Ten Weeks Before the Midterms, House Democratic Leaders Hand the Middle East Subcommittee to One of the Chamber’s Most Pro-Israel Members — and Rashida Tlaib Says They Are "Ignoring the Base of Our Party"
On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) announced that Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) would become the top Democrat on the committee's Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, with Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) succeeding Moskowitz as ranking member on the Oversight and Intelligence Subcommittee. Meeks also welcomed three new Democrats to the full committee: Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Wesley Bell (D-MO). The MENA assignment is the one that lit the fuse. Moskowitz is among the most consistently pro-Israel Democrats in the House; Wasserman Schultz has taken roughly $1.5 million from pro-Israel PACs over her career, and Bell won his seat by beating a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate. The slate landed two days after The New York Times reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who signed off on the assignments alongside Meeks, had met privately with Jared Kushner. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian American in Congress, said leadership was elevating "a genocide denier" and ignoring a party base that wants U.S. funding for the war in Gaza to end. Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American Democrat running for governor, tied the pick directly to the Kushner meeting. The committee Moskowitz will help steer also seats members moving the other way: Pocan recently backed a failed amendment to cut $3.3 billion in U.S. military assistance to Israel, and Jackson has sponsored legislation restricting arms transfers. The fight is a proxy for the larger question facing House Democrats before November — whether a caucus whose voters have moved sharply on Israel will move with them.
“A supermajority of Democratic voters have made it clear they want to end U.S. support for Israel's genocide in Gaza and Trump's assault on Iran. By elevating a genocide denier who has said he is 'to the right' of JD Vance on the war on Iran, Democratic leadership is once again ignoring the base of our party who want the funding of the genocide to end.”