U.S. Knesset Speaker Mike Johnson Says Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza 'Outrageous'

When will Johnson and Rep. Jim Jordan talk about their 2020 trip to the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and Hebron with top Israeli settler?

U.S. Knesset Speaker Mike Johnson attended the pro-Israel rally in Washington on Tuesday and criticized those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed — 40 percent children — since the start of the war.

Johnson, who holds ties to Israel's far-right and was given a tour of Israel in 2020 by a “top settler,” told the crowd that Israel needs to press on because if it stops, it will cease to exist.

“Israel will cease their counteroffensive when Hamas ceases to be a threat to the Jewish state,” he said.

“I agree with our friend, Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu who said this is a battle between good versus evil, between light versus darkness, between civilization and barbarism. And we want to make absolutely clear where America stands in that fight, and we’ll continue to do that.” 

Johnson, after being elected speaker, wasted no time to let the American public know that his first measure of business was to “support” Israel.

“Our nation’s greatest ally in the Middle East is under attack — the first bill that I am going to bring to this floor, will be in support of our dear friend Israel. And we’re overdue in getting that done,” the Louisiana Republican said to cheers from Congress.

Haaretz published an illuminating report at the time that could offer a glimpse into Johnson’s decision to list Israel as his top agenda item as speaker in an article titled, “New House Speaker Mike Johnson, an Evangelical Christian, Holds Ties to Israel’s Far Right.”

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The paper wrote that his selection was “the most significant victory to date for evangelical Christians’ pro-Israel movement.”

The paper noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relies on Evangelical support in the U.S. as his own government moves to the right and was losing some support from American Jews. The 7 October attack by Hamas only moved the “pro-Israel Evangelical” even more “vocally pro-Israel.”

The report pointed to a trip that Johnson took to Israel in 2020 with a group whose CEO is a “social media activist named Avi Abelow, who emigrated from New York more than 30 years ago at age 18 and lives in the West Bank settlement of Efrat.”

During his trip, he visited Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and called it a “fulfillment of biblical prophecy.”

Ben Samuels, the author of the Haaretz article, posted on X: “House Speaker Mike Johnson holds ties to Israel's far right — traveling on a private visit organized by a top settler, meeting with the group behind Israel's judicial overhaul and touring the Temple Mount with an activist against maintaining the status quo.”

Mother Jones reported:

Johnson traveled to Israel with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The sponsor for this trip was the New York-based 12Tribe Films Foundation, a small outfit that that describes itself as “online warriors for truth about Israel and the Jewish people.” The organization spent $34,520—about one-quarter of its revenue that year—to fly the two lawmakers and their wives to Israel and host them for the week-long trip. The itinerary included visits to the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as meetings with Israeli military officials, business owners, and political leaders—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the right-wing Likud Party. The two congressmen also received a briefing from the Kohelet Policy Forum, a far-right Israeli think tank that would later help cook up the Netanyahu administration’s controversial plan to weaken the country’s judiciary.