Morning Report — Debate on Israel aid intensifies

Lawmakers are sharpening their focus on aid to Israel this week, with Republicans and Democrats weighing a House GOP aid bill as the November government funding deadline creeps close. 

House Democrats will face a tough vote this week after Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), unveiled a $14.3 billion Israel aid bill that incorporates offsets from the IRS budget but excludes funding for Ukraine. House Democrats have been vocal about the need to send additional aid to Israel following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on the U.S. ally last month, write The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis. During the three-week Speaker saga, Democrats pushed their Republican colleagues to coalesce around a leader so the House could return to business and send aid to Tel Aviv.  

Johnson is set to meet with GOP Senators about the measure today — ahead of a proposed Thursday vote in the House — setting up a tense encounter as House and Senate Republicans remain at odds over assisting Israel and Ukraine ahead of a Nov. 17 deadline to keep the government funded (CNN). 

Senate Republicans are battling among themselves over what to do with the House proposal. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, GOP senators want to support Johnson, but moving Israel money without assistance for Ukraine jeopardizes Ukraine’s efforts to win the war against Russia. Getting President Biden’s $105 billion foreign assistance package across the finish line will be a major test of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership. McConnell has repeatedly said the two issues are related. He specifically tied Israel and Ukraine together on Monday in a speech introducing the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. at an event in Louisville (NPR). 

“This is a moment for swift and decisive action to prevent further loss of life, and to impose real consequences on the tyrants who have terrorized the people of Ukraine and Israel,” McConnell said. “And right now, the Senate has a chance to produce supplemental assistance that will help us do exactly that.” 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday called the House GOP’s $14.3 billion measure to support Israel “woefully inadequate.” The GOP goal is to challenge the White House and buck a bipartisan approach preferred by the Senate to approve supplemental spending, including for Ukraine. The Senate would add the proposed international assistance to the deficit; the House would seek spending cuts to offset the proposed red ink.  

The House strategy creates complications ahead of a fast-approaching Nov. 17 deadline and a potential shutdown. Schumer, complaining about “poison pills” floated by the House, said the House approach includes “no aid to Ukraine, no humanitarian assistance for Gaza, no funding for the Indo-Pacific.” 

Politico: Johnson’s Israel bill hasn’t driven a wedge between Schumer and McConnell. 

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought to connect assistance for Ukraine and Israel to U.S. leadership across the globe and to efforts by both Russia and Iran to challenge U.S. friends and allies. The hearing was one of the first public indicators of whether the president will be able to win congressional support for his political strategy on Ukraine. Austin said a failure to approve aid would lead to a less stable world (The Washington Post). 

“In both Israel and Ukraine, democracies are fighting ruthless foes who are out to annihilate them. We will not let Hamas or Putin win,” Austin said. “Only firm American leadership can ensure that tyrants and thugs and terrorists worldwide are not emboldened to commit more aggression and more atrocities.” 

WHILE JOHNSON’S RISE has united the GOP conference, it may alienate moderate voters and imperil the Republican majority — a political opening Democrats are racing to exploit. House Republicans are hailing Johnson as a unifying force for their fractured party, but the Speaker’s unique brand of evangelical conservatism places him at the far right of the GOP spectrum. The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Lillis report that Democrats view him as something else entirely: a conservative “extremist” who reflects the right wing’s control of the GOP just as much of the country is growing weary of congressional polarization. 

Prior to his arrival in Washington, Johnson was on the front lines of the conservative legal battles against abortion and gay rights, once warning that the legalization of same-sex marriage would mark the end of American democracy. 

“He’s a MAGA extremist,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “He [just] has better manners.” 

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LEADING THE DAY 

MIDDLE EAST 

Israel’s ground invasion approaching Gaza City from three sides and aimed at destroying Hamas began in earnest Tuesday, opening a new phase of what is expected to be a long and bloody war. 

The conflict could spread. And it could upend politics in the Middle East, the U.S. and in Europe. 

Wednesday updates reported by news wires: Dozens of people with foreign passports, some of them wounded, were able to pass through the Rafah gate from Gaza into Egypt for the first time. … A second major disruption of communications and internet in Gaza occurred overnight, reportedly orchestrated by Israel. … The U.S. plans to send 300 more troops to the Middle East, the Pentagon said, on top of 900 already announced. … Hostages rescued or freed from Gaza since Oct. 7 total five. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to reject calls for a ceasefire as Israel struck a refugee camp in northern Gaza from the air. Eyewitnesses described children carrying injured children in the densely populated camp, in which casualties were said to be high and photographs showed extensive destruction. 

THE ISRAELI MILITARY said it killed Hamas leader Ibrahim Biari, accused of helping to carry out the surprise Oct. 7 terror attack. Hamas denied Biari was dead. 

A spokesperson for Israel blamed the resulting bomb crater in Jabaliya and the Palestinian death toll on the collapse of underground structures built by Hamas militants, asserting the air strikes “collapsed other structures because there was extensive underground infrastructure … whose goal was realizing terrorist operations.” The New York Times reported it was not immediately possible to verify Israel’s claim. 

Hamas is reported to have 300 miles of tunnels through the Gaza Strip, which Israel’s military wants to search and destroy. It’s considered a dangerous and lengthy objective, Middle East experts say. 

THE JABALIYA REFUGEE ENCLAVE is the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight camps and is home to people who were displaced from what is now Israel in the 1940s and their descendants, according to the Times. 

Biden’s national security team has said it won’t seek to confirm each attack or approve Israel’s specific operations against Hamas. The president continues to resist pressure to back a negotiated cease-fire, advocated by the United Nations and others to speed humanitarian aid to Gaza and protect the lives of Palestinian civilians, including children, plus more than 200 hostages, most of them Israeli.  

EACH DAY’S GRISLY SCENES stoke opposition within the region and spark protests elsewhere, such as seen Tuesday in a Senate hearing room. The war between Israel and Hamas risks raising the level of terror threats, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who testified to the Senate on Tuesday. 

“We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration, the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago. In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West,” Wray said. 

Blinken on Friday will make another trip to Israel for meetings. He plans other stops within the region but it was unclear late Tuesday if he will meet with Palestinian officials. 

Stopping short of promoting a ceasefire, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday spoke with Netanyahu to emphasize the need for Israel to “minimize civilian casualties,” and help get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza, according to Downing Street. Rather than a ceasefire, the United Kingdom, which has vowed to support Israel’s right to defend its citizens following the attacks by Hamas, spent Tuesday trying to get Egypt and other partners to back “a humanitarian pause” in Gaza. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly traveled to the United Arab Emirates for that purpose. The White House also said it supports a “pause” in fighting to help get more aid into Gaza. 

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ZOOM IN 

POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS   

The presidential campaign launched last week by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) will loom over Biden’s visit to a rural farm in Minnesota today, write The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels. Biden will be in Northfield to tout his agenda for rural America, including more than $5 billion in investments from legislation he signed to promote economic development, infrastructure and “climate-smart” agriculture. 

BIDEN FACES LACKLUSTER APPROVAL among independent voters as third-party presidential hopefuls threaten to siphon support, polls indicate. The Hill’s Julia Mueller reports independent voters are expected to be key to deciding whether Biden is reelected.  

AN ABORTION BALLOT MEASURE IN OHIO is driving a surge in early voter turnout in what is seen as the most important referendum on reproductive rights this year. As The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports, voters in the Buckeye State are weighing a proposed constitutional amendment next week that would establish abortion protections in the state’s Constitution. Both groups supporting and opposing the initiative have each enlisted political leaders and celebrities in recent weeks to draw attention to the race and held rallies in a critical election over the fate of abortion rights in Ohio. While recent polling indicates that a majority of Ohioans support the ballot measure, Democrats say they’re not taking anything for granted and believe it’ll come  down to turnout.  

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2024 ROUNDUP:

▪ In South Carolina’s GOP presidential contest, candidate Nikki Haley, the state’s former governor, appears in second place behind former President Trump, who has a firm grip on that state’s primary, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. 

▪ Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is criticizing his state party’s plan to forge ahead with a caucus despite the state-run primary. 

▪ The internet has questions about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) boots. Three expert shoemakers say he is probably wearing height boosters. 

▪ Views on abortion and Biden’s standing and job performance are driving the political environment in Virginia’s 2023 contests. 

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ELSEWHERE 

COURTS 

Trump’s adult sons are expected to take the stand this week in the sweeping New York fraud case threatening their family’s business empire. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, Trump Organization vice presidents, are parties in the New York attorney general’s lawsuit, which claims the family’s business for decades falsely inflated and deflated the value of its assets to benefit from lower taxes and better insurance coverage. Trump Jr. takes the stand today and Eric Trump testifies Thursday.  

The Hill’s Ella Lee reports that the brothers’ testimony may illuminate the company’s structure and possible evidence of alleged fraud — or it could devolve into a political circus.  

The Supreme Court on Tuesday debated whether public officials can block people on their social media accounts. Lawsuits filed against local officials — a lakeside city manager in Michigan and two school board members in Southern California — have brought the issue back to the high court after the justices previously sidestepped the issue by tossing a lawsuit filed against Trump. At oral arguments Tuesday, the justices confronted the issue head-on, grappling with how to apply the First Amendment to the digital world and whether social media platforms resemble a constitutionally protected public forum (The Hill).   

Gov. Tony Evers (D) sued a group of GOP state lawmakers in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, alleging they unconstitutionally “obstructed basic government functions” in his state, including by blocking pay raises for thousands of state university employees using legislative vetoes as a tool. 

The Hill: The U.S. sues a software company targeted in a massive Russian cyber espionage campaign. 

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THE CLOSER 

And finally … 🕑 Many Americans dread the timepiece nuisance, but the end of Daylight Savings Time at 2 a.m. Sunday means “falling back” an hour for some extra sleep. Make a note. 

👍 Morning Report is a huge fan of those extra 60 minutes. 

How did this retro custom, which varies by country, get its start? The idea of fooling around with clocks on a seasonal schedule can be traced to New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, who in 1895 proposed a version of the idea to conserve energy and extend summer daylight hours, something which would have benefited his own hobby of collecting insects after work, Reuters reports.  

Just sayin’: If Hudson had waited three years, he could have grabbed a battery powered, handheld flashlight, a new invention, for those evening insect forays. The world’s sleep cycles might have been spared. 

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