Ben Gvir meets 4 GOP lawmakers on the Hill, including chair of key US House panel

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir tells The Times of Israel that he met today with four Republican US lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including one who heads the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The meetings indicate that the far-right Israeli lawmaker, whom Joe Biden’s administration considered sanctioning last year, is making inroads in American politics — at least on the Republican side of the aisle.

Rep. Brian Mast was the most senior lawmaker to meet with Ben Gvir today. Mast is a major backer of Israel’s settlement movement who is directing staff on the Foreign Affairs Committee to refer to the West Bank only by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria. Ben Gvir is a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement outside of Hebron.

The minister held meetings with two of the more conservative members of the Republican caucus in Reps. Jim Jordan and Claudia Tenney, but he also sat down with the more moderate Rep. Mike Lawler.

Ben Gvir says he didn’t come to the Hill with a particular agenda, other than to give those who agreed an opportunity to get to know him.

He says the lawmakers expressed their full-throated support for Israel and its war against Hamas. They didn’t try and urge him to change Israeli policy either.

Ben Gvir says a number of Republican lawmakers updated him on their efforts to crack down on the finances of pro-Palestinian groups in the US.

“I didn’t ask them afterward whether they’ll vote for Ben Gvir, but they wanted to get to know me and I think they really liked what they heard,” he says.

Ben Gvir did not hold any meetings with members of US President Donald Trump’s administration during his weeklong trip, though he insists that was never part of the plan. There had been reports of a potential meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, but that sit-down never materialized.