Daily Kickoff
Good Tuesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s fourth trip to Israel since the start of the war, and talk to Sen. Joni Ernst about her discussions with top officials in Qatar about Israeli hostages. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Josh Rogin, Amb. Rahm Emanuel and Idan Amedi.
Across Washington, national security experts, journalists and political officials are all asking the same question: Why was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hospitalized in the ICU — and why did it take three days before anyone informed the White House?
After a still-unknown elective procedure on Dec. 22 — which was also not disclosed to the White House — Austin suffered complications (the details of which have also not been made public) and went back to the hospital on Jan. 1. He handed duties to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. But she, too, did not know the reason for Austin’s absence. On Monday, Austin was moved out of the ICU.
Austin’s hospitalization comes at a busy time for the military as the U.S. continues to monitor the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. On Thursday, while Austin was in the ICU, a U.S. strike killed the leader of an Iran-backed militia in Iraq. The move was reportedly approved by Austin before his condition worsened.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and a group of allies released a joint statement last week cautioning the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to cease their attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea, and threatening a strong response if they do not obey.
All of this information was revealed after the fact. We know now that the strike in Iraq was carried out successfully, and U.S. service members were unharmed. But what if they came under fire after? Who would have made the decisions about how to respond? At the same time, action could have been required in the Red Sea, where U.S. forces killed several Houthi fighters last month. Who would the White House have contacted to discuss these matters?
The episode also raises questions about how influential Austin is within President Joe Biden’s inner circle. Politico reported that Biden’s choice of the lower-profile Austin as defense secretary meant he wanted to empower the State Department and National Security Council at the expense of the Pentagon. Biden reportedly prizes Austin’s discretion and values the fact that he “doesn’t knife-fight in the media like some previous defense chiefs,” according to the publication.
Biden has pledged to stand by Austin, who apologized for the lack of transparency but still has not revealed the details of his hospitalization. The incident is the rare case of a Biden personnel drama becoming a major national story. And so far, in the days after the story surfaced, the Pentagon has yet to convince Americans that this story is resolved. (Austin is still hospitalized with no set release date, the Pentagon said last night.)
On the campaign trail, anti-Israel protesters interrupted Biden on Monday during a speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church, the Black church in Charleston, S.C., where a white supremacist killed nine people in a 2015 mass shooting. The protesters chanted “cease-fire now” before being removed from the event. Other attendees responded by cheering: “Four more years!”
“I understand their passion,” Biden said in response, deviating from his prepared remarks. “I’ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.”
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment questioning what Biden meant by his call for Israel to “significantly get out of Gaza,” and if it represented a new U.S. policy position.
Clarification: In the opening section of yesterday’s Daily Kickoff, we reported that Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) did not have time in their schedule to visit Israel. According to a source, the two senators were unable to visit Israel over the weekend due to the high volume of other congressional trips in the country at the same time.
diplomatic tour
Blinken back in Israel with hopes to stave off escalation in Lebanon

Secretary of State Tony Blinken landed in Israel on Monday night with a mission to cool tensions on two fronts – Gaza and Lebanon. Blinken’s fourth visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks comes amid heightened tensions with Hezbollah following the assassination of two senior terrorists in Lebanon and another in Syria, and as Israel announced its move to a less intensive stage in the fighting in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Packed schedule: Sirens blared across Israel’s north, warning of Hezbollah shelling as Blinken met with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday morning, after an earlier meeting with President Isaac Herzog. Shortly after, Blinken sat for a one-on-one with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was still ongoing at press time, and is set to meet later today with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Benny Gantz, the former defense minister and current war cabinet member, hostages’ families and others.
Northern front: Amid the exchange of fire along Israel’s northern border today, three Hezbollah terrorists were killed in a strike on a car in Ghandouriyeh in southern Lebanon. The strike came a day after Israel killed Wissam Tawil, the commander of Hezbollah’s special forces, called Radwan, who was responsible for much of the onslaught on Israel from Lebanon, which began at a lower intensity long before Oct. 7 and internally displaced tens of thousands of residents of Israel’s north. The uptick in fire comes a week after the assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut, an act that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who alleged Israel was behind the attack, pledged would bring a reprisal.
Diplomatic efforts: Blinken warned at the start of his Middle East tour — during which he also visited Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia — that the war in Gaza “could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and even more suffering.” White House Senior Advisor Amos Hochstein, who traveled to the region last week, is working to reach a diplomatic solution that would force Hezbollah to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, moving it away from the Lebanon-Israel border.