House Republicans have chosen Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), one of Israel's fiercest allies in Congress, to lead the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Mast served in the US Army for 12 years, lost his legs in an IED explosion while deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and later volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense Force. 

The firebrand Republican aligns himself with President-elect Donald Trump’s strength-first strategy. He has called a nuclear-armed Iran the greatest threat to the US' and Israel’s security, and he advocated for Washington to “reinstitute crippling sanctions" against the Islamic Republic.  

Mast strongly opposes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has drafted legislation to cut off all US funding for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Another bill he sponsored since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack sought to claw back funds already distributed to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. 

Mast wore his IDF uniform to Capitol Hill following Hamas' attack on Israel, and argues that most Palestinians should be seen as a terrorist threat to the Israeli state.

“I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians. … I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term innocent Nazi civilians,” Mast said on the House floor earlier this year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Mast on his selection in a post on X on Tuesday, calling the Republican congressman “a great American patriot and a true friend of Israel.”