- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene revisited tricky territory in an amendment to an Israel funding bill.
- Greene's amendment would divert cash from Israel to developing space lasers for the US border.
- A 2018 post suggesting that lasers in space caused a California wildfire has long haunted Greene.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made clear her opposition to sending extra money to Israel in a weirdly self-referential way.
The Georgia congresswoman demanded that US funding to Israel also be spent on developing "space lasers," an apparent reference to a lowlight of her political past.
Greene's proposed amendment to HR 8034 seeks to divert money from Israel to "the development of space laser technology on the southwest border" of the US.
On X, Greene said it was an attempt to ensure the US has similar technology to Israel's laser-powered weapons like the experimental Iron Beam.
Other observers might find a different resonance to Greene talking about space lasers, especially in the context of Israel.
Soon after Greene took office in 2021, the campaign group Media Matters unearthed conspiratorial social-media posts from previous years.
One from 2018 suggested that a huge wildfire in California was caused by orbiting lasers.
She connected the occurrence to the Rothschild family of Jewish financiers, a favorite target of antisemitic theories.
A Business Insider report from 2021 has more specifics, including that Greene deleted the post after it came to light.
Suffice it to say that the "Jewish space laser" theory has become a staple piece of mockery for those attacking Greene and is brought up by reporters often.
A video from early March shows Greene being less than thrilled to talk about the theory, telling the British reporter Emily Maitlis to "fuck off" after she asked about it.
It might seem strange, then, for Greene to voluntarily go back to space-laser territory, given that it's often earned her mockery.
But it's also in keeping with her MAGA Republican style, embracing the most eye-catching possible methods to signal her positions — in this case, her die-hard opposition to sending aid to other countries.
The suggestion isn't realistic and isn't meant to be.
It was among a raft of amendments offered by Greene and allies like Rep. Paul Gosar meant to make it harder to pass the bills.
Other suggestions of Greene's include seven amendments to a bill designed to send money to Ukraine.
They include provisions that would divert money instead to US disaster zones, or that would force all members of Congress who support the bill to enlist in the Ukrainian military.
Business Insider wrote to Greene's office seeking comment in an email sent outside regular business hours.
The bills are the latest attempts to break a congressional deadlock on getting aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Previous attempts to consider the two issues in a single bill were abandoned, and the House is considering the bills separately.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that he supports both measures, and urged the House and Senate to quickly pass them so he could sign them into law.
