Chris Smith
R · U.S. House, NJ-4 · Tier 1
Tier 1, “Firmly pro-Israel”
Co-chair of the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus and of the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, and the House’s lead author on cutting off UNRWA: his Stop Support for UNRWA Act (H.R.7122, Jan 2024) cleared the Foreign Affairs Committee, the April 2024 aid package carried a matching UNRWA ban, and he reintroduced the bill as H.R.9893 in July 2026, calling UNRWA “a child soldiers factory that we have funded for decades” (Apr 2024) and an organization that “teaches Palestinian children to hate Jews” (Jul 2026). Urging passage of H.R.8034, he said “all necessary offensive military capabilities must be conveyed without delay to Israel for as long as it takes to defeat Hamas” (Apr 2024), and he attacked the May 2024 arms pause, saying Biden “is withholding critical support.” He voted for both Israel-only supplementals, the bill forcing delivery of the paused bomb shipment (H.R.8369), both ICC-sanctions bills and the September 2026 anti-boycott bill, against the 2025 Greene and 2026 Massie cuts, and did not vote on H.Res.894; he was also an original cosponsor of the 2026 Replace UNRWA Act (H.R.9680). In January 2024 he led the Smith–Manning letter with Rep. Kathy Manning; its signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A clean 1. He leads on Israel in every sense that matters here: he co-chairs the Israel Allies Caucus, he wrote the House’s main bill to defund UNRWA — the principal UN agency serving Palestinian refugees — and moved it through committee, and he chaired three hearings building the case against the agency. His rhetoric casts UNRWA’s schools as a “child soldiers factory,” he called for offensive weapons “for as long as it takes,” and his votes are zero-daylight. Despite a long human-rights portfolio, his concern for Palestinian civilians goes no further than saying his UNRWA bill leaves room “to meet existing or future humanitarian needs in Gaza” through vetted agencies (Feb 2024). There is no real counter-case.
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).