House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) voiced support for extending Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria during a meeting with Samaria Regional Council leader Yossi Dagan in Washington on Wednesday.
“Sovereignty is so important to the world. It’s so important to all of us,” Scalise said.
The congressman spoke alongside Dagan after taking part in a summit on the issue organized by the council on Capitol Hill.
“We always pray for Israel and especially the people of Samaria,” Scalise said. “We know how difficult the times are, but keep morale high. Know that the whole world roots for Israel.”
“The forces of hatred have always been out there,” he said. “But the forces of good will never stop praying, will never stop fighting.”
“When we are sitting together and working, it makes us stronger, and I know it makes you stronger,” Dagan told Scalise. “Because together, we have faith, we have the same mission.”
Wednesday’s conference brought together some three dozen members of Congress who support Jerusalem extending Israeli law to Judea and Samaria, according to the Samaria Regional Council.
Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Reps. Derek Schmidt (R-Kan.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) and Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) attended, per the council.
The largest event in support of Judea and Samaria that the council has held on Capitol Hill, the summit is part of Dagan’s wider aim to gather U.S. support against recent calls to establish a Palestinian state in historically Jewish territories.
“These are not easy days for any of us. We are in the midst of a difficult war against barbarians,” Dagan said at the conference, per a council readout.
God “has given us a historic opportunity to build the land of the Bible and to bring sovereignty to the land of the Bible,” he said. “If we join forces, we will help Israel’s government bring sovereignty. Together we will restore historical justice.”
Dagan also met with Paula White, head of the White House Faith Office, on the sidelines of the summit and presented the pastor with a golden shofar, a ram’s horn, made in Samaria, according to the council.
White told Dagan that God is with the people of Judea and Samaria and that Washington stands with them, per the council readout.
On Wednesday evening, 71 of 120 members of Israel’s Knesset passed a non-binding motion in favor of extending Jerusalem’s sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
Only 13 lawmakers voted against the motion, which was submitted by Dan Illouz (Likud), Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu).
“Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley are an inseparable part of the Land of Israel, the historic, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people,” the resolution states.
The government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led a near-unprecedented drive to expand Jerusalem’s control of Judea and Samaria, approving 41,709 housing units and 50 new towns since 2022.
Last year, the Knesset voted 99-11 to back the Netanyahu-led cabinet decision to reject any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
All coalition members and most lawmakers of the Zionist opposition parties voted to support the cabinet statement against “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”
