Jamie Raskin on Israel

Public disputes concerning Israel, its government, institutions, policies, security, and international relations.

How we classify topics

Counts show individual statements. They do not assign an overall position.

Statement history

2 statements on this page. Dates: April 16, 2026 to September 6, 2026

2 matching statements. Dates: April 16, 2026 to September 6, 2026

2 published statements. Dates: April 16, 2026 to September 6, 2026

Condemned

1 published statement. Dates: April 16, 2026

1 statement on this page. Dates: April 16, 2026

Jamie Raskin

Role at the time: Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, in a letter to Jared Kushner

April 16, 2026Condemned

Response to this claim

Jared Kushner's simultaneous roles as Special Envoy for Peace and chief executive of Affinity Partners, which has raised billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, create a glaring and incurable conflict of interest.

“From the standpoint of the American people, your decision to act in these two roles—one public for the government and one private for personal profit—creates a glaring and incurable conflict of interest. … Between 2021 and 2026, you raised into your investment firm billions of dollars in new investments from leading Middle Eastern monarchies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—often then turning around and investing those very same funds in Israeli companies closely tied to the military and defense establishment.”

Read the original textLetter from Rep. Jamie Raskin to Jared Kushner, Founder and CEO of Affinity Partners (April 16, 2026) · Jamie RaskinPages 1-4 (opening paragraphs and the paragraph beginning 'You even accelerated your capital fundraising'); document requests on pages 5-6

A letter from the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee to Jared Kushner at Affinity Partners, with a news release dated April 17. It asks for 15 categories of records by April 30, 2026, including communications with Saudi, Emirati, Qatari and Israeli officials and records about Affinity's investors and fund investments. It says the committee is investigating, but it is a request from the minority side and carries no compulsory process. The letter names no Israeli company; its sentence about Israeli companies closely tied to the military and defense establishment cites a 2024 New York Times article.

Archived copy

Why we used this label

The reference point is the proposition that Kushner's private business through Affinity, including its Israeli investments and Gulf capital, creates a conflict of interest with his role in U.S. Middle East negotiations. The letter states that the two roles create "a glaring and incurable conflict of interest" and cites the Gulf funding and the Israeli investments as grounds, so we used Condemned. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization. It loses because the letter does more than dispute a description: it says the arrangement is a conflict.

Read statement Does Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners conflict with his role in Middle East negotiations, as congressional Democrats and ethics groups say?

Explicitly stayed out

1 published statement. Dates: September 6, 2026

1 statement on this page. Dates: September 6, 2026

Jamie Raskin

Role at the time: United States representative, Meet the Press interview

September 6, 2026Explicitly stayed out

Statement summary

Raskin dismisses the dispute over Piker as an electoral distraction while explicitly condemning Hamas and also rejecting Netanyahu's policies.

“I think all of that is an irrelevant distraction.”

Open the original interviewJamie Raskin responds to Piker's Hamas-over-Israel comparison on Meet the Press

Primary program transcript. Kristen Welker asks about the exact comparison and whether the Democratic Party should include Piker. Raskin dismisses the dispute as an electoral distraction while explicitly condemning Hamas and also criticizing Netanyahu's policies. September 6 broadcast date.

Archived copy

Why we used this label

Raskin calls the dispute a distraction and expressly says it will not be worked out before the election, redirecting to domestic priorities. Criticism of Hamas and Netanyahu is not a mixed stance on Piker’s inclusion.

Read statement Hasan Piker’s “Hamas over Israel” comparison