Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Wesley Bell, a Missouri attorney mounting a primary challenge to Rep. Cori Bush, and profile former Texas Rangers All-Star Ian Kinsler, who in his post-playing days is the manager for Team Israel. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jake Sherman, Dan Senor and Hillary Clinton.
The Senate is set to vote today on confirming Jack Lew as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. Like the vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, the floor vote is expected to fall mostly along party lines.
The fast-tracking of Lew’s nomination comes amid continued efforts by Israel to take out Hamas’ core infrastructure and rescue the more than 200 hostages still in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ruled out a cease-fire with Hamas, saying that calls for such an agreement “are a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terror, to surrender to barbarism.”
“That will not happen,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu doubled down on his opposition to a cease-fire in an op-ed running in today’s Wall Street Journal. “Just as the U.S. wouldn’t have agreed to a cease-fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack on 9/11,” Netanyahu wrote, “Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of Oct. 7.”
Netanyahu reiterated his call for the international community to push for a release of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. The IDF, which has been conducting small-scale ground operations in Gaza in recent days, rescued a woman who was taken hostage on Oct. 7 while serving on an army base in southern Israel.
Hamas released a video of three female hostages, the second time the terror group has filmed a hostage talking to the camera since Oct. 7 and disseminated the materials. Israeli news media largely refrained from airing the footage, and Netanyahu denounced the video as “cruel psychological propaganda.”
Missed yesterday’s edition of “Inside the Newsroom” with Jonathan Schanzer? Watch the full episode here.
funding fight
Democrats slam GOP plan to split Israel and Ukraine funding, offset with IRS cuts

House Republicans’ proposal to split emergency Israel and Ukraine funding and offset it with funding cuts to the Internal Revenue Service is being criticized as political gamesmanship by House and Senate Democrats, even staunch supporters of Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
In the bill: The Republicans’ bill, which is set to come up for a vote later this week, would offset the $14.3 billion in proposed aid to Israel with equivalent cuts to funding for the IRS — an unusual provision for an emergency aid bill. IRS funding has been a particular target for congressional Republicans since it received significant increases as part of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Bipartisan: Although most criticism has come from Democrats, a bipartisan group of House members including Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), the Republican chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia subcommittee, pro-Israel Democrats Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Debbie Wasserman Schutlz (D-FL) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), also critiqued the plan, JI scooped last night. “We beseech you not to separate aid for Israel’s fight to rescue its hostages and secure its borders from Ukraine’s fight to do the same, or from Taiwan’s efforts to deter a war,” the letter reads. “The introduction of offsets, or the potential deferral of our commitments, threatens not only our national interest, but also our long-term fiscal health.”
Outside the Hill: An official at a pro-Israel organization in contact with Capitol Hill told JI the proposal from House leadership was a misstep. “The House legislation puts Israel in a tough spot unnecessarily. There is no upside here,” the official told JI. “It is [dead on arrival] in the Senate all the while making the funding partisan and raising questions about setting a new precedent for emergency assistance to our most important ally in the region. A largely partisan vote at a time when Israel is fighting a war and recovering from burying 1,400 of its citizens sends the wrong signal to the world — including Israel’s enemies.”