending a two-month ceasefire after the collapse of negotiations for the release of additional hostages held by the Palestinian terrorist group, leaving hostage families fearful for their loved ones’ lives. https://ji.news/3DPELOw

Read today's #DailyKickoff: Fresh problems at The Washington Post Full briefing 👇 https://ji.news/4hj6wN3

In a stormy session of the Johannesburg City Council, a motion to block the renaming of the U.S. consulate’s street after a Palestinian terrorist was voted down and a councilor shouted “we want Hitler” at a Jewish colleague. Members of the council have since 2018 sought to rename a central artery in the South African city after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled. The vote against the motion to keep the current name, Sandton Drive, was one of the final steps toward making the change. Khaled became known as the world’s first female hijacker for her role in two attacks in 1969 as a member of the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. https://ji.news/4kX8tSf