Congress recently finalized the membership rosters for the major Middle East policymaking committees. Emboldened by their midterm election victory, House Democrats are eager to capitalize on the bipartisan heat against Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. Meanwhile, the politics surrounding Israel and Palestine have become increasingly acrimonious as Republicans seek to spotlight freshmen House members who support the pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement while advancing anti-BDS legislation — a divisive issue within the Democratic caucus.

House Foreign Affairs Committee:  Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., has said he plans to focus on the Arabian Peninsula for the committee’s first hearing. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the committee’s top Republican, has also said that “changes still need to be made” in the US-Saudi relationship, even as he has praised some of Riyadh’s domestic reforms.

While Foreign Affairs has long been one of the most bipartisan committees, its historically pro-Israel record may be challenged. The panel unanimously backed anti-BDS legislation last year, but freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has become the first committee member to embrace the movement. Omar has taken heat from Republicans for her stance, with fellow committee member Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., going so far as to introduce a resolution accusing her of anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, at least two freshmen on the committee have been backed by J Street, which opposes both the BDS movement and anti-BDS legislation: former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., a former assistant secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration and Washington director for Human Rights Watch. On the other side of the aisle, Vice President Mike Pence’s brother, freshman Greg Pence, R-Ind., has joined the committee.