WASHINGTON—U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Tuesday that he hopes to move along a U.S. Senate bill that passed earlier this month and that, if enacted, would impose fresh sanctions on Syria, boost security cooperation with Israel and Jordan, and allow state and local governments the right to punish state or local contractors from boycotting Israel.
The anti-BDS component of the legislation has divided Democrats.
“[House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman] Eliot Engel and I are talking about it, and hopefully, we’ll move something soon,” Hoyer told JNS after addressing a reception hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, featuring Democratic members of Congress, including freshmen such as Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin.
At the event, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused those on the other side of the aisle for making the U.S.-Israel relationship a single-party issue.
“There are people on the Republican side who are trying to make Israel a partisan issue,” he said. “When Israel becomes a partisan issue, it will lose ground.”
“I told [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu that maybe the greatest threat to Israel is the rockets in Iran and in Lebanon that Hezbollah has,” he continued. “But probably the second-greatest threat to Israel is losing the young people. And you losing … the left side of the ledger.”
At @USJewishDems reception, @SenSchumer blasts @GOP for making Israel a partisan issue; slams Trump for #EmergencyDeclaration on border wall, says Congress has defeated it (resolution to nullify it just passed the House, moves on to Senate). pic.twitter.com/ULDgXdyvCM — Jackson Richman (@jacksonrichman) February 27, 2019
Other speakers included former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen.
