(February 24, 2023 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in his Jerusalem office on Friday afternoon with a group of senators, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Netanyahu “stressed the importance of the bipartisan ties between Israel and the U.S.,” and the group “discussed the struggle against Iran, as well as the Abraham Accords and the possibilities for expanding them,” according to a readout from his office.
The meeting also included Ron Dermer, strategic affairs minister; Tzachi Braverman, chief of staff to Netanyahu; Tzachi Hanegbi, national security council director; and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides.
Schumer’s office released a statement after the senator’s visit to Yad Vashem, where, as is traditional with leaders the world over, he participated in a wreath-laying ceremony.
“As Senate Majority Leader—the highest-ranking Jewish American elected official in history—I stand here today in the shadow of my ancestors, who perished in the Holocaust, to promise that as long as Hashem breathes air into my lungs, the United States Senate will stand behind Israel with our fullest support,” said Schumer.
“Bipartisanship is alive and well in Israel,” tweeted Nides. “What a great time having Senator Schumer and Senator [Mitch] McConnell, along with their senatorial delegations, here. Shabbat Shalom!”
The ambassador also posted a video in which he and Sens. Schumer, Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and the latter’s wife, Nancy Bass Wyden, wish a Shabbat Shalom.
Hours earlier, he posted a video with the Republican delegation, also wishing all a Shabbat Shalom. That group, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) led, included Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.).
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