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American Jewish Leaders Insist Congress Remains Strongly Pro-Israel
(Jerusalem Post) Jeremy Sharon - At the 45th leadership mission in Israel of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Chairman Arthur Stark and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein said that comments by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) were worrying and needed to be addressed, but that the majority of the U.S. political establishment was still strongly pro-Israel. "It raises the sense that this is a whole new strain of anti-Semitism than what we've seen before in the halls of power," said Stark. "We do believe that by and large U.S. political leaders are very strongly behind Israel, but it is critical that they take it very seriously. We have taken upon ourselves to raise the alarm with them and to ensure that they censure this behavior." Hoenlein said the comments by Omar and Tlaib could represent "a cancer that metastasizes." "There has to be a declared policy of zero tolerance for this type of thing as there would be for any other form of bigotry or racism." However, Hoenlein noted that the House of Representatives voted 424 to 0 last week on a motion to combat anti-Semitism and BDS. "This Congress is more pro-Israel than the last one was," said Hoenlein. "More people will speak out on this and more importantly will act on it, and we will do everything to reinforce the positive trends in Congress."