Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, in a speech to the Knesset on Monday, warned the American right about the dangers of rising antisemitism within its ranks.

“I stand here in Jerusalem to sound an alarm,” Illouz said. “We are used to enemies from the outside … but today, I look at the West — our greatest ally — and I see a new enemy rising from within.” 

Illouz, who was born and grew up in Montreal, took the unusual step of speaking from the lectern in English.

The right-wing lawmaker called for American conservatives to reject what he called the “poison” of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, mentioning the podcasters by name. 

“They claim to fight the ‘woke left.’ They are no different than the woke left,” Illouz argued. “The woke left tears down statues of Thomas Jefferson, the woke right tears down statues of Winston Churchill … It is the same hatred of the West dressed up in a different costume.”

He noted Carlson’s praise for World War II revisionism: “[Carlson] nods along when he’s told the Holocaust was a logistical error, a mistake by a camp that was unprepared. This is madness. He spits on the graves of American soldiers who stormed Normandy. … Why? To erase the line between good and evil.”

Owens, Illouz said, “spreads the sickest blood libels … claiming this state was founded by ‘pedophiles.’”

“She does not know history; she does not know the Bible,” Illouz added. “She only knows how to peddle hate.”

Illouz said that his message for Carlson, Owens and their ilk is that “we are the people of eternity. We buried the pharaohs who enslaved us. We buried the Greeks who tried to ban our Torah. We buried the Romans who burned our temple. We danced on the ruins of the Third Reich. And we will be here long after your YouTube channels are forgotten dust.”

“You think your lies can break the bond between America and Israel? You are small. This bond is giant,” Illouz stated.

The alliance between the U.S. and Israel is about shared values between “two nations who hold the torch of liberty while the rest of the world falls into darkness,” he said.

“Together we protect the values of freedom, democracy and the Bible against the barbarians at the gates,” Illouz added.

The Likud lawmaker implored American supporters of Israel not to accept defeat.

“The story of America and Israel is not over. It is just beginning. We have achieved miracles together, and we will achieve greater miracles yet,” he said. “Reject the lies. Stand with us, because when we stand together, Jerusalem and Washington, no force on earth can defeat us. Am Yisrael Chai.”

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.

Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, on Thursday became the latest Virginia politician to weigh in on antisemitic comments by state lawmaker Sam Rasoul. Without naming Rasoul directly, Hashmi appeared to criticize his language, which has been described as antisemitic by several leading Jewish organizations in the state.

“The rise in antisemitism has created real fear in communities across Virginia — and it cannot be ignored or dismissed; instead it must be condemned clearly, consistently and without caveat,” Hashmi wrote in a post on X on Thursday. “As a Muslim, I know what it feels like when an entire community is scapegoated for the actions of a few. No group should be vilified, targeted, or dehumanized. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and all forms of hate have no place in our communities — they are an affront to our shared values.”

As chair of the Virginia Senate’s education committee, she works closely with Rasoul, who chairs the education committee in the House of Delegates. Hashmi was the first Muslim elected to the Virginia state Senate, and Rasoul is one of two Muslim lawmakers in the House. Hashmi faced a public rebuke from the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond last year after hosting a hearing about anti-Israel protests on college campuses, which she had praised publicly. 

In a July Instagram post, Rasoul described Zionism as “evil” and said it is a “supremacist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way.” His rhetoric earned condemnation from former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and her Republican opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, as well as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). 

Rasoul has stood by his attack against Zionism.

“While there are many who aspire for Zionism to be a safe place for a homeland for Jewish people, the reality is the manifestation of that has produced apartheid — and now, as human rights orgs in Israel have claimed, a genocide in Gaza,” Rasoul told Semafor on Thursday. 

Later, Rasoul provided additional commentary to the Virginia Scope, a political newsletter in the state, doubling down on his claims that Zionism has made “the world less safe for my Jewish friends,” as he wrote on Instagram last month.

“The court of public opinion has shifted that this is clearly a genocide, so the default is anyone critical of the genocide must be antisemitic,” Rasoul said. “I will continue working hand-in-hand with our Jewish brothers and sisters who are fundamentally less safe because they have taken antisemitism and unfortunately used it so loosely that when there’s true antisemitism that we must counter, it’s difficult for the public to determine what’s really going on, and so we need to be better stewards and try to defend against all hate.”

A top Senate lawmaker indicated on Thursday that he’s open to resumed U.S. involvement in the campaign against the Houthis, amid a ramp-up of the group’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Israel that comes two months after the U.S. and the Houthis reached a ceasefire that ended the American bombing campaign against the group.

The Iran-backed Yemeni terrorist group has attacked and sunk two cargo ships passing through the Red Sea this week, killing several members of the ships’ crews and wounding and kidnapping others. The Houthis have also launched new strikes on Israel.

“The Houthis need to be totally eliminated,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Jewish Insider. “They have no purpose other than to kill free people.”

Asked if the U.S. should become involved directly against the Houthis again, Wicker said, “I wouldn’t rule that out.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told JI that if the Houthis continue to block Red Sea shipping, “we’ve got to figure out a path forward on how to respond. It can’t be a long-term thing for ships to go around the Horn of Africa.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he wouldn’t, at this point, discuss possible American action, but emphasized that any Houthi activity has Iran’s hand behind it.

“The Houthis have decided the war against Israel is not over, and that doesn’t happen without Iranian support,” Lankford said, noting Iran’s assistance in providing intelligence, training and arms to the Yemeni terror group. “That would tell me Iran’s not done with their acts of terrorism in the region. … We have to decide, and Israel has to make a determination — as they have, of late — to be very, very clear. And Israel has carried out additional strikes on the Houthis to try to make that stop.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said, “I’m not sure what our interests are there right now, but most certainly, we have told them in the past that if they want to have a ceasefire, we’ll support a ceasefire. If they want to get back in the middle of it, I suspect that the administration may very well have a response to that.”

He said that he couldn’t discuss the possibility of a U.S. response without having been briefed on the situation.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) said he would need to think further about what circumstances would require American intervention.

“You’ve seen their main source, of Iran, be taken offline,” Budd told JI. “It remains to be seen what Iran is going to do in connection with the Houthis, but they’re a malevolent force that needs to be dealt with.”

Asked for comment on whether the Houthis’ strikes violated the group’s ceasefire with the U.S. or what might prompt further American action against the terrorist organization, the White House referred JI to a State Department press release condemning the attacks.

“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. “The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community.”

A Syrian diaspora conference in a meeting room in a House office building was abruptly canceled on Monday after a lawmaker raised concerns about the group and its leadership, sources familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider.

The group, the Alawites Association of the United States, which presents itself as a representative of the Alawite religious minority group whose members have been targeted by forces aligned with the new Syrian government, hosted the event in coordination with other Syrian-American organizations. The event initially began as planned on Monday.

A member of Congress reserved the room on the group’s behalf, but that member withdrew their sponsorship on Monday after the event had begun, a source said. Per House policy, the group would have been required to leave the room once it lost that sponsorship.

The Alawites Association denied that the event had been canceled and told JI in a message that the conference had adjourned as planned to hold meetings with members of Congress. The group said that additional sessions were scheduled for Tuesday morning, but those events took place off of Capitol Hill.

In the days before the conference, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) wrote to the chair and ranking member of the Committee on House Administration urging them to intervene to cancel the event.

Wilson argued in his letter that the leadership of the Alawites Association was “seeking to exploit” the situation of religious minorities in Syria and would ultimately undermine efforts to address it.

He highlighted that the president of the group had volunteered with a charitable group sanctioned by the European Union and Switzerland for its relationship with Assad regime-aligned militias. The charity was led by former President Bashar al-Assad’s wife.

Wilson also noted that the group’s counsel had shared Facebook posts claiming that an Israeli hostage had been safer in Hamas’ hands and describing the Houthis as the “ONLY people fighting for Palestine.” 

“In the past events by antisemitic guests have been stopped from receiving a platform in the U.S. Capitol complex, I urge you to look into this event,” Wilson wrote.

The Alawites Association pushed back over the weekend against efforts to shut down the conference. It posted a statement on Saturday condemning “the coordinated incitement campaign targeting our participation” in the Capitol Hill conference and decrying “false and defamatory accusations … attempting to smear AAUS and its members as remnants of the fallen regime or agents of division. These lies are not merely slander—they are veiled threats, aimed at silencing American voices through fear and intimidation.”

They claimed the supposed campaign bore “all the hallmarks of jihadist and extremist efforts to intimidate Syrian minority groups.”

They also claimed that there had been “deliberate efforts to create confusion about our organization by publicly associating AAUS with individuals who have no affiliation with us” to “mislead the public and distort the nature and mission of our work.”

The group has also clashed with Wilson directly in the past over his meeting with a different Alawite leader whom the Alawite Association described as a terrorist affiliate who did not represent the community.