Here in the Tenth District, Israel is more than a foreign policy issue. Every year large numbers of our neighbors and friends, children, students, and young adults visit Israel. Many of us have family, friends and co-workers in Israel. Peace and security for Israel and her neighbors is not just politics, it’s personal.
I will be a leading voice in Congress ensuring that the US-Israel relationship remains strong, steadfast, and secure.
I first visited Israel in 1983 and have been back to visit many times. I fully appreciate that there is no more important strategic partnership for the United States in the Middle East than Israel. It is a relationship based on shared values and shared aspirations for our children, our countries and our world. It is a relationship based on mutual, long-term strategic interests and full partnership in pursuing peace and security at our respective borders and around the world.
While our two countries are inextricably linked by values and tradition, we also share a disproportionate role in addressing the ominous threats of radical extremism, global terrorism, and a nuclear Iran. As well, we share a keen and hopeful interest in the dynamic and uncertain future for emerging democracies among Israel’s Arab neighbors.
For all these reasons, the United States Congress has and must continue to unequivocally support the Jewish state of Israel. As a member of Congress, I will strongly advocate for continued growth in the bilateral cooperation between our two countries, strategically, politically, economically, culturally and militarily.
I will also be a leading voice in Congress, strongly advocating for continued U.S. engagement in creating the opportunities for a true and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, living together as two free and secure states. In addition, I will focus on the need to maintain the durability and quality of peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, and to pursue peace with Israel’s other Arab neighbors.
