Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we recap Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s appearance on Capitol Hill yesterday, and interview Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jeff Zients, Gladys Kessler and Yair Rosenberg.
The Senate began voting last night on amendments to the bill repealing the 2002 Authorization for use of military force against Iraq. Many of the proposed amendments seek to condition the repeal on certifications relating to Iran’s malign activities in Iraq and elsewhere in the region, although it is unclear which of them will receive a vote.
The Senate voted down an amendment from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would have limited the AUMF to allowing the U.S. to strike at Iranian proxies in Iraq, rather than repealing it fully, by a vote of 60 to 36. Eleven Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the amendment. The Senate also overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to end the 2001 AUMF against those involved with the 9/11 attack. At least one more amendment vote is expected on Thursday, on an amendment which would require AUMFs to be renewed every two years.
The measure’s fate in the House remains unclear. House Republican leadership is still in discussions on the issue, but has declined to guarantee a floor vote — although proponents could likely force a floor vote during the amendment process for an upcoming spending bill. Republican leadership is reportedly working on a proposal to replace the 2002 AUMF with updated war powers.
Also on the Hill, Secretary of State Tony Blinken will appear for his second consecutive day of congressional testimony, this time testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a House Appropriations subcommittee. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley will also appear before an Appropriations subcommittee, while Gen. Michael Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, will appear before the Armed Services Committee.
Following a rare move by the U.S. in summoning the Israeli ambassador yesterday over a Knesset decision to repeal parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement saying the legislation “brings an end to a discriminatory and humiliating law that barred Jews from living in areas in northern Samaria, part of our historic homeland. It is no coincidence that senior figures in the opposition have supported this law over the years.”
“However, the government has no intention of establishing new communities in these areas,” Netanyahu added.
Israeli coalition members caused further upset abroad yesterday. Transportation Minister Miri Regev said during a conference yesterday, “I’ve been to Dubai — not that I’ll be going back. I don’t like the place. But it’s just amazing to see what they built in six years!”
Shortly after Regev’s comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, a fellow member of the Likud party, tweeted a picture of himself with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with the caption, “I love Dubai, and so do the million Israelis who have visited the UAE in 2022.”
Regev later accused the media of taking her comments out of context and said she’d spoken to UAE Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja and accepted his invitation to visit Dubai again with him. Reports in Arab media on Wednesday said that Al Khaja was instructed by the UAE’s Foreign Ministry not to meet with Israeli government officials on the heels of a statement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s statement that “the Palestinian people do not exist.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu was again forced to issue a clarification, after a bill advanced by the United Torah Judaism party to legislate prison time for proselytizers caused an uproar among the evangelical Christian community. “We will not advance any law against the Christian community,” Netanyahu tweeted.
As some half a million demonstrators are expected to turn out on the streets of Israel today for a “day of paralysis” protesting the government’s judicial overhaul plans, Netanyahu is set to travel to London this evening. In London, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The Israeli prime minister is not scheduled to meet with Jewish community leaders.
The Knesset early this morning passed a law that prevents the attorney general from declaring a sitting prime minister unfit to serve, widely seen by critics as a law designed to protect Netanyahu, who is standing trial on charges of corruption.
on the hill
Blinken: Saudi, Iran rapprochement ‘does not in any way substitute’ for U.S. push to expand Abraham Accords

Secretary of State Tony Blinken said yesterday that the recent China-brokered agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to normalize relations has not derailed efforts to advance Saudi-Israeli normalization, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Pushing ahead: “It does not in any way substitute for our determination to pursue the deepening as well as the expansion of the Abraham Accords,” Blinken, who testified yesterday before the Senate Appropriations and Foreign Relations Committees, said. “I had a long discussion with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu about this when I was recently in Israel. We’re very focused on that. And I also don’t think it will change the interests of other countries in pursuing that.”
Opportunism: Blinken downplayed the role that China had played in the Saudi-Iranian agreement, which many on Capitol Hill have warned reflects increasing Chinese influence in the Middle East. Blinken said that the talks have been ongoing and progressing for multiple years, and that China only became involved at the final stages. “What China did… was to, at the very end of that process, take advantage of the work that these countries have done. And then basically host the conclusion of the agreement that they reached… not to bring it together themselves,” he said. “It sent a diplomatic signal — there’s no doubt about it.”
All smiles: Addressing lawmakers a day after simmering tensions between Israel and the U.S. came to a boiling point — Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog was summoned to the State Department on Tuesday for a meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who rebuked the Israeli government for passing a law repealing Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the northern West Bank — Blinken sought to cast a positive light on the current status of U.S.-Israel ties. Blinken maintained that Israel and the Palestinian Authority remain committed to deescalating tensions. “I’ve heard directly from Israeli leadership — as well as the Palestinian Authority — about the desire for both sides to see the violence that has reached record levels in recent months, deescalate and to try to get a period of calm,” Blinken said. “It’s an interest that, at least Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed directly to me… if we see steps inconsistent with that, I think it does contradict what we believe both Israelis and the Palestinian Authority are seeking to do and what they’ve said to us is in their own self-interest.”
Read more here.
Moving ahead: Elsewhere on the Hill, the Senate Small Business Committee advanced Dilawar Syed’s nomination to be deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. Syed has fended off accusations from the right of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment during his confirmation process, which have largely been rejected by mainstream and liberal Jewish groups.