Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) compares Muslims to dogs.
The scene:
The winter Olympics in Milan.
The commentator:
Stefan Renna for the Swiss RTS broadcaster.
The broadcast:
The Israeli leader of the bobsled team has no right even to be at the Olympic games because he “posted several messages on social networks in support of genocide in Gaza” (i.e., he defended Israel’s right of self-defense), and an Israel member of the bobsled team has no right to be at the Olympic games because he had been “engaged in an Israeli army operation.”
The response by the American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee:
“Beyond disgusting.”
It is beyond disgusting not just when an anti-Semite defames a Jew. It is beyond disgusting when a Jew defames a Muslim.
“Beyond disgusting” is a comment on dehumanization. Stefan Renna in Switzerland qualifies.
So does Rep. Randy Fine of Florida. He wrote:
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Beyond disgusting.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine “a disgrace to the United States Congress.”
Not that that is a small thing, but Rep. Fine is worse: He is a disgrace to the Jewish people.
Is Rep. Fine not aware of the signs that said, “No Jews or dogs allowed?”
Is Rep. Fine not aware that every human being is created in the image of G-d?
Has Rep. Fine, who wears a yarmulke in public, never heard of the concept of hillul Hashem, of bringing shame upon the name of G-d and of the Jewish people?
Is it the case that because some Muslims are terrorists, all Muslims are terrorists?
Isn’t it just this kind of logic chop that has bedeviled the Jewish people since antiquity — because Mr. Individual Jew acted heinously, all Jews are deserving of death?
Does Rep. Fine have any sense for the import of his own words?
Rep. Fine has a defense. He says:
“My post was in response to a major Muslim leader saying dogs should be forbidden from New York City because, to some Muslims, it bothers them. Well, if they’re going to make us choose between dogs and them going home, the choice is easy.”
Apparently, to Rep. Fine, every stupid thing posted on social media — or every absurd, obscene or malicious remark — needs to be responded to.
Has Rep. Fine not heard that as a publicly visible Jew, and as a member of the United States Congress, he is expected not to get down in the gutter to make a point?
And his point? Does Rep. Fine not know that the choice between dogs and “them [some Muslims] going home” bears no resemblance to the choice he actually articulated: “the choice between dogs and Muslims?”
Does Rep. Fine not know that recasting one’s message after the fact is no substitute for thinking carefully, and expressing oneself carefully, before the fact?
Ambassador Huckabee, in his critique of the anti-Semite Stefan Renna, referred to “the Jew-hating Swiss ‘sportscaster’ [who] spewed bigotry & bile.” In this day and age, the habits of haters, who are hardly limited to one sportscaster in Switzerland, pose the temptation of imi- tation.
The temptation is everywhere. Bile and bigotry, thoughtless expression, denigration of political opponents, deeming other people “losers,” picturing other people as monkeys — and the seemingly limitless corrupted creativity of expression in this day and age — is everywhere.
One of Rep. Fine’s critics is Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who reportedly wants to be president of the US. Newsom tweeted at Fine: “Resign now, you racist slob.” Slob? Newsom’s policies may differ from Trump’s, but the governor’s language is as crude as the president’s — a sad sign of the degradation of political expression in our time.
Rather than seeing himself as a lonely, courageous crusader, Rep. Fine should indulge in a bit of introspection and acknowledge that he is a prisoner of a warped communication culture that demands nastiness.
A Jewish member of Congress should know better. Should be better. Should act better. Should think better. Should speak better.
Rep. Fine’s defenders note that he is frequently the target of pro-Hamas and other sordid types, as if that were a justification for Fine’s “choice between dogs and Muslims.”
Rather than imitating or even paying attention to malicious haters, Rep. Fine would do better to pay attention to what President Harry S Truman said: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
© IJN 2026
