Josh Ruebner has published an op-ed criticizing Eric Cantor for going to Israel in the Culpeper, Virginia, Star-Exponent. “Put your constituents’ economic concerns before Israel’s,” writes Ruebner (of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation).
The Culpeper paper is in the northern end of Cantor’s district, but I am informed that the piece was rejected by the Times-Dispatch in Richmond, where Cantor lives. Oh and by the way, Cantor’s wife Diana is on the board of the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s parent company’s board, Media General. Here’s Ruebner:
Americans are suffering massive cutbacks in social services, an unemployment rate stuck above 9 percent, and 10 million families face foreclosure on their homes by next year. As Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor should be at home during this August congressional recess, meeting with constituents and proposing to them and the entire country how he will help them cope with their difficult circumstances.
Instead, the politician is gallivanting around Israel, leading one of three congressional delegations heading there this month on all-expense-paid junkets organized by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a “charitable affiliate” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential of the myriad pro-Israel lobbying outfits….
The House Committee on Ethics should open an investigation to determine if it is even legal for Rep. Cantor to be participating in junkets organized by AIEF. The guidelines of the committee are as bright and clear as the midday sun on a Tel Aviv beach in August. “The travel provisions of the gift rule severely limit the ability of Members and staff to accept travel from an entity that employs or retains a registered lobbyist.”
