Cruz and Hagerty Land in Israel to Assess Damage from Hamas War
District of Columbia, International | June 1, 2021
Senators Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) landed in Israel on Sunday to assess the damage from the country’s most recent war with Hamas and meet with the Jewish state’s leaders.
The lawmakers—both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—will tour Israel’s southern cities, which were heavily targeted by Hamas, and sit down with Israeli leaders to reaffirm the Republican Party’s unwavering support for the security alliance with America.
The trip comes as Democrats in Congress are increasingly divided over U.S. support for Israel. Lawmakers on the Party’s left flank have repeatedly called for the Biden administration to freeze security aid to Israel and consider sanctioning the country for carrying out defensive strikes on Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and other members of the so-called Squad are attempting to push their colleagues into adopting their anti-Israel positions, a strategy that appears to be gaining ground as an increasing number of Democrats champion a wholesale reassessment of the historically bipartisan U.S.-Israel security alliance.
The Democratic Party’s divisions on Israel were on full display in the House earlier this month when virtually every Democrat voted to table two bills that would sanction Hamas and boost funding to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which played a central role in intercepting Hamas missiles before they struck civilian areas…
(Excerpts from the Washington Free Beacon)