Daily Kickoff
Good Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on President-elect Donald Trump’s latest picks to lead the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, as well as his selection of former Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. We also look at how Democratic officials are shifting back to the center following last week’s elections and do a deep dive into the possibility of Israeli-Saudi normalization. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: IAEA’s Rafael Grossi, Bret Stephens and Amb. Danny Danon.
What We’re Watching
- President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump will meet at the White House at 11 a.m. ET today.
- GOP lawmakers are set to vote today on Senate leadership in the new Congress. More below.
- We’re keeping an eye on whether President-elect Donald Trump will announce his selection of Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) to be Secretary of State, which — unlike the selections of most other members of Trump’s incoming national security team — hasn’t been formally announced by the Trump campaign yet. Reports suggest that Rubio’s selection is facing pushback from some isolationists in Trump’s orbit.
- International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi is in Tehran today for talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
What You Should Know
The House and Senate are back in Washington for the final weeks in the current congressional session, with several major items to tackle before the end of the year, Jewish Insider senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod reports.
But first, House and Senate Republicans are set to meet privately today to select their leaders for the next Congress. In the Senate, the race is between Sens. John Thune (R-SD), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rick Scott (R-FL), while in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is expected to face opposition from the conservative wing of the caucus but is likely to keep his job.
When it comes to policy, issues near the top of the list include government funding for 2025 and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense and national security policy bill.
Government funding is now likely to be highly contingent on President-elect Donald Trump’s wishes. Lawmakers could try to finalize a full government funding package before the end of the year, could extend current funding levels through the end of the fiscal year in September 2025 or could advance a shorter-term patch (likely through March) that would give the incoming Republican trifecta the opportunity to set new spending levels at Trump’s direction.
Some Republicans are pushing for a funding patch — known as a continuing resolution — through March, but House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) is reportedly advocating for funding through September. Republicans may be reluctant to have to handle a government funding fight in the early months of the new congressional term, with slim margins expected in the House and other key priorities to advance. Some key Republicans favor passing full-year funding now.
Democrats in the Senate will be eager to extract some concessions on funding priorities in exchange for a deal to extend funding into the Trump administration. And some Democrats are saying they also want to fast-track passage of full-year appropriations bills, rather than another continuing resolution. The debate will determine spending levels going into the new Trump administration for key defense and national security programs, security grants for the Jewish community and a range of other programs.
The NDAA is also set to include a series of programs relating to the Middle East, but a key issue to watch for the Jewish community will be the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which Senate lawmakers are aiming to attach to the NDAA. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has promised a vote on that legislation, which passed the House earlier this year, in the upper chamber before the end of the year.
The Countering Antisemitism Act has also been introduced as a potential amendment to the NDAA, but it faced opposition on both sides of the aisle in the Senate and House, and could be difficult to pull across the line.
Lawmakers will also begin to pick leaders for their committees today going into the next Congress. Some spots we’re watching include the Republican chairs of the House Foreign Affairs, Education and the Workforce and Financial Services Committees, as well as the Democratic ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia subcommittee. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is widely expected to become the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
They’ll also be picking new chairs for key caucuses. In the House, the pro-Israel lawmaker Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) is running to chair the influential New Democrat Coalition, while Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), who voted against Israel aid, is expected to be the next chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
And keep an eye out for who will become the chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, with Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) leaving Congress at the end of the year.
Other potential priorities include the Farm Bill, a massive agricultural and food programs bill, for which Congress has repeatedly passed stopgap extensions, and disaster funding for states impacted by recent hurricanes.
moving to the middle
After Harris’ defeat, top Democrats tilt to the center on Israel, tackling antisemitism
After Democrats’ electoral drubbing last week, some prominent members of the party have come out of the woodwork to raise concerns about the party’s appeasement of progressive activists rather than appealing to more centrist voters. Particularly revealing is the shift in rhetoric from several prominent Democrats on issues of great concern to the American Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Showing up: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a potential 2028 contender, spoke at a pro-Israel rally in Washington on Sunday. One Democratic activist in Michigan said Whitmer’s appearance at the Jewish Federations of North America unity rally appears to be following the “political winds”: “I do think there’s going to be a big fight over Israel within the party, and I think that there is an understandable sense that you want to be on the right side of this one,” said the Michigan Democrat. “I think that she sees where the political winds are blowing a little bit.”
surprise pick
Capitol Hill caught off guard by Hegseth pick for defense secretary, but Senate Republicans quickly fall in line
President-elect Donald Trump announced he’s nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defense, an unexpected selection that sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Emily Jacobs report.
Reaction: The announcement was met with initial surprise, but quick acceptance from congressional Republicans. Hegseth’s name had not been floated in any public reporting about the role and he reportedly was not contacted about the job until Monday. Hegseth marks a significant departure from the rest of Trump’s national security team, which has largely drawn from current and former members of Congress.
huckabee to the holy land
Trump announces former Gov. Mike Huckabee as pick for ambassador to Israel
President-elect Donald Trump announced that he will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a committed Christian Zionist, to be ambassador to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
About the pick: The pick marks a shift for the post, which was filled in the Biden, Obama and first Trump administrations by political allies of the presidents who were Jewish — Dan Shapiro, David Friedman, Tom Nides and Jack Lew. Huckabee, who was formerly the governor of Arkansas, has long been vocal about his support for the Jewish state. He’s also been a supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a territory Huckabee has said rightfully belongs to Israel. Huckabee is the first country-level ambassador announced by the incoming Trump administration, indicating Trump’s strong focus on Israel and the Middle East coming into his second term.
Read the full story here.
Bonus: Real estate investor Steven Witkoff was announced as the Trump administration’s Mideast envoy. Witkoff’s son Alex, who is friends with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, told the Financial Times that the president-elect is “a fierce, ardent supporter of the Jewish people.”
dhs pick
Trump taps South Dakota’s Noem for Homeland Security secretary
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his secretary of Homeland Security, at a time in which the department is playing a critical role in efforts to protect the Jewish community in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security oversees the U.S. borders and immigration policy, which is likely to be Noem’s main focus in the role, given Trump’s prioritizing of the issue, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Antisemitism and terrorism: But programs such as the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, other efforts to protect Jewish institutions and communities, operations to address domestic and foreign terrorism on U.S. soil and the agency responsible for protecting U.S. critical infrastructure and cyber networks all fall under the DHS’ supervision, giving Noem broad responsibility over programs touching on both antisemitism and homeland threats from Iran and other terrorist actors.
alliance issues
Saudi-Israel normalization appears more distant with a skeptic in Israel’s Foreign Ministry, MBS’ accusations of ‘genocide’
Though President-elect Donald Trump promised the expansion of the Abraham Accords in the run-up to this month’s election, recent public signals coming from Israel and Saudi Arabia indicate that the long-anticipated peace will be even more challenging now than when he left office in 2021. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said at an Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh this week that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people and called “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran.” Bin Salman’s remarks are part of a long line of condemnations from Saudi Arabia of Israel in its multifront war against Iran and its proxies in the last year, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
New FM: In addition, Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, appears to be something of a rarity in Israeli political and foreign policy circles: an Abraham Accords skeptic. Two weeks ago, before he was appointed foreign minister, Sa’ar pushed back against Netanyahu’s call for a NATO-like “Abraham Alliance” between Israel and moderate Arab states opposing Iran. “When Israel acts against Iran and its proxies, it at the very least receives a bundle of condemnations from these countries,” Sa’ar said in comments resurfaced by Israeli public broadcaster Kan. “Realistically, Israel needs to limit its expectations for these relationships. The reliance on a so-called alliance with them can turn out, when tested, to be [very weak].”
winds of change
On panel, Bret Stephens, Nathan Diament mull implications of Trump win for Jews, Israel
One week after Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris — and Republicans winning control of both the Senate and the House — about 200 people packed the Upper East Side’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Tuesday evening to hear New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, analyze what the administration transition— a sharp change in Washington— might mean for American Jews and Israel, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports. The event, hosted by the OU, was moderated by Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar.
Key issues: With antisemitism on the rise globally and Israel continuing to fight in a multifront war against Iran and its proxies, Stephens said it’s “too early” to know how a Trump administration will act on these fronts. “The great question is whether the guy [Republicans] remember is the guy they’re going to get for the next four years,” Stephens said. But Americans are beginning to get “hints of an answer,” Stephens added, referring to Trump’s Cabinet picks, which the president-elect began rolling out earlier this week.
Worthy Reads
Going Global: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens warns of the threat caused by the global rise in antisemitism, and the failure of Western governments to address it. “Antisemitism in Europe has now reached the point where the future of many of its Jewish communities is seriously in doubt. I’m not sure most Europeans understand what a civilizational catastrophe this represents — albeit less for Europe’s Jews, most of whom will find other places to go and thrive, than for Europe itself. The fate of societies that become ‘Judenfrei’ — free of Jews — has not, historically, been a happy one. The United States is still a long way from this point, thanks to a larger and more politically confident Jewish community, along with a national culture that traditionally has generally admired Jews. But that culture is also under growing threat today, whether from Hamas’s fellow travelers in the Ivy League and the publishing world; Louis Farrakhan’s admirers in the Black community; or the alt-right inveighing, with a sinister wink, against ‘globalists’ and ‘neocons.’” [NYTimes]
Party Problems: In The Atlantic, Mike Pesca attributes Democrats’ Election Day losses in part to the “HR-ification” of the party. “The Democrats banked on the idea that classic mommy-party traits — nurturing, fretting about life’s dangers — would appeal to voters worried about the chaos of Trumpism. Instead, their warnings came across as scolding, while Donald Trump’s wild antics were either embraced by his party as a selling point or dismissed as the harmless by-product of his showmanship. To his followers, Donald J. Trump, CEO, fits a heroic and masculine frame; to his detractors, he is a villain, yet he is always the protagonist. The cultural space that the HR department occupies, however, carries with it no archetype at all. HR is mainly reactive, and often overly cautious, executing the company’s goals with an extraordinarily low tolerance for risk. At best, this function serves as a careful, mild check on excessive behavior, and at worst, as a fussy and fear-based obstacle that distorts a company’s culture and prevents people from achieving their mission. Trump famously hates to be told what to do; the HR department exists to do just that.” [TheAtlantic]
Reflecting on Respect: In an essay republished in The Times of Israel, Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflects on the role that respect plays in Jewish tradition. “When my girls and I are having a moment walking, breathing and smiling, and someone stops us and starts crying, they are robbing us of a moment of respite from the horror we are digesting. When I am walking alone, with a hat, glasses and my head down, it is me saying, ‘Please, oh please, let me breathe for a moment without having to also carry your pain. Your pain is as real as mine, but I have no strength at the moment to carry yours too. I love you and am endlessly grateful for you loving Hersh. I love you for loving the hostage families. I love you for trying to help. But please, if you want to help me, let me go on walking. When you see me and our eyes cross paths, please, oh please, just smile and wave. My knees are buckling from all the wounds people are sharing. I am just not formidable and powerful enough. Not yet. I am working on it. I wish to get there. Because I want us all to help lift each other, like the Amish do when they hoist up the frame for a new home they are all collectively building together. Let’s do that. But I am not robust enough… not yet.’” [TOI]
Word on the Street
The incoming Trump administration rolled out a series of additional appointment announcements on Tuesday: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), while former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was tapped to lead the CIA…
The Biden administration assessed that Israel is not violating U.S. policies regarding aid to Gaza, a month after senior U.S. officials gave Israel 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in the enclave…
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is planning to force votes next week on legislation that would block $20 billion in arms sales to Israel…
The House voted 256-145, with 52 Democrats supporting, in favor of a bill that would have allowed the Treasury secretary to revoke the nonprofit status of organizations supporting terrorism. But the legislation required a two-thirds margin of support, and therefore failed. A previous version of the bill passed the House by an overwhelming 382-11 vote, but the legislation has since become a target of liberal groups warning that it could empower government overreach…
An Oregon man pleaded guilty to three federal hate crimes charges for defacing a Eugene, Ore., synagogue on two separate occasions in 2023 and 2024…
The University of Rochester is conducting an investigation after hundreds of “Wanted” posters featuring the names and images of Jewish faculty, including the school’s Hillel director, were posted on campus…
Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video of hostage Sasha Trufanov the day after Trufanov’s birthday…
Authorities in the U.K. arrested a police officer suspected of supporting Hamas…
The Financial Times spotlights Middle East Airlines, the Lebanese air carrier that has continued flying through Israel’s war with Hezbollah; FT notes that Israel does not plan to target Lebanon’s main airport in Beirut as long as it is used only for civilian purposes and would give advanced warning in the event it does intend to strike the facility…
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia’s deepening ties with China, Iran and North Korea are threatening “peace and security” across broad swaths of the globe…
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon cautioned that the U.S. and Israel need to be on “high alert” for potential Iranian moves to sow instability before President-elect Donald Trump takes office…
The New York Times looks at Russia and Iran’s converging interests in the Caucasus region, which have put the two countries, which are largely aligned, at odds…
Iran is citing a 19th century map drawn by British officials amid a disagreement with several Gulf states over the ownership of three disputed islands at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz…
Neom CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr departed the Saudi project amid a reshuffling of the city-building endeavor’s top leadership…
Presidential historian and former White House staffer Tevi Troy is joining the Ronald Reagan Institute as a senior fellow (h/t Playbook); read about Troy’s recent whirlwind week in Los Angeles here…
British painter Frank Auerbach, who escaped Nazi Germany as a child, died at 93…
Pic of the Day
“Entourage” actress Emmanuelle Chriqui presented “Fauda” actor Doron Ben David an award at the 2nd annual Jewish Media Awards hosted by Jew in the City at the Lincoln Center on Tuesday night. Sheryl Sandberg was also honored at the event (and spoke virtually) for her documentary, “Screams Before Silence,” about Hamas’ sexual violence on Oct. 7.
Birthdays
U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland turns 72…
Israeli industrialist, Gad Zeevi turns 85… Chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Shmuel Riccardo Di Segni turns 75… Publisher of the independent “Political Junkie” blog and podcast, Kenneth Rudin… Once the controlling stockholder of a large Israeli conglomerate, Nochi Dankner turns 70… Managing director of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, Sharon Freundel… Former member of the D.C. Board of Education for eight years, Ruth Wattenberg… Former editor-in-chief of British Vogue for 25 years, she is a strategic advisor to Atterley, Alexandra Shulman turns 67… U.S. senator (R-Alaska), Dan Sullivan turns 60… Producer and writer, he has written for ten television shows, Matt Weitzman turns 57… San Jose, Calif., resident, Katherine (Katya) Palkin… Somali-born activist who has served in the Dutch parliament, she is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Ayaan Hirsi Ali turns 55… Former Israeli government minister for the Shas party, he has served as minister of communications and then minister of housing, Ariel Atias turns 54… Founder of Pailet Financial Services, a predecessor agency of what is now the Dallas office of Marsh & McLennan, Kevin Pailet… Conservative rabbi, wife of former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica S. Fitzgerald Haney, Andrea Dobrick Haney turns 51… President and CEO at the U.S. Travel Association, Geoffrey Freeman… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Meirav Ben-Ari turns 49… Television journalist employed by Hearst Television, Jeff Rossen turns 48… President of baseball operations for MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, Andrew Friedman turns 48… Israeli rapper and record producer, generally known by his stage name “Subliminal,” Yaakov (Kobi) Shimoni turns 45… Judoka who won three national titles (2000, 2002 and 2004), she competed for the U.S. at the Athens Olympics in 2004, Charlee Minkin turns 43… Senior director of policy and communications at Christians United For Israel, Ari Morgenstern… Political communications consultant, Jared Goldberg-Leopold… PR and communications consultant, Mark Botnick… Professional soccer player, then a soccer coach and now a sales account executive at Les Friedland Associates, Jarryd Goldberg turns 39… Michael Schwab… Member of the House of Representatives (R-OH), one of two (soon to be three) Jewish Republican congressmen, Max Leonard Miller turns 36… Staff attorney for the ACLU’s voting rights project, Jonathan Topaz… Former relief pitcher in the Colorado Rockies organization, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, now an EMT in Los Angeles, Troy Neiman turns 34… Israeli film, television and stage actor and model, Bar Brimer turns 27… J.D. candidate at University of Houston Law Center, Cole Deutch… VP of Israel and global philanthropy and director of Christian Friends of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Danielle Mor…
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