Largest-ever delegation of US lawmakers visit Israel

(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed to Jerusalem what his office described as the largest-ever bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers to ever visit the Jewish state.

“We value and cherish your support,” Netanyahu told the delegation of some 250 U.S. state legislators gathered at the Foreign Ministry, noting that there was an “active effort” ongoing to erode the ties between the two countries.

These efforts are “orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” he continued, accusing China and Qatar of spearheading attacks on the Jewish state’s very legitimacy in the United States and on social media.

“We can break this siege, and we will,” the prime minister vowed.

According to Netanyahu, Jerusalem’s ongoing seven-front war against Iran and its regional proxies “is not a battle just for national interest. Those theological thugs in Tehran who amassed the crowds, who took American hostages on the first few days of their tyranny and who since chant ‘death to America,’ they only see Israel as a roadblock on the way to subjugate you, subordinate you and threaten you,” Netanyahu stated.

“We have a common heritage, and that heritage is being challenged now by people who not only want to bring us back to the early Middle Ages with the incredible fanaticism and cruelty. It’s also savagery,” he said, recalling the Hamas-led atrocities during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The prime minister noted that after taking on Iran and its Hezbollah terrorist army in Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces soldiers are now “circling back to Gaza to finish the job, where it all began.”

“We are committed with America to receive, to release all the hostages, the living and the dead, and we’re not going to compromise on it, nor will we compromise on eliminating Hamas, because if Hamas is there, they’ll regroup, they’ll recover, they’ll rearm,” Netanyahu emphasized.

Monday’s gathering also included speeches by Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, and two representatives of the delegation, North Dakota Lt. Gov. Michelle Strinden and State Sen. Lori Berman (D-Fla.)

“Two hundred and fifty state legislators from 50 states. Republicans and Democrats. This extraordinary delegation is a testament to the depth of the bond between our nations,” Sa’ar said in his remarks at the event.

“This is probably the most significant delegation brought yet to Israel by the Foreign Ministry,” he noted, adding that “America has no ally more effective than Israel. The alliance between our nations safeguards American national security interests.”

The Jewish state is “drowning in a sea of fake, of lies,” Sa’ar continued, “so your presence here is more important than ever. You are on the ground, seeing Israel and the truth with your own eyes.”

Jerusalem’s top diplomat in his remarks paid tribute to slain American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed on a Utah campus last week, calling him a “great friend” who “helped us a lot.”

Kirk “understood that our battles are linked. That our fight for freedom, truth and our civilization is basically one,” the foreign minister declared.

Political violence “is not only happening in America,” he said. “It’s also happening around the world. It’s happening strongly in Europe. It’s happening against Israel. And against those standing for our values.”

On Friday, Beth Liston, a Democratic Ohio state senator, said that she had canceled her plans to join the legislative trip to the Jewish state.

“My hope had been to learn and ask tough questions of the Israeli government actions, particularly related to humanitarian aid in Gaza,” she stated. “I am grateful to the constituents who helped me see the harm of this approach.”

The state senator drew criticism, including from another state lawmaker.

“I am on this trip and you have just been used,” stated Esther Panitch, a Georgia state representative and a Democrat, as well as the only Jewish member of the Georgia state legislature. “You would be welcome to ask the hard questions.

“What those opposing don’t want you to see are the burned out civilian homes where whole families were set on fire to burn alive, to hear about the thousands of Gazan civilians who also crossed the border that day to rape, behead and pillage,” Panitch said.