View from DC | The National

Happy holidays from The National's Washington bureau. This is our last View From DC for 2024 – a consequential year in the chaotic world of US politics. What a difference a year makes: a year ago, the presidential election was building up between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but in the coming months, Vice President Kamala Harris would ascend to the top of the ticket and run alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The sweeping and decisive win for the Republicans in November has left the Democrats struggling with party identity, as the country prepares for another Trump White House with a hardline and loyalist cabinet. Almost exactly a year ago, I reported on how Mr Biden had said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “had to change” course as Israel's war in Gaza escalated. Progressive calls in Washington for placing conditions on aid to the US ally were growing, including from the politically influential United Autoworker's union, right as campaign season began – but Mr Biden and the vast majority of Democrats assessed no change was needed in US support for Israel . Washington has allocated at least $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began. Republicans, preparing to take over in Washington, have emphasised to Israel that “reinforcements are on the way" . There is much to reflect on as 2024 closes: Houthi Red Sea attacks; the attempted assassinations of Mr Trump; his “guilty” verdict in his New York hush-money trial; Mr Netanyahu's address to Congress; a landslide election; the fall of Bashar Al Assad in Syria … it has felt like a decade's worth of news. At the year's start, The National was reporting that the death toll in Gaza was more than 18,700, according to local authorities. As of yesterday, almost 45,000 have been killed, not counting the death toll in Lebanon and the wider regional fallout. It's easy to lose the humanity in those numbers. As I head out from Washington to spend Christmas with my family in Ohio and Tennessee, amid renewed optimism of an imminent ceasefire deal , I am reminded of the many families who will not be gathering together – of empty chairs, of homes and their warm memories lost to the grey landscape of ruin. I am thinking of last year's “Christ in the Rubble” Christmas sermon from Munther Isaac, the pastor at the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. And I am hoping for peace in 2025. EYE ON THE WHITE HOUSE “The problem with the Democratic consultants is that they are the same cast of characters who’ve been running and ruining politics for decades – following the same playbook and lacking any appreciation for changes in the electorate. They lack imagination and are risk-averse, tying candidates up in knots with cautions about what they can and shouldn’t say,” writes columnist James Zogby. "For the first three quarters of the past century, Democrats operated according to a simple philosophy. As the party that supported economic justice for workers, they believed government had a role to play, as my mother would say, 'to lend a helping hand to those who can’t lift themselves up'. Republicans, on the other hand, were the party that protected the rich. Their motto was 'lower taxes, less government'. "This has changed. As a Republican senator recently boasted: 'We have become the party of the working class, while Democrats are the party of the elites.' They aren’t, but that’s the perception they’ve successfully created." Read his full column Federal budget Congress is again running down to the last minute in a bid to avert a federal shutdown – something that has become a bit of a biannual tradition in this dysfunctional government. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson scrapped a deal after opposition from Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and with just hours until a potential shutdown is working to rally members of his own party and the Democrats to approve a new proposal. Some have said it's a show of what's to come when the new government comes to power in the new year. Syria sanctions Republican Joe Wilson, the senior member of the House Middle East subcommittee, and Democratic Syria Caucus co-chairman Brendan Boyle wrote a letter to President Joe Biden's administration urging sanctions relief for Syria, saying the end of Bashar Al Assad's regime presents a “pivotal opportunity to responsibly unwind sanctions”. But the two stressed sanctions should remain against former regime officials. Palestinian TPS In a letter signed by several members of the Democratic Party, including Senator Dick Durbin, Mr Biden is urged to “promptly” apply Temporary Protected Status to Palestinians, which would protect them from deportation and provide them with work permits. Congress created TPS for citizens of countries that are enduring armed conflict, environmental disasters or other “extraordinary and temporary” conditions. Mr Trump has threatened to slim down the programme when he assumes office A group of Palestinians has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden's administration on claims that Washington's support for Israel during the war in Gaza is a breach of US law. The plaintiffs, including one person in Gaza who has lost 20 family members, are suing the State Department over its refusal to enact a statute known as the Leahy Law, which blocks the US from providing assistance to foreign governments that have committed human rights abuses. Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza, told reporters on Tuesday that his “family continues to suffer the direct consequences of the State Department's failure to enforce American law”. Read Patrick DeHahn and my report ONLY IN AMERICA A teenage pupil opened fire on Monday at a private Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and another teenager, police said. The shooter was a 15-year-old girl, according to Wisconsin law enforcement. Police said she was already dead when officers arrived. The shooter wounded at least six others at the Abundant Life Christian School, including two pupils who are in a critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. “I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” Mr Barnes said. Read More