The most pro-Israel Congress evah?
Amid high expectations from Israel's supporters, the 112th United States Congress will be installed on Wednesday. Though the Democrats’ shellacking in the November election reduced the numbers of Jewish members from 43 to 39 – though a new Democrat Jewish representative and senator will be among them – Silverman pointed out that the sole Jewish Republican, incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, will be the highest-ranking Jewish member ever.Read the whole thing.
Silverman predicted that the most visible change on Israel will be the extent to which Congress now challenges the Obama administration over its handling of the Middle East.
“The biggest difference we expect is how bold and how tough an approach we expect to see in congressional oversight,” he said. The members are “going to be skeptical and ask questions and conduct vigorous oversight of government policies.”
The non-partisan American Israel Public Affairs Committee described the 112th Congress as “expected to be the most pro-Israel Congress ever” in its Near East Report on the incoming legislative class produced after the elections.
“Many of Israel’s strongest supporters were reelected,” according to the AIPAC report. “AIPAC lay leaders and staff have established relationships with every new senator” already and received position papers in which “the new members of Congress express their support for a strong US-Israel relationship.”
But others, particularly Democrats, are concerned about what effect the new Congress will have on Israel, especially since many of the freshmen are Tea Party candidates without a long history of involvement in international issues and bent on cutting the budget.
“My greatest concern is two-fold: one is the unknown [members] and second is the ramifications of the deep fiscal conservatism and what that means for foreign aid and America’s involvement in the world,” said David Harris, president and CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
What's left unsaid is that the extent of support for Israel in this Congress is going to be dependent in many instances on Congress' willingness to clash with a President who does not feel any warmth toward the Jewish state (how's that for nuance?). The facts that the House is now controlled by Republicans and that most of the Senators facing elections in 2012 are Democrats makes it more likely - in my opinion - that Congress will be willing to go to the mat against the President when it comes to Israel.
The number of Jews in Congress is irrelevant (although Cantor's (pictured) position is nice). Most of Israel's support in the US these days comes from Christian Zionists like the ones who read this blog, and not, unfortunately, from Jews.
Labels: AIPAC, Eric Cantor, National Jewish Democratic Council, Republican Jewish Coalition, US Congress
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:51 PM
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