Space lasers and plague: GOP kills pro-Israel bill
Republican House leaders axed a planned vote on Monday for a bill intended to protect Israel from boycotts, amid a backlash from some conservatives over free speech concerns.
Former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida compared provisions in the legislation to the tenth plague of Egypt — the death of the firstborn.
“If this bill becomes law, how many Israeli products do I need in my home to avoid fines or prison?” Gaetz asked. “If I leave an Israeli-made product outside my home, is it the 2025 version of lamb’s blood that keeps my family safe?”
The bipartisan bill, titled the International Governmental Organizations Anti-Boycott Act, would extend existing anti-boycott legislation that bars Americans from complying with bans imposed by foreign countries to also forbid compliance with boycotts imposed by such international governmental organizations as the United Nations.
While the legislation does not mention Israel explicitly, the Jewish state has long been the target of international boycott efforts.
GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Thomas Massie of Kentucky were among the Republicans to speak out against the bill.
In a post on X, Greene wrote: “It is my job to defend American’s rights to buy or boycott whomever they choose without the government harshly firing them or imprisoning them.” Greene famously speculated in 2018 that the Rothschilds might have caused wildfires in California by “beaming the sun’s energy back to earth.”
Luna wrote that “Americans have the right to boycott, and penalizing this risks free speech.”
A spokesman for Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a co-sponsor of the bill, said “it’s beyond outrageous and offensive that House leadership bowed to extreme-right forces and pulled this commonsense, bipartisan bill that makes antisemitic and hate-driven boycotts illegal.”
“Who was behind this effort?” Tony Wen, Gottheimer’s communications director, told JNS, referring to Greene. “None other than a member of Congress who once claimed that Jews have space lasers, and another who refused to condemn Hamas. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie should be ashamed of themselves.”
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a bill sponsor, defended the legislation on the grounds that it simply enhanced the underlying anti-boycott act President Trump signed in 2018.
“When did you become a defender of the United Nations?” Lawler snapped at Greene.
Legal challenges arguing that similar state-level anti-boycott legislation violates the First Amendment have fared poorly in court.
In 2023, in separate cases, the Fifth, Eighth and 11th Circuit Courts of Appeals each upheld state laws designed to counter BDS (the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement). The Supreme Court has declined to consider appeals to those rulings.
The Jewish Star contributed to this report.
