Daily Kickoff
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview today’s House speakership vote and look at some of the GOP majority’s legislative priorities for the new Congress. We also report on Vice President-elect J.D. Vance’s photo withDr. Miriam Adelson at Mar-a-Lago, and cover Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments comparing the Israel-Hamas war to Vietnam. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sens. Jacky Rosen and Jim Risch, Joel Kaplan and North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein.
What We’re Watching
- The House and Senate will hold their respective swearings-in today. Shortly after noon, the House will vote for the speaker of the incoming 119th Congress. More below.
- An Israeli delegation that includes officials from the IDF and the Mossad reportedly departed to Doha, Qatar, for talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire and hostage-release agreement with Hamas, following sign-off from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night.
What You Should Know
The 119th Congress convenes for the first time today, with lawmakers and their families touching down in the nation’s capital ahead of a jam-packed legislative session, Jewish Insider congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs reports.
The first order of business on the House side will be electing a new speaker. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and his allies are projecting confidence going into today’s vote, but even a tiny number of rebellious Republicans could imperil Johnson’s return to the speakership.
Johnson needs 218 votes (out of the 219 House Republicans) to secure the gavel, meaning he can only afford to lose one of his members. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has said he won’t vote for Johnson, accusing him of “nearly [leading] us to the minority in what was a banner year for Trump.”
Massie was undeterred by President-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement of Johnson, something he said would “work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan” during Trump’s first term. Massie is also a vocal isolationist who has routinely opposed measures to support Israel and combat antisemitism.
As of Thursday afternoon, at least a few other Republicans were expected to oppose Johnson in the first round of balloting, and several are publicly on the fence. The vote could easily go into multiple rounds. Democrats are not expected to offer Johnson any support.
Electing a speaker is the first step in allowing the House to conduct any business. Without one, the House cannot proceed to pass its rules package for the session.
This rules package, released on Thursday, includes a provision teeing up floor consideration of a bill sanctioning the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza.
The ICC sanctions legislation passed the House in bipartisan fashion last year, but outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other Democrats refused to allow a vote in the upper chamber amid opposition from the Biden administration.
Republicans have vowed that passing sanctions targeting the court and its officials would be an early priority for them in this next Congress. Regardless of what happens in the House with the speaker’s vote, the ICC legislation is expected to pass both chambers soon after each begins their session.
The Senate, led by Republicans and Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), is expected to vote on the legislation early on in the session. Two sources familiar with the matter told JI that Thune wants to move quickly on the bill, which he publicly vowed would be “a top priority in the next Congress” if it had not been passed in the lame-duck session. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told JI in November that the bill would be “at the top of my agenda for this coming Congress.”
The incoming Trump administration also appears interested in moving on sanctions. A report from Israel Hayomsaid that Trump plans to announce several executive orders sanctioning the ICC as soon as the day after he is sworn in.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has led the Senate effort to sanction the court, would be supportive of either congressional or executive action on the issue, a source familiar with the matter told JI. Still, he plans to move ahead with reintroducing the legislation again.
Another possible agenda item: the Antisemitism Awareness Act. Like the ICC bill, the Antisemitism Awareness Act did not receive floor consideration in the Democratic-led Senate despite passing the House in bipartisan fashion last May. Thune told JI last month that he “would love to get a vote on” AAA and was talking with House and Senate Republicans about moving the bill forward. A spokesperson for Johnson said they could not discuss plans for this year.
The bill’s original Republican co-sponsors in the House and Senate both say they plan to reintroduce the legislation in this Congress. Despite the support, the legislation is expected to face some left- and right-wing opposition over free speech concerns.
Lawmakers’ first major legislative focus is expected to be a significant spending package to be passed under simple-majority budget reconciliation procedures, which could include increased defense spending.
A picture’s worth
Pro-Israel Republicans reassured by Vance, Adelson photo at Mar-a-Lago gathering
Pro-Israel Republicans who had previously voiced concerns about Vice President-elect J.D. Vance over his approach to foreign policy say that they are encouraged by a recent photo in which he appeared alongside Dr. Miriam Adelson, the GOP megadonor, for a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. In the photo, Vance is pictured seated at a table with Adelson, who is smiling with her arm around his wife, Usha. The photo was among a handful of images recently shared by the Trump campaign on social media to highlight the New Year’s gathering in south Florida, where guests included Elon Musk, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and incoming Trump National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, among several others.
A thousand words: During the election, Vance drew scrutiny for past text messages in which he privately shared callous remarks about Adelson’s late husband, Sheldon, the casino magnate who died in 2021. A spokesperson for Adelson, who previously contributed to Vance’s Senate campaign, said in a statement in August that she was “unfazed” by the texts and “will continue to have a good relationship with” the incoming vice president. The new photo suggests that such issues are not a source of tension, while also helping to validate the vice president-elect among pro-Israel Republicans who have raised concerns about his positions and statements on foreign policy. “If Miri is smiling, I’m smiling,” Fred Zeidman, a top GOP donor and longtime friend of the Adelson family who backed Nikki Haley for president, told JI on Thursday.
NOLA TERROR ATTACK FALLOUT
Two Israeli men remain hospitalized in New Orleans after terrorist attack
Two Israeli men in their mid-20s remain hospitalized — one in critical condition — after a driver intentionally rammed a pickup truck into a crowd during New Year’s celebrations on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring at least 30 in Wednesday’s terror attack, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
New Year’s nightmare: Both men were tourists from Israel, traveling through several American cities and expecting to end their jaunt in Florida, according to Elad Shoshan, consul of Israel to the Southwest United States. “They wanted to do New Year’s Eve in New Orleans,” Shoshan, who is currently visiting the men in a local hospital — and awaiting the Friday morning arrival of their family members — told JI. “Obviously, it became a tragic situation,” he said.
committee changes
Sen. Jacky Rosen to join Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) is set to join the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the new Congress, bringing one of the Democrats’ strongest pro-Israel voices to a committee roster that includes several lawmakers who voted to block some U.S. aid to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Standing with Israel: “I’ll continue working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to strengthen U.S. global partnerships and counter threats from Iran, Russia, and China. As a member of the committee, I’ll also make sure the United States’ commitment to supporting our democratic ally Israel remains unwavering and unconditional,” Rosen said in a statement. The Democrats’ roster on the committee is increasingly dominated by lawmakers who voted in favor of resolutions to block U.S. aid, including Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
tehran talk
Risch dismisses need for striking Iranian nuclear facilities amid GOP deterrence push
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed doubt in a recent interview with The Free Press that Iran would try to obtain a nuclear weapon or that the United States would need to act to take out Iran’s nuclear program. “I don’t think we need to finish [Iran] off. They’re finishing themselves off,” Risch said. “They talk about it, but where’s the nuclear weapon? They could have had one a long time ago. I think they are deterred.” Reached by Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs for clarification, a spokesperson for Risch said that he supports the U.S. taking part in an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program and provided additional comments he made in the interview about neutralizing the nuclear threat.
What he said: “A nuclear weapon is not that hard to come by, generating nuclear power is very complex and hard to do but [not] a nuclear weapon,” Risch told The Free Press, according to the transcript released by his office. “They are not that complicated to make. If they wanted one they’d have one by now. Why haven’t they had one? [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has said, Israel has said, ‘Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,’ and they’re right on that. They cannot stand still and allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I think for that reason Iran has not pursued a nuclear weapon.”
View from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: The Biden administration mulled plans last month to preemptively strike Iranian nuclear facilities ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration in the event Tehran moved toward a nuclear weapon.
AOC ANALOGIES
AOC compares Israel’s war against Hamas to Vietnam
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in an interview last month, described the war in Gaza as a generational political force among younger U.S. voters, comparing it to the impact of the Vietnam War, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What she said: “I have said this directly to Democratic leadership. I’ve communicated this to the White House, that this is our [generation’s] Vietnam,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on “The Majority Report with Sam Seder,” a progressive radio show and podcast. “I don’t think there is appreciation yet about how generationally radicalizing this moment is.” The New York progressive suggested that she lost her race to become the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee in part because of her accusations that Israel is committing genocide and that the U.S. government is complicit.
campus climate
Rutgers to implement new steps to curb campus antisemitism
In response to a Title VI complaint filed against Rutgers University, alleging nearly 300 antisemitic incidents and nearly 150 anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incidents since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, the New Jersey public university agreed on Thursday to implement a series of trainings to improve the campus climate, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Discrimination demographics: The complaint, which was filed in December 2023 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and included all four Rutgers campuses (New Brunswick, Newark, Camden and Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences), stated that the university received more than 400 reports alleging shared ancestry discrimination between July 2023 and June 2024. Of those reports, 293 alleged discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students and 147 reports alleged discrimination against Palestinian, Arab, South Asian and Muslim students.
Worthy Reads
A Pox on Both Houses: Foreign Policy’s Amy Mackinnon spotlights Palestinian American activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a former Gaza resident who has risen to prominence for his critiques of and commentary on Israel and Hamas over the course of the 15-month-long war. “In outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and the Times of Israel, as well as appearances on CNN, ABC, and NPR, Alkhatib has outlined positions that would seem self-evident if the discourse weren’t otherwise so profoundly broken. Hamas, he believes, is nothing but bad news for his people, and he has condemned the group with such ferocity that it has at times earned him a security detail. He has also spoken out about the unsparing nature of Israel’s military campaign while underscoring the need for empathy for both Israeli and Palestinian victims. ‘This off-the-shelf messaging came down’ in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks, Alkhatib told me. ‘There was no space, whatsoever, to call for the release of hostages. I was equally horrified by the dehumanization of all Gazans as terrorists.’” [ForeignPolicy]
Carter on Iran: In The Wall Street Journal, Ray Takeyh posits, based on archival information, that former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy on Iran has been largely misunderstood. “The popular impression for the four decades since his presidency is that Jimmy Carter, who died this week, is responsible for somehow ‘losing’ Iran. His passivity, it has often been argued, helped build the militant Islamist state that has stalked the Middle East since Iran’s revolution in 1979. But if that is seen as his most meaningful legacy, the archives of the time tell a different story. No American tried harder to thwart the revolution than Carter. And when that failed, he plotted to subvert the Islamic regime. … Jimmy Carter did not lose Iran, but he misunderstood it. He seemed to believe that one of the great populist revolutions of the 20th century could be stopped by foreigners. He failed to appreciate that his royalist allies were broken men eager to abandon their inheritance. His coup scheme seems fantastic in retrospect given the timidity of the shah’s generals in the face of a determined popular rebellion. And he assumed that a regime born out of a revolution that enjoyed popular legitimacy — at least at the start — could be displaced by a committee operating out of the White House.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) endorsed Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler, who told JI last month that a representative of the “Uncommitted” movement should have spoken at the DNC last year, for chair of the Democratic National Committee…
Longtime GOP operative and former George W. Bush administration official Joel Kaplan, who has held senior roles at Facebook/Meta since 2011, will replace Nick Clegg as Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…
A federal grand jury indicted a Pennsylvania man with dual U.S.-Irish citizenship on charges of aiding a terrorist group and lying to the FBI; Jack Danaher Molloy traveled to Lebanon and Syria last year, where he attempted to join Hezbollah…
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein was sworn into the state’s top office on a 1891 edition of the Tanakh…
Mikey & Mel’s Jewish delicatessen is opening today in downtown Washington, D.C.…
Vandals in the Bay Area spraypainted antisemitic graffiti next to a menorah erected by Chabad of Oakland; the menorah had been destroyed last year and thrown into a nearby river before its pieces were recovered and restored…
The New Yorker looks at the long-stalled effort to erect a Holocaust memorial in London…
The Times of India spotlights one of the last remaining Jewish families in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu…
Hamas’ chief of police was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza…
Israel’s Ministry of Defense opened a new division focused on AI and autonomous tools…
The IDF intercepted a ballistic missile fired overnight by the Houthis; hours later, the IDF said it also downed a drone fired by the Iran-backed group in Yemen…
Italy summoned Iran’s ambassador in Rome over the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Tehran last month; Sala’s arrest was preceded by the arrest in Italy of an Iranian man whom the U.S. Justice Department had recently unveiled charges against…
Syria’s new Ministry of Education rolled out a series of changes to its educational materials, sparking online backlash for changes that gave the materials a more religious slant…
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria is reviving concerns about the potential reemergence of ISIS in parts of the war-torn country…
An alleged Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted military facilities in Aleppo, Syria…
The IDF released additional footage and details on the special operation conducted in September by the Shaldag Unit in Syria, during which it raided and destroyed an Iranian underground compound for manufacturing precision missiles…
Zachary Freiman will join the office of Rep.-elect Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) as a senior legislative assistant; Freiman previously worked for Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), with a portfolio that included foreign policy…
Holocaust survivor and gymnast Agnes Keleti, who won 10 medals at the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games and was awarded the Israel Prize in 2017, died at 103…
Seymour Lachman, the former head of New York City’s Board of Education and the first Orthodox Jew to serve in New York’s state Senate, died at 91…
Pic of the Day
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew met on Thursday with Chabad-Lubavitch officials at Kfar Chabad, Israel. The visit, Lew said, was “to stand in solidarity with the community following the tragic murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan,” a United Arab Emirates-based Chabad emissary who was kidnapped and killed in November.
Birthdays
Television and film actor, Josh Stamberg turns 55 on Saturday…
FRIDAY: Treasury secretary under President Carter, CEO of Burroughs Corporation and Unisys, followed by 17 years as director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, W. Michael Blumenthal turns 99… Computer scientist and computational theorist, he is a professor emeritus at the University of California Berkeley, Richard Manning Karp turns 90… Professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, Kenneth Prager, M.D. turns 82… CNN legal analyst, he was formerly a Watergate prosecutor and later a member of the 9/11 Commission, Richard Ben-Veniste turns 82… Former legal affairs reporter at The New York Times and contributing editor at Vanity Fair, David Margolick turns 73… Tax attorney and scion of the eponymous vacuum cleaner company, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Finland during the Obama administration, Bruce James Oreck turns 72… Professor of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine, Ralph R. Isberg turns 70… Justice of the Ontario Superior Court and former national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Edward M. Morgan turns 70… Italian actor and comedian, known professionally as Gioele Dix, David Ottolenghi turns 69… Russian oligarch with holdings in the construction and banking sectors, Boris Rotenberg turns 68… Director of the Year-in-Israel program at HUC-JIR, Reuven Greenvald… Assistant district attorney in Manhattan, she prosecuted the Daniel Penny subway chokehold case six weeks ago, Dafna M. Yoran… International businessman and former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, S. Fitzgerald Haney turns 56… Managing director and senior partner in the NYC office of the Boston Consulting Group, Neal Zuckerman… Senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News after 17 years at the Los Angeles Times, Noam Naftali Levey… Attorney in Minneapolis and former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Jeremy N. Kalin turns 50… President at Kiosite, LLC, Michael Novack… Founder and president of Golden Strategies, Jenna Golden… Founder and principal at D.C.-based Volsky Ventures, Igor Volsky… Former child actor who starred in “Home Alone 3,” he is now a planning assistant for the City of Los Angeles, Alexander David Linz turns 36… Head of research and analytics at VineSight, Alana Aliza Herbst… Israeli basketball player now on the Portland Trail Blazers, he was a first-round pick of the Wizards in the 2020 NBA draft, Deni Avdija turns 24…
SATURDAY: English celebrity chef, restaurateur and television star, Rick Stein turns 78… Founder and president emeritus of the Alliance for Justice, Nan Aron turns 77… Retired major general in the IDF and a former member of the Knesset for Likud, he is a nephew of Moshe Dayan, Uzi Dayan turns 77… Television producer for CBS and co-author of three novels, Karen Mack Goldsmith turns 75… CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, the advocacy organization for investor-owned hospitals, Charles N. (“Chip”) Kahn III turns 73… Former member of the Knesset for 17 years, she was born in Vilna, Lithuania, as Zehava Schnipitzky, Zehava Gal-On turns 69… Author of The New Yorker‘s satirical “Borowitz Report,” he is a comedian, actor and New York Times best-selling author, known for creating “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Andy Borowitz turns 67… Author of 35 best-selling mystery novels and thrillers with over 80 million copies in print, Harlan Coben turns 63… Senior health-care editor at Axios, Adriel Bettelheim… Professor of Jewish history at both the University of Munich and the American University in D.C., Michael Brenner turns 61… Founder of AnyDate, ShareSomeFriends and Upstart Ideas, Michael Eglash… Professor of management at UCSD, Yuval Rottenstreich turns 54… Strategic initiatives director at the Austin-based Cicero Institute, he was the first Jewish liaison in the Bush 43 administration, Adam Blair Goldman… American living in Uzbekistan where he promotes business development among the five Central Asian countries, Daniel Zaretsky… White House senior aide for energy and investment, Amos J. Hochstein turns 52… Historian and NYT best-selling author, he is a contributing editor at Politico Magazine, Joshua Michael Zeitz turns 51… Film and television actor, Aaron Schwartz turns 44… Founder of Darshan Yeshiva and spiritual leader of Kehillah, a Jewish community in Richmond, Va., Patrick Beaulier turns 42… Senior broadcast producer at “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” Ben Mayer… Early childhood director at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington, Alex Band… Bookkeeper at her family-owned The Bookstore in Lenox, Mass., Shawnee Tannenbaum… Partner at D.C.-based public affairs firm The Herald Group, Marc Brumer… Chief of staff for Stacey Abrams, Samantha Slosberg… Centerfielder for nine MLB teams, he played for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic in 2023, Kevin Pillar turns 36… Head of non-scripted development at Wavelength Productions, Emily Tess Katz… National political reporter for Time magazine, Eric James Cortellessa… Associate in the NYC office of Steptoe, Alexander Abraham Langer… Program coordinator at the Norton and Elaine Sarnoff Center for Jewish Genetics, Judah Gavant… The youngest member of Maryland House of Delegates, Joseph Vogel turns 28… D.C. correspondent at The Nevada Independent, Gabby Birenbaum…
SUNDAY: Author of four novels including Mitzvah Man and five collections of short fiction including Minyan: Ten Interwoven Stories, John Jacob Clayton turns 90… Sports journalist, author and former ombudsman for ESPN, Robert Lipsyte turns 87… NBA superfan who attends over 100 basketball games nationally each season, James F. Goldstein turns 85… Former member of the Knesset for the National Religious party, Eliyahu Gabai turns 82… Former Philadelphia mayor for eight years, and then another eight years as Pennsylvania’s governor, currently a special counsel at Ballard Spahr, Ed Rendell turns 81… Retired attorney from Latham & Watkins, Paul Israel Meyer… San Diego-based attorney, she served as a member of Congress and as chief of staff for California Gov. Gray Davis, Lynn Alice Schenk turns 80… Former attorney general of the U.K, now London co-managing partner and chair of the European and Asian litigation practice at Debevoise & Plimpton, Lord Peter Goldsmith turns 75… CEO of Legacy Interactive / Legacy Games, Ariella Lehrer, Ph.D…. Founder and principal of DC-based Mager & Associates, Mimi Mager… Retired chairman of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael), Daniel “Danny” Atar turns 67… Journalist, John F. Solomon turns 58… Actress and television personality, Heather Paige Kent Dubrow turns 56… Partner of both the law firm Galper & Goldberg PLLC and the PR firm Trident DMG, Joshua P. Galper… Professional poker player who won the 2010, 2012 and 2018 World Series of Poker Players Championship, Michael Mizrachi turns 44… Founder and creative director of Alsall Studio, Alexandra Lauren Sall… Tennis player ranked #1 in Israel for most of 2022, Yshai Oliel turns 25…
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