GOP Rep. Randy Fine, the newest Jewish congressman, calls Rashida Tlaib a ‘terrorist’
(JTA) — Only a week after being sworn into Congress, Jewish Rep. Randy Fine directed his latest inflammatory statement at a Muslim colleague.
On a podcast Wednesday, the Florida Republican and self-proclaimed “Hebrew Hammer” called Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “terrorist” and said that some members of the progressive “Squad” — of which she is a member — “shouldn’t be Americans.”
“I think some of these people should not be in Congress. I think they’re a disgrace. I think some of them shouldn’t be Americans. I don’t think they love our country. And I’m not gonna be afraid to call them out and go right at them because I think they’re bad people,” Fine told podcast host Gabe Groisman, a former mayor of Bal Harbour, Florida, and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Fine continued, “And particularly people like Rashida Tlaib. She’s just a bad person. She’s not a terrorist sympathizer, she’s a terrorist. And I don’t mind saying it because it’s true.” He did not elaborate.
Senate confirms Mike Huckabee as Israel ambassador
(JTA) — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Mike Huckabee as the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel Wednesday.
Senators installed Huckabee in a vote of 53 to 46, with all Republicans backing the Trump appointee along with Sen. John Fetterman, a staunchly pro-Israel Democrat from Pennsylvania.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and self-identified Christian Zionist, will now assume the high-profile post during a time when U.S.-Israel relations have been shaken by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and as the United States opens nuclear talks with Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
During Huckabee’s confirmation hearing in March, he told senators that he personally supported Israel annexation of the West Bank, but would defer to Trump’s policies.
DHS says it is monitoring immigrants’ social media for ‘antisemitic activity’
(JTA) — The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday that it is now surveilling the social media of people applying to immigrate and international students for “antisemitic activity.”
The new policy will go into effect immediately, and any evidence of antisemitism on social media, or the “physical harassment of Jewish individuals,” could be used to reject applicants, according to the announcement from the Department of Homeland Security.
The United States has required visa applicants to share their social media handles since 2019, during the first Trump administration; the Obama administration had requested that information but did not make it mandatory. Many countries say they may scrutinize the social media accounts of potential immigrants.
California DOE finds school’s ethnic studies curriculum discriminated against Jewish students
(JTA) — A California school’s ethnic studies curriculum that included discussions of Israel as a “settler colonial state” was found to have discriminated against Jewish students.
The advocacy group said teachers at Branham High School, in San Jose, had presented “biased” content about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a 12th-grade ethnic literature curriculum.
The investigation into the found that a lesson discussing whether Israel is a settler colonial state and a teacher’s response to a student presentation on the “Genocide of Palestinians” had been discriminatory to Jewish students.
In the lesson, according to the state DOE ruling, the teacher showed students two videos about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but didn’t offer students a pro-Israel perspective.
“In this lesson, in order for the information to be unbiased, there would have needed to be a video that reflected a pro-Israel perspective,” the ruling said. “This would have encouraged students to create authentic answers regarding the questions provided in the lesson.”
