With Senate Republicans set to retake the upper chamber in January, GOP leaders have started to discuss how they’ll respond to the surge of domestic antisemitism since Oct. 7 while outlining their support for Israel in its multi-front war against Iran and its terror proxies.

The GOP conference will gather on Wednesday morning to vote on their next leader, succeeding outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Endorsements for each of the three candidates — Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) — are trickling in from members of the conference and prominent Republicans ahead of the vote. 

Once that contest is settled, Republicans will start organizing their agenda for the next Congress. Numerous GOP leaders, including incoming committee chairs and the leading candidates for majority leader, are touting their efforts to combat domestic antisemitism and support Israel. 

“Republican control of the Senate means that this institution will no longer turn a blind eye to the growing threat of antisemitism in our country or the numerous threats that our ally Israel faces on all sides,” Thune told Jewish Insider in a statement. “We will empower committees to advance legislation addressing antisemitism and protecting students on campuses, and we will increase oversight into Iran’s malign actions.”

“Senate Republicans stand squarely with Israel during its time of need, and our new incoming majority will represent a sea change for Jewish Americans and our greatest ally in the Middle East,” he added. 

A spokesperson for Cornyn pointed to his support for the Antisemitism Awareness Act and his continued support for Israel through his votes for military aid. 

Scott described himself as “one of the most vocal and steadfast supporters of Israel and opponents of antisemitism in the Senate, especially as Democrats in Washington abandoned Israel, appeased Iran and catered to the pro-Hamas radicals in their party over the past 13 months.”

“With President Trump, the most pro-Israel president ever, back in office, America will once again be a strong ally to Israel and the Jewish people. I look forward to working with him and my colleagues as Senate Majority Leader on action to hold Iran accountable, stand with Israel and condemn disgusting antisemitic rhetoric and attacks,” Scott said in a statement.

Scott, who has positioned himself as the anti-establishment candidate, was the only one of the three leadership candidates who voted against supplemental funding for Israel and other allies earlier this year. Scott has earned the support of a number of leading MAGA-aligned leaders since Trump’s win last Tuesday, including Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rand Paul (R-KY). Right-wing talk show hosts including Tucker Carlson have also been championing Scott’s bid. 

A spokesperson for Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), who will chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he “will continue to do all he can to support Israel in its war against Hamas and Hezbollah, to include the reversal of Biden’s policies of Iranian accommodation and doubling down on efforts to isolate Iran and deny the regime resources to threaten Israel.”

Risch, the spokesperson said, “will continue to counter antisemitism that exists across the world and in places like the [International Criminal Court] and the U.N. If the current Congress continues to stop short of taking action to sanction ICC officials and permanently cease funding to UNRWA, those will be early priorities next year.”

The committee has been at a standstill since April, the result of Risch and Foreign Relations Committee Republicans refusing to move forward on any of President Joe Biden’s nominations or other votes until the panel takes up a House-passed ICC sanctions bill. It is not clear if a bipartisan agreement will be reached before the new Congress begins in January. 

Republicans have consistently argued since the spring that their conference would take a more hands-on approach to both Israel and antisemitism. Members have criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for refusing to allow for a vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act despite facing calls from Jewish leaders and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to do so; Schumer said in late October that a vote on the AAA would take place after the election. 

A spokesperson for Schumer pointed to Republican holds on the legislation, saying that “because of that fact pattern, the goal of passing antisemitism legislation has long been to use a viable, must-pass vehicle to accomplish passage.”

“We fully intend to get it done before the end of the year,” Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro said of passing AAA in the lame duck session. 

GOP senators have also pointed to the lack of any productive hearings on domestic antisemitism as evidence of Democratic inaction, with several incoming committee chairs saying they’d like to convene hearings on the issue. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has been pushing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the committee’s outgoing chairman, to hold a hearing on the matter since last November. Sanders has refused the requests, despite pressure from HELP Committee Democrats and members of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.

Reached for comment on if he plans to hold an antisemitism hearing when he becomes chair in January, a spokesperson for Cassidy on the HELP Committee told JI in a statement that, “Sen. Cassidy’s desire to hold a hearing and ensure accountability on this issue has not changed.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a long-awaited hearing on hate crimes in September, five months after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the committee’s current chairman and the No. 2 Senate Democrat, announced it. Durbin declined Judiciary Republicans’ request for a hearing specifically on antisemitism and the civil rights violations of Jewish students on college campuses. 

Durbin invited witnesses who held positions that were largely out of step with Jewish community leaders, and most Judiciary Committee Democrats focused on Islamophobia or broader religious-based hate crimes during their questioning. One of the witnesses, Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, declined to say that Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran seek to destroy the Jewish state.

The hearing devolved into disarray on multiple occasions as Republicans tried to refocus the hearing on antisemitism. Multiple Republicans on the Judiciary Committee told Jewish Insider at the time that they would like to organize their own hearing focused exclusively on the civil rights concerns of Jewish Americans if they retook the majority. 

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who will take over the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, told JI that his office could not say definitively what hearings the panel might hold.
“Committee hearings haven’t yet been nailed for next Congress, since any transition won’t take place for another two months. Matters involving civil rights and crime will certainly be under consideration. Sen. Grassley remains committed to restoring law and order, protecting our national security and standing with Israel,” the spokesperson said.