Kinney Zalesne, a longtime Jewish community activist, is one of a slew of Democratic candidates mounting a bid to unseat the District of Columbia’s longtime nonvoting representative to Congress, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

Holmes Norton, 88, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, with mounting questions about her age and her continued capability to perform in her job, which have been fueled by conflicting statements from Holmes Norton and her own staff about whether she plans to seek reelection in 2026. Her muted response to the Trump administration’s efforts to exert control over the District has further stoked criticism.

Zalesne, 59, said she’s running for the seat because “America is in the greatest danger in my lifetime, and D.C. is on the front lines.”

She said she has a “lot of respect” for Holmes Norton and that the incumbent has done “a lot of very important things for the city and was an important player on the national level,” but that D.C. now faces “different” challenges and the “stakes are high.”

“It’s a new era, and we need a new, fresh voice who can carry on her same, relentless advocacy,” she continued.

Zalesne grew up in a Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia, learning to read Torah at age 16 and lead services at 25. She said she’s been doing both ever since, including leading Mincha services on Yom Kippur annually for 32 years — a fact she said would distinguish her from any other Jewish member of Congress.

She also served as a board member and board chair of D.C.’s Jewish day school, serves on the American Board of the National Library of Israel and advised two hostage family groups, as well as worked with a group of Israelis trying to convene a constitutional convention prior to the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

“My run for office is really motivated by my Jewish sensibility,” she said. “My whole career has been about expanding opportunity for people, and that, to me, has always felt like that’s always been a huge part of my Jewish identity, and so this run for Congress is really an extension of that.”

She said she sees parallels between the city of D.C. and the Jewish community: “At the moment, we’re both under attack. We’re both small but mighty groups of people. And we both have so much to contribute and an impressive capacity to lead, so long as we’re not mistreated. And at the moment, we’re both … nervous and we’re vulnerable. I’m fighting for D.C. with a spirit that I learned fighting for the Jewish community.”

Zalesne highlighted that Jewish representation in the House has dropped precipitously over the past two decades, a poor omen at a time when antisemitism is also rising.

“As the D.C. delegate, I will stand strong against antisemitism wherever I see it,” she said. “We see it on the far right, we see it on the far left. I will call it out anywhere I see it. … It’s a terrible trend in our country, and we need more Jews in public life, not fewer.”

Antisemitic violence, she noted, hit at the heart of D.C. earlier this year with the slaying of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum, and “it will be a priority for me to guard against early warning signs and explicit manifestations of antisemitism.”

Though the D.C. delegate does not have a vote on congressional legislation, Holmes Norton has nonetheless made her voice heard on foreign policy issues in other ways, supporting various efforts and policies critical of Israel.

“I am deeply committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, both because Israel is our strongest ally in the region, and because that strong relationship is in the United States’ national security interest,” Zalesne said. 

She said she supports President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza and praised Trump’s efforts in bringing it to fruition, but said it will be a long process to rebuild Gaza and remove Hamas from power. “I’m committed to that progress for the dignity and safety and security of everyone in the region.”

The mother of three college students and one recent college graduate, Zalesne said that she is worried about the “profound antisemitism problem on many campuses.” But she added that she’s “not persuaded” that the Trump administration’s policies, such as suspending funding to campuses, “really had anything to do with antisemitism.” She said it appeared to be fueled more by an “animus toward liberal arts” and a desire to force colleges into submission.

She argued that the Republican Party has to confront antisemitism in its own ranks, and that a proper approach to antisemitism on campus would be more targeted, rather than mass defunding research programs at prestigious universities.

“Their approach was way too crude, way too overblown, not targeted, not strategic and leads one to believe that antisemitism was something of a pretext in their solution. … The solution was not actually designed or narrowly tailored toward that problem,” she said. “As is often the case with Trump, he identifies a real problem, but then the solution is so over-broad and ideological and mismatched to the problem that people end up saying, ‘Well, there never really was a problem,’ and that’s wrong.”

She said she’s also worried that the Trump administration’s approach is going to “backfire,” make campus antisemitism worse and exacerbate on-campus tensions.

Asked about recent shifts in Democratic policy on Israel, Zalesne said that the party “has some work to do internally to be able to be a big tent, but not so big that we include policies and positions that are either antisemitic or harmful to minorities in the United States or elsewhere.”

She said that she would not support efforts to block offensive weapons sales or transfers to Israel, suggesting that such moves might make Israelis and Americans less safe, but she said the U.S. should use its influence over the Israeli government “toward peace, security and dignity for everybody in the region.”

Zalesne said the U.S. should “continue to be a strong voice, a strong influence in the region, to support the incredibly important U.S.-Israel relationship, and always back and guarantee the safety and security of Israel, and to work toward a dignified and economically prosperous future for Palestinians.”

She also said she supported the Trump administration’s decision to carry out military strikes on Iran in June, adding that Israel was also right to launch attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“I don’t agree with Donald Trump on much, but I was grateful for that move,” she said. To prevent Iran from rebuilding, Zalesne said the U.S. needs “constant vigilance and determination to act as needed” in the future, and to convey to the world that the U.S. “won’t permit a nuclear Iran.”

In addition to her work in the Jewish community, Zalesne worked in the White House and the Justice Department in the Clinton administration, started a nonprofit in D.C’s Adams Morgan neighborhood to support local first-generation college students and served as a deputy national finance chair for the Democratic National Committee.

After the 2024 election, she said that she “realized [the state of the country is] getting worse, not better, and no one is coming to save us, and we have to be the leaders we wish we had, so I decided to step up myself,” Zalesne told JI.

Zalesne was recently endorsed by former DNC Chair Jamie Harrison.

The candidate said she envisions a “bigger” role for the D.C. delegate than it has had in the past.

On the Hill, she said she’ll focus on traditional issues like protecting D.C.’s budget — which was slashed by Congress earlier this year — and protecting D.C’s autonomy.

Zalesne said that she wants to expand the delegate’s role off the Hill as well. She wants to work to “get the message about D.C. out and bring resources in,” by communicating to the whole country “the truth about who we are and what great strength we bring to the nation.” She said she also wants to work to bring in leaders from national business and philanthropic communities to work in the district.

She also argued that she’s the only candidate in the race with both the local and national experience and relationships to “deliver for D.C. on Day 1.”

Zalesne’s campaign says she’s breaking district records with her fundraising efforts — she raised $436,000 as of the end of September, many multiples of the $51,000 that Holmes Norton raised. But she’ll also be facing down several well-known D.C. city leaders who have entered the race since the last filing period.

But internal polling by D.C. City Councilmember Robert White’s campaign last month found Zalesne near the bottom of the pack, with just 1% support.

President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that Israel and the “Jewish lobby” have lost their influence in Washington and that Congress is “becoming antisemitic,” in a holiday message delivered to attendees at the White House’s annual Hanukkah party.

Trump expressed concern about the shift while delivering remarks from the East Room to a who’s who of lawmakers and prominent Jewish figures ahead of a ceremonial menorah lighting. The president repeatedly cautioned that the Jewish community and its allies “have to be very careful because bad things are happening” to Jewish people and to Israel’s global standing, citing the deadly attack on a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia, over the weekend and the denials of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. 

“You see what goes on in Australia. Or Oct. 7, how about Oct. 7? And then you have people that deny it ever happened. How about the people that deny, like they deny the Holocaust,” Trump said. 

In reference to a compilation of footage taken during the Oct. 7 attacks and shown to journalists, legislators and other officials, Trump said, “I saw tape that — I wish I never saw it. Actually, I wish I never saw it. … There’s no denying [what took place on Oct. 7], but then they’ll say, ‘Oh, the tape was a rigged tape. It was a tape that never existed. They made it up. It’s just propaganda.’ I don’t know if they believe it. I don’t think they believe it.”

“You have to be very, very careful. Bad things are happening and we’re not going to let that happen while I’m president,” he continued. “The DOJ and Harmeet [Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department], we’re not going to let it happen, but please, please be vigilant and careful because you have some bad people that are now in Congress.” 

The president discussed the changes to Israel’s political standing in the U.S. and the growing number of Israel critics on Capitol Hill, noting his late father’s relationship with the Jewish community in New York, something he mentioned throughout the speech. Trump told the crowd how he and his siblings “grew up respecting and loving Jewish people. You know, you don’t even think about it in Brooklyn and Queens.”

“If you go back 10, 12, 15 years ago at the most, the strongest lobby in Washington was the Jewish lobby. It was Israel. That’s no longer true. You have to be very careful,” Trump said. “You have a Congress in particular which is becoming antisemitic. You have AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)] plus three, you have those people. [Democratic Rep.] Ilhan Omar, she hates Jewish people. You have to be very careful because there’s been a big change.”

“My father would tell me: The most powerful lobby that there is in this country is the Jewish lobby. It’s the Israeli lobby. It’s not that way anymore. You have a lot of people in your way,” he added. “You have a lot of people that don’t want to help Israel. You have a lot of people in Congress that don’t like Israel. You have a lot of people in Congress that in a way … they hate Israel. They hate Israel.”

Trump admitted that the realignment against Israel and the American Jewish community’s inclusion in domestic politics came as a surprise to him.

“If you would have told me 15 years ago that that was possible, I would have said, there’s no way, there’s no way that’s possible, but it’s happening, and obviously, it’s getting progressively worse,” he explained. “Less so in the Senate, but the Senate’s starting also. You get glimmers, you know? When I’m in the back rooms talking to people, you get glimmers of statements that you say, ‘Whoa, where did that come from?’ So we have to be, we have to be very careful, because bad things are happening.”

Among the members of Congress in the crowd as the president spoke were Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-NJ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), David Kustoff (R-TN), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Max Miller (R-OH), Craig Goldman (R-TX) and Randy Fine (R-FL). Administration officials in attendance included Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick; White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf; Rabbi Yehouda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; and Harmeet Dhillon.

GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson; Fox News host Mark Levin; Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Norm Coleman, national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition; RJC CEO Matt Brooks; Israeli-American Council CEO Elan Carr; John Catsimatidis, a businessman and talk radio host from New York; far-right commentator Laura Loomer; constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz; former White House Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt; Avi Berkowitz, a former White House adviser during the first Trump administration; American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch; former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel; journalist Douglas Murray; Chabad’s Yossi Farro; RNC spokeswoman Liz Pipko; talk radio host Sid Rosenberg; rapper Kosha Dillz; and Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer were spotted at the gathering.

Michael Bornstein and Jerry Wartski, two Holocaust survivors in attendance, watched Trump deliver his remarks from the front of the audience.

Trump invited several guests on stage to offer brief messages of their own, including Adelson, Levin, Rosenberg and Pipko. Adelson, who Trump noted was a top donor in the 2024 cycle, told the crowd she had spoken to Dershowitz during the event about the constitutional viability of Trump seeking a third term. “I said, ‘Alan, I agree with you. Four more years.’ So, we can do it. Think about it,” Adelson told Trump, prompting the room to erupt in applause.

The event, which took place in the East Room amid ongoing construction in the East Wing, came one night after Vice President JD Vance held a Hanukkah gathering at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. It also came hours after the White House held an afternoon reception for a smaller group of Jewish attendees. Conservative commentator Josh Hammer and former Auburn University men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl were among those spotted at that gathering.

The band at the evening reception played a mix of orchestra renditions of Hanukkah songs and smooth jazz as guests mingled and admired the blue and white Hanukkah ornaments on the four large Christmas trees in the East Room, two at each entrance. 

The menorah lighting was led by Trump, Lutnick, Scharf and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). Trump revealed that he did not realize Scharf was a practicing Jew until hearing him recite the prayer so easily on stage.

“I didn’t know he was that Jewish,” Trump said to Scharf with a smile. “You are seriously Jewish.”

Shemtov thanked Trump for showing “solidarity with the Jewish people and Israel,” telling the president as he stood just off stage, “You don’t just express solidarity. You practice solidarity with the Jewish people. And you practice solidarity with Israel, perhaps in a way we’ve never seen before.” 

Trump’s support for the Jewish community, Shemtov said, was “to the extent that many people say and many people believe that you may very well be — even among the friends of Israel and the Jewish people we’ve had — the most, the strongest, the deepest friend that Israel, and the Jewish people have ever had here in the White House.”

Republican consultant Arie Lipnick hosted an afterparty following the official White House reception. Attendees included Kaploun, Shemtov, Fine, Singer, Adam and Ellen Beren, Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations William Daroff, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Rob Garson and Johnathan Burkan, former Deputy Special Envoys to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Aaron Keyak and Ellie Cohanim, NORPAC NY Chair Trudy Stern, Commerce General Counsel Pierre Gentin and Michael Oved from the White House Council of Economic Advisors.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who entered office in 2021 with a record of espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories and emerged since Oct. 7, 2023, as one of the most vocal opponents of Israel in the House Republican conference, announced on Friday that she will resign her seat, effective Jan. 5, 2026.

Greene’s announcement comes a week after President Donald Trump disavowed her, calling her a “traitor” and indicating that he would endorse a primary challenger, if a viable one emerged.

The Georgia congresswoman rose to political prominence due to her long history of promoting various antisemitic and otherwise fringe conspiracy theories. Greene was elected in spite of efforts from fellow Republicans to defeat her after she won the GOP primary in her district in 2020. She continued to face accusations of antisemitism during her time in office and repeatedly invoked a range of antisemitic tropes.

Though she initially cast herself as a supporter of Israel, she more recently flipped on the issue, now condemning the Jewish state, accusing it of genocide in Gaza and repeatedly attempting to pass measures to cut off all U.S. aid.

In her farewell message, Greene repeatedly railed against U.S. foreign engagement and “foreign interests.”

“Americans’ hard earned tax dollars always fund foreign wars, foreign aid, and foreign interests,” Greene said in a lengthy resignation letter. “America First should mean America First and only Americans First, with no other foreign country ever being attached to America First in our halls of government,” Greene said.

Jewish Republicans have long opposed the congresswoman, and the Republican Jewish Coalition repeatedly backed challengers to her. The RJC responded mockingly to her announcement with a gif of Trump waving, with the caption, “And we say bye bye.”

The controversial Georgia congresswoman spent much of her first term in office in the political wilderness, sidelined by her own party and expelled from her committee assignments by bipartisan House votes led by Democrats.

But she later emerged as a key ally of Trump in the House after Republicans retook the chamber in the 2022 midterms, and also became a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Greene’s influence waned, however, after McCarthy was booted from the speakership in 2023, and she has more frequently been relegated to the sidelines as a hard-right opponent of the House Republican leadership’s agenda. She contemplated a run for Senate or governor in Georgia, but Republican leaders declined to back those efforts.

In recent months, she has grown increasingly critical of key elements of the Republican and Trump agendas, including his support for Israel and attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025.

Following Trump’s break with Greene last week, she implied that Israel and pro-Israel interests had pressured him into disowning her.

In her resignation letter, Greene was defiant, insisting that she could beat back any primary challenger but saying that she did not want to put herself, her family and her district through such a challenge.

“I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene said. “And in turn, be expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me.”

She said that she is being cast aside by “MAGA Inc” to be replaced by “Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class.”

But she also teased plans for a political comeback. Greene has been rumored to have aspirations for a presidential run in 2028, something she has denied.

“When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington’s machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it,” Greene said.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), one of the few Jewish Republicans in the House, said on X, “One antisemite down. One to go.”

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.

During Jim Moran’s 24 years in Congress, the Virginia Democrat had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, particularly when it came to his Jewish constituents. 

In 2003, he blamed the Jewish community for President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, prompting several local rabbis to call for his resignation. Four years later he blamed AIPAC for the war. The blowback was so strong that when then-Sen. Barack Obama accepted Moran’s endorsement of his presidential campaign in 2008, he stated plainly that he disagreed with Moran’s views of the Jewish community. 

Moran retired from Congress in 2015, but the 80-year-old still walks the halls of Capitol Hill. Now, he’s there as a lobbyist — primarily as a registered foreign agent lobbying on behalf of the government of Qatar. 

He is a regular in the offices of high-ranking members of Congress and senators. And last month, during a House Education Committee hearing about antisemitism in higher education, Moran was conspicuously seated directly behind Robert M. Groves, the president of Georgetown University, which has a campus in Doha and has received more than $1 billion from the Gulf monarchy. 

“Jim is one of these guys that people seem to like on both sides of the aisle. He’s been able to keep in contact with a lot of members when needed,” Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who Moran hired to help represent Qatar, told Jewish Insider. 

A Georgetown source said Moran was not working with the university or sitting in one of Georgetown’s three allotted seats at the hearing. Still, there’s no doubt he is a highly influential foreign policy voice in Washington on behalf of a country with which America has a complicated relationship.

Qatar is a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., an official designation conferred by President Joe Biden, and is home to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. But it also has financial and diplomatic ties with Hamas and other terror groups. Qatar’s leaders say that is necessary so the country can maintain its role as a trusted mediator, while its critics say Qatar’s close relationship with Hamas makes it unlikely to put real pressure on the terror group to make a deal with Israel or to release the hostages. Some on Capitol Hill and in the pro-Israel community have expressed concerns that Qatar’s massive investment in American universities has fueled anti-Israel activism and antisemitism on campuses.

With a Boston accent leftover from his childhood, Moran has a penchant for talking tough — and acting tough, too. In the 1990s, at the start of his time in Congress, he occasionally threatened to brawl with fellow lawmakers, and once shoved another member of Congress off the House floor. 

Moran was an early and consistent critic of Israel, long before the wave of anti-Israel sentiment that has exploded on the far left over the past two years. He has kept up ties with Jewish leaders in Northern Virginia, but those relationships grew strained as Moran repeatedly criticized pro-Israel advocates and Jewish activists. 

“Jim is an extraordinarily compassionate man. He has trouble with suffering. His judgment about what constitutes suffering and who’s causing it is not always accurate, and so that has gotten him in a considerable amount of trouble over the course of his long political career,” said Rabbi Jack Moline, who served for 27 years as the rabbi at Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria. Moline met regularly with Moran until the rabbi called for Moran’s resignation in 2003, after Moran blamed Jews for the Iraq war, a comment the former congressman later said he “deeply regret[s].”

“His relationship with the Jewish community fell apart,” Moline told JI. “It didn’t surprise anybody when, after he finally did retire from Congress, he was offered and accepted work lobbying for Qatar.” He first registered as a lobbyist for Qatar in 2017. His firm, Moran Global Strategies, has been paid more than $2 million by Qatar in the last two years, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. A spokesperson for the Qatari Embassy did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Moran Global Strategies.

Though Moran expressed contrition for his antisemitic remarks during the lead-up to the Iraq war, his rhetoric toward the Jewish community has only grown more inflammatory in the decade since he left Congress. In recent years, he has appeared on several virtual panel discussions held by the Arab Organization for Human Rights in the U.K., a London-based NGO led by Mohammad Jamil Hersh, a former Hamas activist who has been sanctioned by Israel and was deported by the country more than three decades ago. In those conversations, he regularly blasted the influence of American Jews and the “pro-Israel lobby.”

During a February 2023 AOHR event, Moran tried to explain Washington’s support for “apartheid” in Gaza by pointing the finger at American Jews and suggesting that they are unduly involved in the American political system. 

“It’s about domestic politics and it always has been. The majority of people who contribute to the Democratic Party in America have Jewish surnames. Now think about that,” said Moran. He described them as people “whose principal reason for contributing to the political system in America has been the sine qua non of support for Israel, and unqualified support for Israel.” 

In this and several other interviews, Moran recognized that his language was rather impolitic.
“I don’t want to sound antisemitic, and Palestinians are a Semitic people,” Moran said. “I’m just saying that let’s deal with the political reality in the United States that’s driving and reinforcing the injustice that’s occurring within Palestine.”

Moran and his team have held dozens of meetings with members of Congress since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in 2023 that spurred the ongoing war in Gaza, mainly to talk about “Qatar’s role in the Middle East peace process,” according to documents he filed with the Justice Department as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act. At the same time, he has continued to question Jewish involvement in the American political system — including just days after Oct. 7, in a call hosted by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. 

“The reality is that campaign contributions have corrupted the United States Congress. One of the motivating factors is, ‘How do I please my political supporters, particularly my financial supporters?’ The reality is that the Jewish community, and frankly to their credit, is deeply engaged in the American political process,” Moran said in the MPAC call. “That’s one of the motivating factors that causes the Congress to look the other way where the Middle East is concerned.” 

Although he expressed skepticism about the supposed influence of American Jews in electoral politics, he encouraged Muslim, Palestinian and Arab Americans to increase their own influence. But his prognosis for their potential efficacy was grim. “I’m not sure they’re ever going to be able to successfully catch up,” Moran said. 

Even as Moran took aim at Jews’ participation in the political process, he routinely downplayed accusations of antisemitism that have been lobbed at him directly and at the broader anti-Israel movement. 

In September 2024, in another AOHR virtual briefing, Moran acknowledged that he would likely be called antisemitic for his comments accusing Israel of committing war crimes “daily” and for describing the situation in Gaza as “comparable to the Holocaust.” 

“Foreign aid going into committing war crimes on a daily basis because of the politics, because of the campaign financing, because of the control of the media — it’s inexcusable. It’s an indictment of what has become of this democracy,” said Moran, without saying who, exactly, he thinks controls the media. “It’s an indictment of the fact that our foreign policy has been Israeli-centric, and let me say one other thing so that people don’t particularly accuse me of being antisemitic, although I’m sure many will: Many of those protests across the country were led by Jewish students.”

This spring, after President Donald Trump returned to office and began targeting universities, Moran was dispatched to Capitol Hill to talk to Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about Qatar’s funding of American higher education, which has come under the microscope.

It is notable that one of the people tasked with advocating for a country that is close to both America and Hamas seems to have a deeply rooted hostility to Israel and even to American Jews, particularly at a moment when Qatar’s dealings in the U.S. are facing greater scrutiny — such as when Trump said earlier this year that the U.S. would accept a Qatari gift of a luxury jet to use as Air Force One.

But Qatar has a suite of lobbyists who span the political spectrum. Moran primarily deals with Democrats. Qatar has in the past also targeted hundreds of conservative “influencers” to reach Trump’s inner circle, and employs several Republicans as lobbyists. Partisan politics is at play, too; Democratic lawmakers blasted the Air Force One move, while Republicans fell in line behind Trump.

Several prominent Trump administration officials have ties to Qatar, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said in her January Senate confirmation hearing that she remains “very proud” of the lobbying work she did for Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy and chief negotiator, has a history of business dealings with the country. 

“If you take a look at the folks they’ve got representing them, they’ve been all over the lot on that issue. It’s certainly not a pro-Arab versus Israel issue,” said Davis, the Virginia Republican who works with Moran on the Qatar file. “There’s nothing there to indicate that their lobbyists have any kind of ideological bent on that issue.”

Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that Moran began lobbying for Qatar in 2017, not 2023. 

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), one of the most visible and well-known progressive Jewish lawmakers in Congress, last week became a cosponsor of the “Block the Bombs Act,” a bill led by far-left lawmakers that aims to severely restrict U.S. aid to Israel.

The bill would impose unprecedented new conditions on weapons sales or transfers to Israel, requiring specific congressional authorization for each individual transfer of various weapons systems, and would require Congress to identify specific purposes for which those weapons would be used. 

Critics say that it would effectively constitute an arms embargo for the key weapons in question.

Raskin has not issued any statement on his support for the bill, which aligns him with some of the most anti-Israel members of the House. Currently, 32 other lawmakers are cosponsoring the legislation, but Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, is among the most recognizable sponsors.

Three other progressive Jewish House members, Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Becca Balint (D-VT) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) are also backing the bill.

Raskin’s suburban Maryland district has a sizable Jewish population.

Raskin’s support for the bill adds to a growing record of similar positions since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, including voting against supplemental aid to Israel last year and signing onto a letter calling for the U.S. to withhold offensive arms transfers to Israel after a 2024 strike that killed World Central Kitchen aid workers.

He also joined a letter accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms sales law, which would require the U.S. to cut off aid, and another one arguing that Israeli operations in Rafah would violate U.S. arms sales policy.

In addition, Raskin led an effort to restore U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The Maryland Congressman called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Nov. 17, 2023.

Raskin also flipped earlier this year against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, after supporting it last year, calling it part of “Trump’s transparent moves to undermine American democracy under the banner of opposing antisemitism.” The legislation predates Trump’s time in office.

He was a vocal defender of Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, co-leading a letter which made no mention of Khalil’s alleged involvement with antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity.

At the same time, Raskin has continued to speak out against antisemitism and for the release of the hostages in Gaza.

Democrat Jeff Grayzel, a leader in northwest New Jersey Jewish communal organizations and deputy mayor of Morris Township, N.J., formally launched his congressional campaign this week, running as a staunchly pro-Israel candidate in the seat that will be vacated by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) if she wins the state’s gubernatorial race.

“I am a proud Jew and a proud Zionist, and I plan to run this race for Congress as such, as a proud Jew and as a proud Zionist. I am not going to shy away from it and everybody will know,” Grayzel said in an interview with Jewish Insider last week. “I think we need leaders that are going to be more bold in addressing antisemitism in our country, and we need leaders who are going to push harder for a comprehensive solution in the Middle East, so that Israel can once and for all live in peace.”

He formally filed to run for the seat, in the 11th Congressional District, on Tuesday, but has been publicly exploring a run for over a month. Grayzel said he will not run against Sherrill should she lose the gubernatorial race.

Grayzel, a two-term former mayor, is a board member of his local Jewish community relations council, chairs the local federation’s Jewish civic leadership initiative, is a founding member of its “community leaders against hate” program, is a member of his synagogue board and is a member of the Jewish Museum in New York City.

He said that the genesis for his campaign came in part during a talk at the Jewish Museum by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue. Cosgrove discussed the story of Purim and the way that Esther, its main protagonist, stepped up to change history.

“Rabbi Cosgrove challenged the audience of over 200 people to find a space in their life — because Jews are under attack on every front … to find a space in their life big or small where you have the opportunity to step into a moment where you can make a difference,” Grayzel said. “I used that as a calling for me to run for Congress.”

The House candidate described the Senate Democrats who voted last week to halt certain arms sales to Israel as “short-sighted” about “what Israel’s partnership in a big, broad sense means to our country, and the importance of having Israel as a continued ally.” 

He said that it also “saddens” him as an American and a Democrat to see the Democratic Party moving in an anti-Israel direction. 

“I’m going to go to Washington to try to steer the Democratic Party back to center,” Grayzel said — on a variety of issues. “Part of that is steering the Democratic Party back to understanding how important Israel is.”

He said that the U.S. should never condition aid to Israel or other allies.

“Hamas is evil, and they weaponized human suffering and continue to use civilians as human shields. And we wouldn’t be in the current mess if they hadn’t started the war and taken hostages, and if they released the hostages, we could come to a ceasefire,” Grayzel said. “They’re weaponizing their people, they’re weaponizing the food, and it’s a total tragedy.”

Grayzel said that his most central focus regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza is freeing the hostages. He says he frequently wears hostage dog tags and a hostage ribbon pin, and that every discussion he has about Israel “starts with bringing the hostages home.” He called for more pressure on Hamas and its backers.

He said that it’s important to focus on the fact that the war began and continues because of Hamas, that the war cannot end until the hostages are released and that Hamas’ attacks on Israel date back well before Oct. 7, 2023.

“Hamas is evil, and they weaponized human suffering and continue to use civilians as human shields. And we wouldn’t be in the current mess if they hadn’t started the war and taken hostages, and if they released the hostages, we could come to a ceasefire,” he continued. “They’re weaponizing their people, they’re weaponizing the food, and it’s a total tragedy.”

He said that the Israeli government has also failed in living up to the highest moral standards in providing humanitarian aid in Gaza. “We can’t let the situation in Gaza degrade to the point that we’ve let it degrade to. … It is clear that the people of Gaza are under duress. They’re not in their homes, they’re living in tents, and they’re hungry.”

But, he reiterated, “there’s going to be no end to this until the hostages are home.”

He said that his criticisms of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do not negate the fact that he still “love[s] Israel, because I think that healthy democracies and healthy relationships in general require that we speak out when we think something is wrong.”

He said that, despite his differences with Netanyahu, he believes that the prime minister deserves credit for Israel’s transformation into a leading global economy, though he added that Netanyahu’s current coalition is “disastrous.”

While in college, Grayzel studied abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and interned at Israel Aircraft Industries.

Grayzel said that, despite his disagreements with President Donald Trump, Trump deserves credit and gratitude for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, for the Abraham Accords, for using U.S. assets to defend Israel from Iranian attacks and for ordering strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“When they do things right, we need to acknowledge that they do things right,” Grayzel said. “I stand firmly behind President Trump’s order to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities.”

He described the U.S. and Israel as having done the “dirty work for the rest of the world to literally save Western civilization” from the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Grayzel said that, in the long term, he wants to see a regional peace plan to address conflicts throughout the region, including those between Israel and Iran and the Palestinians. He said he wants to see Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords and become “part of the solution” between Israel and the Palestinians. He said that comprehensive regional and global negotiations are necessary to permanently resolve the conflict.

He added that unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, as some U.S. allies plan to do, is not a real solution.

He also called for “maximum pressure” on the Iranian regime until it changes course, noting that the Iranian people are also victims of the regime’s governance.

Grayzel said more broadly that transitioning toward a sustainable energy economy will undermine U.S. adversaries like Russia and China, which rely heavily on oil and oil revenues. He said he also sees oil money as driving global Islamist radicalization efforts and as fueling antisemitic protests in the United States, including through funding anti-Israel Middle Eastern studies programs at U.S. colleges and universities.

“This is what’s funding all of this chaos around the world,” Grayzel said. “If we can reduce the demand for oil, we will reduce the dollars that these countries have to fund the terror. … [The world] will be a cleaner place, but it will also be a safer place when we are on clean energy.”

Grazyel said that the current antisemitism crisis in the United States is particularly personal to him because his son was a Columbia University student.

“I really think Columbia needed to be hit over the head. It’s unfortunate they were not listening to … parents, all of the communal organizations in New York City … none of it moved the needle, none of it. And it just continued on, day after day with no change,” Grayzel said. “Something needed to happen. And President Trump took the action. Whether he went too far, I think we’ll wait to see what happens. … But something needed to give with these universities.”

“He had to run a gauntlet to get onto campus,” Grayzel said. “Oftentimes, campus was shut down and he couldn’t go to the library. He had to endure the shouting and screaming and try really, really hard not to internalize it. But he had friends that would come home crying every day. They had cry sessions back in the dorm for these kids who just couldn’t take it anymore.”

He said he’s also been disturbed by antisemitism on campus at Rutgers, the New Jersey state university.

In contrast to many Democrats, Grayzel offered some praise for the actions the Trump administration had taken toward Columbia. 

“I really think Columbia needed to be hit over the head. It’s unfortunate they were not listening to … parents, all of the communal organizations in New York City … none of it moved the needle, none of it. And it just continued on, day after day with no change,” Grayzel said. “Something needed to happen. And President Trump took the action. Whether he went too far, I think we’ll wait to see what happens. … But something needed to give with these universities.”

He said he’s hopeful that Trump does not use such actions “as a cudgel in another way” and that Jews will not take the blame for universities losing funding. He said he does not believe in defunding universities permanently, in dismantling the Department of Education or in defunding scientific research at universities and elsewhere.

“I think we need to lean further into what our universities can do for us, but [they have] to be safe spaces for everybody,” he continued.

Grayzel testified before the New Jersey state legislature in support of legislation codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, a bill which has become a point of division among some Democrats.

“Synagogues being desecrated. Jews being attacked. This isn’t just happening in far away places. It’s happening right here and right now in New Jersey. This is not the vision of America that our country’s founders, many of whom came from this great state, had in mind,” Grayzel told the legislators. “We are on the precipice, and we must move quickly to ensure that New Jersey and all of America remain a place where all forms of hate are quickly and loudly condemned.”

He said that passing the bill would be the first step to send a message “that hate has no home in New Jersey.”

Grayzel told JI he wants to work with colleagues in Washington who don’t have sizable Jewish constituencies to help them better understand the challenges that Jewish Americans are facing, “to try to personalize the situation and make it feel real for them.”

“We need to condemn the phrase, ‘globalize the intifada,’” Grayzel said, calling the phrase “clearly hate speech.” “For [Mamdani] not to condemn that in a city that contains so many Jews is very, very scary.” 

“I think there needs to be a lot more bridge-building across the parties … on issues that affect all of us, and antisemitism is one of them,” he said. “It’s personal for me. I’m not just talking as a Jew who sees other Jews under attack. My family’s been under attack.”

Grayzel also said he’s been concerned by New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, noting that what happens in New York City has a “profound impact” on the Jewish community in northern New Jersey.

“We need to condemn the phrase, ‘globalize the intifada,’” Grayzel said, calling the phrase “clearly hate speech.” “For [Mamdani] not to condemn that in a city that contains so many Jews is very, very scary.” 

He added he’s concerned Mamdani’s refusal to forcefully condemn such rhetoric will create permission for other candidates to follow in his footsteps.

Grayzel argued that the 11th District special election — which would happen if Sherrill wins — will be one of the first major bellweathers of the Democratic Party’s direction after the New York City mayoral race. He said he hopes the upcoming elections will show there’s “space in the Democratic Party” for moderates like himself and Sherrill who will stand up against antisemitism.

He would likely face stiff competition in the race — Chatham Borough Councilman and Iraq veteran Justin Strickland has already filed to run, former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) has expressed interest in the race, and a slew of others are also seen as potential candidates

Grayzel was the first Democrat to win a local government race in his town since the early 1970s, and said he first ran for office because he was “pissed off” and believes that “it’s imperative for you to be part of the solution if you want to complain.” 

Democrats gained control of the city council in 2018, and Grayzel became mayor, which he said showed him “how much good you can do when you’re in a position of power.” He later ran, unsuccessfully, for state Senate in 2021. Now he says he sees an opportunity in Congress that he doesn’t want to let pass.

Outside of Israel and antisemitism, Grayzel said he anticipates leveraging his experience as an engineer to focus on building an innovation economy in the United States, which he said includes improving education and infrastructure. He said he wants to “[build] bridges” and be a “problem solver” in Washington.

He said he also wants to work toward immigration reform and find a way for long-term immigrants who have been living law-abiding lives in the country for years to receive permanent status. He said he wants to push Republicans to handle the immigration issue “in a humane way.”

Grayzel said that his focus on immigration is also derived from his Jewish values and the Jewish-American immigrant experience.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) questioned the Israeli government’s commitment to the U.S.-Israel alliance on Sunday following its decision last week to bar entry to two members of Congress.

“Congress has a duty to make decisions about whether we give aid, how we protect allies such as Israel with qualitative military edge. I don’t know why Netanyahu would want to deny members of Congress to come to Israel if they expect us to be that never-ending partner and friend,” Gillibrand said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” with Martha Raddatz. 

The 2020 presidential candidate also indicated that she would hold Israel “accountable” for its decision if she was president, although she didn’t illustrate what that meant. “I think our obligation, as an ally and as a friend is to hold them accountable when they’re wrong,” Gillbrand explained. “And I think any time you are undermining basic free speech rights and human rights you’re going in the wrong direction.” 

Gillibrand said it was unfortunate that Netanyahu’s government had passed a law to prevent supporters of the BDS movement from entering Israel “because in this country, we believe in free speech.”

Read Gillibrand’s comments in full below: 

Raddatz: I want to turn to Israel. Congressman Tlaib has said she will no longer travel there, even though Israel had said they would allow her to do that on humanitarian basis to visit her grandmother. She says she won’t do that now because of some of the demands that were put on her. Is that a mistake? Should she have gone because she wanted to originally go see her grandmother?

Gillibrand: “So, the tradition is for members of Congress — I have been to Israel several times as a member of Congress, and I brought a CODEL of Republicans and Democrats — Lindsey Graham was on my trip, Senator Hoeven, Amy Klobuchar. And we met with Netanyahu. And the point is, Congress has a duty to make decisions about whether we give aid, how we protect allies such as Israel with qualitative military edge. I don’t know why Netanyahu would want to deny members of Congress to come to Israel if they expect us to be that never-ending partner and friend.”

Raddatz: Well, they talk about the BDS movement…

Gillibrand: “Agreed. I understand…”

Raddatz: You don’t support that, so why is that enough?

Gillibrand: “Because in this country, we believe in free speech. In this country, we don’t deny people the right to participate in conversations about their views and their values. Unfortunately, Netanyahu has allowed a very conservative government to have a law that says if you support the BDS movement they can prevent you.”

Raddatz: Should there be repercussions for Israel?

Gillibrand: “I think our obligation, as an ally and as a friend is to hold them accountable when they’re wrong. And I think any time you are undermining basic free speech rights and human rights you’re going in the wrong direction.”

Raddatz: And how do you hold them accountable?

Gillibrand: “That’s what you do as president. President Trump is unwilling to hold anyone accountable. He’s unwilling to stand up to other world leaders. You’ve seen it with this instance of Israel, you’ve seen it with China, you’ve seen it with Russia. And he has really shrunk in the face of his responsibilities, unwilling to actually lead and to ask other world leaders to support and protect human rights.”

Thirty-four members of the 116th Congress previously served as mayors, 161 hold law degrees and 78 have served in the military. Only two are former NFL players. And one of those is Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a 34-year-old freshman Republican lawmaker from Ohio. 

Gonzalez, who visited Israel last week on a trip coordinated by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, sat down in Jerusalem with Jewish Insider to discuss his time in the Jewish state, his unorthodox path to Congress, his efforts to reach across the political aisle and his thoughts on the political future of his former teammate, Peyton Manning. 

“When I left the NFL I was never sure exactly what would translate to the rest of my life,” Gonzalez told JI last week in the lobby of the King David Hotel. “When you leave something like the NFL, the concern is always that you didn’t develop any skills that translate into the traditional business world, or the non-NFL world.” But in fact, he said, “there are unbelievable parallels, both from a campaign standpoint, but more importantly from [the standpoint of] how to work with people who you may not agree with.”

Gonzalez, the son of a Cuban immigrant father, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He played college football at The Ohio State University, and was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2007. In 2012 he signed with the New England Patriots, but was released several months later and opted to retire from the sport, going on to earn an MBA degree from Stanford. In 2018, when a congressional seat opened up in Ohio’s 16th district, Gonzalez beat out two Republicans in the primary and trounced Democrat Susan Moran Palmer in November. Since taking office in January, the congressman has regularly pursued bipartisan initiatives and worked closely with several Democrat lawmakers. 

“One flaw of American politics is that we simply do not sit together and talk through issues in a bipartisan way,” he said. “We do that in our silos, and then we come to the House floor and we argue like cats and dogs — it doesn’t make a bit of sense to me, but that’s what we do.” Gonzalez said that more conversations and discussions that reach across the aisle “will ultimately lead to better legislation and better lawmaking.”

Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) and Steve Cohen, (D-TN) are seen in Rayburn Building in January 2019.

One issue in particular that Gonzalez has been working on with a Democratic colleague is foreign election interference. He and fellow freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) have spearheaded a task force to address the role of foreign agents in spreading propaganda in the United States. 

“What we wanted to do was come together as a bipartisan group and push legislation that will hopefully protect our infrastructure and also force disclosure on certain entities who are broadcasting propaganda into our country,” he said, pointing in particular to Russian networks including Sputnik and Russia Today. “These are two entities that are sponsored and controlled by the Russian government,” he said. “And if they’re going to be broadcasting into the country on stories that are pure propaganda, I think they need to disclose who they are.”

Gonzalez said he is confident if and when legislation from the task force comes to the House floor, it will receive widespread support. 

“My belief is that this is one of those things that — when you read it and you understand the situation — you ask yourself, how is this not already a law?” he said. “I’m hopeful.”  

The freshman Republican spoke to JI just a week after the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio — a few hours from where he grew up. Gonzalez said he hopes that when Congress reconvenes in September, real action can be taken on the issue. 

“We need to have these debates,” he said. “Let’s put everything on the table and let’s work on things that are actually going to solve the problem. There are a lot of bills that we can talk about that will make us feel good, but probably won’t do much.”

Gonzalez added that “the one thing that I can guarantee is: If we do nothing, if we don’t work on our mental health issues, if we don’t have the debate about what sensible laws look like, nothing will change… If we don’t enact solutions, we’re going to be talking about this again in the not-too-distant future, and that’s horrifying.” 

The Ohio Republican would like to see progress made on red flag laws, where guns can be removed from people deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves and others. 

“To me it just makes sense that if there is an individual who is threatening, has deep mental illness, is showing all kinds of signs that they are going to commit one of these mass murders, then I think we need to have the system where you are able to take the weapons away from that person and potentially commit them to an asylum of some sort,” he said. “We need a mechanism to step in and make sure that nothing horrible happens.”

And Gonzalez is aware that the issue of gun safety is a critical one to many American Jews, particularly in the wake of two fatal synagogue shootings in the past year. He said he has asked Jewish friends in his district: “‘Do you feel safe going to synagogue? Do you feel secure in the community?’ And the reality is a lot of them don’t right now, and security costs and insurance costs are going through the roof for a lot of our synagogues because of these attacks.”

Gonzalez said it is “shocking that we’re dealing with this in our country in 2019, but at the same time, I believe that we have a cultural sickness that is manifesting itself in a whole host of places. And unfortunately, antisemitism is one of those places.” He posited that there is no “quick fix” to the issue, but “there are things we can do from a funding standpoint to help provide security to make sure that… our Jewish brothers and sisters can worship in peace.”

While Gonzalez has criticized President Donald Trump — calling his attack on “the Squad” last month “wildly inappropriate” — he mostly tries to steer clear of the constant partisan squabbling. 

“This job is about making law. That’s fundamentally what my job is,” he said. “My job is to advocate for policies that are going to benefit my district. And so that is what I focus all of my time and energy on. I’m somebody who doesn’t find… the tweeting and the 24-hour cable news cycle to be one that is particularly productive for lawmaking. I actually think it’s a complete disaster.” Gonzalez said he deleted his personal Twitter account from his phone “about a month ago. And I am so much happier. Twitter is a complete cesspool.” 

Wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez #11 of the Indianapolis Colts runs a pass pattern against the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium on November 30, 2008.

Gonzalez’s visit to Israel this month was his first to the country, and an opportunity he immediately jumped to take.  

“The Middle East is a complicated place, and I think it’s incumbent on all members of Congress to understand the issues in the Middle East, understand who our friends are, who our allies are, what the state of play is and how we can partner forward,” he said. “Not to mention that I’ve always wanted to come here for its historical significance, religious significance and geopolitical significance.”

The freshman congressman pointed to the group’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, discussing ways Israel can partner with the U.S. on tech innovation and cyber security, as a highlight of the trip. 

“We had a great discussion about where the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship can go,” Gonzalez said of the meeting. “He spoke eloquently about our ability to partner on cyber security, on big data and machine-learning initiatives specific to the intelligence community, but also the armed forces. And that makes perfect sense because Israel is so unbelievably innovative as a country and is so far ahead of the curve… when it comes to innovating on our technological future.”

One area that wasn’t much discussed in the sit down with Netanyahu? Peace or Palestinians. 

“We didn’t get into that as much,” Gonzalez said. “We focused primarily on the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

The Ohio lawmaker chose to skip the delegation’s visit to Ramallah after learning that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opted not to meet with the Republicans, despite meeting a similar Democratic delegation a week earlier. 

But Gonzalez said he and his wife, Elizabeth, took time to explore the city of Jerusalem and meet average citizens. 

“I’ve done that a handful of times throughout this trip,” he told JI. “I went for dinner one night with my wife and then we walked into the shopping areas and just talked to people. And I felt like I got a pretty well-rounded perspective on Israel.”

Gonzalez and Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) — who was also on the recent AIPAC trip — are the only former NFL players currently in Congress, but could more be joining the ranks soon? Peyton Manning, Gonzalez’s former Colts teammate, contributed to the Republican’s congressional campaign in 2018. And rumors that the legendary quarterback could enter politics himself continue to abound.

“He’s too smart for that,” Gonzalez said with a laugh. “He won’t. He’s not gonna run… he would win unquestionably, without a doubt… he’s an incredible competitor and he’s very smart. So I think he would do very well if he wanted to. But I would put the odds of him jumping into politics at zero.”