| | 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 with Dr. 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.
Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇 Share with a friend | - 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.
| 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 Hayom said 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  X/Team Trump 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.
Read the full story here. nola terror update Two Israeli men remain hospitalized in New Orleans after terrorist attack  ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES 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.
Read the full story here. committee changes Sen. Jacky Rosen to join Senate Foreign Relations Committee  Noam Galai/Getty Images 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).
Read the full story here. tehran talk Risch dismisses need for striking Iranian nuclear facilities amid GOP deterrence push  AL DRAGO-POOL/GETTY IMAGES 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.”
Read the full story here.
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 analogy AOC compares Israel’s war against Hamas to Vietnam  MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images 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.
Read the full story here. campus climate Rutgers to implement new steps to curb campus antisemitism  ROSS LEWIS/GETTY IMAGES 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.
Read the full story here. | 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] | Don’t let a broken heater break the bank. Home repair costs have surged in recent years due to inflation and supply chain issues, making unexpected breakdowns a financial burden for homeowners. Fortunately, a home warranty could help cover the repair and replacement of your home appliances and systems for a reasonable monthly fee. Check out Money’s list of the Best Home Warranties and start protecting your essential appliances. VIEW LIST Be featured: Email us to inform the JI readership of your upcoming event, job opening, or other communication. | 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…
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