A joint Saudi-backed Sudanese-Yemeni military experts force removes and deactivates some 5,000 landmines on January 30, 2021, which they said were planted by the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels in Yemen’s northern coastal town of Midi.

In a letter addressed to President Joe Biden and obtained by Jewish Insider, a bipartisan group of 17 members of Congress urged the White House to redesignate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The members also argued that withdrawing the Houthis’ prior FTO designation “has done little” to improve the humanitarian situation in Yemen and only fueled further violence from the Iran-backed group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: The letter, dated Feb. 8, was sent amid heightened concerns over escalating Houthi attacks on the United Arab Emirates and U.S. forces in the Gulf. The Biden administration removed the Houthis, a Yemeni militia group, from the FTO list in February 2021, with an eye toward ensuring humanitarian aid continued to flow into Yemen. Following a series of attacks against targets in the UAE, the Biden administration has publicly and privately mulled reversing course.

No dice: The lawmakers, led by Reps. Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Seth Moulton (D-MA) emphasized that there had been a significant uptick in attacks on U.S. partners and forces in Gulf states since the U.S. withdrew the FTO designation and that humanitarian aims had been unsuccessful. “I understand that removing the designation was meant to help the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, but it has done little outside of embolden the Houthis to escalate their attacks and block reconciliation efforts in the country,” the letter reads.

Partnering up: “The U.S. relies on our relationship with the UAE to promote regional security and address pressing global challenges,” the lawmakers continued. “This is a critical time to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with an important ally while they are under assault, reiterating our commitment to the US-UAE strategic partnership.”

Sign here: Other signatories include House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Don Bacon (R-NE), Scott Franklin (R-FL), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Peter Meijer (R-MI), Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), Pat Fallon (R-TX), Liz Cheney (R-WY), Young Kim (R-CA), Carol Miller (R-WV), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).

Read the full story here.

This June 23, 2020 file photo shows Jamaal Bowman speaking to attendees during his primary-night party.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) plans to withdraw his support for and vote against bipartisan legislation aimed at strengthening and expanding the Abraham Accords, the congressman announced in a letter sent to constituents on Tuesday evening and obtained by Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod and Matthew Kassel.

Initial position: The Israel Relations Normalization Act has 328 House cosponsors, not including Bowman — 162 Democrats and 166 Republicans — and 72 in the Senate. The Abraham Accords, originally signed in September 2020, normalized relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with Morocco and Sudan joining later. Bowman signed onto the bill in September 2021, following its introduction in April.

About-face: Bowman cited a recent trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as contributing to his decision to his reversal, adding that he “became aware” that the U.S. had agreed to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and discuss the sale of advanced weaponry to the UAE. “In the end, it is my estimation that these actions will only escalate violence in the Middle East and make already vulnerable communities less safe,” Bowman said. “This agreement to normalize relations unhelpfully isolates Palestine and Western Sahara when what we need is a process that engages them.”

Navigating tensions: Bowman’s Israel trip, in addition to his vote in favor of $1 billion in supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system last September, raised the ire of some on the far left. The Democratic Socialists of America announced in December that it would not endorse Bowman in the 2022 midterms, following calls from some in the organization to expel him. By contrast, some Jewish leaders in Bowman’s district, which includes the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale, had been encouraged by the congressman’s recent House vote as well as his visit to Israel, but his latest move seems to have erased much of that goodwill.

Local reactions: On Tuesday evening, a group of local rabbis expressed their dismay over Bowman’s reversal in a joint letter shared with JI. Bowman’s “withdrawal of support for this important piece of legislation, which is poised to improve Mideast stability, economic opportunity, and which will disincentivize some of the region’s most egregious sponsors of terror,” they wrote, “is lamentable, and will surely be received with bewilderment and disapproval by many voters in Rep. Bowman’s district.”

Read the full story here.

Detroit City Clerk Janice M. Winfrey speaks at the TCF Center during a press conference.

Longtime Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey announced Friday that she intends to challenge Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) in the Democratic primary in Michigan’s newly drawn 12th Congressional District, adding a well-known face in Detroit politics to what could be a competitive primary race, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Try again: Winfrey was elected last year to a fifth term as Detroit’s city clerk — an office she has held since 2005 — with more than 70% of the vote, crushing opponent Denzel McCampbell, who serves as communications director for Tlaib’s campaign. This will be her second run for Congress, following a failed primary run in 2016 against then-Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). Conyers, who served more than 50 years in Congress before retiring following sexual harassment allegations, defeated Winfrey by more than 20 percentage points.

On paper: Winfrey’s candidacy is “on paper… potentially compelling,” according to Adrian Hemond, a local political consultant who led Conyers’ 2016 campaign. “She’s an African-American woman from the city of Detroit” who has won citywide office, Hemond said. “Congresswoman Tlaib is not, especially now that she moved to Dearborn.”

Go wide: Ed Sarpolus, another local political consultant who ran Conyers’ 2012 reelection campaign, noted that Winfrey’s prominence in Detroit will only get her so far in the new 12th District. “This [district] is more than Detroit. She has to win in other communities [where] people don’t know her,” Sarpolus said, noting that her name recognition was poor compared to Tlaib’s in a recent poll he ran. “Number two, she’s dealing [with] communities that are much more conservative [than Detroit].”

Tick-tock: Hemond predicted that Winfrey will have an “uphill battle” against Tlaib, noting that she struggled to raise money in 2016 and failed to pick up influential endorsements in her race against Conyers. Winfrey raised $84,000 in 2016 to Conyers’ $628,000. “We’re going to know in about 30 days whether this candidacy is real or not,” he said. “If she’s obviously out raising money like gangbusters, she’s out doing the work in the community and she can announce a couple of decent high-profile endorsements in the next 30 days, then she might be viable. But if you haven’t seen any of that 30 days from now, then it’s pretty unlikely.”

Read the full story here.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani looks on during a Chatham House think tank in London on July 5, 2017.

On the latest episode of his Newsweek podcast, “The Diplomat,” Jason Greenblatt, who served as former President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, interviewed Qatari Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

As for normalization: Earlier this month, Al Thani told Axios that normalization with Israel is off the table “in the absence of a real commitment to a two-state solution.” Greenblatt told Al Thani that he likes “to refer to Qatar and some other countries who aren’t parties to the Abraham Accords — I refer to them as countries that have not yet signed the Abraham Accords. And I know that you’re not signing it tomorrow. And it may not happen for quite some time. But what would your message to the Israeli public be?”

Al Thani: “Qatar is a country for peace. We are actually encouraging all the parties [Israelis and Palestinians] to engage in genuine peace talks between them. We are with the two-state solution; we want to see two countries living side by side with each other peacefully… Our main problem is the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians, and I think this is the core of the issue between most of the Arab countries and Israel. And the Arab countries took a position back in 2001, supporting the Saudi Initiative, which was done by late King Abdullah, which we call the Arab Peace Initiative [it was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002]. And Qatar has been subscribing to that initiative. Before that, when there was a prospect for peace, Qatar was the first country in the Gulf that had a relation with Israel; we [had an] open trade mission, we continued to have a relationship, we continued believing in diplomacy and having a peaceful resolution. But unfortunately, when we have seen the series of wars that’s been happening over there, we lost this hope back in 2009, we shut down the [trade] office, we kept our working relationship with the Israelis, hoping that this will be helpful for the Palestinians and it will be helpful in the future to have [a] peaceful resolution over there. And what we are saying here in Qatar, we want to see a two-state solution, we want to see [that] the people of two countries are not harmed.” 

Greenblatt: “Right, and we can’t lose hope. And I should point out — and you touched on this — that in a way Qatar was way ahead of its time, way ahead of the Abraham Accords. Because Shimon Peres visited Qatar years ago, you did have the trade office, Israeli athletes have and continue to participate in sports here [in Qatar]. I believe the Israeli national anthem was played at some of the sporting events. I’m a big proponent of dialogue. And I think with more dialogue, perhaps, perhaps we can work our way through this.”

Listen to the full podcast here.