WASHINGTON (JTA) — The US House of Representatives elected Florida Representative Brian Mast, a zealous pro-Israel Republican who has volunteered with a group that assists the Israeli army, to chair the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mast bested three other contenders to succeed Texas Representative Michael McCaul, who is term-limited. Insiders say that President-elect Donald Trump lobbied the Republican Steering Committee, which names committee chairs, to choose Mast.
“I have no doubt Congressman Mast — a distinguished combat veteran and experienced member of this committee — will serve the nation well in this role, as he sacrificed in Afghanistan,” McCaul said in a statement.
Mast, 44, first endorsed Trump in 2016, when Mast himself was first running for Congress, and has been one of his most loyal defenders in the body, taking a prominent role in this year’s campaign. Mast is also aligned with Trump’s more isolationist bent, opposing US support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. McCaul and the three other contenders, Representatives Joe Wilson of South Carolina, Anne Wagner of Missouri and Darrell Issa of California, are more aligned with traditional Republican internationalist principles.
Mast, a Christian and military veteran who lost both legs on duty in Afghanistan in 2010, volunteered in 2015 with Sar-El, a group that places civilians from abroad in support positions with the Israeli army. He has said the experience helped shape him.
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A dedicated page on his congressional website describes the experience. “I learned at the Shabbat tables of my hosts just how much each family truly desires peace between every neighbor of Israel, regardless of religion or history,” he said. “We cannot let Israel face its enemies alone.”
Mast wore his Israeli army uniform to Congress in the days after October 7, 2023, when Hamas massacred some 1,200 people inside Israel and took 251 hostage.
Mast’s pro-Israel posture has often been pugnacious. California Representative Sara Jacobs, a Jewish Democrat, last year sought to censure Mast for suggesting that there were no innocent Palestinian civilians in the war Israel was waging against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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“I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians, as is frequently said,” Mast said at the time. “I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term innocent Nazi civilians during World War II.”