Over the past week, there have been some significant developments here at home and in the Middle East. In this week’s Action Update, we’ll look at the headlines and then go a bit deeper.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Booted from HFAC

On Thursday, Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the most antisemitic members of Congress, was kicked off her assignment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) by the House of Representatives.

We issued a statement welcoming the news in which we noted, “Rep. Omar has a track record of trafficking in antisemitic tropes and making bigoted claims concerning pro-Israel activists. Moreover, her positions regarding the Middle East defy reason. She has made blatantly false claims about Israel and has even gone so far as to compare the United States and Israel to terrorist groups. An individual espousing such fringe and hateful beliefs has no place serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”

The laundry list of Rep. Omar’s antisemitic statements could fill pages, but one particular incident exemplifies just how unapologetically hateful she is. After her 2012 tweet alleging that “Israel has hypnotized the world,” came to light, Rep. Omar was confronted on a news program about her antisemitism. Apparently unfamiliar with the concept of irony, Rep. Omar accused those who took offense to her tweet of bigotry. That’s right, folks, Rep. Omar’s understanding of the world is that anyone who doesn’t appreciate her antisemitism is a bigot.

As we noted in the aforementioned statement, “Antisemitism has no place anywhere in America, including and especially in Congress.” Rep. Omar’s removal from HFAC is good for the country. Antisemitism cannot be normalized, and that is quite clearly Rep. Omar’s goal.

Iran and Russia, a Match Made in Hell

Regular readers of the Update know that we’ve been tracking Iran’s weapons sales to Russia. We’re not going to claim to be surprised that Tehran and Moscow have engaged in such a partnership. Both are evil regimes run by despots who have no regard for human life. But we are increasingly concerned about how close these two international pariahs have become.

Russia has been using Iranian suicide drones to indiscriminately kill Ukrainian citizens. Iran, which doesn’t care about innocent life (see above), isn’t just making money off these acts of murder—they are also able to see their drones in combat, which enables these weapons, whose final target is Israel, to be improved.

In the latest development, the Russians are working with Iran to build a factory on Russian soil that would produce as many as 6,000 Iranian drones for use in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

As Ukraine has gotten pretty good at destroying the current crop of relatively slow-moving Iranian drones being deployed by Russia, the new drone factory will build faster, more elusive aerial death machines. As we mentioned in last week’s Update, the Stop Iranian Drones Act is more imperative than ever, and we will be putting the full weight of our organization behind advancing this legislation

Turkey and Syria Suffer Massive Earthquake

Some of you may have seen that Turkey suffered a massive earthquake earlier this week. The quake had a substantial impact on Syria as well. As of this writing, more than 2,400 people have died, with thousands more injured. During moments like these, everyone must set aside political differences and help those in need. And that’s exactly what Israel is doing.

Israel has sent medical and Search and Rescue teams to Turkey to try to save as many lives as possible. In addition, even though Syria and Israel are officially at war, Jerusalem is sending aid to their northern neighbor as well.

This is not the first time Israel has set aside ongoing conflicts in the name of humanity. During Syria’s recent civil war, Israel provided aid, including medical treatment inside Israel, to victims of that brutal and catastrophic conflict in an effort dubbed “Operation Good Neighbor.”

There’s a reason Israel has become known as the world’s first responder. In part, it’s because, tragically, Israel’s fight for survival has made the country extremely adept at dealing with mass casualty events. But the foundation of Israel’s support for those in need is biblical. The Jewish state takes very seriously its divine mandate to be a light unto the nations, and that light shines brightest on those dark days when disaster strikes.

Sincerely,