Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Friday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on yesterday’s House hearings with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, CENTCOM head Gen. Michael Kurilla and Gen. Mark Milley. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: David Brog, Shelley Zalis and Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and The Circuit stories, including: Growing Saudi-China ties unlikely to prompt major Saudi policy shake-ups;Eileen Filler-Corn, exiting Va. Statehouse, eyes the governor’s mansion; For Wiley Nickel, ‘never again,’ is a personal declaration ; Jeanie Milbauer’s Oneg looks to bring Shabbat to the masses; A Brooklyn ‘bridge’ of his own; The Mormon bureaucrat in Utah changing marriage in Israel; Bahrain’s Al Waha backs Mideast startups behind the scenes; and Meet the Jewish restaurateur behind DC’s East London-style eateries. Print the latest edition here.
A bipartisan group of 83 House members is urging House Appropriations Committee leaders to boost funding for the State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism to $2 million for 2024, as well as push for new measures to ensure that the office’s work continues through future administrations, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
A letter penned by the legislators and being sent today pushes for an additional $500,000 over the 2023 funding level for the office of the special envoy, headed by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. It’s a larger increase than proposed by the Biden administration in its own budget request; the White House asked for $1.7 million. The letter also highlights concerns that delays in confirming future special envoys could delay the office’s work.
The signatories make the case that the office remains under-resourced. “We know there are many more countries that deserve attention and that could benefit by an official visit focused on combating antisemitism. We also understand that the Special Envoy has had to decline invitations for engagement due to lack of resources,” they wrote.
The lawmakers also urged the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, to request that the secretary of state brief Congress on “the State Department’s plan to ensure continuity of staff within the Special Envoy’s Office between Administrations and before a new Special Envoy is confirmed.” During the nearly yearlong gap between President Joe Biden’s inauguration and Lipstadt’s confirmation, staffing at the office dwindled to, at one point, fewer than two full-time employees. Read more here.
The letter comes on the heels of a new report from the Anti-Defamation League that found that antisemitic incidents in the U.S last year reached a record high since the organization began recording them in 1979.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, the Senate yesterday rejected an amendment to the bill repealing the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq that would have conditioned the repeal on a certification from the administration that Iran is not supporting terror groups inside Iran; the vote was 63 to 32. The Senate also rejected an amendment that would have placed a two-year sunset on all AUMFs.
On Tuesday, the Senate will vote on amendments that would condition the repeal on a certification that repeal would not hamper U.S. efforts to counter Iran, clarify that the U.S. maintains the ability to strike Iranian forces without the AUMF and condition the repeal on certification that Israel and other allies have been consulted on the repeal.
DOUBLING DOWN
Blinken: China only hosted the conclusion of Saudi-Iran deal, didn’t negotiate it

Secretary of State Tony Blinken, testifying yesterday before the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees, sought to further downplay the nature of China’s involvement in the recent pact normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The pact has raised alarm bells across Capitol Hill and among both proponents and critics of the U.S.-Saudi relationship as the latest signal of increasing Chinese influence in the Middle East. But Blinken claimed yesterday that Chinese involvement in the deal was minimal.
Closing act: “I think what is most accurate to say about China’s role is not so much a facilitator but simply a host of the final act in this smart diplomacy,” Blinken said. “This was really the product of work between the two countries.” Blinken also reiterated his view, first expressed the day prior in Senate hearings, that the deal doesn’t affect prospects for Saudi-Israeli normalization.
Nonintervention: Pressed by Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) on “what is it that the United States can do” to head off Israel’s judicial reform efforts, Blinken expressed the administration’s view that “when we’re looking at very significant reforms… the best way to have a sustainable outcome that people support is to try to find consensus, and consensus usually requires compromise on all sides.” “But,” he continued, “it’s not for us to tell them what to do or how they should do it. They have a strong democratic system.”
New funding: The administration’s budget request for 2024 included a new provision, the Middle East and North Africa Opportunity fund, budgeted at $90 million, according to an individual familiar with the request. Blinken said that the fund could support “programs and flexibilities that allow us to address the needs, the livelihoods, the security, the opportunity for people. He said that projects originating from the Negev Forum “that can effectively improve the lives of their citizens” could be one possible target for this proposed funding, as well as a new program seeking to bring together Israel, the United Arab Emirates and India.