Just over a week after the Trump administration announced moves to designate branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to discuss and vote on legislation that aims to classify the entire organization globally as a terrorist group on Wednesday.

The bipartisan House legislation, led by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), would instruct the Department of State to assess whether each branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operating globally meets the requirements for designation as a terrorist group. It would then use those determinations to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in its entirety.

The legislation may go further than the current executive action on the issue, which does not specifically mandate assessments of each Muslim Brotherhood branch and does not directly aim to proscribe the entire Muslim Brotherhood.

Some analysts have raised concerns that the executive branch action does not directly target the Muslim Brotherhood branches in Qatar and Turkey, as it names only the branches in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

But others have argued that designating the entire Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group is legally and logistically problematic, given that the group does not have any central organization or leadership and that some Muslim Brotherhood branches are not directly tied to terrorism.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the committee chairman, told Jewish Insider prior to the administration’s announcement that the committee was looking to take up legislation on the issue.

Companion legislation in the Senate led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has not yet been scheduled for a markup.

In addition to the Muslim Brotherhood bill, the Foreign Affairs Committee will vote on legislation — led by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Bill Keating (D-MA) and Moskowitz — to impose sanctions on the Houthis and their members under the Global Magnitsky Act and the Robert Levinson Hostage Taking and Accountability Act in response to the group’s obstruction of humanitarian aid, human rights violations and involvement in taking U.S. nationals hostage. 

The sanctions would phase out after five years, and the legislation would also require reports to Congress on Houthi indoctrination efforts, obstruction of humanitarian aid and human rights violations.

The Committee is also set to discuss the Protecting Europe from Antisemitic Crime and Extremism (PEACE) Act, led by Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL) and Max Miller (R-OH), which instructs the State Department to diplomatically engage with European governments to address antisemitism in their countries and to consult with Congress on the issue.

It will additionally consider a bill by Fine and Moskowitz that aims to harmonize various U.S. sanctions lists, instructing the administration to assess whether individuals included on some  designation lists should be sanctioned under other authorities as well, and to report to Congress on those determinations.

Amid indications that Hezbollah is rearming itself, Israel assassinated a top official of the Lebanese terrorist group in an airstrike on Sunday in Beirut. The strike, which killed Haytham Ali Tabatabai, the group’s chief of staff, was the first such attack in the Lebanese capital in five months and part of a recent escalation in Israeli strikes to blunt Hezbollah’s rebuilding.

Tabatabai served as Hezbollah’s chief of staff for the last year, when a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Before that, the army said, Tabatabai oversaw Hezbollah’s combat operations against Israel and had held a series of senior positions since he joined the group in the 1980s, including commander of the Radwan Force unit and head of Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. 

“Tabatabai is a mass murderer,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday evening. 

“His hands are soaked in the blood of many Israelis and Americans, and it is not for nothing that the U.S. put a bounty of five million dollars on his head,” Netanyahu said, in reference to a 2016 decision designating Tabatabai as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

“Tabatabai served as a senior commander in the Radwan Force. This is the force that prepared to conquer the Galilee and slaughter many of our citizens,” Netanyahu added. “Recently, he led Hezbollah’s renewed efforts to rearm, this is of course after the heavy blows Hezbollah suffered in the ‘Pager Operation,’ in the damage to its missile stockpiles, and of course, in the elimination of [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan] Nasrallah,” the prime minister said, stressing that Israel would not allow the group to rebuild and calling on the Lebanese government to “fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah.”

Israel reportedly did not notify the U.S. in advance of the strike.

The strike killed five people and wounded 25 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike and called on the international community to intervene “to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.”

The Israeli army said in its statement that it “will act against efforts to rebuild and rearm the Hezbollah terrorist organization and will operate to remove any threat posed to Israeli civilians,” adding that it “remains committed to the understandings reached between the State of Israel and Lebanon.”

“Hezbollah’s leadership is studying the matter of response and will take the appropriate decision,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

Israeli intelligence officials told Haaretz they believe that Hezbollah may retaliate with attacks on Jewish, Israeli or Israeli-linked targets in foreign countries, rather than directly attacking Israel.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian researcher at Princeton University, was released by an Iranian-backed terrorist group in Iraq to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 while working on her doctoral thesis by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group separate from Lebanese Hezbollah.

“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!”

Tsurkov’s sister Emma, who has been a vocal advocate for her freedom, thanked the Trump administration in an X post, noting that her sister had been in captivity for more than 900 days.

“We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. If Adam had not made my sister’s return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be,” Tsurkov said. “We also want to thank Josh Harris and his team at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach who advocated relentlessly for my sister’s safe return.”

Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber also celebrated her release.

“The release of Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov brings relief and joy to the University community, and we celebrate that she will be reunited with her family. We thank President Trump for securing Elizabeth’s release,” Eisgruber said. “We are also grateful to those who worked tirelessly to bring an end to her terrible ordeal, including her family, friends and advocates.”

Multiple groups of U.S. lawmakers had appealed to administration officials to work to secure Tsurkov’s release. Kataib Hezbollah, the group that kidnapped Tsurkov, holds an official role in the Iraqi government.

Tsurkov’s captors released a video in 2023 in which Tsurkov claimed to be an Israeli and American spy, which Emma Tsurkov said was clearly made under duress.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who helped lead efforts earlier this year to advocate for Tsurkov’s release, told Jewish Insider he spoke on Tuesday evening with Emma Tsurkov while she was on a videoconference with her sister, a conversation he said was “very emotional.”

The Tsurkov family, Kim said, has been through “so much” and “I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for Elizabeth.”

“My immediate thoughts [are] just making sure she’s getting the care she needs. I’ve done a lot in the past … when I was at the State Department on hostages and the kind of care they need coming out of it,” he said. “So it’s going to be a long road ahead.”

He said that he wishes Emma “all the best with the recovery” and offered the family any help he can provide to ensure she receives the care she needs. He said he hopes to see both sisters in the United States in the future.

He added that Emma Tsurkov’s “strength as a sister, just being there, just holding that hope for Elizabeth … it’s amazing, it’s inspiring.”

Kim said he had not yet been briefed by the administration on Tsurkov’s release, including the terms by which the administration was able to secure Tsurkov’s freedom.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who joined a push with Kim for Tsurkov’s freedom, said in a statement, “I’m relieved to hear the news that Elizabeth Tsurkov has finally been released after being held hostage by extremists in Iraq for over two years. I’ve been proud to advocate for her release and applaud all the efforts that made this possible. My thoughts are with Elizabeth and the Tsurkov family as they reunite, and I wish them peace and healing.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led an appeal from House members for Tsurkov’s release, told JI, “I am overjoyed for Elizabeth Tsurkov’s family and loved ones on this happy occasion. I have long pushed for Elizabeth’s safe return and I’m sending her my prayers and solidarity as she returns home to recover from a 903-day-long nightmare.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said on X, “I am deeply grateful that Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released and will finally be reunited with her family and loved ones. Thankful for all who partnered in advocating for her release and for all who tirelessly worked to ensure her safe return.”

Having recently returned from a trip to Israel, Rep. George Latimer (D-NY) is emphasizing that Israel’s critics in the United States and around the world are overlooking Hamas’ key role in perpetuating the conflict and contributing to the humanitarian issues in Gaza, strengthening the terrorist group’s position and insulating it from external pressures. 

At the same time, the New York Democrat also said that Israel must do more to pursue an end to the war, make its case to the world and provide aid in Gaza.

Latimer, speaking to Jewish Insider last week, said that the trip, organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation for Democratic freshmen and leading Democratic lawmakers, had reinforced his view that the situation on the ground is more complicated than the more simplistic narratives demonizing Israel that have been spread by some critics and media.

“When you see on the ground, you understand it is not a simple black-and-white situation,” Latimer, a first-term congressman from Westchester County, N.Y., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said. “People come up to me and say, ‘Israel is practicing genocide. What they’re doing is evil and we need to stop it.’ And then you get on the ground and you realize how much more complicated it is than that.”

He said that American critics of Israel fail to acknowledge Hamas’ “role in all of this and its contributory actions.” He said he sees a “lack of appreciation here in the United States that Hamas is committed — has shown no signs to want to sit, talk peace, have a cessation of hostilities. … That makes it very, very hard to plot a strategy, if the other side is completely intransigent.”

Latimer said the situation is comparable to overlooking the fact that the U.S. entered World War II because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, or that the U.S. invaded Afghanistan because of the 9/11 attacks. He said that the “mindset” that motivated such attacks doesn’t disappear overnight, and can take protracted conflict to address.

At the same time, he said that “there’s a gap between what [the Israeli government] needs to be doing and what it is doing, and it’s a serious gap.” He said he doesn’t see proposals to relocate the population of Gaza out of the enclave, discussed during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as “workable” or “humane.”

He addressed friction within Israeli society over Israel’s war plans in Gaza, and said that Netanyahu’s decision-making may be shaped by his far-right coalition members, adding that “if there’s no movement from Hamas, what can you ask Israel to do unilaterally?”

“So Netanyahu’s strategies present as intransigent in the face of intransigence on the other side,” Latimer continued. “You need some joint breakthrough where both sides step back from the path that they’re on, and both sides have to be willing to do that, if you can expect the other side to also then do that.”

He noted the difficulty of forcing a dug-in enemy like Hamas to surrender, comparing it to the challenge of forcing a Japanese surrender during WWII.

Latimer unseated Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a vocal Israel critic, in the 2024 Democratic primary, boosted by significant support from his district’s Jewish community as well as national pro-Israel groups.

Latimer told JI he thinks Israel has not done enough to try to win over or influence global opinion in its favor. Latimer said he believes that the Israeli government views such efforts as a lost cause and not worth attempting.

“There’s a case to be made [for Israel]. But in lieu of that, the rhetoric is all what Israel is doing and not doing, and how evil they are, when, in fact, all of this came from an attack that was horrific on Oct. 7,” Latimer said.

He said that there have been “atrocities” on the Israeli side, pointing broadly to settler violence in the West Bank, but said that “the question is, overall, are you weighing all of these things together, or as the world opinion, and much of the United States opinion, particularly among younger people, has been framed completely around ‘Israel bad,’” ignoring the “evil that’s been done on behalf of the other side of this. That is a contributing reason why we’re in the situation we’re in.”

“The fact that people are starving is horrific. But as long as the world blames Israel for it solely, Hamas is winning. Why would they change any strategies?” Latimer said. “The leaders of Hamas are not sitting in the tunnels. … They’re sitting in the safety of the protection of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan or over in Qatar. Therefore, they’re not under the pressure.”

Latimer said that the food supply in Gaza was a key issue he examined on the trip, calling starvation in Gaza a “legitimate” problem. 

He said that the current four Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites are “nowhere near enough,” given the “massive number of people that need to be fed and housed.”

But he added that Hamas being “unwilling to cooperate” in the safe delivery of aid is an impediment to efforts to improve the humanitarian situation and that the United Nations “in the eyes of the Israelis, has lost credibility.” 

He said that the best path forward would likely be for a coalition of Arab countries to take the lead of a humanitarian aid distribution entity: “We need to have a third party that has credibility.”

“Israel is not doing enough to solve the problem, and Hamas is doing things to prohibit the problem from being solved,” Latimer said, calling on Israel to work to increase the number of food distribution centers and strengthen supply lines and on Hamas to stop attempting to intercept food and sow chaos at distribution sites.

“The fact that people are starving is horrific. But as long as the world blames Israel for it solely, Hamas is winning. Why would they change any strategies?” he said. “The leaders of Hamas are not sitting in the tunnels. … They’re sitting in the safety of the protection of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan or over in Qatar. Therefore, they’re not under the pressure.”

“What I saw in September 2005 gave me hope. What I see when I go back 20 years later is, you shake your head and you go, ‘Why did it turn out this way?’” Latimer said. “Did it turn out this way because Israel wanted it to turn out this way? Israel didn’t want Oct. 7. Israel didn’t want all of its young men in the reserves and active duty, constantly on a wartime footing.”

He declined to weigh in definitively — citing the limited information at his disposal and his limited power as a lone congressman — on whether the U.S. needs to increase pressure on its allies in Turkey or Qatar to expel or detain those Hamas leaders, but said that “clearly there has been insufficient pressure on Hamas” because its leaders have shown no urgency to return the hostages, negotiate in good faith or participate in un-corrupted food distribution.

Latimer said he first traveled to Israel two decades ago, just after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and that there was hope at the time that the Israeli withdrawal would “allow the opportunity for Gaza to experience peace and some kind of growth.”

“What I saw in September 2005 gave me hope. What I see when I go back 20 years later is, you shake your head and you go, ‘Why did it turn out this way?’” Latimer said. “Did it turn out this way because Israel wanted it to turn out this way? Israel didn’t want Oct. 7. Israel didn’t want all of its young men in the reserves and active duty, constantly on a wartime footing.”

He said that if Gaza’s leaders had pursued growth and development over the past 20 years, “we could be in a very different place today,” but instead Hamas seized power and used Gaza as a platform to attack Israel.

Asked about recent decisions by European countries to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, which came around the time of Latimer’s trip, the congressman said that he supports a two-state solution, but one that “comes out of a negotiated process,” noting the many outstanding issues to be worked through.

“You cannot expect Israel to survive with a hostile entity interspersed with its borders, and yet be its own country. And there has to be a sense that this country can function and provide its services to its people and maintain civil control. None of those things are automatically in place yet, so I don’t know what we’re recognizing in substance,” Latimer said. 

“I think what we’re recognizing in symbolism is European countries that basically are saying, ‘We need to have a two state solution,’ and probably their population is reacting to what’s happening in the moment and putting pressure on their governments to do this,” he continued.

“The Palestinian Authority certainly has a steep mountain to climb, but right now, they’re the best hope that you have of a presence — and certainly it’s not Hamas, it’s certainly not coming out of any of the groups that Iran is backing or has backed,” Latimer said.

Based on the delegation’s meeting with Palestinian Authority leaders, Latimer said that he believes there is an “intent” and “willingness” in the PA to pursue needed reform and bolster credibility with the Palestinian population.

“How much success they’re going to have with the civilian population to accomplish those things — it’s going to be a tall task,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that some Arab governments such as those in Jordan and Egypt maintain cooperative relationships with Israel even as many of their citizens remain hostile.

“The Palestinian Authority certainly has a steep mountain to climb, but right now, they’re the best hope that you have of a presence — and certainly it’s not Hamas, it’s certainly not coming out of any of the groups that Iran is backing or has backed,” he continued.

In the long term, Latimer added, the Abraham Accords represent a path forward for the region, and said that moderate Sunni Arab states want to see a viable and demilitarized Palestinian Authority government that can credibly govern the Palestinian people.