Rep. Steny Hoyer meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres. (Photo democraticleader.house.gov)
Mike Huckabee is not the only American politician to go to Israel and anger Palestinians this week.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is leading a 29-member Democratic delegation on an AIPAC-sponsored tour of Israel. The junket follows the same itinerary as last week’s 25-member Republican House group led by Minority Whip Eric Cantor.
During the trip, Hoyer made a number of provocative statements which are at odds with the Obama administration’s current policy, although he did not criticize the President directly. The Majority Leader opined that the Palestinians were to blame for the stalled peace process because the U.S-designated Palestinian negotiation partner, Mahmoud Abbas, has wrongly insisted on Israeli compliance with a settlement freeze as a pre-condition for starting negotiations.
Hoyer also echoed Israeli Prime Minister’s Binyamin Netanyahu’s position that the so-called "natural growth" construction, which means expansion of the existing settlements, should be permissable. This is in direct contradiction to what is the current stated U.S. policy.
According to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency, Hoyer expressed sympathy for the Israeli desire to build in East Jerusalem stating that, "I personally perceive Jerusalem as a unified city. I continue to view it as a unified city." President Obama made similar statements about Jerusalem when as a Presidential candidate he appeared before an annual AIPAC convention. He later qualified his statements and his current policy would seem to indicate that he no longer holds that view.
In addition Ma’an News reports that Hoyer and Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO) indicated that they supported Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians are opposed to this because many feel that the idea of a Jewish state is necessarily prejudical to the Palestinian minority within Israel. They also worry that such recognition would be used by Israel to argue against the future repatriation of Palestinian refugees. The Palestinian Authority has already recognized the state of Israel. Also, Jordan and Egypt were not asked to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as a condition for signing peace treaties. The Israeli government demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is widely perceived as a tactic to delay peace negotiations
Hoyer’s trip reminds us that obeisance to Israel is a bipartisan obsession in American politics. In the final analysis powerful Democrats like Hoyer, who have been feeding at AIPAC’s trough for decades, may present a greater obstacle than Republicans to the Obama/Mitchell peace plans.
