Daily Kickoff
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)struck a deal early Saturday morning that saw the Texas senator lift his holds on 32 ambassadorial and senior State Department nominees, in exchange for a vote next month on sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Before heading home last week, the Senate confirmed the nominee for ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, by a vote of 48-21, as well as Michael Adler and Marc Stanley by voice votes. Adler and Stanley were nominated to be the U.S. ambassadors to Belgium and Argentina, respectively. Rufus Gifford, who served last year as President Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager, was confirmed by a voice vote to be chief of protocol at the State Department with the rank of ambassador.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has shut down the Build Back Better bill. He announced Sunday morning after months of negotiations that he would not support the bill, leaving a range of provisions — including a funding boost for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and expanded child care and pre-K funding — in limbo.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who led the push to include the NSGP funding in the bill, told Jewish Insider, “The [NSGP] is an invaluable tool to ensure the safety of Jewish communities across the country, and I was proud to fight for its inclusion in the House-passed text of the Build Back Better Act. We cannot allow inaction on this important legislation, which includes numerous critically needed provisions. I will continue working with leadership to see that Jewish institutions are protected from threats of violence.”
Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel of America’s vice president for government affairs, told JI, “I am not of the opinion that BBB is necessarily dead, and suspect that the legislation, or parts of it, will come back in some form in the coming year. This extra time will give us an opportunity to further educate Congress on the issues of importance to us, including an expanded NSGP and the new UPK/child care programs.”
Israel added the U.S. to a list of “red countries” as the country battles the COVID-19 Omicron variant, effective at midnight on Tuesday. The decision was passed today in a telephone vote by the cabinet, pending the approval of the Knesset Constitution, Justice and Law Committee. Canada, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Turkey and Switzerland were also added to the list of red countries under a travel ban to and from Israel.
Israeli Consul General in New York Asaf Zamir tested positive for COVID-19, along with 12 other consulate employees.
Chilean presidential candidate Gabriel Boric, a leftist who has in the past called on the country’s Jewish population to denounce Israeli policies, was declared the winner of this weekend’s elections, after besting right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast.
young at heart
The Indiana senator with a bipartisan streak on the Middle East

Sen. Todd Young, (R-IN), speaks alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-KY) (L) and Sen. John Thune, (R-SD) to the media after the Republican’s weekly senate luncheon in the US Capitol on December 8, 2020 in Washington, D.C. McConnell spoke on the ongoing Coronavirus relief package legislation. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)
For years, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has worked to articulate a progressive foreign policy, building a name for himself among supporters of diplomacy and anti-war activists. He has found an unlikely ally in Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican who spent the 2020 election cycle overseeing Republicans’ Senate campaign arm. The pair has led the effort in Washington to rein in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, issuing several statements together forcefully calling attention to the country’s devastating humanitarian crisis and Washington’s role in perpetuating it. “Murphy is a critical thinker. I like working with Murphy,” Young said during an interview with Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutchin his Senate office on Capitol Hill last week.
Getting noticed: In his first term in the Senate, Young has become an unexpected leader on issues of foreign policy, and one with a penchant for flying under the radar. In April, Business Insider called Young “the most important senator you’ve never heard of.”
Quick reversal: In May, while Israel and Hamas were embroiled in a deadly flare-up, Young and Murphy — who together lead the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Near East subcommittee — again joined together to speak in one voice on the Middle East, issuing a joint statement calling for a cease-fire. Young was the only Republican to sign onto the letter, but within hours, he removed his name. As Young remembers it, a news report suggested that Israel supported a cease-fire. “It said in there, ‘Israeli government seeks cease-fire,’” Young recalled. But he later learned the reality was more complicated.
All the facts: Young realized, he told JI last week, that it “would embolden Hamas, if you call for a cease-fire before, frankly, before the State of Israel has an opportunity to respond in kind and demonstrate that Israel will respond, and that’s necessary for their own deterrence,” he explained. “I was persuaded by that latter argument, unfortunately after having affixed my signature,” he added. “I’m willing to admit when I don’t have all the information. You never have all the information. But I learned more, and I changed my position accordingly.”
Limits to bipartisanship: The public divergence from Murphy, who did not comment at the time on Young’s reversal and did not respond to a recent request for comment from JI, shows that Young’s work with progressive Democrats on foreign policy may have its limits. Murphy has been a leading supporter of the Biden administration’s efforts to renegotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, while Young opposes reentering the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “We shouldn’t go back to the JCPOA,” Young, who is up for reelection in 2022, said. He called for increasing sanctions on Iran, and said that “we should reassure Israel that whatever they decide to do,” he explained, “we’ll be supportive of that.”
No permanent partners: To Young, this fissure with Murphy is not indicative of a problem in their relationship, or with other sometimes-partners from across the aisle. It’s a defining feature of his approach to foreign policy. “There are no permanent partners,” said Young.