McCarthy promises to kick Omar off the foreign affairs committee because of his criticism of Israel.

The likely next House speaker makes a move that appears to be a response to a Democratic lawmaker's criticism of his support for Israel and for calling him a liar and coward in a tweet that many have deemed antisemitic.

Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, was recently demoted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in part due to her criticism of Israel, according to Kevin McCarthy, who is expected to become the next speaker of the US House of Representatives.

He also made a hint that her criticism of him the previous year played a role.

McCarthy, a Republican from California whose party recently won a slim House majority, was giving a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas on Saturday.

He continued, "I recall what she said about me. "I still recall what she said about Israel. I recall what she said about the relationship between the US and Israel," he said. "I distinctly recall promising you last year that she wouldn't be discussing foreign matters anymore. I'll keep my end of the bargain. There was cheering.

Omar has demanded that the US-Israel connection be subject to more congressional inspection. Her criticism of the pro-Israel lobby has sparked accusations of antisemitism from some Jewish organizations, Republicans, and Democrats. She has also appeared to at times invoke themes of Jewish control. (Omar has expressed regret for some but not all of the offensive remarks.) She also backs the boycott of the Israel movement.

She claimed that McCarthy's support for Israel was "all about the Benjamins," slang for 100 dollars, in one of Omar's most infamous tweets. She apologized subsequently. McCarthy's reference to what Omar said about him may also be a reference to her calling him "a liar and a coward" last year after he refused to censure a Republican congresswoman, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, for joking that she was afraid that Omar, a Somali American Muslim, carried a bomb.

In a rare action in 2021, Democrats, who were in control of the House, stripped Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee memberships, in part because she had previously embraced the violent conspiracy group QAnon.

McCarthy then threatened to take action if he was chosen as speaker.

The Democratic House speaker at the time, Nancy Pelosi, rejected McCarthy's offer of compromise, which would have kept Greene on some committees while removing her from others. McCarthy may be seeing a similar ending for Omar when he states that Omar "would no longer be on international affairs" and would not be barred from committees.

McCarthy did not care about antisemitism, according to Jeremy Slevin, Omar's spokesman, who claimed McCarthy was only trying to silence Omar.

Slevin tweeted that Greene "ran an ad pointing a machine gun to @IlhanMN's head and declared Muslims couldn't be in Congress." "Donald Trump led racist cries of "bring her back," which resulted in threats of death. Antisemitism has nothing to do with this; it's just about using any methods to silence her.