The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday approved a bill calling for a re-assessment of the U.S. relationship with South Africa in light of Pretoria’s growing relationships with Iran, Russia and China and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The bill passed by a 36-13 vote, with 10 Democrats — Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Bill Keating (D-MA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Dean Phillips (D-MN), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Jim Costa (D-CA) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) — voting in support.

A bipartisan group of 27 House lawmakers wrote to the Biden administration on Thursday calling on the Department of State to block any Iranian government officials from entering the U.S. for meetings of the United Nations.

Republicans have repeatedly pushed the administration to take such a step, but the support of seven Democrats for this letter is notable and reflects a desire among some Democratic moderates for a more aggressive approach toward the regime in Tehran.

Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, revealed new details regarding the Biden administration’s plan to construct a humanitarian pier in Gaza. Kurilla said, testifying to the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, that U.S. troops would not set foot inside the enclave but revealed that U.S. personnel and ships would ferry supplies to the Gaza shore.

He explained that the construction process will involve building both a floating pier at sea and a pier secured to the beach in Gaza. Aid would be offloaded from ships at the floating pier, then transferred by U.S. Army boats to the shore in Gaza.

The final package of U.S. government funding bills for the balance of the 2024 fiscal year is set to cut funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program by $30.5 million, despite skyrocketing incidents of antisemitism. It also bars funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and imposes a raft of new restrictions and oversight provisions on other U.S. aid to Gaza.

The House and Senate released the bill on Thursday, nearly six months into the 2024 fiscal year, after months of delays. Facing a Friday shutdown deadline, lawmakers are expected to pass the bill in the coming days. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested that he’s open to inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, despite his call last week for the Israeli leader’s ouster.

Schumer’s comments come after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed plans to invite Netanyahu to speak to Congress, and amid escalating tensions between President Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister.

The confirmation of Adeel Mangi, a judicial nominee who would be the first Muslim-American to serve on any federal appeals court, appears increasingly imperiled, as he faces accusations of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment from Senate Republicans, among other charges.

Leading nonpartisan Jewish organizations have rejected the accusations against Mangi and Mangi pushed back aggressively against insinuations that he supports terrorism or antisemitism, but enough Senate Democrats reportedly share concerns about Mangi to potentially sink his nomination. Republicans are pushing the administration to withdraw the nomination.

Nine Senate and House lawmakers announced on Wednesday that they’re taking the first steps toward potentially moving Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History under the Smithsonian umbrella.

The museum, which documents American Jewish history dating back to the arrival of Jews in North America, is currently affiliated with but not part of the Smithsonian Institution. If formally transferred to the Smithsonian, the museum would be the Smithsonian’s only museum focused on Jewish Americans.

A public middle school in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County gave parents the option to keep their children home from school on Tuesday, the day of a planned speech by a Holocaust survivor, out of fear that Jewish students would face bullying.

Ultimately, no students opted out of the talk by Frank Cohn, a Holocaust survivor who later served in the U.S. Army for 35 years, at Cooper Middle School in McLean, an affluent suburb of Washington. But the Jewish advocacy group that organized the event accused the school of “gaslighting” by allowing Jewish students to opt out, rather than addressing antisemitism.