U.S Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was elected on Wednesday to be minority leader of the House of Representatives.
McCarthy, who defeated Ohio congressman and Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan, has been a steadfast supporter of the State of Israel.
“We have shared values, shared security interests throughout the world, and there’s no stronger bond between any ally that we have, being the only democracy in the Middle East,” he said in Israel in August 2017, courtesy of the American Israel Education Foundation, which is affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and organizes trips for members of Congress.
McCarthy has also been a frequent speaker at the annual AIPAC conference.
“It is life-changing for any member to go to Israel. When [Democratic Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer and I] went to that northern border—and we’ve done it times before—much more serious today than it’s ever been,” he said at the 2018 conference. “To me, we’ve got a 70-year history between the relationships and the partnerships, and we have the same threat: Iran.”
He stressed that “what the world needs to know [is] normally, the regular army of Iran does not leave its home front. [But now] they allow them to go into Syria. That, to me, is unacceptable. This is the place that we need to draw the line and America cannot stand to allow Iran to stay.”
McCarthy was against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from it in May.
The congressman also supported relocating the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, also in May.
Expected to join McCarthy in the House GOP leadership is Steve Scalise, who will go from being the majority whip to the minority whip, and Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, as Republican conference chair.
