GOP Lawmakers Address Israeli Forum Seen as Architect of Netanyahu’s Judicial Coup - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
WASHINGTON – Leading U.S. lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle are set to visit Israel this week at a critical point in bilateral relations.
They are in town against the backdrop of the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul and settlement expansion plans, and with escalating tensions in the Palestinian arena.
A Republican delegation led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will land in Israel on Wednesday via the United Arab Emirates, following a stop in Saudi Arabia. The delegation includes Sens. Katie Britt, Ted Budd, Joni Ernst, Markwayne Mullin, Pete Ricketts and Thom Tillis.
Other key Republican senators already in Israel include Sen. Jim Risch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Tom Cotton.
GOP Sen. Tom Cotton speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Drew Angerer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
Several GOP lawmakers will be addressing the Tikvah Fund’s Hertog Forum in Tel Aviv. The conservative think tank is involved in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to neuter the Supreme Court, which has sparked mass protests across the country as demonstrators fear for Israeli democracy.
The Tikvah Fund was behind the 2019 founding of the Law and Liberty Forum, which aspires to create a new generation of conservative judges.
A Haaretz examination of the Liberty Forum’s activities revealed a complex and overlapping network of connections between it, the Tikvah Fund, the Kohelet Policy Forum and the highly influential right-wing Federalist Society – from Jerusalem to New York and Washington.
Most of those involved in the Liberty Forum have broad experience in the right-wing legal community, in Israel and the United States.
Risch will discuss the politics of supporting Israel alongside Walter Russell Mead, the author of last year’s “The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.”
Republican Sen. Jim Risch speaking during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing in Washington last April.Credit: Al Drago/AP
Cotton will deliver a keynote address on Wednesday, before talking with the Hoover Institution’s Peter Berkowitz – a leading conservative thinker on constitutional government.
McConnell will hold a similar event with Tikvah Fund Chairman Elliott Abrams on Thursday.
Mike Pompeo will also address the forum. The former U.S. secretary of state is a potential 2024 GOP presidential contender and has been making the rounds recently stressing how his evangelical Christianity was the core of his support for Israel during his tenure.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressing a gathering at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., last September.Credit: Steven Senne/AP
A separate House delegation landed earlier this week with the U.S. Israel Education Association. Its delegates include Republican Reps. Rick Allen, Diana Harshbarger and Randy Weber, and Democratic Rep. Juan Vargas.
The association supports the settlement movement and opposes the idea of an independent Palestinian state, bringing congressional delegations on trips to the West Bank to meet with leaders of the settlement movement in the hopes of influencing U.S. State Department policy.
Its founder and CEO, Heather Johnston, and her pastor husband Bruce, own and run a large Christian retreat in northern California called JH Ranch. JH Israel, a sister organization they set up for fundraising purposes, built the National Leadership Center in Ariel based on the same model.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will land in Israel on Thursday, at a time when an increasing number of Democratic lawmakers are sharply criticizing the planned judicial overhaul and settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking during a news conference in Washington earlier this month.Credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP
Schumer will head a delegation of Senate Democrats for meetings with Netanyahu and other senior officials, including President Isaac Herzog.
Schumer's delegation, which includes lawmakers who have expressed their concerns to Haaretz, will endeavor to meet with leading officials associated with Israel's judiciary.
While Schumer has yet to publicly comment on the judicial overhaul, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate – Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin – has warned that Netanyahu is putting his own interests ahead of Israeli democracy.
Durbin has since been joined by nearly 20 other Democrats in warning about the detrimental effect the planned overhaul would have on U.S.-Israel ties.