Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) condemned as antisemitic an ad running in New York’s suburban 17th Congressional District that targets him for his support for Israel and for receiving support from pro-Israel donors.

“This ad is a disgrace,” Lawler said in a statement. “This kind of politics has no place in the Hudson Valley. I am calling on every candidate running in NY-17 to publicly and unequivocally denounce this ad immediately. Silence is an endorsement.”

The advertisement, paid for by the Institute for Middle East Understanding, attacks Lawler for supporting U.S. aid to Israel, claiming that such aid is depriving Americans of government-funded benefits programs.

“Israelis enjoy universal healthcare, while Americans go bankrupt from medical bills,” the ad’s narrator states. “Lawler’s reward? Giant campaign donations from AIPAC and the pro-Netanyahu lobby.”

It concludes, over an image of Lawler standing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Who does Mike Lawler work for? It’s not you.”

Lawler said in his statement, “The IMEU attacks anyone who stands with Israel, opposes terrorism, refuses to bow to their radical agenda, and traffics antisemitic tropes.”

The 17th District, one of Democrats’ top targets in November, has a sizable Jewish population and many pro-Israel swing voters, which have been key to Lawler’s past victories.

“I disavow this ad and any outside meddling in our race here in NY-17,” Beth Davidson, one of the leading Democratic candidates in the race. 

“Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike can unite in opposition to Mike Lawler’s record of cutting healthcare, gutting food assistance and even cosponsoring legislation to allow Donald Trump to push his insane Greenland acquisition” Davidson continued. “We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric like this at a time when Jewish New Yorkers, my family included, already face a rise in antisemitism. This ad does nothing to make us safer or allow our community to heal. Let’s focus on what the Hudson Valley needs to thrive, which is housing, healthcare and economic opportunity.”

Mark Treyger, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, likewise characterized the ad as antisemitic.

“Expressing foreign policy disagreements alone is not antisemitic,” Treyger said. “However, advancing a shameful and hateful trope of Jews siphoning public resources for their own benefit is classic antisemitism. Disgraceful.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter on Thursday to the National Education Association accusing the largest teachers’ union in the country of a “deeply troubling” pattern of antisemitism within its ranks.

“The Jewish people have suffered assaults on their identity, religion, culture, and lives for millennia. Disturbingly, we are witnessing a rise in antisemitic sentiment across the Western world, including in the United States,” Cassidy wrote. “Let me put it plainly: antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place within our society, especially at our K-12 schools, higher institutions of learning, workplaces, and within unions.”

Cassidy said that the NEA has “lost sight” of its congressionally chartered purpose, adopting a “misplaced” focus on “political activism, foreign policy, and environmental and social justice causes” and becoming “hostile” to Jewish NEA members.

The letter lists out a litany of incidents including a map sent in a mass email to three million NEA members describing the entire land of Israel as “indigenous” Palestinian territory and linking to resources from Hamas-supporting organizations, an attempted boycott of the Anti-Defamation League and reported harassment of Jewish delegates at the NEA’s national conference.

It also raises concerns about a series of provisions included in the 2025 NEA handbook, including language about Holocaust Remembrance Day that “significantly glossed over and failed to mention the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people under the Nazi regime”; one-sided language on the “Palestinian Nakba” that fails to acknowledge Arab attacks on Jews or the United Nations’ role in Israel’s founding; and language that aims to separate anti-Zionism from antisemitism.

Cassidy said that Jewish NEA members have informed the committee that they “are feeling increasingly threatened and ostracized” by the NEA’s “seeming indifference” to them, have been blocked from leaving the national NEA and have had no recourse to address these issues.

NEA representatives at schools have been “increasingly hostile” to Jewish teachers as well, Cassidy said, targeting them for supporting Israel, denying the Oct. 7 attacks and downplaying and denying antisemitism.

Cassidy said the NEA has repeatedly failed to properly and fulsomely apologize for these incidents. In one case, he said, “the NEA’s retroactive statement appears to be a sloppy, insincere, and reactionary attempt [to] move on from its unacceptable behavior.”

Cassidy put forward dozens of questions to the organization, including the process that allowed for the anti-Israel map to be sent out and whether those involved had been held accountable, the NEA’s response to Jewish members who were harassed and the approval process for the handbook language, and how and why it has responded — or not responded — to antisemitism, among various others.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the lead Senate sponsor of legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, criticized members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for voting to modify the House version of the bill, removing key provisions requiring the designation of Muslim Brotherhood branches and the organization as a whole as a terrorist group.

“Last week, frustratingly, the House version of my bill was advanced but terminally weakened by the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Cruz said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday. “They took out the ‘designation’ part of the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act. The Senate should do better, and we should move the full bill on our side.”

Cruz suggested that some House lawmakers “did not believe that Congress should have a role in crafting sanctions, which are to be implemented by the executive.” He said he considers that argument “specious” and that most Senate colleagues agree.

A spokesperson for the House Foreign Affairs Committee insisted they remain aligned with both Cruz and the Trump administration, when asked about his comments. 

“We are in full support of the administration designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. That process is well underway. We are in lockstep with Sen. Cruz’s goal and look forward to reviewing his bill once it passes the Senate,” the spokesperson said.

Cruz’s remark came as he questioned Gregory LoGerfo, the acting coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, who has been nominated to fill that position in a permanent capacity. LoGerfo is a career State Department official who has filled the acting role since January.

LoGerfo affirmed his commitment to tackling the Muslim Brotherhood, explaining that the U.S. has had concerns about the group “over decades,” particularly following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, and said that it poses a threat to the United States.

Though the Trump administration’s executive order does not require designating the entire Muslim Brotherhood or require officials to assess every branch of the organization for terrorist activity — as Cruz’s bill does — Cruz described his bill and the executive order as pursuing the same goal.

“The president’s executive order is part of a broader ‘bottom-up’ strategy to designate Muslim Brotherhood chapters and then evaluate designating the global Muslim Brotherhood,” Cruz asserted at the hearing, echoing comments he made in a statement to JI earlier this week.

LoGerfo affirmed that the specific branches that the executive order instructs the administration to evaluate are a “first step” toward taking broader action against the Muslim Brotherhood.

During his opening statement, LoGerfo also warned that, “in addition to the global jihadi network, antisemitism and anti-government animus have become significant motivating factors in today’s terrorist threat environment.”

And, he added, “although Iran has been greatly weakened, Tehran and its terror proxies, including the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas, continue to destabilize the Middle East and show interest in expanding their reach to regions.”

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.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) would need to reject antisemitism and other forms of bigotry if she wanted to join the Democratic coalition, tempering his recent comment that the Democratic Party should be enough of a “big tent” to accommodate Greene.

Greene, who has recently earned friendly treatment from some Democrats and liberal-leaning media programs such as “The View” over her break with President Donald Trump, has continued to invoke antisemitic tropes, most recently suggesting over the weekend that Israel had pressured Trump to denounce her, and has promoted a variety of other conspiracy theories.

But that rhetoric, for which many liberals previously condemned Greene, has gone increasingly overlooked.

“We are a big tent. We must be a huge, vast tent. I say this is a party that’s got room for Marjorie Taylor Greene if she wants to come over. We’ve got room for anybody who wants to stand up for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights today,” Raskin said in remarks to Florida Democrats shared on social media last weekend.

Asked about Greene’s ongoing promotion of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, Raskin told JI in a statement, “Before I would welcome Rep. Greene or any other leaders who might flee from Trump’s autocratic personality cult, I would of course want to see them repudiate all the forms of authoritarianism, antisemitism, racism, transphobia and bigotry that they have promoted as Republicans and that have become so intertwined with the MAGA Republican brand under Trump.”

He said he believes that some of his colleagues may end up switching parties.

“I have real hope that a whole lot of my Colleagues will continue to evolve away from the dangerous and divisive swamps of MAGA politics,” Raskin said. “I meet Independents and Republicans every day joining the Democratic Party, and I am delighted to work with them and anyone else who will stand up against antisemitism, racism and corruption and for democracy, equality, freedom and progress for all.”

Jewish Democratic groups urged Democrats to keep Greene at a distance.

“She has a track record of antisemitism and opposition to Israel that goes back before she was even in Congress and continued as recently as a few days ago,” Democratic Majority for Israel CEO Brian Romick told Jewish Insider. “The House is a legislative body and you need to get 218 [votes]. You should get 218 [with] whoever you can get to 218, but just because someone votes with you today doesn’t make them a good person or your friend.”

Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that Greene’s rift with Trump “doesn’t change her many years of espousing extremist views, including dangerous lies about Jewish Americans, whether it be the infamous ‘space laser’ accusation or other antisemitic conspiracy theories. So if she really wants to distinguish herself from the toxic politics of Donald Trump, she needs to do more than simply call for the release of the Epstein files.”

Soifer also argued that Greene’s views of Israel — she has accused the country of genocide in Gaza and sought to cut off military aid — “are not aligned with those of Jewish Dems either.”

“If she’s going to provide an additional vote for passage of critically important measures for the American people, including reducing their otherwise skyrocketing prices of health care, then the Democrats should gladly take that support,” Soifer said. “However, that doesn’t mean aligning with her and her extremist views. It doesn’t change the fact that she has continued to perpetuate antisemitic conspiracy theories and espouse extremist and even antisemitic views.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) upped the ante on his recent rhetoric targeting right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson, telling a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington that calling out antisemitism from Carlson and his Republican allies is necessary to defend American values. He said America faces an “existential crisis” if the rising antisemitism on the American right is not addressed.

“I do not want to wake up in five years and find that the Republican Party has become like the Democrat Party,” Cruz said on Tuesday at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, which brought together 2,000 philanthropists, activists and Jewish communal professionals. “I do not want to wake up in five years and find that both major parties in America have embraced hatred of Israel and have tolerated, if not embraced, antisemitism.”

The conservative movement has faced internal division and tensions since Carlson hosted neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on his podcast last month. 

By digging in on his campaign against Carlson, Cruz further separated himself from President Donald Trump, who on Sunday night offered praise for the former Fox News host when he was asked about Carlson’s decision to do a friendly interview with Fuentes. 

“He said good things about me over the years. I think he’s good,” Trump said. “You can’t tell him who to interview.” 

Cruz, meanwhile, has gone after Carlson in increasingly sharp messages, after having his own heated interview with the podcaster in June — including at the recent Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, then at a Federalist Society conference in Washington and now at the GA. 

In his latest speech, he did more than calling out Carlson and his Republican enablers. He made the case that countering Carlson’s influence is necessary for the future of America.

“That is a poison that not only does damage to Israel. That is a poison that does damage to America,” Cruz said. “And if we’re going to stop it, we’re going to stop it because we stand up and say, ‘No, this is not who we are. This is not what we believe. This is not what the Constitution and the Declaration [of Independence] were all about. This is not what America was all about.’”

At the GA, Cruz was addressing a friendly audience who had spent two days immersed in programming about antisemitism in America. But he warned that many people are not fully grasping the scope of the problem. He described a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this year where, he said, Netanyahu tried to push back on the idea that right-wing antisemitism was a threat. 

“I’ll tell you, he actually was a little dismissive of that. He said, ‘No, no, no, that’s Qatar, that’s Iran, that’s bots,’” Cruz said. “My response: ‘Mr. Prime Minister, yes, but no. Yes, that’s happening. Yes, there are millions of dollars being spent to spread this poison. Yes, that’s happening online. But it is real and organic.’”

The misunderstanding, Cruz said, also exists in the Christian world.

“My message to the Christians is, this poison is spreading. There are pastors who love Israel, who think all is fine,” Cruz said. “My message to them is, ‘Go and talk to the teenagers in your congregation. Go and talk to the 20-somethings in your congregation, because they’re picking up their phone and they’re watching Tiktok and they’re watching Instagram, and they’re hearing this message being driven, and it is resonating.’”

The answer, Cruz said, is for other public officials — Republicans in particular — to speak out. But what’s at stake, he argued, is more than just their party or the Jewish community. He made the case that they must do so for the good of America. 

“My hope is that we see other Republicans willing to stand up, willing to stand up and to be clear, willing to draw a line,” he said. “This is a fight worth fighting. Saving America is worth fighting. Bringing us back to our founding principles — that is worth fighting.” 

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) met on Sunday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is in Washington for a meeting with President Donald Trump. Mast said he confronted al-Sharaa over his terrorist past.

“We had a long and serious conversation about how to build a future for the people of Syria free of war, ISIS, and extremism,” Mast said in a statement.

Mast is an Army veteran who lost both legs while serving as an explosive ordinance disposal technician in Afghanistan in 2010. Al-Sharaa is a former commander in ISIS and Al-Qaida and later in a Syrian splinter group.

“He and I are two former soldiers and two former enemies. I asked him directly ‘Why we are no longer enemies?’” Mast continued. “His response was that he wishes to ‘liberate from the past and have a noble pursuit for his people and his country and to be a great ally to the United States of America.’”

Mast, a Trump ally, concluded, “Today, he will meet with President Trump and officially join the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.”

Notably, Mast’s statement is absent any direct praise for al-Sharaa or his efforts, or any commitment to supporting sanctions relief for the Syrian regime, which Trump has encouraged Congress to enact.

Some Syrian diaspora activists have targeted Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in recent days, describing him as the largest obstacle to the repeal of human rights sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Act.

Meanwhile, Mast is facing criticism from some conservatives for sitting down with al-Sharaa.

Far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who has a long history of anti-Muslim activism and is an ally of Trump as well, said she was “really stunned” by the two meeting.

“Imagine getting your legs blown off by Muslim terrorists and then posing for a photo with an Islamic terrorist,” Loomer said on X. “How many of @RepBrianMast’s fellow brothers and sisters in uniform were killed by Islamic terrorists like Julani?”

Loomer has also criticized the Trump administration for welcoming al-Sharaa to the White House.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared at a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in Monsey, N.Y., on Thursday evening. 

Monsey, located in Rockland County, is home to one of the largest populations of Hasidic Jews in the country, second only to the Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. Lawler, who represents many of the Hasidic communities in Rockland County, relies on the heavily Republican Hasidic voting bloc to hold on to his swing district House seat. Lawler is one of only two House Republicans serving in districts that former Vice President Kamala Harris won last year, making him a leading target for Democrats.

Tickets to the event started at $250 for access to the general reception and went up to $7,000 for passes to a VIP roundtable with Cruz and Lawler. Guests could get a photo with Lawler for $500, and be named as a co-host of the event for $3,500. The gathering was organized by the Lawler Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee composed of Lawler’s campaign, his MVL PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm. 

Video obtained by the Monsey Scoop showed Cruz and Lawler arriving at the event and shaking hands with VIP guests. 

A spokesperson for Lawler did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the fundraiser. 

Lawler’s campaign reported a $1.1 million fundraising haul in the third quarter of this year, leaving him with $2.8 million in cash on hand. The campaign said the numbers marked his strongest ever third quarter performance in a non-election year. Year-to-date, the New York Republican has raised $3.9 million.

“Powered by nearly 10,000 donations, the campaign continues to build the broad, bipartisan coalition needed to win and deliver for the Hudson Valley,” Lawler’s campaign said in a statement earlier this month on his third-quarter numbers. 

Eight Democrats have jumped into the primary to challenge Lawler in next year’s general election contest, including Cait Conley, a decorated special ops combat veteran; Peter Chatzky, the former mayor of Briarcliff Manor; and Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson. Conley raised over $500,000, Chatzky raised more than $340,000 and Davidson raised over $370,000 in the last quarter.
Lawler and Cruz, a prolific fundraiser in his own right who began laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid this year, also appeared together on Thursday night at the New York State Conservative Party’s 2025 fall reception. Conservative commentator Joe Piscopo, a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member, was honored with the Ronald Reagan Journalism Award at the event, which took place in nearby New Rochelle, N.Y., at the Glen Island Harbour Club and featured Cruz as the keynote speaker.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) first became a household name for her embrace of a range of wild conspiracy theories — including antisemitic claims about the Rothschild family like the idea that space-based weapons controlled by the Jewish banking family were the cause of California wildfires.

But as the congresswoman has emerged as an unlikely star in liberal circles and mainstream media after breaking with her party on the government shutdown, health care funding and the Jeffrey Epstein files, her erstwhile critics have all but ignored her increasingly frequent use of antisemitic tropes and embrace of conspiracy theories targeting Jews.

Earlier this week, the controversial Georgia congresswoman vowed on X, “No bar codes on me. I’ll never take 30 shekels. I’m America only! And Christ is King!”

Her rejection of “30 shekels” appears to be a reference to the pieces of silver paid to Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus, and the currency of Israel. Greene’s mention of “bar codes” refers to claims by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) about AIPAC fundraising events, which AIPAC has denied.

She has also repeatedly boosted claims that Israel and Jewish people were involved in last month’s killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and are seeking to co-opt his organization.

“Do not allow a foreign country, foreign agents, and another religion tell you about Charlie Kirk,” Greene said on X. “And I hope a foreign country and foreign agents and another religion does not take over Christian Patriotic Turning Point USA.”

Last week, Greene reposted an X post by Holocaust denier Evan Kilgore, in which Kilgore shared a video of Candace Owens — a primary propagator of Israel-related conspiracy theories about Kirk’s death — claiming that Kirk had announced prior to his death that he was abandoning his support for Israel.

And she lauded a eulogy delivered by far-right commentator Tucker Carlson at Kirk’s funeral, in which Carlson compared Kirk’s killing to the death of Jesus.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that no matter which party is in charge, the secular government of Israel always gets its way,” Greene wrote on X.

Greene has been one of the few Republican lawmakers to attack AIPAC and other pro-Israel advocacy groups, accusing them of exercising malign influence over the U.S. government and demanding they register as foreign agents. AIPAC is funded and led by American citizens, not the Israeli government.

She has accused Israel of “meddling in campaigns and elections” and of “meddling in government policy — government of the United States policy — as well as dictating what America does in foreign wars.”

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that no matter which party is in charge, the secular government of Israel always gets its way,” Greene added on X.

Regarding the war in Gaza, Greene has employed language sometimes indistinguishable from that of far-left Israel opponents, accusing Israel of committing genocide and of deliberately killing innocent people and children, particularly Christians. She led an effort in the House to cut off U.S. missile defense aid to Israel, which failed overwhelmingly.

She also shared posts suggesting that Israel had foreknowledge of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and chose to delay its response, and claimed that “Most of America has Israel fatigue” because politicians ignore domestic problems in order to “talk about Israel all day” and that a GOP colleague is “fighting for his life to maintain his pro Israel money.”

“I am not suicidal and one of the happiest healthiest people you will meet. I have full faith in God and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. As a sinner, I am only saved through His grace and mercy,” Greene said. “With that said, if something happens to me, I ask you all to find out which foreign government or powerful people would take heinous actions to stop the information from coming out.”

Greene described the Anti-Defamation League as a “dangerous hate group that targets Christians,” praising the FBI for recently cutting ties with the group.

Amid her escalating social media campaign against the pro-Israel world and her advocacy for the release of files related to the Epstein investigation, Greene suggested last month on X that a foreign government or other powerful individuals were planning to assassinate her.

“I am not suicidal and one of the happiest healthiest people you will meet. I have full faith in God and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. As a sinner, I am only saved through His grace and mercy,” Greene said. “With that said, if something happens to me, I ask you all to find out which foreign government or powerful people would take heinous actions to stop the information from coming out.”

The post was widely interpreted — including by at least one fellow lawmaker — as a suggestion that Israel or Jewish people were targeting Greene.

“Why do crazy people keep thinking ‘the Jews’ are trying to kill them?” Rep. Ted Cruz (R-TX) replied.

Greene has also claimed Israel is operating a social media campaign targeting her.

Outside of Israel policy and the Jewish community, Greene has also continued to lean into other conspiracy theories, such as posting in August that it is “oddly consistent and strange” that several mass shooters have authored manifestos, asking, “who tells them to do that?” In the past, she has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories about mass shootings, speculating that demonic possession or military mind control may be responsible for school shootings.

Last month, she also shared a Carlson documentary claiming the truth of the 9/11 attacks had been covered up and convened a congressional hearing on weather modification that heavily featured conspiracy theories and false and misleading claims.

“The RJC has endorsed multiple GOP primary challengers to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is out of step with the Republican Party, and with President Trump. The people of Georgia deserve better — and we are determined to do what we can to retire her,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks said.

“While the president and congressional Republicans back our ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is aligned with Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to demonize Israel and weaken a partnership that makes America safer, strong and more prosperous,” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told Jewish Insider. “Our 5 million members will not be deterred by her rancid anti-Israel and unhinged raving.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which has repeatedly opposed Greene, said it continues to support efforts to defeat her.

“The RJC has endorsed multiple GOP primary challengers to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is out of step with the Republican Party, and with President Trump. The people of Georgia deserve better — and we are determined to do what we can to retire her,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks said.

Greene did not respond to a request for comment.

Greene has recently been a thorn in the side of GOP leadership for a number of reasons, including criticizing the party’s approach to a health care tax credit central to the current government shutdown, critiquing the Trump administration’s mass deportation strategy and Middle East policy, backing an effort to force a House vote on the release of documents related to the Epstein investigation, accusing the party of blocking women from leadership roles and voting against other elements of the House Republican leadership’s agenda.

Her disputes with the Trump administration could create an opportunity for a Republican primary challenger to make a run against her — though Trump hasn’t personally spoken out against Greene as he has against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), another anti-Israel House GOP colleague, and Greene has continued to profess her loyalty to Trump and his movement.

She does not yet face any serious primary competition.

Greene previously accumulated influence in the House as a close ally of Trump and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) but has found herself increasingly sidelined. National Republican Party leaders did not back her as she considered a run for Georgia’s Senate seat against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) or the state’s governorship.

Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) blamed “vandalism” and requested a Capitol Police investigation after a flag showing a swastika overlaid onto the American flag was spotted in a staff member’s cubicle during a virtual meeting.

The flag was pinned up on the wall of the staffer’s cubicle alongside various other memorabilia, including a copy of the U.S. Constitution and a congressional calendar. The incident was first reported by local Ohio news outlet The Rooster.

“I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office,” Taylor said in a statement issued Wednesday. “The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms. Upon learning of this matter, I immediately directed a thorough investigation alongside Capitol Police, which remains ongoing. No further comment will be provided until it has been completed.”

An email inquiry to the Capitol Police’s public information office returned an automatic reply stating that the office is closed until the end of the current government shutdown.

Taylor is a first-term lawmaker representing much of southern Ohio. The staffer in question, whose involvement in the incident is at this point unknown, has served as a legislative correspondent for Taylor since January.

“As a Jewish community we are concerned when any symbol of hate — especially a swastika — is found in the halls of Congress,” Howie Beigelman, the CEO of the Ohio Jewish Communities, told Jewish Insider. “Congressman Taylor has been a good friend to the Jewish community since his election. He’s reached out to us to convey his anger that a swastika was in his office as well as his concern for how this will impact the Jewish community across Ohio and nationally. We hope that wherever this investigation leads, he and his team will take any necessary & appropriate action.”

The discovery comes a day after a Politico report about a group chat in which leaders of Young Republican groups across the country praised Adolf Hitler, joked about the Holocaust and discussed putting political opponents in gas chambers, as well as expressed racist sentiments and supported rape.

This story was updated on Wednesday evening to include the comments of Ohio Jewish Communities’ CEO Howie Beigelman.

Former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), one of the most virulently anti-Israel members of Congress during her tenure in Washington, is expected to launch a rematch against Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO), who defeated her in 2024, according to political observers in St. Louis.

Local Jewish leaders expect the primary campaign to be a bitter repeat of the 2024 campaign, which focused heavily on Israel. Bell, who garnered substantial support from the Jewish community locally and pro-Israel groups nationally, has remained a strong supporter of Israel in office, even amid criticism from local progressive activists.

Braxton Payne, a St. Louis-based political strategist, described Bush’s intentions as “the worst-kept secret” and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported she may launch as early as this week, citing sources close to her campaign.

Payne said that this cycle, when Bell is still a freshman, would be Bush’s best chance of ousting Bell and reclaiming her seat.

“Her strongest place is inside the city [of St. Louis] and you’re seeing… a strong pendulum swinging in regards to the conflict in Gaza and Palestine, and I think that is going to be probably one of her main narratives that she’ll lead with,” Payne told Jewish Insider. “Among some of the progressive votes, especially among her base in St. Louis City, I think she’s going to do fairly well with those people.”

But one of Bush’s biggest vulnerabilities, he continued, is that she failed, once in office, to engage with or show up for major local groups and organized labor. 

“That still seems to be the case. … And Wesley has made a conscious effort to do so, not only with organized labor that may have backed him, but people and organizations that did not back him,” Payne continued, “which I think is obviously important to currying favor among voters — and obviously large groups that have power, influence and, of course, money.”

Payne said that the race is likely to be close, and that there will likely be similar interest in the race from outside groups, like AIPAC, that invested heavily in 2024. Primary turnout could be impacted by other referenda on the ballot, which could fuel Democratic primary turnout.

Missouri recently redrew its congressional maps and, while Bell’s district was not changed significantly, the redrawn map includes a few additional precincts that may be more favorable to Bell, according to Payne, though the impacts will likely be minor. The maps also face various legal challenges.

Bush’s campaign is also $13,000 in debt, and she’ll need significant grassroots support and/or backing from a group like Justice Democrats to fill her coffers, Payne noted. 

Her husband is facing a federal indictment for COVID relief aid fraud, a controversy Payne said has garnered public attention. Bush herself faced House Ethics Committee and Department of Justice investigations during her time in office.

At the same time, Payne noted, the strategy for groups backing Bell, including organized labor and AIPAC, is unknown. If AIPAC gets involved in the race, “even if they spend a bunch of money, does that actually end up hurting him with voters more than it does helping him?”

Bell’s supporters are signaling that they’re ready for a fight.

“Cori Bush spent her scandal-ridden time in Washington looking out for herself, while hiding from her constituents and ignoring their needs,” a Democratic strategist familiar with the Bell campaign’s thinking said. “As a result, Missouri voters kicked her out of office, and elected Wesley Bell, who promised to deliver better and more accountable representation. St. Louis is better off with a congressman who is focused every day on delivering for them, than someone who is more interested in furthering her personal agenda.”

Jewish leaders who supported Bell’s campaign also say that they are preparing for the campaign ahead, and a retread of the ugly 2024 race.

“The mainstream Jewish community is very much united in supporting Wesley Bell, and obviously not supporting Cori Bush for all of the same reasons we were not going to support her last time,” Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham, who helped organize a coalition of rabbis to oppose Bush in the previous campaign, told Jewish Insider. “The Jewish community, I’m confident, is going to rally again to support Wesley and hopefully make sure that he wins.”

He said he’s hopeful that leaders who did not get involved in the previous race might get involved to back Bell this time. “Jewish community leaders are ready to jump back in however we’re needed.”

Stacey Newman, a former state lawmaker who led Jewish outreach on Bell’s campaign team, agreed that the “mainstream Jewish community has remained organized and united” — in addition to feeling the impacts of antisemitism hit home in a recent firebombing incident.

“We won’t have to start from scratch,” Newman continued. “We still have 30-plus rabbis willing to go to work. I know the Orthodox community who typically do not vote Democrat are very thankful for Wesley’s leadership. He’s one of the few Democrats in St. Louis who are willing to support our community publicly.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees, announced Sunday that he will retire from Congress at the end of next year, after 11 terms in office.

McCaul, 63, has been a critical voice for traditional conservative internationalism at a time of rising isolationist sentiment among some factions of the GOP; he’s seen as a key leader who helped drive the passage of supplemental aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in the House last year.

The Texas congressman has been a staunch supporter of Israel and an Iran hawk in the House and has also been a lead Republican voice in support of expanded funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps protect Jewish and other vulnerable nonprofits.

“My father’s service in World War II inspired me to pursue a life of public service, with a focus on defending our great nation against global threats, and I have been proud to carry out that mission in Congress for more than two decades,” McCaul said in a statement. “I am ready for a new challenge in 2027 and look forward to continuing to serve my country in the national security and foreign policy realm.”

As the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, McCaul was seen as a bipartisan dealmaker who maintained good relationships with Democratic colleagues.

Prior to his time in Congress, McCaul was a career prosecutor — the chief of counterterrorism and national security for the U.S. attorney in the Western District of Texas, the deputy attorney general of Texas and a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section.

The end of the current session of congress will see other prominent Republican foreign policy hawks depart Congress as well, including Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), and a new generation of GOP leaders take leadership of key foreign policy committees.

McCaul’s deep-red district — redrawn to be even darker red in the next election cycle — is expected to remain in Republican hands.

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) urged the Trump administration to offer clearer incentives, including favorable trade and tariff treatment, to countries that normalize relations with Israel.

“The United States needs to make a clearer statement to the world that, ‘If you join the Abraham Accords, this is what happens to trade. We change the rules on what we do, on trade, on tariff, on relationships — it’s different for this group, so wouldn’t you like to join this club?’” Lankford said at an American Jewish Committee event in Washington marking the five-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords. “I think that’s something that we’ve yet to define clearly as an American government and as a State Department and our Commerce [Department], and I think it’s an area that is unfinished business.”

He also urged other countries in the region not to give Hamas the result it sought, through the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, in scuttling regional normalization efforts and isolating Israel globally.

“I think one of the biggest challenges right now is communicating to other nations, ‘Don’t show Hamas they were successful based on what your behavior changes now, and your relationship with Israel in the future. Don’t allow that terrorist extremist group to be the one that speaks for you and your nation,’” Lankford said. “If you say you oppose extremism, then don’t support their methods.”

He said that’s “a hard conversation to have among friends. I think it’s also difficult because we have broken relationships with multiple nations. That means sitting down with people you don’t normally sit down with and saying, ‘How do we get past this?’ And those are not simple conversations.”

Lankford said that offering favorable trade terms and offering a “package of what it means to be a part of this club” would help “smooth some of that.”

Asked by Jewish Insider about the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, Lankford said that Israel has been “very, very clear. It has been for decades. If you kill us and … [in] an act of terrorism, we don’t care where you are anywhere in the world, we’re going to come after you.”

“Their statement is pretty clear: ‘We had an opportunity, we’re going to take the opportunity,’” Lankford said. “An air strike may not be the most elegant way to be able to do that. And so I think there’s some disagreement on that. There’s not disagreements on, if someone is trying to kill you — it’s been American policy as well — we’re going to find you.”

He added that Qatar is an ally of the United States, but also of Iran.

On the issue of recent Israeli strikes on Syria, Lankford largely defended Israel, saying that Israel had been clear that it not allow Turkey to take over Syria and that it would protect the Druze population. He said that Israel’s focus on the atrocities against the Druze had raised that issue to global attention.

“Syria and its disjointed government at this point, as they’re trying to be able to form, has either allowed or encouraged the attack on the Druze in the south, that can’t be allowed,” Lankford said. “The leadership in Syria needs to control its own military and militant factions to be able to make sure they’re not slaughtering the Alawites, as it was allowed just a few weeks before that, or the Druze.”

Lankford, who recently visited Lebanon, said he remains encouraged by the progress that it has made toward eliminating Hezbollah, particularly setting an end-of-year deadline to disarm the terrorist group and moving to secure its banking system to prevent Hezbollah’s financing.

Lankford said he believes Lebanon is on track to meet the deadline the country set to disarm Hezbollah.

“I think that’s one of the greatest opportunities for peaceful connections between two neighbors that say they don’t want war with each other,” Lankford said, referring to potential relations and a stable, established border between Israel and Lebanon. “Good fences make good neighbors at times, and this is a good spot to be able to do that.”

With the 2025-26 school year kicking off, Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) wrote to the presidents of five Pennsylvania universities urging them to work with their Jewish communities to ensure Jewish students’ safety and ability to participate in campus life.

McCormick and Fetterman wrote the letters to the presidents of Lehigh University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and Temple University, and suggested in part that the schools should cover additional security expenses incurred by campus Jewish organizations.

“We write to you to urge you, as a leader of a Pennsylvania university with a large Jewish student population, to commit to ensuring Jewish institutions on your campus are equipped to protect the students they serve, including by allocating the resources to do so,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is incumbent on all of us — especially our nation’s universities — to ensure vibrant Jewish life is not compromised or driven into the shadows.”

They urged the college presidents to “work with your campus’s Jewish institutions and ensure all students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or shared ancestry, are safe and able to fully participate in campus life.”

The senators noted that antisemitic harassment and violence has plagued Jewish communities and institutions on campuses in the state, that “many Jewish institutions have been forced to cover the costs of additional security” and that students have been forced to hide their Judaism.

McCormick and Fetterman told the schools that “no students should feel like they must risk their safety” to practice their religion and that institutions such as Hillel and Chabad should not be forced to divert funding from programs toward security expenses.

They praised some Pennsylvania schools for taking steps to enforce their campus policies, break up encampments and suspend student groups involved in antisemitic activity.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, confronted the ambassadors of Rwanda, Jordan and Qatar, among other countries, over their relationships with U.S. adversaries in China and Iran, at a dinner last night, per a source familiar with the congressman’s remarks.

According to Politico, the Rwandan and Jordanian ambassadors to the United States hosted a dinner honoring Mast, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair, also attended by the ambassadors of Qatar, Kuwait, France, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland and Costa Rica.

Mast told the leaders “they would have to figure out which side they were on: American or China/Iran,” a source familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider. “Described as like chess. Sometimes you don’t get to choose who is a pawn and a queen, but you get to decide what side you are on.”

Mast is a longtime, and outspoken, pro-Israel lawmaker who volunteered with a group supporting the Israeli Defense Forces following his own military service.

Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), one of four Jewish Republicans in the House, said on Thursday that his car was run off the road by a pro-Palestinian activist who threatened his and his family’s lives, earlier in the day.

“If you have an issue with a legislator, your city councilman, your mayor, anyone like that, the appropriate thing to do is to reach out to them for a phone call to set up a meeting at one of our district offices,” Miller said in an angry video posted on Thursday afternoon on X. “What is not OK is to assault anyone, whether you’re a member of Congress or anybody else within our district while you are driving to work.”

Miller said in the video that on his way to work in his district on Thursday morning, an “unhinged, deranged man” leaned on his car horn and ran Miller off the road “when he couldn’t get my attention, to show me a Palestinian flag, not to mention ‘death to Israel, death to me’ — that he wanted to kill me — and my family.”

He explained in the X post that the man threw a Palestinian flag out of his car before driving off and threatened his life and his family’s lives. Miller did not specify what the individual said.

Miller said that he had reported the incident to local and U.S. Capitol Police, and that the individual had been identified and would face consequences. Local and Capitol Police did not respond to requests for comment and no announcements of any arrests have been made so far.

“We will not hide, and I will continue to fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of hate,” Miller said. “You have an issue? Take it to our office. You want to run me off the road? That’s a different story.”

The incident comes just days after a man shot two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses at their homes, killing Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, impersonating a law enforcement officer; the man carried with him what authorities have characterized as a target list containing the names of lawmakers, including numerous House Democrats, from Minnesota and other nearby states.

It also comes amid a string of violent antisemitic attacks by anti-Israel extremists that have targeted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington and a hostage awareness event in Boulder, Colo.

Multiple Jewish House members, including Miller, have expressed concerns for their personal safety since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, and the Minnesota shootings have sparked broader concerns about lawmaker safety this week.

House leaders condemned the incident.

“What happened to Max this morning is yet another outrageous example of unhinged rhetoric inspiring unstable people to threaten and attack elected officials who are serving their communities,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said. “We must turn down the temperature in this country.”

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on Congressman Max Miller and his family and are thankful they are safe,” Democratic leaders Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA) in a joint statement. “The rise in political violence in this country is unacceptable. This is a moment of crisis that requires Congress to act decisively in order to ensure the safety of every single Member who serves in the People’s House.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sharply denounced the anti-Israel movement on Tuesday, describing it as making common cause with terrorists and putting “a bounty on the heads of peace-loving Jewish Americans.”

Johnson gathered on the steps of the Capitol with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), dozens of members of Congress, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, hostage family members including Ronen Neutra and staff from the Israeli Embassy and AJC for a vigil honoring Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, the Israeli Embassy employees killed by an anti-Israel activist outside an AJC event at the Capital Jewish Museum last month.

“It’s a dangerous time to be a Jewish American,” Johnson said, noting that the House had taken extra precautions to keep the event under wraps for security reasons. Visible and covert security surrounded the gathering.

“The monster who murdered [Lischinsky and Milgrim] was not motivated by peace, [but] something very different. He went to a Jewish museum to hunt down Jewish people, and we want to be crystal clear tonight: This is targeted antisemitic terrorism,” Johnson said. “There are no shades of gray. There is no other way to describe it, as we’ve seen in the weeks since this violence is definitely not isolated.”

He said that the D.C. shooter and the individual who attacked a march for the hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colo., were “united in their sick hatred of the Jewish people.” He highlighted that both shouted “Free Palestine” during their attacks, a slogan he noted has proliferated at protests on college campuses and in American cities.

“‘Free Palestine’ is the chant of a violent movement that has found common cause with Hamas,” Johnson said. “It’s a movement that has lost hold of the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between light and darkness … They proclaim that violence is righteous, that rape is justice and that murder is liberation. They have created a culture of lies that puts a bounty on the heads of peace-loving Jewish Americans.”

Jeffries described the shooting as domestic terrorism and said Lischinsky and Milgrim were “victims of the same deadly antisemitism that fueled the attacks in Boulder, the attack at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in Pennsylvania, at synagogues, yeshivas, businesses and communities all across America.”

“Antisemitism has been a painful reality of Jewish life throughout the world for thousands of years, but now too many of our Jewish brothers and sisters here in America fear for their safety,” Jeffries said. “In this country, antisemitism has been metastasizing like a malignant tumor, and we must all work together to eradicate this cancer.”

Referencing the week’s Torah portion, when God instructed Moses to appoint elders to help him lead the Jewish people through the desert after leaving Mount Sinai, Jeffries said that lawmakers from both parties need to step up to help the Jewish community fight antisemitism.

“We will not let you shoulder this burden alone,” Jeffries said. “That’s a moral necessity here in the United States of America.”

Leiter said that “the intifada has been globalized, and like [George] Orwell’s ‘1984,’ ‘Free, free Palestine’ means ‘Death, death Israel,’ and it is now incumbent upon all of us to confront it,” Leiter said. “Today we are challenged to act, to honor the fallen, not just with words, but with a renewed commitment to fighting the scourge of hate, fighting the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.”

AJC’s Deutch said that “antisemitism is antisemitism, period. There should be no more debate about which kind of antisemitism is more dangerous, or which we need to be more afraid of.”

“It is clear every antisemitism is and has been deadly, from the extreme left to the extreme right,” Deutch said. “Both must be condemned by everyone, no excuses, because if you can only see antisemitism when it is convenient then you’re not seeing it at all.”

He described the demonization of Israel and trends of blaming it for “every injustice in the world” as the “current socially acceptable form of antisemitism,” which has “sanitized” the hatred.

“There is a straight line from the demonization of Israel, the dangerous lies that people peddle about the one Jewish state to the antisemitic violence that impacts real people,” Deutch said. “When calls to globalize the intifada and chants [of] ‘from the river to the sea’ are screamed at protests, these must be called out for what they are. They are not slogans for a social justice movement. They are incitement to violence. Everyone must call that out forcefully and with clarity.”

Deutch said he appreciates Congress’ work to improve Jewish communal security, but argued that it is not normal nor acceptable for any religious group to need armed guards and security checkpoints to gather and practice their faith.

Lischinsky and Milgrim’s supervisors at the embassy shared statements from their families, highlighting their lives, the positive impacts they had on their communities and their passion for their work at the Israeli Embassy.

John Sullivan, who recently joined the increasingly crowded Democratic primary race to face Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) next November, brings unique pro-Israel bona fides to the race, even among a field of candidates vowing support for the Jewish state: From 2017-2020, Sullivan was the top FBI intelligence official living and working in Israel, liaising with the Israeli government on counterterrorism operations.

Those three years, Sullivan told Jewish Insider in an interview in May, gave him on-the-ground experience combating Hamas and Hezbollah and protecting both Israeli and American citizens. He said he’s seen and experienced firsthand the threats posed by both terror groups.

“Working really closely with the Israelis to do everything possible to keep Israel safe was a key part of my life and my work for three years while I was overseas,” Sullivan said. “Israel has a very special place in my family’s heart.”

He described his time in Israel, where said he worked closely with Israeli authorities and saw firsthand how his work could stop attacks and keep people safe, as some of “the best experience that I had in my career.”

“It’s the kind of work where you can see that you’re doing something good to help another country. Israel in particular has so many enemies in the Middle East … and so to be there and to be fighting for them and doing whatever I could to keep them safe was really something that I take with me, and was really inspiring,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he also appreciated getting to live in and be part of the Israeli culture and community. He and his husband adopted their son while living in Israel, and Sullivan said that raising a young child in the country showed the “compassion and the community” that the country has fostered.

“You get to know the community, get to know the people, and get to understand sort of just how important Israel is, not only for the United States, for our security, but also for the world, because having a strong democracy, who can be a great ally of the United States and who we support, as we should — It’s just so important to have that kind of land there, and that country there, who share our ideals and the democracy in the Middle East,” Sullivan said.

He said that for the first 18 months after he adopted him, Sullivan’s son experienced Israeli traditions and heard both English and Hebrew. Sullivan has remained in touch with the Israeli nanny who worked for the family — ultimately giving him a direct connection to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

The nanny, Sullivan explained, attended the Nova music festival.

“We have to also allow Israel to defend itself and make sure that there’s no outside threat coming from terrorist organizations, including Hamas and their operatives,” Sullivan said. 

“She was WhatsApp messaging us that night, when it was happening, asking to see our son because she wanted to say goodbye,” Sullivan said. “I was trying to think of all of the training that I had done to make sure that she was being safe … Seeing that tragedy both on the news but then through a person that you care about who is experiencing it directly really shows the hatred that exists in parts of the world for the Jewish community.”

Addressing the ongoing war, Sullivan described a ceasefire deal to free the hostages as important, but emphasized that Israel must continue to be able to protect itself, noting that Hamas fighters and leaders continue to hide in tunnels underneath schools and hospitals in Gaza.

“We have to also allow Israel to defend itself and make sure that there’s no outside threat coming from terrorist organizations, including Hamas and their operatives,” Sullivan said. 

He said Israel should have significant influence in how Gaza is rebuilt and in working to ensure that Gaza is “more democratic and more aligned with Israel and America’s values” going forward, and that Hamas cannot have a role in governance in Gaza.

Sullivan praised Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure.

Asked about a two-state solution, Sullivan said that such a resolution should be the U.S.’ ultimate goal, but “at the same time, we need to give Israel the ability to make the decision for themselves” and that Israel must feel that any outcome is in its best interests and will protect its security.

He added that Iran and its proxies should be “choke[d] off.” Sullivan described the negotiations that the Trump administration has pursued as “the right start,” though he said he was worried about the lack of experience of some of the U.S. officials involved in leading those talks.

Sullivan said one of his frustrations with the original 2015 nuclear deal was that it released significant funding and provided sanctions relief for Iran, giving it more ability to fuel regional terrorism. He argued that relief should not have come until later in the deal’s implementation, once Iran had made more progress in dismantling its nuclear infrastructure and shown it would cooperate with international inspections.

He said that regional terrorism should be addressed in any new deal with Iran. He said a new deal with Iran should also include unfettered access for inspectors to Iran’s nuclear program or, barring that, full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities. Iran, he said, is not “a fair partner and somebody who’s really truly focused on playing by the rules”

Sullivan’s other work at the FBI included tackling gangs and cartels and pursuing those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and other domestic terrorism cases, including an incident in which individuals called bomb threats into Jewish institutions around the country.

“I will call out antisemitism whenever it exists, and I’ll call on the law enforcement community — knowing the tools and the abilities they have — to, while respecting First Amendment rights, do everything to make sure Jewish people here in America, Israelis in Israel are feeling safe and have the ability to go about their day freely being protected … without the fear of harassment or being targeted simply based on their religion and their culture,” Sullivan said.

“We have people in Congress who often will try to say something that’s kind of middle-of-the-road [on antisemitism]. With me, you’ll never have to worry about that,” Sullivan said. 

He said that while it’s important to protect First Amendment rights, his law enforcement career taught him that there are limits to such speech and that threats to Jewish people’s safety and security require a response. He said, as an example, that campus protests cheering on Hamas make Jewish students feel unsafe and have crossed into antisemitism.

“I will call out antisemitism whenever it exists, and I’ll call on the law enforcement community — knowing the tools and the abilities they have — to, while respecting First Amendment rights, do everything to make sure Jewish people here in America, Israelis in Israel are feeling safe and have the ability to go about their day freely being protected … without the fear of harassment or being targeted simply based on their religion and their culture,” he continued.

Sullivan suggested that the Trump administration is not as focused on the issue as it claims to be, characterizing its moves to deport student visa holders over alleged anti-Israel activity as “actions more targeted on immigration and veiled in [combating] antisemitism.”

He said that there are “a lot better ways to go about fighting back against antisemitism.”

Sullivan spoke to JI prior to the recent antisemitic terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. and Boulder, Colo.

Sullivan said that Trump’s decision to pardon all of those involved in Jan. 6 on his first day in office, administration officials’ moves to force out other top FBI officials and other policies convinced him to resign his post at the agency and speak out publicly against the administration. He accused the administration of jeopardizing counterterrorism efforts through its actions at the FBI.

Outside of national security policy, Sullivan said that the administration’s tariff policy and other economic moves are making life less affordable for his and other families, another motivating factor for his run.

He accused Lawler of masquerading as a moderate while actually backing the Trump administration’s policies, pointing to Trump’s endorsement of Lawler for reelection.

Sullivan, one of six Democratic candidates who’ve already joined the race, argued that his national security and law enforcement experience protecting U.S. citizens will help distinguish him from the field. He said his work inside the federal government showed him the good that the federal government can do for the American people.

While Sullivan’s particular experience is unique, each of the candidates running in the district, which is home to a significant Jewish population, has highlighted their support for Israel, and many are speaking in similar terms about combating antisemitism. One of the other candidates in the race, Cait Conley, also has experience working on national security issues and in the Middle East. 

Lawler, for his part, has focused on building and maintaining strong relationships with the Jewish community in the district. His strong support among Jewish voters helped him win re-election in 2024; he is one of only three House Republicans to win a district that Kamala Harris carried in the presidential election.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), the newest Jewish Republican member of Congress, argued on Monday, following an antisemitic attack on a group marching in support of the hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colo., that the federal government should take aggressive action against groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations whose executive director said he was “happy to see” the Oct. 7 terror attack.

Fine added that the federal government also should be deporting all undocumented immigrants and take a strong hand toward college campuses in order to fight rising antisemitism..

“I’m angry that we’ve allowed this to get there, I’m angry that we’ve allowed Muslim terror to operate unfettered in this country,” Fine said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Monday. “Make no mistake, the Palestinian cause is fundamentally a broken, evil philosophy … It’s time to realize there is evil in this world and we have to fight it.”

He said that institutions tied to that ideology, including CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and Students for Justice in Palestine, should not be allowed to operate in the United States, and should be designated as terrorist organizations, “because that’s what they are.” 

He noted that the executive director of CAIR had celebrated the Oct. 7 attack, and remains in his position. Nihad Awad had in November 2023 said he “was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in.”

Fine also said that the U.S. must deport “every illegal immigrant,” as well as closely examine individuals entering the country “from these places that hate us.” The Boulder attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was an Egyptian immigrant who overstayed a tourist visa and was subsequently granted a work permit, which expired in March, according to Fox News.

Fine said that, while security funding is important, it’s impossible to provide individual security to every Jewish American, making it critical to go on the offensive.

“What we need to do is hunt bad guys,” Fine said. “And we can start by throwing out every illegal immigrant. And we can start by taking a hard look at people who are here on visas from Egypt.”

He said the U.S. must also move to stop countries such as Qatar and China “who are not our friends,” from “buying our universities and buying off our media outlets,” and take action to protect Jewish students.

He noted that he has introduced legislation that would explicitly make antisemitism and other forms of religious discrimination illegal on college campuses. Currently, based on guidance in executive orders, antisemitism is banned as a form of discrimination based on shared ancestry. Fine argued that his legislation would “create real legal courses of action” for Jewish students to protect themselves.

Though Elias Gonzalez — who killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside of the Capital Jewish Museum last month — was not a student or an undocumented immigrant, Fine argued that campuses and immigrants are epicenters of antisemitic incitement and that addressing those would address larger trends.

“When these people hear that the nation’s best universities are saying that Israel is engaged in a genocide or 14,000 babies are going to die, they are radicalizing people through false information with the stamp of approval of universities,” Fine said. “So this guy [Gonzalez] was involved with organizations that are tied back to universities.”

“Also, he may not be an illegal immigrant, he may not be on a visa from another country, but I guarantee he was hanging around people who were and they’re going to rub off,” Fine continued.

Fine said he expects that antisemitic rhetoric and attacks will only get worse after Sunday’s attack in Boulder. He said he hadn’t slept the night after the attack because he was afraid of what might come next.

“What the Muslim terrorists will do is they’ll do what they did before — they double down, they get more aggressive with the rhetoric afterwards,” Fine said. “That’s part of the strategy. Punch and then punch harder … Muslim terrorists have declared open season on Jews. And I think that is a frightening thing. And I think the people who need to be hunted are the Muslim terrorists.”

Pressed on the fact that Rodriguez was not Muslim, Fine responded, “there are white supremacists who aren’t white … it is terrorism that is rooted in the Muslim faith.”

“They call it Christian nationalism, I don’t think every Christian is a bad person, I think very few of them are,” Fine continued.

Fine argued that surveys show a substantial portion of American Muslims are sympathetic to Hamas, that leading Muslim organizations like CAIR have supported Hamas and antisemitism, that there are few in Gaza who have stood up against Hamas and that many of those who participated in the Oct. 7 attack were not Hamas fighters.

“We are told, ‘No, no, no, it’s this tiny, tiny fringe.’ It is not a tiny fringe,” Fine said. “I don’t know whether it’s 30 or 40 or 70 or 90%, I don’t know. But I know it’s not 1% that are bad, and it’s time for us to stop pretending that it is.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), returning from a trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, characterized leaders in the region as being open to the Trump administration’s efforts to reach a new nuclear deal with Iran, but also suggested that they are skeptical that Iran will actually agree to a deal that dismantles its nuclear program.

“I think folks are realistic about the prospects of Iran coming to an agreement, but still want to give the process a chance and try to avoid a conflict if possible,” Lawler told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “But ultimately, you know, I think everybody is very clear about the fact that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Lawler, joined by Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Sheila Cherfilus McCormick (D-FL), met with regional leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Jordanian King Abdullah II.

On nuclear talks with Iran, the New York Republican said that leaders in the region are “cautiously optimistic that we can make progress in a negotiation, but I think realistic about the fact that we’ve been here before with Iran, and they continue to operate in the manner that they do.”

Lawler has been a leader in the House on Iran sanctions, sponsoring two bills that passed last year to crack down on the oil trade between Iran and China and a third that is moving ahead in the House this year.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in congressional testimony last week that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are not engaging with Iran’s support for terrorism or its ballistic missile program, but said that sanctions targeting those areas would remain in place if they are not addressed under a deal. Many Republicans have argued in the past that Tehran would use any sanctions relief, regardless of target, to fund malign activities.

“Let’s see what actually comes out of these negotiations,” Lawler said, of Rubio’s comments. “But, my general view is that the nuclear program, obviously, is a major threat, but so too is their continued funding of terrorism, and all of these issues are going to have to be addressed, one way or the other.”

He said that “as part of any sanctions relief down the road, they would have to cease all terror activity and funding of it. But I think we’re a long ways away from that, and so that’s why I continue to push on the sanctions.”

Lawler described the Trump administration as being more aggressive than the Biden administration in implementing sanctions, including the two bills he spearheaded in the previous Congress, against Iran.

“This has been, from the standpoint of applying pressure, critical, but long term all of these issues are going to have to be addressed,” Lawler said. “One of the immediate issues is the nuclear program and trying to eliminate that through a diplomatic negotiation.”

Amid public reports that the U.S., Hamas and Israel are nearing an agreement on a new ceasefire proposal, Lawler said, “We’ll see if progress can be made there. Hamas continues to put in place demands that are never, ever going to be accepted by the United States or Israel.”

While Israel has said it would agree to the current U.S. proposal, Israeli officials have also implemented plans to expand operations in Gaza even as U.S. officials have reportedly been privately pressuring Israeli officials to end the war.

“Israel is continuing to proceed forward with respect to trying to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. Obviously, the longer this drags on, the more difficult it is within the region,” Lawler said. “But I think everybody would like to see this come to an end, in which the hostages are released, the Palestinian people are able to live in a more stable area and get the humanitarian assistance that they need.”

Lawler also expressed support for the new American and Israeli effort to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians, which began earlier this week.

He criticized the Biden administration for, in 2024, pressuring Israel against expanding operations against Hamas and Hezbollah, arguing that if Israel had heeded that pressure, Hamas and Hezbollah’s leadership would still be alive and the Assad regime would still be in power in Syria.

Lawler denied that the Trump administration had placed any similar pressure on Israel, despite public comments from President Donald Trump that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear program while talks are ongoing and reports of private pressure on a number of fronts.

“I think the administration has been very supportive, but they’re in the process of trying to negotiate,” Lawler said, of Trump’s recent comments opposing a strike on Iran. “And obviously, when you’re in the middle of a negotiation, any military action can undermine that negotiation … the talks are in a critical stage, and you have to allow those talks to unfold.”

He suggested that he believes that the administration would support a strike if the negotiations fail, and that Israel should not have to act on its own in such a scenario. “There should be coordination and cooperation if and when any action is taken,” Lawler said.

The congressman said that, despite the ongoing challenges, there are new opportunities in the Middle East and it is in some ways “in a stronger position for change than it was 19 months ago.”

“There’s a lot of work ahead, but I think the dialogue in all three countries was extremely positive and focused on the future and how we kind of bridge these divides and long-term normalization and economic cooperation between all countries in the region,” Lawler said.

Saudi Arabia, he said, was “extremely happy” with Trump’s recent visit. The U.S.-Saudi relationship, he continued, is on a “very positive” trajectory, and Saudi Arabia is poised to be a key player in helping to bring stability and prosperity to the Middle East.

Despite recent reports and public statements indicating that Saudi interest in normalizing relations with Israel has waned in the short term, Lawler said that “they understand how important it is both from the long-term stability and economic prosperity of the Middle East, but also on the global stage.” 

“The sooner this conflict [in Gaza] comes to an end, I think the easier it will be to begin that process,” Lawler continued.

Lawler also described Jordan as “vital to the U.S., to Israel and to the peace and stability of the Middle East” and a “great ally and partner.” 

He said that Jordan’s King Abdullah II had stressed the economic, natural resource and refugee challenges the country faces. Lawler argued that the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia should invest in Jordan to help support its stability, “which is vital to our national security interests and certainly that of Israel.”

With Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), the former Auburn University head football coach, announcing on Tuesday that he’ll forgo a second term in the Senate to instead run for governor of Alabama, chatter is emerging that another Auburn University coach, Bruce Pearl, might follow in Tuberville’s footsteps and make a bid for his Senate seat.

Semafor reported on Tuesday that Pearl’s name is being floated for the seat, but it’s not clear that he is interested. Pearl is Jewish and has become politically active on issues related to Israel and Middle East policy and antisemitism — delivering a keynote address just last week on Capitol Hill at a breakfast celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month.

“Alabama is a Republican stronghold, so the NRSC is confident voters will elect another Republican to continue representing them and championing President Trump’s agenda,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement about Tuberville’s decision, which did not mention Pearl specifically.

In his speech on the Hill last week, Pearl, who coaches Auburn’s men’s basketball team, rejected the idea of a two-state solution.

Pearl argued that a Palestinian state had effectively been “tried” in Gaza, following the Israeli withdrawal from the territory in 2005. “They had an opportunity and they turned it into a terrorist state. We cannot make that same mistake again,” he said.

“There cannot be another Palestinian state,” Pearl said. “We need to practice our faith and we need to put our faith into practice. My Jewish friends, we need to wake up and understand that when we said never again, we meant never again, but it happened again on Oct. 7.”

Pearl said that he supports the position recently articulated by Trump administration officials on Iran — that negotiations are the right first step but that Iran must dismantle its nuclear program.

“I’m glad President [Donald] Trump is taking leadership and having this discussion, and giving them the opportunity, and if they don’t take the opportunity, it’s got to be done for them,” Pearl said.

He pushed back on charges of genocide leveled against Israel, highlighting that the Palestinian population has ballooned since 1948, and said that Holocaust education should be mandatory and that colleges should be teaching the truth about the Middle East. Pearl also condemned countries that have criticized Israel’s conduct in the war.

“We’ve gotta protect ourselves from those people that want to kill us,” Pearl, who does not have Israeli citizenship, said. “And the second thing is this: We’ve got to be mensches. We’ve got to be kinder. We’ve got to be more generous. We’ve got to be the very best versions of ourselves that we possibly can. That’s what we’re simply commanded to do.”

Pearl told his family’s story at the event — his grandfather fled the pogroms to the United States with three siblings, while the rest of his family remained in Europe, where most died in the Holocaust. 

He said he remembers sitting with his crying grandfather watching television coverage of the Six-Day War; Pearl said his grandfather was afraid that Israel would be wiped out overnight.

“He said if Israel was a state, maybe, in 1929, maybe more of his family would have been able to go to Israel,” Pearl said. “And maybe some of his relatives would still be alive. He told me two things that day: Number one, the United States of America saved his life … And the second thing was that if Israel was born sooner, maybe more of my family would still be alive.”

Pearl said that his love for Israel is an intrinsic part of his love of his Jewish faith.

He highlighted connections between the Abrahamic faiths — that Abraham “is the father of all nations, that connects us all” and that Jesus was Jewish.

“The Jewish people are strong. The Jewish people know how to work hard. We’re taught to speak the truth. We’re taught to hold the right values. We’re taught to stand up for injustice. We’re taught to teach it to our children,” Pearl said, describing that spirit as the one that brought him and two other Jewish coaches into the college basketball Final Four this year.

He said he believes the “vast majority of Americans support the Jewish people and support the State of Israel,” and praised Evangelical Christians who support Israel for reasons of faith.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the incoming Trump administration’s nominee to be secretary of state, said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is open to a new nuclear deal with Iran, under strict conditions.

Over the course of his testimony, Rubio also framed the announcement of a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza and recent losses for Iran and its proxies in the region as creating an opportunity for major steps forward on regional normalization and Israeli-Palestinian peace, condemned the International Criminal Court’s targeting of Israel and spoke forcefully about the need to combat antisemitism globally.

Overall, Rubio’s hearing —  businesslike and cordial, focused on details of every region of the globe — marked a striking difference from the heated partisan slug-fests at confirmation hearings for other top Trump nominees this week. Rubio is expected to enjoy an easy glide-path to confirmation with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“My view is that we should be open to any arrangement that allows us to have safety and stability in the region, but one in which we’re clear-eyed,” Rubio said on the subject of Iran’s nuclear program. “Any concessions that we make to the Iranian regime, we should anticipate that they will use, as they have used in the past, to build their weapons systems and to try to restart their sponsorship of Hezbollah and other related entities around the region.”

He described the Iranian regime as at its “weakest point in recent memory, maybe ever,” with its air defenses degraded, its regional partners and proxies undermined and its economy in dire straits.

Secretary of State Nominee @marcorubio appeared at his confirmation hearing today, and discussed Israel, the ICC and Iran, among other issues. The following thread includes some of the highlights:

"How can any nation state on the planet co-exist side-by-side with a group of… pic.twitter.com/8x2Jl5oRab

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) January 15, 2025

Rubio said that this could push the Iranian regime in one of two directions: toward negotiations to buy time to rebuild, or toward rapid nuclearization as a method of regime protection.

He said that recent outreach from the regime to European nations, in the context of the expiration of snapback sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal later this year, indicates that Iran may be leaning toward pursuing negotiations.

He said the U.S. cannot allow “under any circumstances” Iran to become a nuclear weapons state, to continue to sponsor terrorism or have the ability to attack its neighbors and the United States. He also noted that U.S. policy would be shaped by Iran’s yearslong efforts to assassinate Trump and other U.S. officials.

Rubio was careful to repeatedly draw a clear distinction between the Iranian regime of “radical Shia clerics” and the people of Iran, arguing that the gap between the regime and Iranian citizens is perhaps the widest of any country on Earth.

“In no way [are] the clerics who run that country representative of the people of that country and of its history and of the contributions it has made to humanity,” Rubio said.

He also noted that in Iran and other key U.S. adversaries, a “market” has developed for kidnapping and holding American citizens hostage, emphasizing the need for greater awareness about those risks.

Rubio described the cease-fire and hostage-release agreement between Israel and Hamas — announced in the middle of his hearing — as “a foundation to build upon” toward broader regional change, including Israeli-Palestinian peace and regional normalization. He said that the deal, in combination with the cratering of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fall of the Assad regime, had altered the landscape of the Middle East, potentially opening pathways to renewed normalization and an Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

"I don't know of any nation on earth in which there is a bigger difference between the people and those who govern them than what exists in Iran. And that's a fact that needs to be made repeatedly." pic.twitter.com/cVAx1iUFCU

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) January 15, 2025

“There are opportunities now in the Middle East that did not exist 90 days ago,” Rubio said. “There are now factors at play in the Middle East that I think we can build upon and may open the door to extraordinary and historic opportunities, not just to provide for Israel’s security but ultimately begin to confront some of these other factors. But these things are going to be hard work and they’re going to require us to take advantage of those opportunities if they exist.”

Rubio said that the six-week first phase of the deal will be a critical period to build international cooperation to bring stability and new governance into Gaza. He said that both President Joe Biden and Trump deserved credit for working in tandem in the negotiations.

But he also noted that the deal did not ensure the release of all of the hostages, and emphasized that any cease-fire would be short-lived if hostages remain in Hamas captivity.

“Without the hostage situation resolved, this situation will not be resolved. It is the lynchpin,” Rubio said. “Hamas has been severely degraded, but these people, who include a number of American citizens, need to be home as soon as possible, and that will remain a priority in any engagement that we’re involved in.”

Rubio said that potential normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would be “one of the most historic developments in the history of the region,” adding that the Saudis and other partners in the Middle East should be part of the post-war stabilization efforts in Gaza and that a normalization agreement would help bring “a level of stability and peace” to the entire region.

He said that a key part of expanding and strengthening the Abraham Accords is ensuring that there are benefits to the countries joining the pact, such as, for Saudi Arabia, high tech investment, economic diversification and security against the mutual Iranian threat. He said the U.S. could help provide security assurances as well.

"Any concessions we make to the Iranian regime we should anticipate that they will use as they have used in the past to rebuild their weapons systems and to try to restart their sponsorship of Hezbollah and other related entities around the region." pic.twitter.com/CjH9BNsJVA

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) January 15, 2025

“We’re still going to have some issues with UAE and with Saudi Arabia, but we also have to be pragmatic enough to understand what an enormous achievement it would be if, in fact, you not just get a cease-fire but that leads to the opportunity of a Saudi-Israeli partnership and joint recognition,” Rubio said.

One such issue with the United Arab Emirates that Rubio said the U.S. should raise is Abu Dhabi’s support for a militant group in Sudan that Rubio and the Biden administration have said is commiting genocide. At the same time, he described the UAE as a critical partner to build stability in the Middle East.

On the subject of Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution, Rubio argued that the “conditions for that have not been in place for some time” — noting that the Palestinian Authority had rejected a Trump administration peace proposal in 2020.

He argued that if Israel had not responded forcefully to the Oct. 7 attack, the country may have faced existential threats from enemies on its various borders.

But Rubio said that there has been a potential “dynamic shift in the region” that has “an historic opportunity, if appropriately structured and pursued, that changes the dynamics of what might be possible.” He emphasized that for Israel, its existential safety is the non-negotiable starting point. If Israeli security can be guaranteed, Rubio said, there may be more opportunities for a peace process.

He said the key question for the Palestinians moving forward will be the future of governance in Gaza. “[Israel] can’t turn it over to people who seek [it’s] destruction … You cannot coexist with armed elements at your border who seek your destruction and evisceration as a state.”

Pressed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) — who accused the administration of secretly prohibiting Jews in the West Bank from accessing U.S. grants — Rubio committed to ending any waivers to sanctions in Gaza and the West Bank, ending what Cruz described as “discriminatory policies, including the Biden administration’s secret boycott policies” in the territory and ending the Biden administration’s sanctions regime against Israeli settlers accused of inciting violence in the West Bank.

One of the alleged boycotts, through the Development Finance Corporation, does not appear to have been revealed publicly before the hearing.

Senator @tedcruz pressed Senator @marcorubio during his secretary of state confirmation hearing on reversing discriminatory sanctions against Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

Rubio responded: "I'm confident in saying that President Trump's administration will continue… pic.twitter.com/i4p9mNkwny

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) January 15, 2025

He did not address a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about whether the Trump administration would oppose potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

Addressing the ICC prosecutions targeting Israeli leaders, Rubio said that the court had “done tremendous damage to its global credibility” with the effort, calling the case “completely flawed” and “completely offensive” in drawing equivalency between Israel and Hamas.

“Hamas carried out an atrocious operation. They sent a bunch of savages into Israel with the express and explicit purpose of targeting civilians,” Rubio said. “They deliberately targeted civilians. The ones they didn’t murder, the families they didn’t eviscerate, the people whose skulls they didn’t crack open, they kidnapped, and to this day continue to hold people, innocents that they took.”

He said that Israel cannot be expected to “coexist side-by-side with a group of savages like Hamas. They have to defend their national security and their national interest. And they didn’t target civilians.”

Rubio said that innocent people had been caught up in the war, “but there is a difference between those who in the conduct of armed action deliberately target civilians and those who do as much as they can to avoid civilians being caught up against an enemy that doesn’t wear a uniform, against an enemy that hides in tunnels, against an enemy that hides behind women and children.”

Further, Rubio said the case appeared to be a “test run” for a future case targeting U.S. leaders and military personnel.

Echoing rhetoric from other top Trump nominees, Rubio said that any individuals in the U.S. on visas who express support for Hamas or other terrorist groups should lose their visas and be forced out of the country.

Rubio committed to Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) that the Trump administration would quickly nominate a qualified individual to serve as U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, saying that the nominee “needs to be someone that enjoys broad support across different sectors.” 

He also said that the administration would promptly name a deputy envoy to run the office until an envoy is confirmed. Rubio said the antisemitism envoy role is particularly urgent in light of a recent Anti-Defamation League report that showed 60% of people hold some antisemitic views.

“Antisemitism is a unique danger. The suffering that it inflicted on the world historically, but within the last century, is unimaginable and can never be allowed to be repeated, and it’s something that we should make sure we’re constantly speaking out against, and identifying for what it is,” Rubio said. “I think the U.S.’s role in speaking out in that regard is indispensable, and we need to be forceful about it.”

Asked by multiple senators about the incoming administration’s approach to multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, Rubio said that the guiding philosophy for the administration’s engagement with such organizations will be whether engagement with them makes the U.S. safer and more prosperous. He said that no international organizations would be allowed to hold a veto over U.S. security interests.

Any funding to such organizations will require strict examination, Rubio added, suggesting that the administration may pull back funding from some of them.

He further described the U.N. Security Council as having become “almost irrelevant” and “weaponized” against the United States because of the power of Russia and China, which he called two of the top drivers of global conflict.

Rubio also said that international organizations had become “havens” for antisemitism, undermining their credibility.

Rubio characterized the new regime in Syria, led by leaders of an Al-Qaeda offshoot, as “not ideal” but nonetheless “worth exploring.”

“I do think it’s important to respond to this opportunity in Syria,” Rubio said. “It is in the national interest of the United States, if possible, to have a Syria that’s no longer a playground for ISIS, that respects religious minorities … that protects the Kurds and at the same time is not a vehicle through which Iran can spread its terrorism.”

Rubio said that an improved situation in Syria could positively impact Lebanon, Israel, Gaza and the Middle East as a whole. He said Iran and Russia would return to fill the gap in Syria if the U.S. does not “explore these opportunities.”

He described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an “impediment” to that path forward, and said the Trump administration would communicate immediately to Erdoğan not to move against the Kurds in Syria. He said the U.S. should maintain its support for the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces — something Trump sought to pull back in his first administration.