Skip to main content

← America's Part

Congress and the Whole-Land Claim

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and the power of the purse. On Greater Israel, Congress has used both in one direction. It pays for the Israeli army, it has moved bills that would adopt the Israeli government's name for the West Bank and fuse the two countries' weapons systems, and its leader has stood in a settlement to say the land is Israel's "by right." On the war with Iran, it has not voted at all.

"The whole-land claim" means the claim written into the Likud party's 1977 platform and the current Israeli government's guidelines: that the Jewish people have an "exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel," from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River (see The 2022 Guidelines and the Nation-State Law).

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED for the Speaker's words and the bills named below; STRONG that congressional policy follows the lobby rather than the public.

The Speaker at Ariel​

In early August 2025, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson visited the Western Wall and the settlement of Ariel, deep in the occupied West Bank. CAIR quoted him: "The Bible teaches that Judea and Samaria were promised to the Jewish people, and they belong to you by right." CAIR noted that this "contradicts international law, longstanding U.S. policy, and the bipartisan consensus shared by every American administration since 1967," and that it came as the Knesset passed a resolution declaring the West Bank "an inseparable part of Israel" (CAIR, 25 September 2026). The critic Yodysseus, who called for Johnson's removal over the visit, quoted him slightly differently: "Scripture teaches us that the mountains of Judea and Samaria were promised to the Jewish people, and they belong to them by right," and named other members of Congress on the trip, including Michael McCaul, Claudia Tenney, and Michael Cloud (Yodysseus on X, 5 August 2025).

In March 2026, as the bombing of Iran began, Mondoweiss reported that Johnson "called Islam a 'misguided religion' from Congress to justify bombing Iran" (Mondoweiss on X, 6 March 2026). At a press briefing that month, after "six fallen service members," he called the action "necessary, lawful, and effective," according to a transcript fragment of the YouTube recording "Speaker Johnson Takes Questions About Iran War At House GOP Leadership Press Briefing" (4 March 2026).

The bills​

  • Renaming the West Bank. On 31 January 2025, H.R. 902, introduced by Rep. Claudia Tenney, would have U.S. agencies call the West Bank "Judea and Samaria," the Israeli government's term. H.R. 867, introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler the same day, expands anti-boycott laws to punish international organizations boycotting Israel (Nerdeen Kiswani on X, 3 February 2025).
  • Americans in the Israeli army. "US Congressmembers introduced legislation to give US military benefits to US citizens who fight in Israel's occupation army" (Ben Norton on X, 21 May 2024). In April 2026 a further bill was reported that would "extend military-style legal protections and benefits to American citizens serving in the Israeli occupation army" (pbipalestine on Threads, 27 April 2026), and Middle East Monitor ran the headline "US bill to grant Americans serving in Israeli army same rights as US troops" (Middle East Monitor, April 2026).
  • Fusing the militaries. The New York Times reported in June 2026 that "legislation now moving through Congress would merge virtually all aspects of U.S. and Israeli defense technology" to "promote the long-term integration of joint capabilities" (New York Times opinion, 8 June 2026). In Israel, the IDF spokesman Doron Spielman and analyst Nitzan David Fuchs were described explaining on JNS that the purpose is to put Israeli components into U.S. weapons so the two cannot be separated (109ers on X, 22 September 2026). Israel's N12 reported in March 2026 that Israel wants the United States to consider building military bases in Israel (Breaking X, 29 March 2026).

The vote Congress will not take​

The Iran war began on 28 February 2026. Reason reported in May: "House Republican leaders canceled a vote Thursday night on a bill that called for halting President Donald Trump's war with Iran," a war "the Trump administration launched in February without getting permission from Congress" (Reason, 22 May 2026). On 20 April 2026, 66 veterans who went to the Cannon House Office Building to ask Congress to stop funding the war were arrested; Snopes recorded their chant: "Not another nickel, not another dime, we won't pay for Trump's war crimes" (Snopes, 23 April 2026).

Two standards for one slogan​

In November 2023 the House censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib, described by Sunjeev Bery as "the only Palestinian Member of Congress," over the chant "from the river to the sea" (JTA, 8 November 2023; Sunjeev Bery on X, 9 November 2023). In April 2024, Mick Napier wrote, Congress "voted to criminalise the sentence 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!'" but "exempted Israel's ruling #Likud party platform that 'Between the Sea and the Jordan, there will only be Israeli sovereignty'" (Mick Napier on X, 18 April 2024). Rebecca C. Lewis asked lawmakers directly: "do these lawmakers condemn Bibi and his Likud party, who's founding charter says 'between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only be Israeli sovereignty'? It's the same language" (Rebecca C. Lewis on X, 7 November 2023). See The Slogan Banned for Others, Written into Likud's Platform.

When Netanyahu addressed Congress in July 2024, Jonathan Cook wrote that he "demanded weapons and money to keep his soldiers in the enclave indefinitely," and that members "roared 'USA!' to their satrap from Israel" (Jonathan Cook on X, 27 July 2024). The journalist Mehdi Hasan put the gap plainly in December 2023: "Israeli ministers keep saying out loud, again and again, that there won't be a two state solution. And yet elected Democrats here keep pretending there will be" (Mehdi Hasan on X, 12 December 2023).

A few dissenters​

Some members have pushed back. In February 2026, Rep. Sean Casten and 25 Democratic co-sponsors introduced a bill conditioning some U.S. weapons sales on, among other things, a ban on "forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, annexation of Gaza or 'de facto or de jure annexation' of any part of the West Bank," and eight Senate Democrats urged Trump to oppose settlement expansion (Jewish Insider, West Bank tag, February 2026). Responsible Statecraft reported that two members who led a congressional delegation to the West Bank in February found systematic "forced emigration" of Palestinians by settlers and the army (Responsible Statecraft, 29 May 2026). These efforts have not changed the flow of weapons.

According to Akbar Ganji's summary of a Shawn Ryan interview with Megyn Kelly, "$30 million" was spent by the Israel lobby to defeat Rep. Thomas Massie (Akbar Ganji on X, 2 June 2026). That figure is Ganji's summary, not a filing. But the lesson members draw from it is the one in Ganji's summary of John Mearsheimer: "every president's and every member of Congress's need for the lobby's money is the mark of America's policy captivity" (Akbar Ganji on X, 9 September 2026).

Status: Mike Johnson, Claudia Tenney, Mike Lawler, Michael McCaul, Michael Cloud, Rashida Tlaib, Sean Casten, Thomas Massie, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Doron Spielman, Nitzan David Fuchs, Mehdi Hasan, Jonathan Cook, and Megyn Kelly are alive. Nothing on this page states that any of them committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t19__v226.md, twitter/t20__v238.md, twitter/t21__v250.md, twitter/t22__v262.md, twitter/t29__v346.md, twitter/t29__v348.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

Last updated on