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In a vote just hours ago, the House approved the resolution to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a party-line 218-211-1 vote. Every Democrat opposed the resolution and every Republican but one, Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), voted for it. Rep. Joyce, a member of the House Ethics Committee, voted present.

The resolution (read it here) was sponsored by freshman Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), a Jewish Republican. It reviews the anti-Israel and antisemitic remarks Rep. Omar has made in the past, said that she has "disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs," and resolved that she be removed from that committee.

The RJC welcomed the vote in a statement from National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks:

For years, Democratic leadership has failed to hold Rep. Ilhan Omar accountable for her vile, hateful, and dangerous anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.

Today, Republicans, under Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership, kept their promise to remove Rep. Omar from the prestigious and crucially important House Foreign Affairs Committee.

RJC has long advocated for Rep. Omar’s removal from this critical committee.

RJC thanks Rep. Max Miller for introducing the resolution, and House Republicans for their principled votes to pass it. We are gratified that Rep. Omar will no longer be in a privileged position to influence legislation regarding US policy toward Israel and the Middle East.

Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN), the other Jewish Republican member of Congress, spoke on the House floor today in support of removing Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee due to her antisemitic comments, statements, rhetoric, and beliefs. He said:

When a member of Congress stands in this chamber or at home in their district, the nation and the world pays attention to what they say and how they say it. When a member of Congress makes hateful and antisemitic remarks, they are amplified, they are magnified. Even more so when that member sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee…

As our nation’s leaders, we have the ability and responsibility to help combat antisemitism and ensure that our children, tomorrow’s leaders, are taught that such rhetoric is unacceptable. Let’s be clear, antisemitism has no place in the halls of Congress nor in our national conversation. And I stand here today in solidarity with the Jewish community to send a strong message that the US House of Representatives does not tolerate such behavior. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

See Rep. Kustoff's full remarks here.

Thank you to the thousands of RJC members who used our online advocacy tool to send emails to their member of Congress, asking them to support the resolution to remove Rep. Omar from the committee.

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced this week that she will launch her presidential campaign on February 15. JNS reports:

Sam Markstein, national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS that Haley is a longtime friend of the Jewish community and the RJC.

She has "a tremendous record of accomplishment on the issues we care about: being an outspoken defender of Israel at the United Nations, a stalwart opponent of Iran and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism," he said.

Last Thursday, Israeli security forces conducted a rare daylight counter-terrorism raid in Jenin to arrest members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. Their action prevented an imminent major terrorist attack. As Israeli security forces carried out their mission, multiple groups of Palestinian gunmen shot at them. In the ensuring exchange of fire, several terrorists and one civilian were killed. Israel is investigating the death of the civilian.

The next night, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, seven Israeli civilians were murdered and others were injured in a shooting attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue after Shabbat services. Two of the dead were a couple living nearby who heard the shots and ran out to assist the wounded. The next morning, a 13-year-old Palestinian shot and seriously wounded an Israeli father and son as they walked on the street.

Hugo Gordon at the Washington Examiner writes about the lopsided way the mainstream media covered these two stories, here.

Ariel Behar at JNS notes that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) amplified a tweet that said, "Israel has murdered 29 Palestinians in 26 days. Yesterday’s assault on Jenin was a massacre. Who will protect Palestinians?" Tlaib’s comment on that tweet was: "I may be the only Palestinian American in Congress but I will never stop reminding folks that our country is funding an apartheid regime that is killing Palestinian children & families. We honor the victims of the Jenin massacre by telling the truth about the apartheid gov’t."

Two years after the passing of Sheldon Adelson, his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, reflected on the impact of Mr. Adelson's life and work:

[B]y creating so many magnificent businesses, by generating funds for charities of unprecedented scale and duration, Sheldon is survived not just by us – his loving family and friends – but by countless others, all over the world.

In each of them, his spirit lives on. In each grateful employee who had the means to raise a happy and healthy family, thanks to Sheldon's generous management; in each needy person who was spared poverty, given the opportunity of an education or of elder care thanks to Sheldon's philanthropy; in each sick person who may one day be cured thanks to the Adelson Medical Research Foundation; in each young Jew – hundreds of thousands of them! – who discovered Israel thanks to Birthright; in each Israeli or American who is safer and walks prouder thanks to Sheldon's promotion of these two great nations. So many people. So many lives, different but intertwined.

May his memory always be a blessing.

Cotton: Biden’s Ukraine incompetence

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) writes at Fox News that President Joe Biden’s "half measures have made the war in Ukraine longer and bloodier than it should have been… It’s time to give Ukraine what it needs to throw out the Russian invaders, retake its sovereign territory, and win this war."

Left-wing operatives hatch plan for Iran deal revival

Alana Goodman at the Washington Free Beacon writes: "Activists from groups including J Street, NIAC Action, the Open Society Foundations, Human Rights Watch, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are coming together behind a plan to lobby lawmakers to use human rights bills as cover to revive negotiations for a nuclear deal with Iran… The activists' strategy—crafted during a private summit in New York in December—includes pitching human rights legislation to pro-Iran-deal lawmakers, in order to give the legislators political cover to sign a letter asking the Biden administration to consider resuming the nuclear agreement…"

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