Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Hady Amr, the State Department’s special representative for Palestinian affairs, and talk to New York City councilmembers who recently returned from a trip to Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Yael Lempert, Amos Hochsteinand Sander Gerber.
For the first time in a century, the House adjourned after its first day without electing a speaker. In three rounds of voting yesterday, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was unable to muster the 218 votes necessary to deliver him the speakership, with 19 or 20 Republicans defecting in each round. Democrats stuck together to vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
It’s unclear where things go from here — McCarthy has indicated that he’s unwilling to grant any further concessions to a block of hard-right holdouts and provocateurs, and his opponents have made clear that they will not back him in future rounds. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who voted for McCarthy on the first two ballots, flipped in the third round of voting. In the second two rounds, McCarthy’s opponents voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who delivered a speech supporting McCarthy and voted for him in all three rounds.
Donalds remained confident after the third vote that Republicans would ultimately reach a resolution, but told reporters that “obviously there’s some more questions and conversations that need to be had” to determine who can muster 218 votes. Donalds said he would not be opposed to switching his vote back to McCarthy if the California Republican can garner the requisite support, but added, “it is clear that pathway does not exist.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) emerged from the day’s proceedings frustrated, describing the events as “really an inside baseball, D.C. swamp exercise in total BS.” Crenshaw told Jewish Insider that he’s doubtful any other Republican could marshal 218 votes from the GOP conference without making greater concessions to the hard right than McCarthy has been willing to offer, but also noted “a very large block of Republicans” will vote only for McCarthy.
If the situation does not change, the alternative, Crenshaw continued, would be a moderate Republican brokering a deal with Democratic leadership to land the speakership with Democratic support. “To be clear, I would not be a supporter of that scenario — I’d rather just keep this going,” he said, “but you better believe that could happen. That has happened in state legislatures.” He added, “You know why me and Marjorie [Taylor Greene] are like best friends now? It’s because we both understand that.”
Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), a Jeffries ally, told reporters that Democrats won’t be making the first move on a compromise: “it can’t be us going to them — they have got to come to us.” Donalds said he did not anticipate that such a compromise would materialize.
Until a speaker is selected, members cannot be sworn in, the House cannot adopt rules, committees cannot be formed and legislation cannot be introduced or considered, leaving legislative business frozen. The House will reconvene at noon today.
Embattled Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) spent the morning prior to the votes dodging questions from a pack of reporters waiting outside his office, and then spent the first two votes sitting in a back corner of the House, interacting minimally with his new colleagues and often looking at his phone. Santos’ only comment to reporters was that he would vote for McCarthy, which he did on all three ballots.
Elsewhere in Washington, President Joe Biden submitted a slate of nominations to the Senate for the new year, including renewing some previously stalled nominations. Among those renominated were embattled India ambassador nominee Eric Garcetti, Saudi Arabia ambassador nominee Michael Ratney, Kuwait ambassador nominee Karen Sasahara, counterterrorism coordinator nominee Elizabeth Richard, and UAE ambassador nominee Martina Anna Tkadlec Strong. Ratney is the former chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Israel and Sasahara was the former consul general in Jerusalem and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Jordan.
New nominees include former Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Yael Lempert, nominated to be ambassador to Jordan; Ana Escrogima, a career foreign service officer nominated to be ambassador to Oman; and Dorothy Shea, currently the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, nominated to be the U.S.’s deputy representative to the United Nations.
Among those not renominated was Tamara Cofman Wittes — who was tapped to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Middle East work but has since taken on a post at the State Department.
amr’s aim
How Hady Amr represents Biden to the Palestinians

The same day President Joe Biden was inaugurated two years ago, Hady Amr was sworn in at the State Department as the deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian affairs. While Biden faced an urgent set of challenges both global and domestic, Amr was tasked with keeping things stable in the Holy Land, not pursuing any sweeping diplomatic agendas. This past November, Amr got a promotion: He’s now the special representative for Palestinian affairs, the first time Washington has appointed a representative to the Palestinian people and leadership. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Amr’s goal is to “strengthen our engagement with the Palestinian people.” He is essentially an envoy to a state that doesn’t yet exist, and his message to Palestinians adds up to two words: Trust me. Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch talked to Amr about his hope of improving life for the Palestinians and helping keep the peace in the region — all while the two-state solution remains on the administration’s back burner.
Dreamer: A child of the 1960s, Amr was born in Lebanon and moved to the United States at a young age, where he grew up in suburban Northern Virginia. His prevailing worldview comes from Martin Luther King Jr. “I was drawn to public service after learning about the activism of Martin Luther King Jr., and his commitment to equality,” said Amr, 55. “My political consciousness is about equal rights. It’s about equal justice.” His hero spoke of a country where all children could grow up with dignity and opportunities and the ability to achieve the same American dream. That’s also the prism through which Amr views his work with the Palestinians.
Looking ahead: “We believe Palestinians and Israelis, like people everywhere, are entitled to the same rights and the same opportunities,” he told JI in December during an hour-long phone interview. “To have a happy, safe, secure, prosperous future, their lives need to be as equal as possible, because they’re living in a tiny area, in an interconnected manner. And they’re joined at the hip.” Like Amr, Biden supports a negotiated two-state solution. But unlike his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, Biden has taken less of an initiative to make that happen. There is no special envoy to the peace process; no team in the U.S. government is now actively focused on bringing the two sides to the negotiating table. “We’re focused,” Amr said at a November press briefing, “on the future and lifting up the lives of ordinary Palestinians.”
Terrorism talk: Amr has amassed some critics who allege that his desire to work with the Palestinian Authority necessitates forgiving some of the PA’s more egregious behavior, such as its “martyr payments” to the families of terrorists, banned under the 2018 Taylor Force Act. “The administration is doing a very bad job. They’re not making known that the PA is rewarding and incentivizing terror,” said Sander Gerber, a hedge fund executive and activist who helped write the Taylor Force Act. “I found [Amr] to be clear-sighted on the problematic aspects of the Palestinian Authority, and he wants to find some kind of solution. He’s deeply committed to two states for two peoples. But he understands that the Palestinian Authority needs to undergo serious reforms for that to happen.” In the November press briefing, Amr said the U.S. will continue to “build our relationship with the Palestinian Authority,” and pledged to work with the PA to deescalate tensions in the West Bank. “His reputation on the right is that he’s not a friend to Israel. I have not found that to be the case,” Gerber added.
Long odds: The Palestinian Authority is rife with corruption and led by an aging president, with no successor in sight. Israel just completed its fifth election in nearly four years and last week swore in a right-wing government, with several prominent anti-Arab voices. 2022 was the deadliest year in the West Bank since 2006, and the security situation continues to deteriorate. For Amr, success will be hard to define and even harder to achieve. “Certainly, we would all love to be standing in the Rose Garden with a two-state solution, obviously, but I don’t think any of us believe today that’s going to be possible,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides told JI when asked about Amr’s role. “But we can keep a vision of a two-state solution alive. We can work towards that goal. [Hady]’s a very pragmatic guy.”