Committee for the Republic is a right-of-center anti-interventionist foreign policy advocacy group that takes a particularly strong anti-Israel stance.

Committee for the Republic was founded in 2003 by John B. Henry. ¹

Activities

Committee for the Republic has an extensive book list on its website, mostly featuring works against interventionist American foreign policy but also several works on protectionist economics. ²

The Committee’s website has a lengthy page on the various Middle East conflicts in which the United States is currently engaged, that argues that Congress has not officially approved any of the engagements and thus they are illegitimate according to the War Powers Clause of the U.S. Constitution. ³

In January 2024, the Free Beacon reported that the Committee for the Republic organized a speaking event on January 16th at the Capitol Hill Club, a private club for Republican lawmakers, staff, lobbyists, and activists near the U.S. Capitol. The event featured guest speakers Max Blumental, a left-wing activist, documentarian, and editor-in-chief of the Grayzone, and Miko Peled, an Israeli-American journalist and self-professed human rights activist who advocates for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and believes in creating a single democratic state with equal rights in “all of historic Palestine.” ^{4 5} Blumenthal has published books through Verso, a left-wing publishing house that evolved out of the Trotskyist British magazine New Left Review. ^{6 7}

According to the Beacon’s report, Blumenthal and Peled called for the “dismantling of the Jewish state” and denied that Hamas terrorists raped women and killed babies during the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. The Beacon also reported that many Jewish Republicans expressed their disappointment at the Capitol Hill Club’s decision to allow the Committee to hold the event. Committee for the Republic co-founder John Henry personally sponsored the event. ⁸

The Committee has given Miko Peled a platform to speak in the past. ⁹

The Committee plans to hold similar events on Russia, Europe, Department of Defense spending, government surveillance, and the U.S. Constitution. ¹⁰

Leadership

Committee for the Republic’s board includes former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman. ¹¹

The chair of the board is co-founder John B. Henry, a serial entrepreneur who has sat on the boards of Harvard University and the Smithsonian. ¹²

The vice chair is Bruce Fein, who served as the associate deputy attorney general and general counsel to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the Reagan administration. He also served as special assistant in the Office of Legal Counsel during the impeachment process of President Richard Nixon. He was the research director for Republican lawmakers on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran. In the past, he was a visiting fellow for the Constitutional Studies program at the Heritage Foundation as well as an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). ¹³

1. “About the Committee.” Committee for the Republic. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.committeefortherepublic.us/about-the-committee.html.
2. “Salon Speaker Reading List.” Committee for the Republic. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.committeefortherepublic.us/books.html.
3. “Nine Known Presidential Wars With No Congressional Declarations.” Committee for the Republic. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.committeefortherepublic.us/nine-wars.html.
4. “Max Blumenthal.” The Gray Zone. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://thegrayzone.com/author/max-blumenthal/.
5. “Miko Peled.” MikoPeled.com. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://mikopeled.com/.
6. ^[1] “Max Blumenthal.” Verso Books. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/authors/blumenthal-max.
7. Collini, Stefan. “A life in politics: New Left Review at 50.” The Guardian, February 12, 2010. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/13/new-left-review-stefan-collini.
8. ^[1] Goodman, Alana. “National Republican Club Speakers Call for ‘Dismantling’ Jewish State and Deny Hamas Atrocities.” The Free Beacon, January 30, 2024. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://freebeacon.com/israel/national-republican-club-speakers-call-for-dismantling-jewish-state-and-deny-hamas-atrocities/.
9. ^[1] Carden, James. “There’s a Lonely Voice in Washington, and It’s Talking Some Sense.” The Nation, February 12, 2019. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/committee-republic-norman-birnbaum/.
10. “About the Committee.” Committee for the Republic. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.committeefortherepublic.us/about-the-committee.html.
11. “Board Members.” Committee for the Republic. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.committeefortherepublic.us/board-members.html.
12. ^[1] “John Henry.” Great Decisions. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://greatdecisions.tv/john-henry/.
13. ^[1] “Bruce Fein.” Committee for the Republic. Accessed February 11, 2024. https://www.committeefortherepublic.us/bruce-fein.html.