Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how pro-Israel Republicans are responding to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent comments on Ukraine, and report on the confirmation hearings for the Biden administration’s nominees for ambassador to the UAE and Kuwait. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Tamar Remz, Micaela Diamond and Meyers Leonard.
Today on Capitol Hill, Gen. Michael Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, is set to testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee on the state of the region.
Eric Garcetti was confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to India yesterday over the opposition of Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI). Republican Sens. Todd Young (R-IN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Daines (R-MT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined the remaining Democrats in voting to confirm Garcetti.
In a statement released shortly after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “The United States-India relationship is extremely important, and it’s a very good thing we now have an ambassador.”
Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a resolution yesterday that would demand a report from the Biden administration on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, under a procedure that will allow them to force a floor vote in 10 days. The resolution would only require Senate approval and a simple majority.
If that report is not submitted within 30 days, aid to Saudi Arabia would be automatically cut off, and Murphy and Lee would be able to force a second floor vote on cutting off or restricting U.S. funding to Riyadh, although that measure would require a House vote and the president’s signature.
Cautioning that civil war in Israel is within “touching distance,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced a compromise deal to the judicial reform in a public address to the nation last night. Titled the “People’s Framework,” Herzog urged leaders, political parties and the general public to read the full proposal on the website on which it was published as he spoke.
“This framework addresses the important need for diversity in the justice system, so that the many voices among the Israeli people may be part of it and see it as their home; and it commits the justice system to necessary and overdue changes,” Herzog said. “This proposed framework anchors a fair and balanced relationship between the branches of government, allowing each branch to perform its role and act within its own purview without undue intervention by any other branch. This framework is fully committed to the principles of the Declaration of Independence; it fortifies the independence of the justice system; and it establishes human and civil rights, for men and women alike, including for the minorities in Israel.”
Among the elements of the judicial system that the directive addresses is the contentious judicial selection committee, on which the government is seeking to have a majority. Under Herzog’s proposal, the coalition would not have an automatic majority and the court would lose its veto power. The committee would include 11 members: the justice minister and two additional ministers chosen by the government; the Supreme Court president and two other associate Supreme Court judges elected by fellow judges; three Knesset members, one of them a coalition member and two opposition members; and two representatives of the public appointed by the Minister of Justice with the consent of the President of the Supreme Court.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the proposal, issuing a statement just before he traveled to Germany for a diplomatic visit saying that Herzog’s proposals “were not agreed upon by the representatives of the coalition. Central clauses of the outline he presented only perpetuate the existing situation and do not bring the required balance to the Israeli authorities. This is the unfortunate truth,” Netanyahu continued.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid congratulated Herzog on his plan. “The State of Israel is being torn apart and we must make every effort to prevent an economic, security and social disintegration that seriously harms national resilience,” Lapid said. “We must approach the president’s outline with respect for the status, the seriousness with which it was written and the values that underlie it.”
policy posture
DeSantis’ Ukraine flip alarms pro-Israel Republicans

In declaring his belief that protecting Ukraine from Russian aggression is a “territorial dispute” and not a vital interest to the United States, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is widely expected to run for president in 2024, raised alarms among traditional GOP hawks and conservative pro-Israel foreign policy experts, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. A spokesperson for DeSantis did not respond to requests for comment from JI, as a growing number of GOP leaders rushed to condemn his Ukraine remarks, written in response to a questionnaire solicited by “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
What Ron wrote: “While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said in a statement to Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was broadcast on Monday.
Principal principles: “I’m extraordinarily disappointed in what DeSantis said about Ukraine to Tucker Carlson,” said Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “Foreign policy isn’t actually that complicated: It’s about principles. If you care about American values and American security, then you know that attempts to exterminate a nation simply for being — whether that nation is Ukraine or Israel or any other on earth — are wrong, and that such power plays ultimately end in threatening our homeland.”
Look back: In 2015, as a member of the House, DeSantis sided with those in his party in criticizing the Obama administration for not providing military aid to Ukraine after Russia invaded Crimea. “We in the Congress have been urging [President Obama], I’ve been, to provide arms to Ukraine. They want to fight their good fight. They’re not asking us to fight it for them. And the president has steadfastly refused. And I think that that’s a mistake,” DeSantis said to conservative radio host Bill Bennett at the time.
Eye on 2024: Other GOP presidential candidates or those who are weighing bids have expressed continued support for aiding Ukraine. They include former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who announced her campaign last month and is one of three primary candidates currently in the race. In a statement to JI on Tuesday, Haley defended her own approach to the war in Ukraine and suggested that DeSantis’ position would exacerbate tensions not just in Europe but in the Middle East and beyond. “America should always have the backs of our allies and friends, like Israel and Ukraine, and we should expect them to have our back,” Haley said. “Russia is a strongly anti-American country, trying to expand by force into a neighboring pro-American country, and threatening other American allies. We are far better off with a Ukrainian victory than a Russian victory. Sitting on the sidelines will only embolden Russia and its Chinese and Iranian allies.”
Further reading: The Wall Street Journal editorial board cautioned that DeSantis “may want to consider that the political risks on foreign policy aren’t only from the Trumpian right. Abandoning Ukraine may cost him with GOP voters who think he is bending in fear of Mr. Trump.”