When lobbying collides: Azerbaijan, Israel and Armenian American advocacy

2026-02-04 - 16:36

On Dec. 9, 2025, Republican U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna introduced a bill in Congress that would end restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan. Luna’s bill, H.R. 6534, would lift longstanding restrictions under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act and allow increased U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan. The legislation has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It should be noted that in October 1992, Congress amended the Freedom Support Act to include Section 907, prohibiting any form of direct U.S. assistance to the Azerbaijani government. The measure followed lobbying efforts by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), which cited Azerbaijan’s blockade of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). According to the amendment, the U.S. president may not provide assistance to the government of Azerbaijan unless he determines and reports to Congress that Azerbaijan has taken steps to lift the blockade and cease the use of force against Armenia and Artsakh. Thus, Azerbaijan was the only former Soviet republic that did not benefit from the Freedom Support Act — at least, until 2001, when the bill was amended to allow the president to temporarily waive the restrictions. Since then, it has been waived several times, though the restrictions were never entirely removed. As compensation, and on its own responsibility and initiative, Israel began providing military assistance to Azerbaijan, including weapons systems later used against Armenians in Artsakh. Luna’s proposal comes approximately four months after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a joint declaration in Washington aimed at normalizing relations. It is worth mentioning that on Aug. 8, 2025, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, under the auspices of U.S. President Donald Trump, initialed an agreement and signed a joint declaration emphasizing continued efforts toward final ratification. Armenians around the world, particularly the ANCA and other Armenian American advocacy groups, criticized the initiative at the time. Who is Anna Paulina Luna? Anna Paulina Luna (née Anna Paulina Mayerhofer) is a Republican politician and Air Force veteran who has represented Florida’s 13th Congressional District since 2023. She serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Born May 6, 1989 to George Mayerhofer and Monica Todd, Luna has said that her father raised her in Messianic Judaism, an evangelical movement that incorporates Jewish traditions into Protestant Christianity. She has also claimed to have a small amount of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, referring to Jews whose historical roots lie primarily in Central and Eastern Europe and who developed distinct religious, linguistic and cultural traditions. Therefore, Luna identifies as a Messianic Christian. She is married to Andrew Gamberzky, a U.S. Air Force combat controller whom she met while serving in the Air Force. In 2019, she adopted her maternal grandmother’s maiden name, Luna, citing her Hispanic heritage and following her mother’s earlier name change after a divorce. Her paternal grandfather, Heinrich Mayerhofer, identified as Catholic when he immigrated to Canada from Germany in 1954. Family members have said he served in the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany’s armed forces, during World War II. Luna’s father has Mexican and German ancestry. Her paternal grandmother was born in Hidalgo, Mexico. Her mother has Mexican American ancestry, and two of Luna’s maternal great-grandfathers served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. Luna has described a troubled family background. Her parents never married or lived together, and she has said her father struggled with drug addiction. Her mother remarried when Luna was 9 and later separated from her husband four years later. Luna has said she discovered her father’s amphetamine use at age 10. She has also said her maternal grandmother struggled with heroin addiction and was HIV-positive. By 2020, Anna Paulina and her mother had adopted the surname Luna, which she has described as an homage to her maternal grandmother’s maiden name. Luna married Andrew Gamberzky in 2011. He later served as an air traffic controller with the U.S. Air Force. In 2021, Gamberzky sought a religious exemption from the military’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement, citing his Christian beliefs and objections to vaccine research involving embryonic material. He subsequently resigned from the military and is now suing the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the National Guard and the Oregon Military Department for lost wages, benefits and medical expenses. On Feb. 13, 2023, the bimonthly Jewish newspaper St. Louis Jewish Light published an article titled “Florida congresswoman lied about her Jewish heritage and her grandfather fought for the Nazis.” The article reported that Luna, who had defeated a Jewish Democratic candidate in the previous fall’s election, had claimed Jewish ancestry during her campaign. To gain the support of Jewish lobbying groups, Luna told Jewish Insider that she was “a small fraction Ashkenazi” and that her father had raised her as a Messianic Jew. While mainstream Judaism does not recognize Messianic Jews — who believe in the divinity of Jesus — as Jewish, Luna’s separate claim of Ashkenazi ancestry drew additional scrutiny. She referenced that claim while responding to accusations that her political ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, had made antisemitic remarks. According to an investigation by The Washington Post, which included interviews with extended family members and a review of genealogical records, Luna does not appear to have Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The investigation found that her paternal grandfather, Heinrich Mayerhofer, served in the armed forces of Nazi Germany. It remains unclear whether Luna knowingly misrepresented her background or was misinformed. Family members told reporters that Mayerhofer served in the Wehrmacht before immigrating to Canada in 1954 and that his wartime service was widely known within the family. The Washington Post also located a photograph of Mayerhofer in a Wehrmacht uniform. Relatives said he identified as Roman Catholic and told them he had no choice but to serve in the military during the war. Armenians are worried The proposed legislation to expand U.S. security assistance to Azerbaijan has renewed tensions between ANCA and Israel. In December, the ANCA intensified its criticism, asserting that Israeli policy contradicts Jewish ethical and historical traditions. The statement went on to say that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies the Armenian Genocide of 1915, armed Azerbaijan during the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and the 2023 Azerbaijani military offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh, and has endangered the Armenian presence in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Armenian American lobby and the Gaza Strip A recent dispute has emerged between Armenian American advocacy groups and Israel, particularly following the end of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip. A coalition of 18 U.S. organizations, led by the ANCA, issued a joint statement urging the United States and its international partners to reject any Azerbaijani role in a proposed international stabilization force for Gaza. The coalition argued that Azerbaijan’s close military, intelligence and political ties with Israel render it a biased actor, disqualifying the country from any peacekeeping role in the territory. Armenian American advocacy groups have said that Azerbaijan’s close military, intelligence and political ties with Israel make it a biased actor, disqualifying the country from any peacekeeping role in the Gaza Strip. The groups have also cited Azerbaijan’s 2023 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) as evidence that it is unfit for such missions. On the other hand, the Azerbaijani government frames those military actions as the liberation of its sovereign territory after decades of Armenian occupation. ANCA’s executive director, Aram Hamparian, accused Israel of “aiding and abetting” what he described as Azerbaijan’s “genocide of Artsakh,” arguing that Israel’s ties with Baku make any Azerbaijani involvement in Gaza untenable. In summary, Armenian advocacy groups argue that Israel’s oversight of Azerbaijan’s genocidal war in Artsakh — combined with what they describe as an indifferent international response to the forced displacement of Armenians and the destruction of institutions, homes and churches — has emboldened both states. At the same time, Jewish lobbying organizations in the United States are pressing to lift long-standing congressional restrictions on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.