Justin Amash, a Tea Party Republican candidate, won the 3rd CD in Michigan by a 60-37 margin according to Wikipedia, taking positions on political and economic issues that would bring a smile to the shade of Ayn Rand. The JTA says that he is of Palestinian and Syrian background, his Palestinian father having left I/P 54 years ago.The Forward says he is “The Palestinian in the House,” though it says John Sununu was the first of Palestinian ancestry to get into Congress.
Amash’s website says nothing about his ethnic background in its “About Justin” page, and Time Magazine said nothing on this point in putting Amash in its 40Under40 list.
When it came to Israel-Palestine he apparently bypassed AIPAC and went straight to Netanyahu. Hence this:
The United States has a long and strategically important history of strong foreign relations with Israel. As a member of Congress, I will work to continue and strengthen this relationship. I will also respect Israel’s sovereignty and will not support counterproductive efforts to impose agreements or conditions on Israel. Israel must manage its foreign relations and domestic policies as it deems to be in its own best interests as a sovereign nation.
This is what he had on his website:
Middle East “All parties benefit from an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. I share former President George W. Bush’s vision of two independent states, Israel and Palestine—two peoples, living side by side in peace and security. Israel’s borders must be secure, recognized, and defensible, and it must be free to respond to hostilities that threaten its people. A future state of Palestine must be viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent. The use of incitement, violence, unnecessary force, or terror to achieve political goals must be abandoned.
He was cautioning the Palestinians, not the Israelis, of course. And you wonder how his father left. Amash says:
The parties should negotiate a just and mutually acceptable agreement on the status of borders and Palestinian refugees.
