A Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee says criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not make one anti-Israel.
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) told JNS that Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was making Israel less safe.
“I have spoken directly to Mr. Netanyahu twice since Oct. 7 and said, ‘Of course you had every responsibility to declare war on Hamas ..., but you also have a responsibility to do it justly,’ and I’m critical of how he has done it,” Dean told JNS.
“I remember when I was just getting to go to Israel for the first time, the words always [were] understandably security, security. I believe, sadly, Mr Netanyahu has made it less secure.”
Dean was in Dallas Thursday with other House Democrats to respond to the Republican midterm convention
A fellow House Foreign Affairs Committee member, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), said blaming Netanyahu is a sop to far-left Democrats who oppose the Jewish state.
“The sad thing is this is what the Democrats have latched onto is, just say ‘Bibi,’ and think that absolves them of Jew-hatred and antisemitism,” Lawler told JNS. “Unfortunately, too many of my Democratic colleagues are more concerned about their radical leftist base than they are standing up for our greatest ally in the world.”
Lawler took aim at the far-left, anti-Israel candidates who have won Democratic primaries, some of whom are running as democratic socialists.
“You have people running for office on the Democratic Party line that believe the Jewish state should not exist,” Lawler said. “It’s a sharp departure from where the Democrats were just two years ago.”
Dean in July supported an amendment cutting off aid to Israel. The proposal was defeated. So was a Senate proposal in April limiting sales of products to Israel’s military. But a majority of Democrats backed both measures.
She described herself as “very pro-Israel” and said it was incorrect to say that if “you vote anything that is actually against Mr. Netanyahu and the atrocities he has committed with his coalition, West Bank, Gaza. that you are anti-Israel.”
“I think it reveals that I’m even more pro-Israel and I compare it to this country,” she told JNS. “I am very critical of Mr. Trump. That doesn’t mean I don’t love my country. It actually means I love my country more.”
