Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), an influential member of the conservative wing of the House Republican Conference, said in an interview with Jewish Insider last week that Israel stands in a unique place among U.S. allies and that the U.S. should always be ready to assist Jerusalem when it needs help.

Asked after a recent trip to Israel about potential additional avenues for Congress to support Israel, including future aid packages, Jordan described Israel as “in a category all by themselves.”

“When they need help, we should be helping Israel because there’s this special bond that exists between the Jewish people and Americans, and Israel and the United States. It’s just a special relationship. And a lot of it is because of the Judeo-Christian connection and heritage that we have,” he continued.

The Ohio Republican, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, helped found the right-wing Freedom Caucus in 2015, and went on to gain influence and support across the GOP conference. 

Johnson was nominated three times for House speaker during the protracted Oct. 2023 speakership fight, but Republicans later withdrew the nomination amid continued opposition from some Republican moderates and pragmatists. Jordan, an ally of President Donald Trump, is seen as still having House leadership ambitions.

While he’s a skeptic of aid to Ukraine, Jordan has voted consistently in favor of U.S. aid to Israel, even as a group of Freedom Caucus members, including the group’s then-chairman, opposed U.S. aid to Israel last year unless paired with other funding cuts. Jordan also voted in favor of U.S. aid to Taiwan.

Jordan led a delegation of House Republicans to Israel last month, his first visit to the Jewish state since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Jordan said that the “resiliency of the Jewish people and the miracle that is the nation of Israel” was all the more evident during this visit, particularly when the group visited the sites of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacres.

“The other big takeaway for me was just how different the Middle East is now” due to Israel’s operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran and the fall of Assad in Syria, Jordan added. “It was just a terrible tragedy what happened on the 7th of October a year and a half ago, but since then, there’s been a change, and I feel like Israel’s in a stronger position now.”

Jordan said that it’s “obvious” that a two-state solution should be a thing of the past.

“That’s just not going to fly,” Jordan said. In order to have a two-state solution, “you’ve got to have each state want to work with the other … The Palestinians’ stated goal is to destroy the country of Israel. You just can’t do that.”

Regarding the future of Gaza, Jordan said that the U.S. should let Israel take the lead in plotting the path forward.

“All I know is that you cannot allow this terrorist organization to run that area and the president’s been clear he doesn’t want that either,” Jordan said. “I think we should be supportive of Israel.”

Asked about how the U.S. should approach Iran and its growing nuclear program, including Trump’s discussions of a nuclear deal and a potential Israeli strike, Jordan said Israel has “made clear Hamas is not going to be back in power in Gaza” and that it “is not going to let Iran get nuclear capability.” 

“In my mind, that’s just a matter of fact, and that’s exactly the right position,” Jordan said. He spoke to JI prior to Trump’s revelation last week that he had sent a letter to Iranian leaders proposing talks over the regime’s nuclear program.

Jordan said that Oct. 7 and its aftermath were pervasive themes in every conversation he had in Israel, particularly with the anticipated release of the bodies of the Bibas family during the visit. He also said that visiting holy sites in Jerusalem was “truly amazing.”

Speaking to JI before the recent outbreak of sectarian violence in southern Syria that has left hundreds of civilians dead, Jordan said that a “wait-and-see” approach is necessary regarding the new Syrian government. He said it is a positive development that the supply line from Iran to Lebanon through Syria has been cut off, but said new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s terrorist background is concerning. 

He said that Turkey’s intentions and influence in the new Syrian regime are another “wrinkle.”

Jordan said that there’s also “real optimism” in the region that the Trump administration can build on the Abraham Accords and potentially bring in Saudi Arabia, adding that potential concessions from the U.S. as part of such a deal are up to Trump. Jordan argued that the Trump administration’s decision to override longstanding conventional wisdom to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem had created the “foundation” for the Abraham Accords.

“Suddenly people said, ‘Wow this is different,’” Jordan said. “And the president jumped out of this framework of ‘you have to work on the two-state Palestinian-Israel issue.’”

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans penned a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Thursday to request that he hold a hearing on how the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses is violating the civil rights of Jewish students. 

The letter was led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the top Republican on the committee, and signed by every Republican who serves on the panel, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). They urged Durbin, who chairs the committee, to convene a hearing “on the civil rights violations of Jewish students” and “the proliferation of terrorist ideology — two issues that fall squarely within this Committee’s purview.”

“With this current state of inaction, it is incumbent upon this Committee to shed light on these civil rights violations,” the group wrote. “This Committee owes it to Jewish students, and all students who attend universities with modest hope of having a safe learning environment, to examine these civil rights violations.”

“Our committee should examine why more is not being done to protect the civil rights of innocent students across America,” they added. “We must also examine the threat to national security posed by the proliferation of radical Islamist ideology in the academy. These pressing issues demand our immediate attention.”

A spokesperson for Durbin did not immediately respond to JI’s request for comment on the letter, which came the same day as a missive from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) requesting a similar hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. 

Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, sent a letter to Sanders on Thursday urging him to convene a hearing in his capacity as committee chairman on the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses. 

Cassidy’s letter, first obtained by Jewish Insider, marks the second time in six months that the Louisiana senator has written to Sanders requesting that he allow for a full committee hearing “on ensuring safe learning environments for Jewish students, as required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Cassidy released a statement last week re-upping his call for a hearing, though he told JI that effort got no response.

“It is our duty to ensure federal officials are doing everything in their power to uphold the law and ensure students are not excluded from participation, denied the benefits of, or subject to discrimination at school based on race, color, or national origin,” Cassidy wrote to Sanders. “In the six months since my last letter requesting a hearing, the situation has only gotten worse.”

While Republicans have generally been more vocal about their concerns on the issue of antisemitism on college campuses, there have been bipartisan calls for action in the upper chamber. 

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) have also asked Sanders to hold a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses in his capacity as HELP chairman. Similar to Cassidy, they have also not heard back from the Vermont senator. 

Separately, Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) requested a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s response to protests at The George Washington University’s campus this week. 

The duo penned a letter on Thursday to Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chairs the committee, requesting he bring in Bowser and D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith to testify on their respective responses to university requests to bring DCMP onto campus to clear out an anti-Israel encampment, requests Bowser denied. 

On the House side, where Republicans are in the majority, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) launched a chamber-wide effort to address all elements of the campus unrest. 

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the Education and Workforce Committee, revealed that in addition to her ongoing probes, she will have the presidents of three other schools testify next month on their responses to protests and instances of antisemitism on their campuses. The presidents of the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; and Yale University will be brought in to testify before Foxx’s committee on May 23. 

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that her panel “oversees agencies that dole out massive amounts of taxpayer funded research grants… We will be increasing our oversight of institutions that have received public funding and cracking down on those who are in violation of the Civil Rights Act.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that his panel was reaching out to the State Department and Homeland Security Department to find out “how many students on a visa have engaged in the radical activity we’ve seen now day after day on college campuses.”