By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
House Speaker Mike Johnson held a “private meeting” with AIPAC and Jewish leaders on Wednesday on Capitol Hill wherein he reportedly pledged to screen out “isolationist” (see: anti-Israel) GOP candidates “to prevent that wing of the party from growing larger in the House.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke about his efforts to hold the line against the isolationist wing of the Republican Party in a private meeting with pro-Israel leaders on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, several individuals who attended the meeting told Jewish Insider.
Johnson, who described himself to the group as a “Reagan Republican” focused on “peace through strength,” acknowledged that isolationism is rising in the Republican Party, and that the party is likely bound for a major debate on the issue after President Donald Trump leaves office.
And Johnson told the group that, in his candidate recruiting efforts, he’s working to filter out isolationists to prevent that wing of the party from growing larger in the House, four people who attended the meeting said.
“The speaker was very, very direct about the U.S. role with Israel and in the world and understands that there are voices that don’t agree in both parties, on both extremes, and urges us all to be involved in fighting back against those extremes,” Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JI.
[…] Johnson emphasized his commitment to working across the aisle to support Israel and the Jewish community, an individual in the room said. With a government shutdown deadline fast-approaching at the end of the month, Johnson said he’s committed to continuing to work through the regular appropriations process and negotiating with the Senate, and noted that various Jewish communal priorities would be part of that process.One source said Johnson had also highlighted the fact that he was the highest-ranking elected official to visit a settlement in the West Bank […]
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), who also addressed the meeting, provided an overview of the investigations that the House Education and Workforce Committee is conducting into antisemitism, as well as noted he’d been texting recently with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt about the proliferation of antisemitic conspiracy theories about the killing of influencer Charlie Kirk.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) delivered a prayer and Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN), Randy Fine (R-FL) and Craig Goldman (R-TX) also spoke to the group.
Though nearly all the participants remained mum on what went down, Rep. David Kustoff tweeted out an image of the room.
“This morning, I joined Speaker Mike Johnson for a roundtable with Friends of Israel to discuss strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship, security in the region, and the fight against antisemitism,” Kustoff said. “I am grateful to serve as Chairman of the House-Knesset Parliamentary Friendship Group and continue this important work.”
I recognize the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Norm “Jews Are The Masters of the Universe” Coleman on the far right.
Christians United for Israel’s Sandra Hagee Parker is also there on the left in yellow.
Parker put out a vague statement on Instagram about the meeting which said that Johnson will go down in history for having “ensured that America’s greatest friend and ally had the resources she needed, in her darkest hour, to fight our collective enemies.”
“And to those who think we cannot ‘afford’ to help Israel, I assure you, the Bible teaches us the opposite is true,” she added.
To Parker’s left is Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who gave a big award to Palantir’s Alex Karp on Tuesday.
Just above Shemtov is Morton Klein from the Zionist Organization of America (who is helping the Trump administration with their anti-Semitism crackdown).
JI continues:
The organizations in attendance included: The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Republican Jewish Coalition, Agudath Israel of America, AIPAC, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, National Council of Jewish Women, Syngeros Holdings, CUFI Action, the Orthodox Union, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Standard Industries, the American Jewish Committee, Zionist Organization of America, National Debt Relief, Jewish Institute for National Security of America, the Deborah Project, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Coalition for Jewish Values and the Endowment for Middle East Truth.
The only power player missing is the Anti-Defamation League, but as they mention above, they’re clearly working intimately with the ADL behind the scenes (as is the Trump administration).
The American people should have a right to know the full contents of this meeting but the only outlet reporting on it is Jewish Insider (behind a login wall), and all we know is the limited information they’ve chosen to give us.
That said, based off what they told us, it’s clear Johnson is aggressively working to screen out anti-Israel candidates from the GOP to suppress the will of the American people — and deny them the representation they’re due — on behalf of a foreign power.
It came out last year in Axios that House Speaker Johnson and Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made a private agreement not to disparage one another as they worked in unison to ram Israel First legislation through Congress.
When Johnson became speaker in Oct 2023 he announced his first priority would be Israel. Now that we’re almost two years into his speakership, it’s clear that advancing the interests of Israel is his only priority.