{"id":91024,"date":"2026-01-01T21:10:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=91024"},"modified":"2026-01-01T21:10:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:10:01","slug":"rep-randy-fines-incendiary-comments-on-muslims-alarm-many-jews-without-denting-his-standing-on-the-pro-israel-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/rep-randy-fines-incendiary-comments-on-muslims-alarm-many-jews-without-denting-his-standing-on-the-pro-israel-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Randy Fine\u2019s incendiary comments on Muslims alarm many Jews \u2014 without denting his standing on the pro-Israel right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ANDREW LAPIN<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 In his brief time in the House, freshman Jewish Congressman Randy Fine has built a reputation for combative outbursts \u2014 particularly about Muslims.<\/p>\n

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Rep. Randy Fine, former gambling executive, won a special election in a deep-red district on Florida\u2019s northeast coast. (House.gov)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But the Florida Republican ignited a new round of controversy earlier this month with a series of disparaging remarks about Palestinians and what he called \u201cmainstream Muslims\u201d that his critics \u2014on the left and right \u2014 say are not just provocative but amount to \u201cgenocidal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how you make peace with those who seek your destruction. I think you destroy them first,\u201d Fine said during a Dec. 10 hearing with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, after remarking, \u201cThere has to be a reformation, really, of Islam.\u201d <\/p>\n

He doubled down on similar rhetoric aimed at \u201cmainstream Muslims\u201d and \u201cmainstream Islam\u201d in the week that followed, and has intensified his stance following the Hanukkah terror attack in Australia by avowed ISIS supporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for a Muslim travel ban, radical deportations of all mainstream Muslim legal and illegal immigrants, and citizenship revocations wherever possible,\u201d he declared in a statement posted to social media. \u201cMainstream Muslims have declared war on us. The least we can do is kick them the hell out of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine\u2019s remarks \u2014 which have also included putting blame on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar \u201cand her fellow Somalis\u201d for a public assistance fraud scheme carried out largely by Somali defendants \u2014 go far beyond what other Jewish pro-Israel elected officials have said publicly. They have been widely condemned, including by other Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a part of the Jewish community, I know that I must speak out,\u201d Noam Shelef, of the progressive group New Jewish Narrative, said in a statement. \u201cRep Fine, who wears a kippah, will be seen as a face of the American Jewish community. His hate is not who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, in a statement after a  \u201cJewish-Muslim Solidarity\u201d event in Washington, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs included Fine among purveyors of \u201cdeeply hateful remarks directed toward all Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most extreme voices are exploiting legitimate fears about rising antisemitism and Islamophobia to pit Jewish and Muslim communities against each other. Yet our safety is inextricably linked to each other\u2019s and to the strength of our multifaith, multiracial democracy,\u201d said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of JCPA, in the statement.<\/p>\n

Yet at a moment when the global Jewish community is reeling from the aftermath of the Australia attack, Fine\u2019s support among the conservative pro-Israel Jews he seeks to cultivate has not been dented in any obvious way.<\/p>\n

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Then-State Rep. Randy Fine, at podium, and colleagues from the Florida Legislature endorse a proclamation backing Israel in the second week of its war with Hamas, Oct. 18, 2023. (Florida Senate\/Wikmedia)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Republican Jewish Coalition remains in Fine\u2019s corner, and pro-Israel lobbying giant AIPAC has endorsed him heading into a contested primary for his reelection. Since his initial comments about Muslims, he has spoken at a conference hosted by the Jerusalem Post, attended Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s Chanukah party and spoke at a Hanukkah gathering for Young Jewish Conservatives. Some of his fans tell JTA they think his comments about Muslims are on the mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly isn\u2019t the words that I myself would use to describe the situation,\u201d Matt Brodsky, a Jewish GOP strategist who worked with Trump\u2019s first-term Middle East diplomatic team and has worked on political campaigns for Muslim Republicans, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. <\/p>\n

But, Brodsky said, \u201cHe could very well be making a point that the Muslims who would stand with Jews or stand with Israel tend to be the exception, not the rule. And I don\u2019t know that I would argue differently.\u201d Brodsky added that, in the grief of the Australia attacks, he doesn\u2019t want \u201cto be splitting hairs over what a Jew says.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration also seems to agree with Fine\u2019s assessment on restricting Muslims from entering the country. On Dec. 16, the federal government added the Palestinian Authority, as well as new Muslim-majority countries including Syria, to its travel ban.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama, also recently called for a Muslim ban, leading to condemnation from Chuck Schumer, the Jewish Democratic Senate minority leader. (On Dec. 14, Vickie Paladino, a Republican member of the New York City Council, made similar remarks claiming that expelling Muslims would aid the fight against antisemitism, and expounded on her views in the Queens Jewish Link.)<\/p>\n

Reached for comment, Fine pointed to his social media statements but also seemed to soften his stance. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot all Muslims are or support terrorism,\u201d Fine wrote to JTA. He added that he was \u201cgrateful\u201d for \u201cMuslims like\u201d Ahmed el-Ahmed \u2014 the bystander in Australia who was shot while disarming one of the gunmen, and has been praised by Jewish groups for his heroism.<\/p>\n

Such people, Fine added, \u201cjust want to live in peace [and] prosperity with the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine, who was elected in an April special election in a deep-red district with few Jews that he himself still had not moved into months after his victory, has made his Jewish identity an unmissable component of his politics. He wears a kippah on the House floor, is an unwavering Israel supporter and has called out members of his own party who he believes have crossed the line into antisemitism. On social media, where he\u2019s adopted the \u201cHebrew Hammer\u201d moniker, he shows off new MAGA-themed yarmulkes he added to his collection.  <\/p>\n

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Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson, left, swears in Rep. Randy Fine, right, as the newly elected congressman’s wife, Wendy Fine, looks on, at the U.S. Capitol, April 2, 2025. (Office of Speaker Mike Johnson\/Wikipedia)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Part and parcel with that persona are Fine\u2019s views on Muslims and Palestinians, which some even in his party consider extreme. As the right in general is wrestling with a larger problem of antisemitic influence and the erosion of a once-assured consensus in support for Israel, Fine\u2019s bellicose rhetoric has made enemies on his side of the aisle \u2014 even as he, like many other conservatives, has claimed to be following in the footsteps of Charlie Kirk, the slain founder of Turning Point USA.<\/p>\n

In July, amid reports that Israel was withholding humanitarian aid to Gaza, Fine simultaneously called such reports \u201ca lie\u201d and also declared, \u201cRelease the hostages. Until then, starve away.\u201d The American Jewish Committee and other groups decried his remarks. An undaunted Fine repeated the phrase \u201cstarve away,\u201d along with variations like \u201c#KeepOnStarving,\u201d several times in the waning months of the Israel-Gaza war \u2014 even as backlash to his remarks grew on the right. <\/p>\n

\u201cA Jewish U.S. representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful,\u201d Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican and recent Trump critic who will be leaving the House in January, tweeted after Fine\u2019s July remarks about Gaza. <\/p>\n

Lauren Witzke, a QAnon activist and former Republican Senate candidate in Delaware who attended Turning Point USA\u2019s recent AmericaFest gathering, has repeatedly slung personal insults at Fine. She has promised to \u201cpersonally fundraise for the candidate who primaries this genocidal freak who gets off watching little toddlers and infants being blown to pieces.\u201d (Aaron Baker, a challenger who also ran against Fine in April, took Witzke up on the offer even as he has made his own support for Israel part of his campaign platform.) <\/p>\n

Tucker Carlson, himself a lead driver of antisemitic conspiracy theories on the right and an emergent critic of Israel, has also lambasted Fine over the congressman\u2019s calls, in May, for Gaza to be nuked. During his address at AmericaFest, the recent gathering hosted by right-wing group Turning Point USA at which antisemitism was a hot topic, Carlson more generally criticized Republicans who he said were \u201cattacking millions of Americans because they\u2019re Muslims. It\u2019s disgusting. And I\u2019m a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of his \u201cstarve away\u201d remarks, Fine had not yet been endorsed by AIPAC for reelection. One of his non-Jewish primary opponents, Palm Coast City Council member Charles Gambaro, harshly criticized Fine\u2019s Gaza remarks and declared that Gambaro, too, would seek AIPAC\u2019s endorsement. <\/p>\n

Since then, AIPAC has endorsed Fine. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe pro-Israel community supports Rep. Fine because of his work to strengthen America\u2019s partnership with Israel,\u201d an AIPAC spokesperson told JTA earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Another Jewish institution continuing to back Fine: the Republican Jewish Coalition. <\/p>\n

Following his \u201cdestroy them first\u201d remarks, the Jewish Democratic Council of America said Fine \u201cis blatantly engaging in hate speech.\u201d The RJC\u2019s X account, in turn, blasted its Democratic counterpart for condemning Fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are total clowns,\u201d the RJC declared in a tweet directed at the JDCA.<\/p>\n

The RJC continued: \u201cMaybe start with holding Hakeem Jeffries accountable for campaigning with and endorsing antisemite Mayor-elect of NYC, Zohran Mamdani.\u201d<\/p>\n

The larger digital ecosystem of hard-line supporters of Israel has also regularly championed Fine. \u201cCongressman Randy Fine is speaking truth to power \u2014 and it matters,\u201d Betar USA, a pro-Israel group that has also demanded \u201cblood in Gaza\u201d and whose members have protested outside mosques, tweeted Dec. 17, a day after Fine tweeted, \u201cWe either wake up or Mainstream Muslims will conquer the West for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when too many politicians stay silent or hide behind cowardly talking points, Randy Fine stands unapologetically for America, for Israel, and for moral clarity,\u201d the Betar post continued. \u201cHe says what others are afraid to say \u2014 and he doesn\u2019t back down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabe Groisman, a Jewish podcaster and former mayor of Bal Harbour, Florida, has also approvingly featured Fine on his podcast.<\/p>\n

Not all Jewish conservatives agree with Fine\u2019s bluster. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, I\u2019m glad there is somebody who\u2019s giving voice to a more robust pro-Jewish, pro-Israel point of view,\u201d one Jewish nonprofit professional who ran for office as a Republican told JTA after Fine\u2019s \u201cstarve away\u201d remarks this summer. \u201cOn the other hand, I wish it was someone other than Randy Fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without questioning Fine\u2019s pro-Israel bonafides, the former candidate \u2014 who asked to remain anonymous, citing ongoing involvement in Jewish organizations \u2014 believed the politician was failing to meet the moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who are publicly, overtly Zionist, and especially those who seek public office based on their Zionism, I think have an obligation to be thoughtful about how they present themselves,\u201d the Republican said, comparing Fine\u2019s outbursts unfavorably to those of far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. \u201cThey say things which are then used against Israel in the international press.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Brodsky, though, Fine is a necessary truth-teller at a time when vocal Israel critics such as Omar get what he believes is a free pass for their own extreme remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally don\u2019t like getting into games where we deal with shoving a microphone in exclusively Republican faces in order to justify anything a Republican said, but we don\u2019t do that for Ilhan Omar,\u201d he said. Brodsky had worked on the 2024 campaign of a Muslim Republican challenger to Omar until he was fired over tweets in which he stated that Israel should \u201ccarpet bomb\u201d an area of Lebanon where Irish peacekeepers were stationed.<\/p>\n

Fine is still embracing his role as a heel of sorts. When Omar called for his expulsion earlier this month over his \u201cdestroy them first\u201d comments, he had a simple retort: \u201cGo for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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