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.

By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff

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