Joe Sestak is a friend of Israel
Share with others:
A smear campaign, led by a group titled Emergency Committee for Israel, wants Pennsylvania voters to believe that Rep. Joe Sestak has anti-Israel views and does not recognize Israel's security concerns.
At first glance, the attacks on Mr. Sestak's record on Israel appear as the usual mudslinging Washington politics in the midst of a hotly contested Senate race. But this misguided campaign is especially troubling not only in its falsehoods, but in its reckless use of Israel as a political tool to divide Pennsylvania voters.
The charges against Mr. Sestak have no merit whatsoever. In fact few members of Congress can match Mr. Sestak's intimate understanding of Israel's legitimate and significant security concerns and appreciation for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
In his 31-year career in the Navy, Mr. Sestak traveled to Israel numerous times to work in conjunction with counterparts in the Israeli Defense Forces. As admiral of the USS George Washington, Mr. Sestak facilitated the installation of early warning radar systems off Israel's coast at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. As director of defense policy at the National Security Council, Mr. Sestak worked intimately with Israeli security officials to plan and carry out joint military exercises.
Mr. Sestak would never compromise Israel's security, which he himself has worked to ensure. Such deep experience with Israel's security needs is exactly what is needed in Washington today.
While Mr. Sestak's positions in support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are consistent with the stated positions of the state of Israel and of the United States, those of the so-called Emergency Committee for Israel are not.
With the promulgation of the 2002 "road map," President George W. Bush established the goal of two states for two peoples as official U.S. policy. In a historic speech at Bar Ilan University last summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraced the concept of a two-state solution, based on negotiations leading to the establishment a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, living side-by-side in peace and security with a Jewish, democratic state of Israel. It is a position that Mr. Sestak steadfastly supports.
First Published July 26, 2010 12:00 am
