A senior State Department official and two GOP members of Congress met Friday with members of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has long faced accusations of extremism and pro-Nazi sympathies.

The State Department meeting is in line with the recently released National Security Strategy, which stated that it would be U.S. policy to boost anti-European Union and anti-immigration parties in the European Union.

“My exchange with Under Secretary [of State for Public Diplomacy] Sarah Rogers on the new national security strategy of the Trump Administration has made it clear that Washington is seeking a strong German partner who is willing to take on responsibility,” Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier posted after the meeting, according to an X translation.

“Germany should act once again as a capable leading power by making a consistent turn in migration policy and independently organizing European security, in order to strengthen the German-American partnership on an equal footing. Only if we do our homework will we secure our relevance on the international stage. To shape this path together, I would like to organize a deepening event in Berlin in February 2026.”

Responding to a critic who noted that leaked Russian documents allegedly described Frohnmaier as a Russian asset, Rogers praised the AfD.

“Unlike the Russian government (and the current German one), AfD took an anti-censorship stance in its meeting with me last week. One reason they’re gaining popularity in Germany,” Rogers said.

She also reposted an X post from Special Envoy Ric Grenell, who said that those criticizing the meeting “don’t understand tough diplomacy.”

“Talking is a tactic. We are tired of failed diplomacy where you don’t talk to people and think it’s a punishment. Your guy [former President] Joe Biden didn’t talk to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for 4 years while a war raged,” Grenell said. “Our side isn’t afraid to talk, and send clear directives as to what we expect. Your silence is weakness. You are so afraid to defend your ideas — and I get it. Your ideas have failed. The German is an official member of the Bundestag and Sarah’s job is to talk and explain our National Security Strategy.”

U.S. officials have met repeatedly with AfD members during the past year.

On Capitol Hill, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) met with the AfD delegation, at Luna’s invitation. They did not share details about that meeting. Luna has met previously with AfD members earlier this year and publicly offered to host them on Capitol Hill.

Luna said last week that she and other lawmakers would be meeting with “dozens of members” of the AfD.

“The Chancellor of Germany is trashing our President and censoring German citizens,” Luna said on X. “The AfD, whom the German uniparty has tried to smear, intimidate, and even de-bank, is actually working to strengthen ties with the United States and restore a healthy relationship between our governments.”

The Florida congresswoman has also recently faced criticism for her dealings with the Russian ambassador in Washington, advocating for restoring U.S.-Russian ties and accepting a dossier of alleged Russian findings on the John F. Kennedy Jr. assassination.

“Rep. Luna’s decision to roll out the red carpet for members of a far-right, Holocaust revisionist, Putin-loving party is grotesque,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a co-chair of the bipartisan House antisemitism task force, said ahead of the meeting. In a separate post, he described the AfD members as “neo-Nazis.”

The New York Young Republican club also hosted around 20 members of the AfD at a gala last week.

“Young Republicans in New York are set to honor a Nazi sympathizing extremist,” the Jewish Democratic Council of America said, in response to the Young Republicans event. “This isn’t happening in a vacuum: [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio, [Vice President JD] Vance, and [Elon] Musk have all defended the extremist AfD party. Antisemitism is a feature of the Republican Party, not a bug.”

A new bipartisan and bicameral bill is pushing for greater accountability and transparency on China’s violations of U.S. oil sanctions on Iran.

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil, in spite of the sweeping U.S. sanctions regime targeting the Iranian oil and gas industry, as well as newer sanctions that target importers of that oil, which have been recently applied to some firms in China. 

Recent reports by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have found that Iran oil exports, primarily to China, have remained near their peak level in spite of U.S. sanctions, which FDD has attributed to a “failure of U.S. sanctions enforcement.”

The new bill, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Ben Cline (R-VA), requires the administration, within a year of the bill’s passage, to determine whether the People’s Republic of China is conducting sanctionable activities with regard to Iran.

In advance of that determination, the bill requires the administration to report to Congress within 180 days on China’s purchases of Iranian oil, including how China is using shell companies and other methods to dodge sanctions, as well as on Chinese efforts to sell or transfer chemical precursors to Iran to support its ballistic missile program.

Recent reports have found that Iran has been importing materials from China to rebuild its ballistic missile program, an effort that has prompted concern on Capitol Hill.

“China’s growing purchases of Iranian oil and its support for Iran’s ballistic missile program are not just violations of U.S. sanctions—they are direct threats to regional stability and to our allies,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement, adding that the legislation “gives Congress the intelligence and transparency needed to expose how the PRC enables Iran’s most dangerous activities.”

“By bringing these transactions into the light, we strengthen our ability to enforce sanctions and hold malign actors accountable,” Krishnamoorthi continued.

Krishnamoorthi is mounting a bid for the U.S. Senate in his home state.

“China’s continued purchases of Iranian oil and its role in enabling Iran’s missile program to pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and to the stability of our allies in the Middle East,” Cline said. He called the legislation and the reporting it requires “a necessary step toward exposing how the PRC uses shell companies, transshipment schemes, and other avenues to evade sanctions.” 

“This report will give Congress and the Treasury Department the insight needed to strengthen enforcement, close loopholes, and ensure that hostile regimes, and those who bankroll them, are held accountable,” Cline continued.

Blumenthal said that China’s purchases of oil are “providing significant financial support for Iran’s terrorist activities in the Middle East and beyond.”

“Transparency is the first step towards accountability, which is why our bill would require a full report on China’s oil and ballistic missile-related transactions with Iran. This information will support robust sanctions enforcement and provide a path forward for additional legislative action,” Blumenthal said.

Graham called the bill “the first step in fully understanding how China and other nations prop up the Ayatollah’s war machine.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) touted his history with local Jewish organizations and vowed to make combating antisemitism a priority in Congress while speaking to members of Northern Virginia’s Jewish community on Wednesday.

Walkinshaw appeared at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s “Lox and Legislators” breakfast in Falls Church, Va., where he lauded attendees for helping to “build communities in ways that make our communities better and stronger for all of us,” recounted his visits to the Fairfax community’s eruv and highlighted his relationships with Congregation Olam Tikvah and the JCRC.

Walkinshaw, who won a special election in August to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), his longtime boss, cited Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America while noting that the recent celebration of the fourth anniversary of the eruv’s opening highlighted “the quintessential Americanness of that eruv project.” An eruv is a boundary that allows observant Jews to carry items outside their homes on Shabbat, a foundational feature that makes communities accessible to religious Jews.

“The United States of America, a nation founded on the principle of religious liberty and freedom, where everyone is free to express their faith,” Walkinshaw said. “A lot of folks who remember their [de] Tocqueville, Democracy in America, from high school or college history courses. … He traveled across the country in the 1830s and was impressed by our institutions and our founding documents.”

“He [de Tocqueville] wrote that what actually made — to borrow a phrase — what made America great was our spirit of association and our ability to come together in all kinds of different ways, as faith communities, as neighborhoods, as communities,” he continued. “To solve problems together and work together to make our communities, our states, our nation even better and stronger.”

Walkinshaw expressed concern about the rise in antisemitism nationally and in Virginia, vowing to fight for an increase in Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding for the next fiscal year and to urge the House Education and Workforce Committee to “take a holistic look at antisemitic incidents in school districts across the country,” something he penned a letter to Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) about last month.

“We have to be united. We have to be firm in our opposition to hatred in any form or opposition to antisemitism,” Walkinshaw said. “We can’t allow antisemitism to be a partisan issue. We have to stand against it, Democrats and Republicans, no matter where it takes place.”

The Virginia lawmaker went on to say that “so much of what the Jewish community does in Northern Virginia, what the JCRC does across our region, is build communities in ways that make our communities better and stronger for all of us.” 

“The Fairfax eruv is an affirmation of Jewish belonging here in Northern Virginia, and in Fairfax an affirmation that Jewish people and Jewish families are welcome here and should feel safe here in Fairfax and in Northern Virginia,” he told the crowd. “We know that’s not a feeling that we can take for granted.”

Reached for comment by Jewish Insider on his outreach to Northern Virginia’s Jewish community since taking office, Walkinshaw said in a statement, “Throughout my career in Northern Virginia, I’ve worked closely with our region’s diverse communities, including the Jewish community, to advance safety, dignity, and opportunity for all.”

“As a Member of Congress, I’m proud to continue that work — advancing progressive policies, confronting all forms of hate including antisemitism, and advocating for democratic values and human rights,” his statement added.

Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, gave Walkinshaw a glowing assessment based on his job performance since taking office in September.

“I really have a very, very strong and positive feeling about Rep. Walkinshaw,” Halber told JI. “He’s incredibly thoughtful. I think he has spent a great deal of his career on Capitol Hill, and that he’s just ready for this job.”

“He’s got deep relationships in the Jewish community. I think the Jewish community overall is very, very positively disposed to him. He had a tremendous reaction, a tremendously positive reaction in that room, including from myself,” Halber continued. “I think he’s a great guy, and I think he’s going to do great things. … He’s done a lot of outreach to the Jewish community, makes himself accessible. I think we’re going to have a champion for the Jewish community with him.”

Halber went on to predict that Walkinshaw, who he described as “an excellent speaker,” could become a rising political star. “He’s young, and I think he’s going to become a leader in Congress very quickly. I think he’s very, very smart about a lot of issues,” Halber said.

Democrats and Republicans gathered for a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill on Wednesday at the pre-Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony hosted by congressional leadership. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hosted the gathering alongside Chabad Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), who led the prayer portions of the program and helped light the menorah candles. 

Over a dozen lawmakers from across the political spectrum mingled with rabbis and Jewish political operatives while noshing on sufganiyot and Star of David-shaped sugar cookies and sipping coffee and soft drinks at the annual gathering, which the three congressional leaders organized for the first time two months after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Johnson was forced to miss the beginning of the event to oversee a dispute unfolding between several of his members on the House floor over the National Defense Authorization Act, but arrived in time to participate in the end of the menorah lighting.

Among the lawmakers in attendance were Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Craig Goldman (R-TX), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), David Taylor (R-OH), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Sara Jacobs (D-CA) and Melanie Stansbury (D-NM).

Also present were Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition; Paul Teller, executive director of Advancing American Freedom; and Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.

Absent from the ceremony was Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict, according to a source familiar with the matter.

All three congressional leaders noted in their respective speeches the bipartisanship that the event had engendered, and all used their remarks to reiterate their commitment to fighting antisemitism and standing with the American Jewish community. 

“We do share this in common, that we support Israel, obviously, and the Jewish people,” Johnson said of Jeffries, whom the House speaker called “my good friend and my colleague.”

Johnson said he was glad to see “all of our many colleagues and friends who have joined us here for this meaningful occasion” and specifically pointed out Craig Goldman and Fine as “two of my favorite colleagues down here who have joined us and proudly represent Jewish people in Congress.”

“It’s a special time of year, and we like to do this,” Johnson remarked. 

Jeffries complimented Shemtov for “always committing to bringing us together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans.”

Shemtov said that his “message for today” was how the branches of the menorah diverge in different directions but originate “from the base facing towards that middle, which is moderation.” 

“I think that there are two ways to look at people who go out from the base into different directions,” Shemtov said. “We can focus on the differences and worry about conflict, or we can focus on the variety that brings unity.”

Shemtov praised Johnson and Jeffries specifically for their leadership on Jewish issues, prompting the room to applaud for both men.

“I don’t get involved in their opinions on political issues. That’s not my role. But one thing I will say is the two gentlemen on my left are strong and perhaps the best friends of Israel and the Jewish people either side of the aisle has ever seen,” Shemtov said of the House leaders. “I go to sleep easier at night knowing that at the helm of our nation and this institution of Congress are people who recognize the value we give this nation.”

A group of Democrats from Colorado’s congressional delegation wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem raising questions about the implementation and execution of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

“In light of the recent surge in anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and other violent hate-based incidents in the United States, the importance of this program cannot be overstated,” the letter reads. “We urge DHS and FEMA to do more to ensure NSGP allows nonprofits and religious organizations to better protect the people they serve. All Americans deserve to visit their places of worship, schools, and community centers freely and without fear.”

The letter specifically focuses on gaps in executing the Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act, passed in 2022, which directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish a dedicated office to administer the NSGP and provide expanded assistance to potential applicants.

The letter notes that there has been no announcement that such an office has been established, and requests information about whether such action has taken place and, if so, “to what extent it is appropriately staffed to carry out the duties outlined.”

The letter also raises concerns about the “lack of standardization of application deadlines” among the various state agencies that manage applications from individual nonprofit groups at the state level, another aim of the Improvement Act. 

“Implementing a standard deadline for all [state administrative agencies] and a set list of required documents would make the process significantly more efficient and less confusing for the organizations applying,” the letter reads. “In addition, we believe there should be increased transparency between FEMA and SAAs. FEMA should provide uniform guidance and feedback regarding both successful and unsuccessful applications. This increased communication would allow unsuccessful organizations to improve their applications.”

Though the letter does not directly address the issue, other lawmakers have raised concerns about the delayed opening and short application timeline for the NSGP this year, and accused the Department of Homeland Security of a range of issues in its handling of the grant program.

The letter also requests that FEMA change its policies to allow institutions to pay permanent security staff with the grants they receive, something they are unable to do under current guidelines; currently, institutions can only use grant funding to hire security contractors.

“While this has been helpful, at present, organizations cannot use funds from this program for permanent salaried employees or personnel expenses,” the lawmakers wrote. “This means that non-profits are reliant on contracting outside security vendors, which can be unpredictable and hard to hire when needed.”

The letter was led by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and co-signed by Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) and Jason Crow (D-CO).

Speaking at an event on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, offered his full support for the Antisemitism Awareness Act as well as legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, both of which fall within his committee’s jurisdiction. He also said he’s working to maintain U.S.-Israel ties in the face of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment.

Asked where the long-stalled Antisemitism Awareness Act stands, Jordan largely deferred to the Senate. The Ohio congressman was speaking at an event organized by B’nai B’rith International and the American Jewish International Relations Institute commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations resolution declaring that Zionism is racism.

The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee attempted to move the bill forward earlier this year but Democrats, along with some Republicans, voted to add several amendments that most Senate Republicans considered to be poison pills. Though the House passed the bill last year, the legislation — which has grown more controversial on both sides of the aisle in the intervening months — has seen no movement in the House this year.

Jordan also offered his full support for legislation, recently approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that could designate some branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations. “It makes all the sense in the world,” Jordan said.

Jordan’s Judiciary Committee holds joint jurisdiction, with Foreign Affairs, over the bill, but he said the committee might waive its jurisdiction to allow the bill to proceed more quickly to the House floor with the Foreign Affairs Committee’s signoff.

Jordan, one of the most prominent conservative leaders in the House and a founder of the House Freedom Caucus, said, “at this critical moment where the anti-Israel antisemitism you’re seeing on the left — now unfortunately we’re seeing a little bit on the conservative side — it’s more important than ever we keep this special, special bond between United States and the State of Israel, we keep it as strong as it’s ever been.”

He said he’s “willing to help,” noting that he’d had a meeting the day prior with AIPAC advocates to talk about keeping the U.S.-Israel relationship strong and “some of the things we’re trying to do politically on the Republican side that we think can help.”

Jeff Bartos, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for management and reform, said that the U.N. Human Rights Council has “made a mockery of its purpose by enacting a standing agenda item targeting Israel and becoming a platform for baseless inquisitions and blood libels while granting the world’s worst human rights violators a free pass.”

Bartos also specifically criticized U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, whose efforts he said “not only threaten Israel, but also the United States.”

“The United States does not acknowledge, will not abide by and will never acquiesce to this,” he said.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), who was a prominent voice on the House Education and Workforce Committee during hearings on campus antisemitism, said that “we’re starting to see some progress in terms of how these issues are dealt with in higher education … but we certainly have a long way to go.”

He added that the way anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric have been inserted into K-12 curricula is “absolutely horrifying.” Kiley, who leads the subcommittee overseeing K-12 education, said that investigations are continuing, with the Berkeley, Calif., school district as a particular focus.

He added that it’s “concerning when you see some fracturing” of support for the U.S.-Israel relationship “on the Democrats’ side and even a little bit on the Republican side, which is why I think it’s more important than ever that those of us who understand the vital importance of protecting America’s support for Israel continue to be active in every way that we can.”

Kiley is likely to face significant headwinds in his midterm reelection race, with California’s redistricting process expected to redraw his seat to favor Democrats.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose father, Chaim Herzog, was the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. at the time of the resolution, said in video remarks that “repealing a lie does not erase its echo. The dangerous falsehood suggesting that Zionism is racism reverberates to this very day, especially in the wake of the brutal October 7th massacre on Israel,” particularly in the antisemitism directed at Jews worldwide over the past two years.

Other lawmakers who spoke at the event included Reps. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Randy Fine (R-FL), as well as Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) who offered prerecorded remarks. Former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) also addressed the event.

“This is part of a long effort to deny the legitimacy and the permanence of the Jewish state. The supporters of this lie hope to reverse history, to pretend that the Jewish people’s return to sovereignty in their homeland is temporary or is artificial,” Ros-Lehtinen, who previously chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said. “The lie that Zionism is racism caused real harm. It fueled hatred, it justified violence. It entrenched the false narrative that brought misery not only to Israelis who endured demonization and terror, but also to Palestinians who were encouraged to cling to rejectionism rather than pursue compromises, rather than pursue dignity, rather than pursue peace.”

She said that this worldview ultimately shaped the Palestinian mindset that produced the Oct. 7 attack and its ensuing global support.

Sam Rasoul, a Palestinian-American Virginia state delegate with a history of inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, announced on Monday that he is considering running for Congress in 2026, pending the outcome of a likely redistricting effort in the state. 

The Virginia state Senate recently adopted a measure kicking off a process to allow mid-decade redistricting, following the lead of other states planning to redraw congressional maps to shore up partisan advantages. Texas initiated the political arms race after facing pressure from President Donald Trump to draw maps more favorable to Republicans, and several other GOP-controlled states have followed — and some Democratic-controlled states, like California and Virginia. 

The new maps are already putting several pro-Israel incumbents at risk in states like Ohio and Florida. 

Rasoul, a Roanoke Democrat who chairs the Education Committee in the House of Delegates, came under fire from prominent Jewish Democrats in the state earlier this year after posting a series of posts on social media that critics say crossed a line into antisemitism. 

“Zionism has proven how evil our society can be,” Rasoul wrote on Instagram in July. He called Zionism a “supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way,” which, he wrote, “shows us the worst in humanity.” 

Former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, told Jewish Insider in August that Rasoul’s language is “fueling one of the oldest forms of hatred in the world, repackaged in the language of activism.” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said at the time that he “forcefully reject[s] any claim that Zionism — the desire of Jewish people to have a state of Israel — is inherently racist or evil.” 

Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who was on the campaign trail at the time, did not mention Rasoul by name. But when asked about his comments, she said, referring to the war in Gaza, that “one can and must denounce these tragedies without using antisemitic language, whether intentional or not.”

In a fundraising email announcing his intention to formally explore a congressional run, Rasoul made his opposition to Israel a central part of his pitch.

“Virginians are looking for bold, experienced, progressive leadership that meets this moment and delivers results by guaranteeing healthcare as a human right through Medicare for All, protecting our access to clean air and water through a Green New Deal, and ending all military aid to Israel, which has waged a genocide in Gaza using our taxpayer dollars in violation of American law,” Rasoul wrote. 

Rasoul has served in the House of Delegates for 12 years. 

Virginia’s statehouse will decide in January whether to approve the redistricting effort. If it passes, it will then have to be approved in a statewide ballot referendum. 

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil accused Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar of being a “war criminal” after Sa’ar spoke about connections between Caracas and Iran and the latter’s terrorist proxies. 

Sa’ar made the remarks on Monday in a speech before a joint session of Paraguay’s National Congress in Asunción.

“In South America,” Sa’ar said, “criminals are building narco-terror alliances with the Middle East terror states. The nexus of this network is Venezuela.”

Sa’ar added that Venezuela is driving a destabilizing refugee crisis and serving as a base for Hezbollah terrorists.

In addition, he pointed out that Venezuela hosts an Iranian weapons production facility.

“Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said openly that Venezuela is part of ‘the axis of resistance,’” Sa’ar added, referring to Iran’s partners in terrorism against Israel. “He said that this axis exists in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. When he says this, we should believe him.”

Gil, who represents the Maduro regime, which remained in office despite losing an election last year, used his social media accounts to call Sa’ar “a war criminal and a genocider.” 

“What he should be doing is not mentioning Venezuela, but preparing to stand trial for the crimes his government commits against the Palestinian people,” he said. “The name of Venezuela is too great for your filthy mouth and hands stained with innocent blood.” 

Gil said that Sa’ar represents “the barbarism and systematic violation of all the rules that govern civilized humanity. We don’t care about your opinion … Sooner than later, you will have to answer to international justice.”

Hezbollah is involved in organized crime in Latin America to fund its terrorist operations worldwide. It has long operated in the border area between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, which has a large Lebanese population, and later expanded into Venezuela amid deepening ties between Caracas and Tehran. The Iranian proxy is designated a terrorist organization in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay, but not in Venezuela or other Latin American states.

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who established himself as a prominent voice on Capitol Hill on foreign policy and national security issues in Congress between 2019 and 2023, told Jewish Insider last week, as he mounts a congressional comeback bid, that he’s “as pro-Israel as I have ever been.”

But he also expressed more openness to policies conditioning or restricting aid, and called for the U.S. to serve as a “counterweight” to the Israeli far right. And he said that U.S. aid shouldn’t be used in furtherance of Israeli actions that the U.S. itself doesn’t support. At the same time, he expressed support for the Trump administration’s Gaza peace plan and strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.

Malinowski is one of the many Democrats who have declared their candidacies in the special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, recently vacated by Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill. The 11th District, an affluent suburb with a sizable Jewish population, borders and incorporates portions of the district Malinowski represented for two terms.

Malinowski said that he’s “as pro-Israel as I have ever been, in the sense that I believe that Israel should be safe and secure as a Jewish and democratic state, and that the United States has a moral and strategic interest in defending Israel as that kind of state at the same.” 

Malinowski said that “to be pro-Israel for me also requires listening to what the hostage families have been saying for the last couple of years, to what hundreds of Israeli security officials have been saying to their government and directly to the United States about the need to bring the war in Gaza to an end and to have some plan that addresses the legitimate desire of Palestinians to have their rights respected and to have a future that they can strive towards.”

“I would not seek to enable [any] ally to do something that I thought should not be done. It’s just a basic foreign policy principle that I think most people would agree is straightforward,” Malinowski told JI, when asked about the possibility of conditioning or suspending aid to Israel. “I would make case-by-case judgments given what’s happening on the ground.”

He said he would not support U.S. policies that would hurt Israel’s ability to protect itself, but added that the U.S. should “serve as a counterweight” to the pressure that an Israel government may feel from Israel’s far right and “use our influence and leverage and our honest voice to steer our ally away from policies that are self-destructive.”

He expressed a similar view in public interviews last year when he offered support for President Joe Biden’s moves to suspend some U.S. arms sales to Israel to pressure Israel against mounting a military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

“I would not seek to enable [any] ally to do something that I thought should not be done. It’s just a basic foreign policy principle that I think most people would agree is straightforward,” Malinowski told JI, when asked about the possibility of conditioning or suspending aid to Israel. “I would make case-by-case judgments given what’s happening on the ground.”

He said he was not committing to supporting conditions on aid but also did not rule them out depending on the situation. “There’s no U.S. ally in the world that I would guarantee a rubber stamp on every request for military assistance, that’s not the way U.S. foreign policy functions,” Malinowski said.

He said on X in April of last year that the U.S. has, in practice, failed to apply the globally applicable U.S. laws conditioning all arms sales on human rights compliance to Israel. He said that a decision to enforce that law last year to suspend arms sales to certain Israeli units was a “step towards treating Israel as we would any other partner.”

He added that the purpose of the law is to seek remediation of the issues to prevent the need to cut off arms, as was the case for most of the Israeli units to which it was applied.

At the same time, Malinowski indicated to JI a level of skepticism of efforts to halt all offensive aid to Israel, which have been pushed by some former colleagues, arguing that the “distinction between defensive and offensive is hard to make and a bit artificial.”

He expressed support for the Trump administration’s 20-point ceasefire plan for Gaza, saying it “offers the best possible hope for a way forward” and said the U.S. should focus on pushing all parties involved to implement it to its fullest extent, to deploy the international security force to neutralize Hamas and to surge humanitarian aid.

He said any decision on Israel in Congress, including with regard to aid, would be geared toward pursuing that goal.

“I think we’re very far from being able to address the issues of sovereignty and what the ultimate answer to those questions should be,” Malinowski said. “Even many of my Palestinian and Arab American friends, I think, would say that they’re not interested in lip service to a two-state solution right now.”

He said that “serious oversight” is needed from Congress on the deal because he is concerned that Trump will be “tempted to just declare victory and claim his Nobel Peace Prize without doing the hard work of securing implementation of the rest of the plan,” when it will require “steady pressure” — on Hamas and its interlocutors as well as on Israel — to ensure that the situation does not return to the pre-Oct. 7, 2023, status quo.

Malinowski was not supportive of an effort led by some progressive lawmakers to recognize Palestinian statehood, arguing that the U.S. focus should be — and that his focus would be — on more immediate humanitarian and security issues, including ensuring the Trump plan proceeds.

“I think we’re very far from being able to address the issues of sovereignty and what the ultimate answer to those questions should be,” Malinowski explained. “Even many of my Palestinian and Arab American friends, I think, would say that they’re not interested in lip service to a two-state solution right now.”

Malinowski said he did not oppose the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this year, adding that U.S. intervention likely helped bring the war to a quicker close than it would otherwise have, by bringing the U.S.’ superior capabilities to bear on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He also said he’s “very happy” the Assad regime fell, Hezbollah was “significantly weakened” and the “paper tiger of Iran’s defenses has been exposed.”

At the same time, he argued that any “lasting solution” to Iran’s nuclear program will require a diplomatic agreement with “highly intrusive inspections,” and said President Donald Trump had “exaggerate[d] the impact” of the U.S. strikes.

“My hope is that we will continue to pursue that, rather than imagining that this problem can be addressed just by going to war every few years,” Malinowski said.

At home, Malinowski has spoken publicly at various occasions since the Oct. 7 attacks about anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism in the U.S. and on college campuses. He argued in May 2024 that students who care about protecting innocent Palestinians were being overshadowed by more extreme voices advocating for the end of Israel, which he called counterproductive.

“The loudest voices are using Gaza’s plight to push a sweeping & more radical agenda of defeating Zionism and “colonialism.” This is not about ending the war but about ending Israel,” Malinowski said on X. “But the actual political effect of these protests has been to shift attention away from Gaza at the very moment (after the World Central Kitchen strike) when opinion was shifting against the war. All our attention should be on getting aid to Gazans, freeing hostages, avoiding more deaths, and what happens post-war. Instead, we have to talk about dumb 19 year olds glorifying Hamas & ‘intifada,’ drowning out the voices of others who sincerely care about saving lives.”

He said those voices also gave right-wing “bad faith partisans” fodder to “cast all legitimate criticism of self-defeating Israeli government policies” as support for Hamas and demand police crackdowns.

“Even though there is a significant problem on the far left that involves anti-Israel protests morphing into calls for an end to Israel as a Jewish state, we don’t quite have a Nazi problem in the Democratic Party in a way that leading Republicans are now acknowledging they do on their side,” Malinowski said.

Malinowski told JI that leaders need to speak up and police antisemitism on their own sides, adding that he “probably underestimated the extent of the problem on the far left” during his time on office but argued that the “problem on the right has gotten much worse and is too often dismissed by critics of the Democratic Party.”

He argued that the problem in the GOP is much more severe than in the Democratic Party. “You have leaders of the party rightly worried, as some on the Republican side are, that a significant share of the young people going into administration positions … have something akin to a Nazi ideology,” he said.

“Even though there is a significant problem on the far left that involves anti-Israel protests morphing into calls for an end to Israel as a Jewish state, we don’t quite have a Nazi problem in the Democratic Party in a way that leading Republicans are now acknowledging they do on their side,” he continued.

He also said that holding social media platforms accountable — a longtime priority for Malinowski — for their amplification of content designed to fuel hatred, will be critical. He said that social media platforms “bear the largest share of responsibility” for increased extremism on both the far left and far right.

Asked about New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s record on Israel and antisemitism issues, Malinowski told JI the Jewish community is “rightly feeling a tremendous amount of anxiety” about rising antisemitic rhetoric and violence.

He said Mamdani has “made a lot of decent promises about the need to reject antisemitism and hatred of all stripes, and about his interest, his determination to listen to people and to bring communities together. And he needs to be held to those promises.”

Malinowski said that if Mamdani follows through, he could prove to be a “potentially very powerful ally against antisemitism” and help to rebuild Jewish-Muslim dialogue that has broken down since Oct. 7.

“But I also understand that he has said things in the past and failed to say some things in the present that cause people understandable anxiety, and therefore everyone has to be vigilant and hold him accountable to the better angels of his nature,” the former congressman continued.

Malinowski said he decided to run for Congress again because “it would be nice to have a Congress again, one that can fulfill its basic constitutional function of checking presidential policies that go too far. … I’d like to contribute to making Congress a coequal branch again.” 

And he argued that his experience in foreign policy generally is one of the key factors that makes him stand out from the rest of the field, explaining that there is a “big shortage” in the House of “people who can conduct oversight of the administration’s foreign policy.”

Asked about emerging attacks on him as a carpetbagger — he previously represented a neighboring district that included only part of the district in which he is now running — Malinowski argued he’s the only lawmaker who has represented any part of the district before and he works in the district as a professor at Seton Hall University.

And he argued that voters are looking for a candidate who can effectively pick up Sherrill’s work where she left off from his first day in office, given his previous service. His previous service, he said “is one of the key distinctions” between him and the rest of the field.

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he plans to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization following months of bipartisan calls for his administration to target the group. 

Trump announced the move in an interview with journalist John Solomon of the conservative outlet Just the News on Sunday morning, saying that an executive order is being prepared for his signature. 

“It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms,” Trump said. “Final documents are being drawn.”

The White House did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment on the announcement or details of the order being drafted for the president. 

Trump considered designating the Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) during his first administration, though that effort never materialized. Sebastian Gorka, who serves as Trump’s deputy assistant for national security affairs and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, has been publicly and privately urging the president to do so since returning to office, as have a chorus of GOP lawmakers, along with a handful of Democrats in Congress. 

Gorka posted on X on Sunday that the “time has come” to designate the group, which he called “the progenitor of all modern Jihadist terror groups, from al Qaeda to HAMAS.”

A Senate bill that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), has 11 co-sponsors, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). The House version of the bill has 19 co-sponsors, including four House Democrats.

Trump’s announcement comes less than a week after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued a declaration designating the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations, a move prohibiting both groups from buying land in Texas and allowing the AG’s office to sue to shut them down.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in August that the FTO designation was “in the works” for the Brotherhood. 

“Obviously, there are different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, so you’d have to designate each one of them,” Rubio told right-wing talk show host Sid Rosenberg on his radio program at the time, adding that the State Department needed to go through a lengthy “process which I didn’t fully appreciate until I came into this job.”

News of Trump’s comments was met with praise in the U.S. and in Israel, even as the details are still fuzzy over what he will be signing. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he wanted to “commend President Trump on his decision to outlaw and designate the Muslim Brotherhood organization as a terrorist organization.”

“This is an organization that endangers stability throughout the Middle East and also beyond the Middle East. Therefore, the State of Israel has already outlawed part of the organization, and we are working to complete this action soon,” Netanyahu said. 

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) released a statement commending “the fact that the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology is now being taken seriously at the highest levels of the U.S. government.”

“We welcome President Trump’s statements and the growing recognition that the Muslim Brotherhood, its ideology and network pose a serious challenge to the United States and democratic societies,” Charles Asher Small, ISGAP’s executive director, said to Jewish Insider.^. 

“A formal U.S. designation would represent an important first step to confront the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States,” Small added. “This will require sustained, evidence-based policy, serious scrutiny of its affiliated structures and funding streams, and long-term investment in democratic resilience.”

Dan Schlessinger, the lead attorney for the Boim family in their lawsuit against American Muslims for Palestine regarding the murder of American teenager David Boim in 1996, told JI in a statement: “This is welcome news for many including the Boim family. The next question is what does this mean for U.S.-based, Hamas adjacent groups like American Muslims for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine. Our hope is they will be included in this designation as well.”

Schlessinger and his team have accused AMP in court of acting as an “alter ego” of a now-defunct group that shut down after it was found to have provided support to Hamas.

A full repeal of human rights sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Civilian Protection Act is likely to pass Congress as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, after House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) signed off on the measure, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The NDAA, which Congress aims to finalize in early December after its Thanksgiving recess, will include a full repeal of the sanctions, but also a nonbinding provision urging the administration to reimpose sanctions on Syria if its new government does not meet certain human rights conditions, the source told Jewish Insider. Barring any unexpected developments, the provision should be on track to pass Congress in the must-pass legislation.

The Senate approved similar provisions in its version of the NDAA earlier this year, but the House version of the bill included no such language, and Mast’s approval was needed to incorporate the provision into the final version of the bill being negotiated between both chambers.

President Donald Trump has been urging Congress to repeal the sanctions, an effort supported by many Syrian diaspora activists, including Rabbi Yosef Hamra, the brother of the country’s last chief rabbi, who now lives in the U.S.

But others, including activists from other Syrian minority communities and some lawmakers, have argued that the sanctions should remain on the books to provide leverage and accountability to ensure the protection of minorities and the Syrian government’s cooperation on other matters like counterterrorism.

Mast had been skeptical of lifting sanctions, but indicated to JI his position was softening last week. He met earlier this month with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Washington.

Mast told The Hill, which was first to report the news, that his position is that the sanctions should be, “Fully repealed, to have mechanisms, or rather a sentiment that sanctions should be reinstituted if a number of conditions are not met. … Still fully repealed.”

Jack Schlossberg’s decision to launch a bid for Congress in New York City last week was just the latest example of a Kennedy scion hoping to ascend to federal office, testing the continued strength of a hallowed family name whose political currency has dwindled over the years.

His unorthodox campaign also marked the most recent arrival of a new type of political candidate that has cropped up with increasing regularity this election cycle: the social media influencer vying for power beyond the screen.

Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John. F. Kennedy, is joining a growing crop of young House contenders with digital clout who have been seeking to convert online popularity into a seat in Congress. His campaign announcement follows, among other recent newcomers, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old left-wing social media influencer running in next year’s crowded Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in the Chicago suburbs.

Both parties have tried to harness social media to advance their messages while courting influencers and content creators to broaden their appeal among younger online voters. But as influencers engaged in political commentary now pursue political office — most with few apparent qualifying credentials — it remains to be seen if their new efforts can translate to winning campaigns.

And it’s not just young recruits trying to parlay their social media clout into political success. George Conway, the vocally anti-Trump conservative lawyer, is hoping that 2.2 million followers on X and his prolfic online attacks against the president will translate into Democratic votes as he seriously considers running in the Nadler district as well. To succeed, voters in the heavily-Democratic district would have to overlook his long record of traditionally conservative views on policy.

So far, the results have not been promising for such candidates. In a special election for a vacant House seat in Arizona this past summer, for instance, Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old influencer, fell short by a nearly 40-point margin, losing to a more well-known local lawmaker, Adelita Grijalva —  a daughter of the late congressman who represented the district for more than two decades. 

Foxx, a progressive TikTok activist who first drew national attention during a viral confrontation with a former Republican senator, raised a lot of money for her campaign, and polling suggested that she was gaining traction toward the end of the race. But despite the hype, a majority of voters ultimately elevated a more traditional choice to the Capitol — underscoring the obstacles in to translating online fame to electoral success.

In Houston, meanwhile, Isaiah Martin, a young Democratic activist with a sizable online following who previously served as an advisor to the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), faced a similar outcome in a crowded special House election in November — placing fifth with only 5% of the vote.

For her part, Abughazaleh, a former video producer for Media Matters of America who recently pleaded not guilty to federal charges last month alleging that she impeded immigration agents during a protest, is also trailing well behind a more established primary opponent, Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, polls have shown — though many voters still remain undecided.

On the Republican side, some far-right influencers have also fared poorly in recent elections, including Laura Loomer in Florida and Brandon Herrera in Texas.

Jonathan Nagler, the co-director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, said that “we have no evidence that being able to influence someone’s consumer decisions translates to the ability to influence their political decisions. But one of the things essential for winning office is name recognition. Influencers have that. And they have the ability to reach lots of voters. That means they have the necessary resources to run a real campaign. So they become potential candidates.”

“The challenge for influencers is to come up with issues to run on,” he told Jewish Insider. “They need some reasons to suggest they can be politically relevant and do something that matters to people.”

In Schlossberg’s case, it is for now unclear if he can meaningfully leverage his family ties as he enters an increasingly crowded primary featuring a range of state and local elected officials whose political and legislative backgrounds far outmatch his own thin resume. 

The Kennedy heir, who is a graduate of both Yale and Harvard, has most notably served a stint in the State Department and was a political correspondent for Vogue, where he wrote just a handful of articles — underlining his limited professional experience.

His campaign website is short on policy and instead features vague pronouncements on such concepts as “focus,” “optimism,” “courage” and “accountability.”

He is best known for his provocative social media presence, which has stirred controversy that could fuel attacks in the open primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in Manhattan. A recently resurfaced online video where Schlossberg seems to repeatedly perform a Nazi salute is among the posts that have raised questions about his new candidacy.   

Still, one Democratic strategist who spoke with Schlossberg before he launched his campaign said that he had gotten a largely positive first impression from their conversation — despite his reputation for bizarre and often outlandish social media stunts.

“He’s smart. Had something to him. But IDK,” the strategist texted skeptically, using digital shorthand for “I don’t know.”

Nadler, who is expected to endorse his protégé, Micah Lasher, an assemblyman who represents the Upper West Side, has also expressed doubts about Schlossberg’s campaign, saying he “certainly is not going to be a major candidate” and that the House replacement “should be somebody with a record of public service, a record of public accomplishment.”

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic consultant in New York City, told JI that “being an influencer in today’s campaign world matters certainly with younger voters,” but suggested that Schlossberg would need to adapt to reach a broader subset of voters in an older and more traditionally liberal district.

“In the complicated candidate and geography he will face, it is only a small part of the coming highly competitive campaign,” he said.

Congressional lawmakers met Wednesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, a day after a summit between the Saudi leader and President Donald Trump at the White House, where the administration announced a slew of new military and civilian deals with Riyadh.

Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met separately with the crown prince midday Wednesday. Risch described the meeting to Jewish Insider as “very good.”

“We talked about the president’s 20-point plan for Gaza, obviously the normalization process with Israel and the things that are related to that — it was a very good meeting,” Risch said.

Bin Salman said publicly on Tuesday that he’s interested in joining the Abraham Accords but only after a clear pathway to a Palestinian state has been implemented.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) organized a separate meeting with Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jim Banks (R-IN), James Lankford (R-OK), Katie Britt (R-AL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Rep. French Hill (R-AR). Ernst, Lankford and Rosen co-chair the Abraham Accords Caucus.

“It was a great meeting, great discussion,” Banks said. “Our relationship has never been stronger. … His visit to the U.S. has been incredibly successful, not just in Washington but throughout the rest of the country. America is very pro-MBS and pro-Saudi Arabia, and the relationship is only going to grow further from here.”

He noted that his state’s national guard is a partner of the Saudi Arabian military, so the state has a special relationship with Riyadh.

“We discussed everything. MBS is focused on the future, artificial intelligence, data centers, the relationship with the United States, we talked about all of it,” Banks continued. “It was a candid discussion. I have a sense — I’m a young senator, he’s a young world leader — that he’s going to be around for a long time and our relationship’s only going to improve and grow from here.”

Sheehy said the meeting was “great.”

“They are our strongest ally — obviously besides Israel — in the region so we’ve got to stay close to them and make sure we’re aligned,” Sheehy said.

Lankford declined to delve into the specifics of what was discussed. Still, he described it as “positive” and “a good meeting.”

Rosen said, “Saudi Arabia plays a critical role with the US and other Middle Eastern partners to combat Iranian aggression in the region, and I believe Saudi-Israel normalization is key to long term peace in the region. I attended the meeting today to learn about the Saudi vision for a future Middle East and conditions for joining the Abraham Accords.”Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said he asked bin Salman about a two-state solution.

“My question was direct—I believe in the two-state solution. I believe the only way to bring real peace to the Middle East is to give both the Palestinian and Israeli people a safe homeland. We need to work towards that goal,” Durbin said in a statement.

An individual familiar with the discussion described it as “a very cordial and productive discussion that included all different topics, including Israel and Hamas, how to work together to box out Iran, and economic development between our nations.”

But Rosen said she emerged with lingering questions about some of the deals announced this week.

“However, I still have questions about several of the White House announcements this week, including the sale of F-35s to the Kingdom and how we will maintain Israel’s QME and protect our own technology,” she said. “I urge the Administration to provide Congress with more specifics on all of these agreements as soon as possible.”

On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Jim Himes (D-CT), Mike Rogers (R-AL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Tom Cole (R-OK), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) reportedly participated in a separate meeting with bin Salman.

Rogers, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, described bin Salman as “very impressive.” 

“He did a great job, he’s been a great ally in that region … he was very impressive today,” Rogers said.

He said that the issue of Saudi normalization with Israel was not discussed, and that the conversation focused more on “stabilizing the region from threats.”

Johnson, in a podcast interview with Katie Miller after the meeting, said that bin Salman was “very engaging” and praised his “sense of humor.”

“It was encouraging, we need that partnership between the two nations,” Johnson said

“He just wowed [the attendees],” Johnson said. “My Democrat colleagues were leaving and Greg Meeks … said, ‘He’s really good.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, he is’’

President Donald Trump on Friday night publicly disavowed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), once one of the president’s closest and most committed allies on Capitol Hill, saying he was withdrawing his endorsement of Greene and is prepared to support a primary challenger to the far-right Georgia congresswoman.

Greene, long dogged by controversy for her record of promoting antisemitic and otherwise fringe conspiracy theories, has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of Israel on the right, accusing the country of genocide and leading efforts attempting to cut off U.S. aid to the Jewish state.

She has also repeatedly publicly criticized Trump’s policies and Republican leadership on Capitol Hill since the start of the government shutdown, earning Trump’s ire. Her breaks with the GOP have made her into a budding star in liberal media circles, where her ongoing promotion of conspiracy theories has increasingly been overlooked.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he has heard that “wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie” and that “if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support,” accusing her of having “gone Far Left.”

Greene’s district is among the most heavily Republican in the country, and losing Trump’s support could prove a significant blow to the congresswoman.

“All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” Trump wrote, adding that Greene’s criticism began after he showed her statewide polling that placed her at just 12% support and discouraged her from running for Senate or governor, both positions Greene had been eyeing.

According to NOTUS, Greene is discussing a presidential run in 2028, though she denied that to the publication.

“[Greene] has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Counties, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day,” Trump continued in his post.

He later called Greene a “Traitor” and a “disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!”

Greene responded on X, saying Trump had lied to her and claiming that two recent text messages about files related to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had “sent him over the edge,” saying it is “astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out.”

Greene is one of a small number of Republicans cosponsoring a measure to force a vote, over Republicans’ objections on files related to Epstein. Trump, an associate of Epstein, has sought to prevent the full release of those files, calling the push for further disclosure “the Epstein hoax.”

“Most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream,” Greene said. “I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him. But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump.”

In a subsequent post, Greene shared a graphic showing she has not received support from pro-Israel groups alongside another graphic comparing her “Liberty Score” to that of Trump-backed pro-Israel Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). In the post, she wrote: “This and the Epstein files is why I’m being attacked by President Trump. It really makes you wonder what is in those files and who and what country is putting so much pressure on him?”

She also claimed that Trump’s posts are driving a wave of security threats against her.

Trump has also worked to defeat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), another of the most vocal anti-Israel Republicans The president has endorsed retired Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who is challenging Massie in the GOP primary. 

On Friday, Trump called Massie a “LOSER!” in a separate Truth Social post, claiming that “the Polls have him at less than an 8% chance of winning the Election” and mocked his recent remarriage.

While Congress is working on a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in the U.S., and the Islamist group is banned from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and beyond, the group’s status in Israel is much more complicated.

The matter drew renewed attention this week after Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Ra’am party in the Knesset, an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, declined to call for the eradication of Hamas on Israeli radio.

In an interview with Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Abbas mostly lamented the high rate of crime and gun violence in Israeli-Arab society, but when he mentioned Gaza, the interviewer, Asaf Liberman, asked whether he sees Hamas as part of the enclave’s future.

“Palestinian society needs to pick its leadership and go on a new path towards peace and reconciliation,” Abbas responded. 

Liberman twice repeated his question and sharpened it: “Does Hamas need to be destroyed?”

Abbas added that an international force must enter Gaza and after an interim period a security force of the Palestinian Authority would be trained, but after being pressed to make his position on Hamas clear, he said the interview was beginning to feel like an “interrogation,” and pointed out that he had gone on air to talk about domestic issues facing Arab Israelis. “If you want to talk about crime, fine, if not, bye,” he said, before hanging up. 

Abbas has previously condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, calling them unjustifiable and inhumane, and called for the release of the hostages. The other reporter who conducted the interview, Suleiman Maswadeh, later noted that Abbas and his family had recently received death threats, and hinted that was the reason the Knesset member avoided repeating his previously articulated position — which Maswadeh said does not include a future for Hamas in the governance of Gaza.

In 2021, the Ra’am party became the first Arab party in 50 years to join an Israeli governing coalition, which was celebrated by many in Israel and abroad as a milestone for coexistence, while the Israeli right criticized the 2021-2022 government for what it characterized as working with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Monday’s interview sparked headlines and analysis in right-leaning Israeli media and comments by politicians on the right about the viability of center and left-wing parties once again forming a coalition with Ra’am to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when Ra’am’s leader would not say that he is for eradicating Hamas.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a very generic term,” said Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University. “It’s not membership in an organization; it’s a denomination. Mansour Abbas is the Muslim Brotherhood. Raed Salah, his rival, is also the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The historic and recent connections between Hamas and Ra’am, both of which were founded by adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood, shed light on the nuances of the international Sunni Islamist movement and its status in Israel.

Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, emphasized, in an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday, that the Muslim Brotherhood is an ideology aiming to make Muslim societies more religious, and is not one centralized organization spanning the Muslim world.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a very generic term,” Milshtein said. “It’s not membership in an organization; it’s a denomination. Mansour Abbas is the Muslim Brotherhood. Raed Salah, his rival, is also the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna’s brother, Abd al-Rahman al-Banna, founded the group’s branch in Mandatory Palestine in 1935; its leaders included Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who incited the deadly Hebron riots against Jews in 1929 and collaborated with Hitler, and Izz al-Din al-Qassam, leader of the 1935 Arab Revolt against the British and namesake of Hamas’ short-range Qassam rockets. 

Gaza-based Sheikh Ahmad Yasin formed the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Hamas in the 1980s. Sheikh Abdullah Nimar Darwish founded the Islamic Movement in Israel in 1971, which also espoused Muslim Brotherhood ideology.

In 1979, Darwish founded an underground group in Israel called The Family of Jihad with a goal of establishing an Islamic state. However, after his arrest and conviction for involvement in killing an accused collaborator and membership of a terrorist organization, he renounced violence and decided to promote Islamism within the confines of Israeli law.

Fissures began in the Islamic Movement in Israel after the Oslo Accords, with the northern branch, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, opposing it, while the southern branch supported it. The two parts of the movement officially split when the southern branch ran for the Knesset in 1996 as Ra’am, and Salah advocated boycotting national elections. 

The leaders of the northern branch were arrested in 2003 for aiding Hamas and in 2015, the branch was banned, after the police and Shin Bet demonstrated that it had close ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and received funds from groups affiliated with Hamas.

Darwish, however, continued to be the spiritual leader of the Islamic Movement’s southern branch and said he was committed to obeying the laws of Israel. He engaged in interfaith dialogue events, often with former Labor lawmaker Rabbi Michael Melchior, and spoke out against Holocaust denial. 

While Islamic Movement Southern Branch leaders have met with Hamas leaders and taken part in mediation efforts between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, in 2022, then-leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar declared Mansour Abbas a traitor for joining the governing coalition and saying Israel is a Jewish state. Abbas has said that his decision to join the governing coalition in 2021 came from the values he “absorbed from the legacy of Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish.” 

As such, the more radical of the two major offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Israel.

Yet, more recently, the Islamic Movement Southern Branch has come under scrutiny for its own possible ties to Hamas. 

In the decades since its establishment, the Islamic Movement has faced repeated crackdowns on its charities. The Islamic Relief Committee, founded in 1987 with the stated goal to help the needy in the West Bank and Gaza, was shut down by Israeli authorities in 1995 for aiding Hamas members’ families, the first in a series of such actions.

“Israel’s anti-terrorism law and the whole discipline has been to focus on specific organizations and declaring them as terrorist organizations because of their goals, because of the means that they use, rather than focusing on an idea, which the Muslim Brotherhood really is,” Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, the former director of the IDF Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, told JI.

In July, the Israeli Justice Ministry unit dealing with nonprofit organizations found grounds to shut down “Aid 48,” a charity affiliated with Ra’am, on suspicion of providing funding to terrorist organizations. “Aid 48” is the Islamic Movement Southern Branch’s main charity. According to an investigation by the ministry, in 2020-2021, the organization transferred NIS 2 million to a charity in Hebron that Israel had declared in 2012 to be part of a terrorist organization; in 2023, “Aid 48” worked with three such Palestinian charities; in 2020, the organization gave NIS 933,000 to a Turkish organization run by Hamas members, which funneled money to the terrorist organization.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, the former director of the IDF Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, currently the director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, explained to JI that Israeli law makes it easier to crack down on smaller subgroups than an umbrella term like the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Israel’s anti-terrorism law and the whole discipline has been to focus on specific organizations and declaring them as terrorist organizations because of their goals, because of the means that they use, rather than focusing on an idea, which the Muslim Brotherhood really is,” he said on the sidelines of a JCFA conference last week.

In order to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, “you have to break it down into intelligence,” Hirsch said, adding that the authorities would have to determine who they are seeking to arrest and what money and possibly weapons need to be seized.

Hirsch recounted taking part in the Israeli Security Cabinet meeting in 2015 when the government decided to outlaw the Islamic Movement Northern Branch.

“Some of the questions that were asked were, what is the next step? Who do we operate against now? It was a bit clearer than the entire Muslim Brotherhood, but even then there was a question,” he said.

“I would be very careful because, at its core, the Muslim Brotherhood is a movement that aims to change society. They have a lot of social organizations. It’s very different from Islamic Jihad or ISIS, who are not interested in social activism,” said Milshtein, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood ideology is up for interpretation by its adherents.

When it comes to the southern branch, Hirsch, who has worked with the “Choosing Life” organization of relatives of victims of terror whose lawsuit led to the shuttering of “Aid 48,”  argued that “there is a clear connection between Ra’am and funding Hamas … That connection was there all along. It’s partly ideological and partly the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood in its different constellations, including in Israel.”

Milshtein acknowledged that there have been cases of leaders of “Aid 48” meeting with Hamas leaders and funding going to Hamas ahead of its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but said that Abbas “took care of” those responsible when he learned of the incidents.

“I would be very careful because, at its core, the Muslim Brotherhood is a movement that aims to change society. They have a lot of social organizations. It’s very different from Islamic Jihad or ISIS, who are not interested in social activism,” he said, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood ideology is up for interpretation by its adherents.

“If you ask Mansour Abbas, there is no problem with being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and part of the government in a state that defines itself as Jewish,” he said. “If you ask Hamas, they want jihad against Israel.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition announced on Wednesday that it had elected Dan Conston, the former president of the Congressional Leadership Fund, and Charlie Spies, a veteran elections attorney, and philanthropist David Gemunder to its board of directors. 

Conston, a longtime ally of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), led the House GOP campaign arm for six years before departing last December to launch Watchtower Strategy alongside McCarthy. During his time leading CLF, Conston was among those credited with helping House Republicans secure a majority in 2022 and keep the lower chamber in GOP control in 2024. 

“The RJC is a tremendous organization, and the fight for the American Jewish vote is as important as ever. I’m excited to help them as they look to expand their reach in key races and move more voters to the Republican Party,” Conston told Jewish Insider of his election to RJC’s board. 

Spies briefly served as chief counsel to the Republican National Committee last year as President Donald Trump was reshaping the organization, but only stayed in the role for about two months. He advised the presidential campaigns of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2016 and former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) in 2008. Spies also launched Right to Rise, the super PAC Bush used in the 2016 cycle, and Restore our Future, the PAC used by Romney in 2008, and has served as an advisor to Rep. John James (R-MI). 

In addition to his philanthropic work, Gemunder is a corporate attorney with AEGIS Law in Tampa, Fla., who has served on the boards of Hillel International and Secure Community Network.

“It is a pleasure to welcome our newest board members, each of whom is an accomplished, dedicated American patriot, and a strong defender of the U.S. Jewish community and of Israel,” RJC Chairman Norm Coleman said in a statement. “On behalf of our entire Board, I look forward to working with these new Board members as we grow and enhance our capabilities leading into the 2026 elections.”

The firebombing of a hostage-release march in Boulder, Colo., this summer triggered a wave of calls from lawmakers — particularly Republicans — for action to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.

Legislation to that effect was introduced in both the Senate and House in July, taking a new approach to designating the group as compared to previous legislative efforts that had stalled over the course of the last decade.

The legislation would require the imposition of sanctions on the Muslim Brotherhood, making it illegal to provide support to the group, making its members and affiliates inadmissible to the United States and blocking transactions involving assets held by Muslim Brotherhood members in U.S. financial institutions.

There were also calls from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for the Trump administration to investigate the group and take action to designate it through executive authorities. The secretary of state has the authority to designate a group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), and the White House could issue an executive order on the subject.

But so far, none of those efforts have come to fruition. The Senate bill currently sits at 11 co-sponsors, having recently picked up Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) as its first Democratic supporter, while the House bill has 19 co-sponsors from both parties — below the levels of support previous iterations of the bill had amassed.

Fetterman’s co-sponsorship could help the bill receive consideration by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the panel often only considers legislation with bipartisan support. A source familiar with the matter tells JI that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the bill’s co-sponsor in the Senate and a member of the committee, is pushing for the panel to mark up the bill at their next business meeting. 

Neither bill has been called up yet for a vote in committee — a process further slowed by the ongoing government shutdown — and it is currently not included in either the Senate or House versions of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, a potential vehicle for legislation of this sort.

The White House declined to comment. A spokesperson for Cruz told JI: “Sen. Cruz is pushing for the bill to be advanced through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and then to be passed by the full Senate. Sen. Fetterman is showing commitment and leadership to American national security interests by providing this measure with bipartisan backing here in the Senate, and it’s time to move it forward.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who is not currently a co-sponsor of the Senate bill but is supportive of efforts to counter the Muslim Brotherhood, told JI on Wednesday that the issue is not top of mind for many colleagues and it will take time to build interest and support for moves like designating the group.

Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Trump administration official, told JI that, within the executive branch, FTO designations are a time-consuming process — requiring extensive legal consultations as well as significant behind-the-scenes work to understand potential implications, unintended consequences and diplomatic fallout, as well as assembling a list of visa exemptions needed for diplomats.

Based on public comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the National Security Council’s Sebastian Gorka indicating support for a terrorism designation, Goldberg said that he believes that there is momentum in the administration, further fueled by the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, anti-Israel protests around the country and evidence of growing Islamist influence on the far right as well. He said that the fact that no designation has been announced should not necessarily be read as a sign that it is not actively being worked on in private.

Goldberg also said that any action on the designation from Congress would likely be timed to coordinate with potentially pending action by the Trump administration, given the high-profile nature of the issue and the administration’s expressed interest.

One potential obstacle to the efforts: Qatar and Turkey, with which the administration has been strengthening ties. Both have extensive links to the Muslim Brotherhood and could be resistant to such a designation. Goldberg, however, said he has not heard any discussion of those countries actively trying to stop a designation, and urged the Trump administration to push forward, describing the Muslim Brotherhood as both a threat to homeland security and President Donald Trump’s desire for Middle East peace.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime in Syria last December happened slowly, and then all at once — leaving a region reeling from whiplash and a country digging itself out from the rubble, now under the leadership of a former militia head who cut his teeth as an Al-Qaida terrorist. 

This week, that leader, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, is coming to Washington, the first time a Syrian president has ever been invited to the White House. 

Alongside al-Sharaa’s rise in Damascus has been a flurry of activity in Washington, as lawmakers tried to make sense of a country that one day was considered a rogue nation locked in protracted civil war and the next was viewed as a free state on the path to stability. 

Two people in particular have become fixtures on Capitol Hill, pushing the message that Washington should lift sanctions on Damascus and build stronger ties with Syria: Jasmine Naamou and Tarek Naemo, a married couple who live in Daytona Beach, Fla., with a knack for social media self-promotion and a willingness to strike up a conversation with anyone. 

On the eve of al-Sharaa’s meeting with President Donald Trump, the couple arranged a meeting with the Syrian leader and Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Naamou and Naemo first came to Capitol Hill this year as activists with the Syrian American Alliance for Peace and Prosperity, a nonprofit that emerged early this year to advocate for closer ties between the U.S. and Syria, though Naamou said she doesn’t work directly with them anymore. The organization arranged meetings for Syria’s foreign minister in New York this year, and in April it brought two members of Congress — Reps. Cory Mills (R-FL) and Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) — to Syria for the first visit by U.S. officials in years. Naamou and Naemo were on the trip with them. 

Mills and Stutzman’s visit preceded a more senior delegation, with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who has held several senior foreign policy roles, visiting the country together. 

All of those lawmakers have met with either Naamou or Naemo this year, documented with slick photos shared on the couple’s Instagram accounts. Naamou has 319,000 followers, and a pinned photo with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA); Naemo has 2.2 million followers and flaunts photos with the Saudi investment minister and Turkey’s ambassador to Syria — plus an image of him holding a rifle and sitting on a golf cart with Wilson. He refers to Wilson as “my dearest friend.” 

Naamou spoke to Jewish Insider on Friday ahead of al-Sharaa’s visit to preview what she hopes the Syrian leader will discuss with Trump, with normalization with Israel high on the list.

“We want regional stability. Israel’s a neighbor. They’re a friend of America. We want them to be friends of Syria. We want to normalize relations,” said Naamou, who was driving to the airport, bound for Washington to be there for al-Sharaa’s visit. She also expressed hope for a U.S. security presence in Syria: “I believe they’re moving in the right direction of getting that security agreement in place. From what I’ve heard, they are in discussions of having a U.S. air base in Damascus to help with those security discussions between Syria and Israel. So I really do see the steps moving in the right direction.” 

Ahead of his visit, the United Nations lifted sanctions on al-Sharaa, a move that followed a similar executive order by Trump in June. “President Trump is committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors,” the White House said at the time.  

Naamou and her husband both work in real estate in central Florida, though they also have ties to a Saudi sovereign wealth fund, according to Intelligence Online, a publication focused on diplomacy. Naamou said investment is a focus of their advocacy to American officials. 

“They’re also going to have discussions on reintegrating investments in Syria because President Trump, when he went over to Saudi Arabia on his Middle East trip, he had announced the whole cessation of sanctions,” said Naamou. 

Florida oceanside city become such fixtures on Capitol Hill? Naamou, who is 30, dates her own advocacy to her college days at the University of Florida, where she studied international relations and political science because of what was happening in Syria. She said the political relationships started back home in Florida, too.

“I live in Volusia County, and it’s a relatively small county, and everyone kind of knows each other,” she said. “You just go to events, and you meet people, and things happen, and you discuss things, and then you find things in common.”

They’ve also met with Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is running for governor of Florida; Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL); Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), who is the child of Syrian immigrants. 

“I see huge bipartisan support now,” Naamou said. “We like to term Syria as a swing state. Syria is multi-layered. Syria is one of the only countries in the Middle East that is so complex. You have all three Abrahamic religions present in Syria. You have all different types of ethnicities present. And so Syria is very key in the region, because it can be swung either way.”

“Either way,” in this case, means West or East — bringing Syria into the U.S.-led Western world, or into the Russia-Iran-China orbit. 

“They want the U.S., and they want to acclimate here with our values,” said Naamou, who was born in Michigan to a Syrian father. She described the rapid changes in Syria as a “snowball effect.” 

“I’ve never seen, when a regime has fallen, such a fast paced amount of change happen in such a short period of time,” said Naamou. She wants to see it continue: all sanctions lifted, American investment, closer ties. 

“I’m hoping that we see a larger acceptance of Syria in general,” she said. “I’m hoping that we’re able to somehow, in any way, reshape the narrative into a positive light.”

Former Minnesota Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, who turns 95 today, isn’t necessarily a household name — but is one of the more consequential figures in Jewish political history, as the first Holocaust refugee elected to Congress and one of the most prominent Jewish Republicans during a golden period of Jewish representation on Capitol Hill.

Boschwitz now holds the distinction of being the oldest living elected senator, and remains active in political and business life from his home in Plymouth, Minn. He spoke on the phone to Jewish Insider this week about his life story, legacy and thoughts about our current political moment.

Boschwitz was born in Berlin in 1930. On the day that Hitler took power in 1933, Boschwitz’s father came home and told his family they would be leaving Germany forever. He arrived in the United States in 1935 with his family, completed college at the age of 19, started a retail lumber business and quickly made a career in business and, later, politics. 

He was elected as a Republican to the Senate in 1978, scoring an upset against the state’s former Gov. Wendell Anderson. He served there for 12 years, eventually losing reelection in 1990 to Democrat Paul Wellstone.

“When I came to the Senate, I was really the first Jewish conservative that many of my colleagues really met. They hadn’t met many Jewish Republicans at all. I think we had a hand in building some of the pro-Israel feelings now,” Boschwitz told JI. (During the 1980s, four other Jewish GOP senators would end up serving alongside him.)

In the Senate, Boschwitz served in GOP leadership, including as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, where he helped raise money and lead the campaign to elect GOP senators. He held seats on the influential Budget Committee, Foreign Relations Committee and Agriculture Committee, which helped him build support in a big farming state like Minnesota.

“The highlights of my career: I voted for the Reagan defense budgets and for lower taxes that resulted in a strong economy and winning the Cold War without a shot,” Boschwitz said.

After leaving the Senate, Boschwitz was named as President George H.W. Bush’s emissary to Ethiopia, where he led the American delegation to negotiate the release of Ethiopian Jews to allow their migration to Israel in what became known as Operation Solomon. Earlier as a senator, Boschwitz led an Ethiopian Jewish caucus that featured dozens of senators from both parties. 

Aside from his legislative work, Boschwitz was also known as something of a matchmaker for young Jewish professionals on Capitol Hill, sponsoring parties for Jewish singles who worked around Washington.

“I was very active in the Jewish community… I wanted young Jewish members of the congressional staff to know that there was a Jewish senator who was interested in them,” Boschwitz told JI.

Despite Minnesota’s relatively small Jewish population, Boschwitz held a Senate seat that, famously, was represented by four different Jewish senators over four decades — with Wellstone, current Republican Jewish Coalition National Chairman Norm Coleman and comedian Al Franken all holding the same Senate seat from 1978 until Franken’s resignation in 2018.

Asked in closing how concerned he was about the rise of antisemitism in this country, Boschwitz simply said: “Yes, there has been a rise in antisemitism. But I think that the U.S. is not a country where the Jews have to be careful or look for another place to go. I’m a fan of magnificent America.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced on Thursday that she would not seek reelection, ending a nearly 40-year career in Congress and earning plaudits across a wide spectrum of Jewish voices, from J Street to AIPAC and many in the San Francisco Jewish community who have worked with her since the 1980s.

Pelosi, who is 85, rose to become the first and only female speaker of the House, a position she held from 2007-2011 and again from 2019-2023, when she presided over a divided caucus and a resurgent far-left flank of the party. Pelosi was known for keeping tight control over congressional Democrats and squashing intra-party squabbles. 

“In my view, she was able to keep a pro-Israel consensus in the caucus, but it certainly came at a time when there was more angst around the issue,” said Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council. “While we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye with her on specific policies, she’s always been pro-Israel, and I don’t think anyone can question that.”

Pelosi spoke several times at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. One year, she invoked  her father, a former Baltimore mayor and Democratic member of Congress from Maryland, who she said “had a love for the idea of a Jewish state in what was then called ‘Palestine.’”

“Her love and close connection to the Jewish community started in Baltimore, with her father, the mayor,” said Amy Friedkin, a former AIPAC president and a close friend of Pelosi’s. “She used to say that the founding of the State of Israel was the most profound achievement of the 20th century.”

Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, said that during her tenure as speaker, Pelosi “helped ensure that Israel had the resources to defend itself, which advances American interests and values.” 

She sometimes diverged from pro-Israel advocates, particularly in 2015, when she championed the Iran nuclear deal as the leader of the Democratic caucus in the House. 

“Nancy Pelosi was an early and steadfast supporter of J Street and a champion of diplomacy,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement. “She played a pivotal role in securing congressional support for the Iran nuclear deal and consistently advanced pro-Israel, pro-peace policies aimed at strengthening Israel’s security and promoting safety, dignity and self-determination for the Palestinian people.”

Like many Democrats, Pelosi began to take a more critical stance towards Israel during its two-year war in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

In April 2024, she signed onto a congressional letter urging the Biden administration to withhold some weapons transfers to Israel after the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, a public condemnation of Israel that went further than previous actions by the former speaker.  

“There are actions and statements that she made that I would disagree with, but when it came down to what was most important, which is Israel’s ability to be a Jewish, democratic state and live in peace and security — never a moment of wavering. Not even the thought process of wavering,” said Sam Lauter, a former longtime AIPAC activist and co-founder of Democratic Majority for Israel. Growing up in San Francisco, Pelosi’s family lived across the street from Lauter’s childhood home. 

“Nancy Pelosi wasn’t just a friend of our community. She was part of our community,” said Lauter. “No one had to teach her about Zionism. She grew up believing in it.”

Like many progressives now running for Congress, Graham Platner, a Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, has made opposition to Israel a central part of his messaging.

He frequently accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, advocates for blocking U.S. aid to Israel and is an outspoken critic of AIPAC. During a campaign event last month, Platner, a 41-year-old former Marine who runs an oyster farm, also said he believes that Israel is a terrorist state.

But more so than many candidates, the political newcomer seems particularly invested in engaging on Middle East policy, even if his views have drawn scrutiny, according to audio of a recent private discussion in which he debated about Israel with some attendees at a fundraising event in Maine for nearly 20 minutes.

Speaking at the August fundraiser, Platner defended his stances on Israel and shared previously undisclosed details about his personal ties to the region, according to the audio, recently shared with Jewish Insider.

Despite his hostile criticism of Israel, Platner said he believed that the country “has the same right to exist that every nation has to exist,” though he did not confirm whether he recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. 

While he said he agreed that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Platner claimed that Netanyahu had “publicly stated that” Israel was “funding Hamas to make sure that there was going to be no non-radical leadership within Gaza in order to keep a Palestinian state from happening.”  

While members of Netanyahu’s coalition have made this argument — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich referred to the terrorist organization as “an asset” as it serves as an obstacle to Palestinian statehood — the prime minister has never personally made such a claim. New York Times reporting from shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks alleged that the Israeli prime minister had allowed the Qatari government to send money into the Gaza Strip for several years in order to “maintain peace in Gaza.” Netanyahu called allegations that he was empowering Hamas “ridiculous.”

“It is difficult for me to lay the onus of everything only at the feet of the Palestinians,” he explained, “and not include the Netanyahu government.”

Platner also quibbled with an attendee who said that 1,200 Israeli civilians had been killed during the attacks, noting that a percentage of those who had died on Oct. 7 were soldiers in the Israeli military.

“It wasn’t 1,200 civilians. It was 600 military members,” Platner countered, using a number that far exceeded the approximately 300 soldiers who were killed in the attacks. 

“Who were taken sleeping, unarmed, out of their beds, I’ve met families,” the attendee responded, likely referring to the tatzpitaniot, unarmed female observer soldiers, and others, who were famously killed and kidnapped in their pajamas.  

“When you are wearing a uniform and carrying a gun in the service of a cause, it is difficult for me to feel that you can be called a civilian,” said Platner, who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. “There is a one-way street on this,” he continued, “that I find to be disingenuous.”

The private comments suggest that Platner is not merely paying lip service to such issues on the trail, as he runs in a competitive primary against Maine Gov. Janet Mills for the Democratic nomination to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). 

Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Platner’s views on Israel and Gaza have received limited attention in recent weeks as his campaign has weathered controversy over his past incendiary Reddit posts and faced questions over when he first became aware that a skull tattoo on his chest he had for nearly 20 years resembled a Nazi symbol known as a Totenkopf.

Platner, who covered the tattoo this month, has insisted he did not know what the skull signified until recently, though reporting from JI and CNN has contradicted that claim.

He has also argued that members of his family are Jewish and never objected to the skull tattoo when he took his shirt off around them. “Eighteen years,” he told The Atlantic recently. “It’s never come up.”

In the conversation about Israel at the fundraiser, which took place before controversy ensnared his campaign, Platner noted his stepbrother is Seth Frantzman, an Israeli author, journalist and security analyst who has long worked for The Jerusalem Post and lives in Jerusalem, saying they are “very close,” according to the audio.

Frantzman, who has previously written admiringly about Platner without mention of their familial ties, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Platner also said that he had “multiple friends in B’Tselem,” the left-wing Israeli human rights group that has described Israel as an apartheid regime and accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza — as he argued that Israel is not fully a democracy.

He cited his friends from B’Tselem “who have showed me videos, who have introduced me to former soldiers, who have introduced me to Palestinians, who have laid out a very clear and, frankly, well-sourced case that Palestinians living within the borders of the occupied territories do not live in a democracy, that they do not have equal rights, that they do not have equal access to areas.”

He said that, “as an American taxpayer,” he was uncomfortable with sending continued U.S. aid to support Israel’s military.

But even as he has been deployed to the Middle East, Platner confirmed that he had never visited Israel.

In recent days, a chorus of left-wing lawmakers in Congress have ramped up their ire towards the United Arab Emirates, accusing the Gulf country of helping fuel the yearslong civil war in Sudan by reportedly backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the non-Islamist Arab force fighting the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). 

The UAE has long denied allegations of involvement in the war. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that, according to sources, recent assessments by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department’s intelligence bureau purport to show the UAE sending Chinese drones to the RSF. 

On the other side, Iran, Russia, Egypt and Turkey have provided support to the SAF, according to conflict monitors and reporting by Bloomberg and The Washington Post.

The war in Sudan has wrought havoc upon the eastern African nation, with both warring factions committing crimes against humanity. The conflict has killed as many as 150,000 people and has displaced around 12 million. 

Over the more than two-year long conflict, both militias have been accused of widespread sexual assault, mass killings of civilians, torture and deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure. On Monday, the RSF captured the city of El Fasher after an 18-month blockade which saw the group effectively devastate the city, with reports of mass killings, sexual violence and the destruction of hospitals and displacement camps.

The U.S. government, under former President Joe Biden, determined the RSF was committing genocide and found both the RSF and SAF guilty of committing war crimes.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence with the Sudanese Armed Forces has alarmed experts, who warn that the SAF’s deepening ties to Islamist networks threaten regional stability and could pose a risk far beyond the eastern African nation.

“The Muslim Brotherhood has had a strong presence in Sudan since the 1940s and that presence has evolved over the years,” Norman Roule, a former senior U.S. intelligence official, told Jewish Insider. “It’s important to note that this presence is also why Iran is such a strong supporter of the Burhan [head of SAF] government.” 

Liam Karr, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, who has condemned actions on both sides of the conflict, says the ties date back to former Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for several decades before the SAF overthrew him in 2019. 

“The SAF is working with several Islamist brigades that consist of former Bashir-era army, police and intelligence personnel,” Karr told JI. “This includes the al Baraa Ibn Malik Brigade, which is widely associated with the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood and Bashir and has an estimated 20,000 fighters.” 

In recent months, the SAF has received explosive attack drones from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to aid in the conflict, while Egypt, one of their key backers, arrested a key Islamist militia leader aligned with the group — signaling that even staunch regional supporters of the group are “growing wary of its Islamist factions,” according to Foundation for Defense of Democracies Research Fellow Hussain Adbul-Hussain. 

Roule said Iran has a vested interest in providing the SAF with weaponry in order to reestablish a presence in the region and revitalize their “broken proxies,” following Israel’s degrading of its military capabilities and of its proxy Hezbollah, as well as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. 

“This is of extreme importance to the U.S. and its partners in the region, because if the Quds Force [IRGC] is able to establish a presence it lost in Syria, it would be able to reestablish training camps it operated a decade ago for Hamas smugglers, routes for weapons that it could send back into Gaza and revitalize Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as provide a transshipment location of weapons to the Houthis,” said Roule. “The Muslim Brotherhood presence in Khartoum is of serious concern for the United States and deserves much greater attention. It is a significant threat to the United States, Israel and the region.” 

Anti-Israel lawmakers, including some of the Jewish state’s most vocal critics in the House, have sounded the alarm on the RSF, but have notably glossed over the SAF and its increasingly Islamist alignment. 

“Sudan is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and a genocide,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in a post on social media on Tuesday. “The UAE and other arms dealers to the RSF and RSF-aligned militias must be held accountable.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) echoed the same sentiment, saying she is “horrified” by the RSF’s “mass killings of civilians.”

“We must do everything in our power to stop this genocide, including cutting off all weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates who are arming and funding this ethnic cleansing,” said Tlaib on social media on Wednesday.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) followed suit and similarly directed his criticism at the Emirates. 

“I am incredibly concerned about the deepening humanitarian crisis in Sudan, and the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces,” Castro wrote on social media on Wednesday. “The United States must put pressure on the RSF and those who back it — including the United Arab Emirates — to end these atrocities.”

A number of far-left activists online have also singled out the RSF and its reported Emirati ties for condemnation. 

Kenneth Roth, a virulent critic of Israel and former head of Human Rights Watch, posted on Tuesday, “British arms sold to the United Arab Emirates are being found in Sudan, where the UAE is arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as they commit genocide.” 

“Both the Biden and Trump administrations refused to hold the UAE accountable as it armed Sudan’s RSF, despite massacre after massacre, atrocity after atrocity,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, adding, “Members of Congress are showing more responsibility and initiative.” 

House Democrats, led by Reps. Gregory Meeks and Sara Jacobs, released a statement in April marking the two year anniversary of the conflict. “External actors like the UAE must immediately stop fueling the conflict by arming the warring parties,” the statement said notably only listing the UAE and omitting any mention of Turkey, Iran, Russia, and other countries who have sent arms to factions in Sudan.

A bi-partisan group of senators, including Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, released a statement on Thursday breaking in tone from the other lawmakers – condemning both sides and making mention of all nations reportedly backing the war. 

“Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have committed atrocities against civilians and pursued a zero-sum war at any cost,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Foreign backers of the RSF and SAF-including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Iran, China and governments in the immediate region-have fueled and profited from the conflict and legitimized the monsters destroying Sudan,” the senators continued. 

Secular forces in Sudan have called for the country’s Islamist movement to be classified as a terrorist group, according to Hussain. Sudan’s Civil Democratic Alliance of Revolutionary Forces (Sumud) has stated that the “Islamist movement sees no pathway for ending the fighting other than the complete submission of the Sudanese people to its terrorist regime, an arrangement that has never achieved peace.” 

Karr says the Trump administration and the SAF’s own partners have put “heavy pressure” on the group to “distance itself politically from the Islamist groups.” Karr also believes pressure should be applied to the RSF.

In his second term, President Donald Trump voiced support for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Various members of congress have introduced legislation that would require the secretary of state to use this designation, though Congress has yet to move forward with the legislation. 

Iran’s recent moves to rebuild its ballistic missile program, with materials imported from China in circumvention of international sanctions, are prompting concerns on Capitol Hill, with multiple lawmakers saying that the efforts should be met with a strong response from the United States.

President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, during which he agreed to cut U.S. tariffs on Beijing in exchange for a series of steps by China, including pausing export controls on rare earths and agreeing to a sale of TikTok. Trump also halted the implementation of a measure that would have banned Chinese firms that are partly owned by sanctioned companies from obtaining U.S. technologies.

No measures relating to China and Chinese firms’ continued evasion of Iran sanctions — either in supplying materials to Iran or receiving a majority of Iran’s oil exports — were announced by either side.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they had not seen the CNN reporting, which cited European intelligence that Iran was importing components of ballistic missile fuel from China, on the issue, but expressed concerns.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said he’s “not surprised” by the news because “we all have to understand that Russia, Iran, China, North Korea — they’re all working together to demolish our way of life.”

He said that he expects that the U.S. and Israel are going to have to take further military action against Iran in the future.

“We’re going to have to demolish the nuclear weapons capability. Until there’s a new leadership in Iran, the same thing is going to happen,” Scott told Jewish Insider. “They’re going to have a bad economy, the people are not going to have any opportunity and every so often, we’re going to have to have to demolish their ability to make nuclear weapons. So elections matter, and I’m glad President Trump is the president so this happens.”

Asked about whether there are ways the U.S. can pressure China to abide by the sanctions, Scott said, “I think we have leverage, but it doesn’t really matter what they agree to because they don’t do it. They lie about everything. I’m very hopeful that President Trump, the trade deal that he’s on, that it works. If you look at history, they never comply with anything.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) also said the report “does not shock me.”

“Communist China is intent on replacing the United States, and they will fund our adversaries, like they’ve been doing with Russia and Iran, to be able to cause us trouble,” Ricketts said. “How should we be responding? We should be responding very harshly to both Iran and Communist China to get them to stop.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said that China assisting Iran in rebuilding its missile program “would be a serious problem” and that he hopes Trump and his team raised the issue in trade talks.

“Rearming a nuclear-ambitious Iran or providing money and materials to a Russia that is  murdering their neighbors is not a way to be able to be a nation that’s actually going to be a world leader,” Lankford said. “If China wants to be a world leader, they need to be able to encourage good behavior for other countries as well.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who has led a series of bills aiming to sanction Chinese entities for their support of Iran, called for the enforcement of existing and new sanctions.

“If reports are true that China is supplying materials to help Iran rebuild its ballistic missile program, it’s an alarming development that threatens U.S. and global security,” Lawler said. “I encourage the administration to act immediately to enforce existing sanctions and impose new ones on any parties involved. History has shown appeasement has only emboldened Iran.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said it would be a “bad idea” for Iran and China to try to rebuild Iran’s missile program.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said that he “would not be surprised” to see Iran trying to rebuild its ballistic missile capacity.

“China’s a bad actor on a lot of fronts, including with the Iranians, so I’m not shocked by that either,” Kelly continued.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that there’s “no reason to think that we have held or quenched [Iran’s] ambition to be a nuclear power.”

“We need to be vigilant and vigorous in countering that threat. I never thought that [Operation] Midnight Hammer ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capability, because they still have the scientists with the know-how to reconstruct and somewhere under the rubble, there is still equipment,” Blumenthal said, referring to U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. “So I am not surprised that they are continuing to take steps toward restoring their nuclear capacity, and we need to consider what action is appropriate in response.”

In her congressional comeback attempt against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO), former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) is continuing to lean into extreme rhetoric and stances.

Speaking at an anti-Trump “No Kings” rally in St. Louis shortly after launching her campaign, Bush dedicated extensive time to eulogizing murderer and escaped convict Assata Shakur, an activist who killed a police officer in 1977 and later escaped from prison. Shakur died in Cuba in September.

Bush, in her remarks, described Shakur as “an activist that we recently lost” who “gave us a mantra that we live by. She said it is our duty to fight for our freedom.”

During those remarks, Bush — who has faced repeated accusations of antisemitism — made passing reference to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.

She finished other remarks about the Trump administration — seemingly unrelated to Israel policy — with a shout of “Free Palestine.”

On X, Bush continues to attack Israel and its supporters as a central message of her campaign, including reposting unfounded claims accusing Israel of violating its ceasefire agreement with Hamas — a subject she has otherwise not addressed on her account, including when the agreement was initially announced.

Bush reposted a response on X to her announcement video that explicitly framed her campaign around her opposition to AIPAC, reading, “Rematch in St. Louis, Cori Bush taking on AIPAC again.”

In that video, Bush continued to implicitly blame her 2024 loss to Bell on AIPAC. Discussing that loss, she said she faced attacks for the fact that she “spoke truth,” accusing her opponents of spreading “lies and hate” about her, while flashing up a series of headlines relating to AIPAC spending in the race.

Responding on X to a video of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) discussing plans to jointly nominate President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli and other international lawmakers, Bush said, “You should probably tell him [Trump] this won’t get him into heaven.”

Since launching her campaign, Bush has also reposted X posts accusing Israel of genocide, supporting International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice efforts targeting Israel, attacking American supporters of Israel and attacking CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and the publication she founded, The Free Press, for their Israel coverage.