The Congressional Progressive Caucus organized an “emergency convening” on Saturday evening for members to receive a briefing on Iran from the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi and former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes, according to an invitation obtained by Jewish Insider.

CPC members have been largely unified in condemning the U.S. strikes on Iran.

Parsi, a cofounder of the National Iranian American Council, has long faced accusations of being overly cozy with and supportive of the Iranian regime, while Rhodes has come under scrutiny for his hostility toward Israel — a stance that earned him the nickname “Hamas” inside the Obama White House.

Throughout the first day of the war, Parsi was vociferous in condemning the attack, characterizing it as a U.S. operation in service of “Israel’s war” and condemning a variety of international actors, particularly in Europe, that he said have failed to respond forcefully enough and he claimed are acting as “vassals” of the U.S. and Israel.

He has further suggested that the public in Arab states are rallying around Iran, despite the forceful and united condemnation of Iran’s indiscriminate strikes across the region by all Gulf countries. 

Parsi also highlighted a strike on a girls’ school in Iran which killed dozens, according to Iranian media, though the source of the missile has not been determined. He claimed such incidents would make a civilian uprising in Iran less likely. 

Rhodes has also forcefully condemned the operation. “A war that has no domestic or international legal basis. A war that Americans do not support. A war in response to no imminent threat. A pointless war,” Rhodes said in response to the attack. “Trump and Netanyahu seem to be totally unconcerned about the human beings — on all sides — who will suffer.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the former chair of the House Progressive Caucus who has been a leading supporter of efforts to block weapons sales to Israel, is set to join the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Democratic leadership announced on Tuesday.

Jayapal will join Reps. George Latimer (D-NY), Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), Julie Johnson (D-TX) and Sarah McBride (D-DE) as the new Democratic members of the key House committee.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Jayapal has repeatedly voted against legislation to support Israel, counter Iran and combat antisemitism, including supplemental U.S. aid for Israel’s war effort, and has called on the U.S. to withhold aid, accusing Israel of violating arms sales law and serious human rights violations.

Weeks after the Hamas attack, Jayapal voted present on a widely bipartisan resolution expressing support for Israel and condemning Hamas, even though she initially sponsored it. She was among the earliest lawmakers to call for a cease-fire, sponsoring a resolution to that effect on Oct. 18, 2023.

She also faced accusations that she had equivocated about or downplayed Hamas’ use of sexual assault as a weapon of war in public comments. 

Prior to Oct. 7, Jayapal described Israel as a “racist state,” comments she walked back under criticism from Democratic leadership, and suggested that the Progressive Caucus might ban members from taking funding from the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel. She also voted against a resolution supporting the Abraham Accords and the U.S.-Israel relationship and pushed for the State Department to consider controversial alternative definitions of antisemitism.

She suggested as early as 2020 that the U.S. should consider conditioning aid to Israel if it pursued annexation of the West Bank.

She has also led efforts to restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and opposed U.S. strikes against the Houthis as unconstitutional.

Outside of Middle East policy, in 2022, Jayapal led Progressive Caucus members on a letter calling for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine for a peace deal that was quickly disavowed by some of its key signatories.

Jayapal did not immediately provide comment. 

Latimer, also joining the committee, was elected on a staunchly pro-Israel platform — ousting anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) — with the support of the large Jewish community in Westchester, NY. He voted last week in favor of sanctions on the International Criminal Court. 

Olszewski also ran on a pro-Israel platform and has ties to the Maryland Jewish community. He voted against the ICC sanctions but signed a letter to the ICC condemning its efforts to arrest Israeli leaders, as did Johnson and McBride.

In her campaign, McBride also expressed strong support for Israel, a stance that earned her the particular ire of some in the progressive community.

Johnson holds the seat of Rep. Collin Allred (D-TX), a former HFAC member.

Elsewhere, Democrats announced that Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Eric Sorensen (D-IL), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), George Whitesides (D-CA), Derek Tran (D-CA), Eugene Vindman (D-VA) and Wesley Bell (D-MO) will join the Armed Services Committee.

Crow has repeatedly led letters accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms sales law.

Among the freshmen members, Cisneros and Bell voted for the ICC sanctions, while Cisneros, Elfreth, Tran and Vindman voted against. Whitesides was not present for the vote.

Vindman, a former military war crimes prosecutor and investigator, ran as a supporter of Israel but has also called for caution in Israeli military operations. He was one of the leaders of the letter condemning the ICC arrest warrants. Cisneros, Sorensen, Goodlander and Elfreth all signed it as well.

Goodlander, the wife of Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, is a former congressional national security adviser and intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves, who conducted research fellowships in the Middle East. She expressed support for Israel and continued U.S. aid on the campaign trail.

Elfreth received support from the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project super-PAC and said she opposes conditions on U.S. aid, though she appeared to indicate support for such efforts at a candidate forum last year. A spokesperson said after that event that she supports the existing, universally applicable regulations on U.S. aid, not new conditions.

Bell ran on a staunchly pro-Israel platform, with support from St. Louis’ Jewish community, to oust anti-Israel former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).

Reps. Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA) and John Mannion (D-NY) are set to join the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the committee that investigated campus antisemitism.