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SCENE LAST NIGHT — by JI’s Laura Kelly: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told a group of Jewish Democrats that Israel as a bipartisan issue is being put at risk by people who would like to separate the Jewish community and the Democratic Party. [Pic]
At a reception hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), the majority leader said Democratic members were united in criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for touting an anti-Semitic trope on Twitter. “Well we made some criticism when one of them said something we thought was not appropriate and gave the wrong message of anti-Semitism, but she apologized… I said, ‘We’re prepared to criticize our own,’” Hoyer said.
Over a dozen members of Congress came out to the event, held at the Liaison Hotel in Washington, DC. “We are a wonderful noble country and in the last few years, there have been real attempts to derail that,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said at the opening of the event, before heading to a fundraiser across the hall.
Also speaking at the event were freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who voiced greater action in confronting anti-Semitism, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who promoted Jewish values as central to democratic values, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that strong support of Israel is essential for America’s national security. “I know that the Israelis are key to our national security as well, in terms of their partnership, in terms of their sharing information with us — we’ve got to end this notion that somehow one party or the other is promoting stronger ties with Israel. We should all be promoting stronger ties.”
William Daroff of the Jewish Federations of North America said, “I think it’s important in the current environment to ensure that there is a pro-Israel majority on both sides of the aisle and there are certainly forces on the right and the left to wedge support between the U.S. and Israel and we need to vigilantly, we need to be vigilant across the board and across the spectrum.”