GOP bill would ban federal use of the term “West Bank”

A torn Israeli flag is seen on the road to the Mahharza residence in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank placed by settlers from an outpost (illegal settlement) nearby.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) has introduced legislation that would prohibit federal use of the term “West Bank” and instead use “Judea and Samaria,” a phrase that refers to Israel’s biblical claim on the region.

A similar House bill was introduced earlier this year by three Republican lawmakers.

“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years,” said Cotton in a statement. “The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”

“It’s time to call this region by its rightful name and stop playing into anti-Israel propaganda,” he continued.

On social media Cotton declared that, “Calling Judea and Samaria the ‘West Bank’ is a slap in the face to the truth.”

These kinds of ridiculous legislative efforts have very little chance of actually passing, but they do set the parameters of what’s acceptable in mainstream politics.

“Pay attention to these really outlandish and extreme proposals but don’t take your eye off the ball in terms of other ideas that might seem a little more moderate in comparison,” Anthropology professor Darryl Li toldMondoweiss earlier this year.

One of those more moderate ideas is the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA), which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) has been trying to push for months.

The AAA would require the Department of Education to evaluate claims of antisemitism using the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition, which has been criticized by Palestine activists and First Amendment advocates for including certain criticisms of Israel.

Schumer attempted to tack it onto the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) but the effort was blocked by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) who said it was outside’s the act’s purview. He called on Schumer to pass it as a standalone bill.

“Whether in the NDAA or as a standalone bill in the Senate, there is no excuse for delaying a vote a single day longer,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) told Jewish Insider. “This is commonsense, bipartisan legislation that passed overwhelmingly out of the House months ago and will help stop antisemitism. It’s up to leadership in the House and Senate to figure this out now. It must be sent to the President’s desk before the end of the year.”

As Jewish Insider notes, the incoming Republican Senate leadership will quickly pass the bill under Trump if Schumer fails to move on it this year.

It’s important to take a look at what make it into the NDAA.

$500 million for missile defense cooperation with Israel, $80 million for U.S.-Israel Anti-Tunnel Cooperation Program, and $47.5 million for U.S.-Israel defense technology cooperation.

As usual, these developments occur with virtually no public debate. This also passed just days after Amnesty International released a report that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

As Li said, we shouldn’t take our eyes off the ball.

Mast to lead House Panel

There’s an overwhelming amount of news to keep up with these days, but I wanted to take a moment to focus on Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), who was recently selected to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mast is rabidly pro-Israel, even by the standards of the U.S. Congress. Despite being born and raised in Grand Rapids, he volunteered to serve in the Israeli military and showed up at the Capitol last year wearing its uniform. We might take a moment to think about the mainstream reaction if a House member showed up to work with the military uniform of any other country.

“I stand against a two-state solution,” Mast declared in 2019. Which is to say, he thinks that Israel should annex all of Palestine.

He’s predictably supported Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, but without the standard caveats about the tragic loss of life. In fact, he’s suggested that nearly every Palestinian deserves to die and compared them to Nazis.

“I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II,” he explained. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians.”

When confronted by CODE PINK activists over Palestinian babies being killed by Israel, he said, “these are not innocent Palestinian civilians across the world.” He also blamed Palestinians for their own starvation, saying “they should go out there and put a government in place that doesn’t attack Israel.” When asked about Palestinian homes being bombed he said, “There is more infrastructure that needs to be destroyed… and there will be more that is destroyed.”

Mast’s selection has been condemned by a number of human rights groups and activists. “Brian Mast might be the perfect person to serve as a spokesperson for the war criminals of the Israeli government, but he has no business running congressional hearings on sensitive international issues that impact our nation’s security,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw.

Unfortunately, Mast’s selection points to a broader issue among Congress. The body is largely devoted to Israel and thus anti-Palestinian sentiment generates no repercussions.