GOP: Israel Deserves Support, Not Grotesque Micromanagement

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding anti-Semitism and supporting Israel.

McConnell was Tuesday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:

“It’s been a few weeks now since most of America’s college students went home for the summer.

The outbreak of organized hate that swept the campuses of the nation’s so-called elite universities has somewhat quieted down.

Apparently, even the most zealous Hamasnik tent-dwellers had summer plans to attend to. Some, no doubt, expect to join the radical roadshow for a reunion tour of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in August…

As if Chicago’s own soft-on-crime politicians haven’t done enough to damage what used to be a thriving city.

But even as places like Berkeley and George Washington University are cleaned and repaired after their occupation by Marxist vandals, the shameful events of this past spring have left deep and lasting scars.

At Columbia, the task force responsible for investigating rampant anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of October 7th has released a new report. And the findings are chilling.

On top of well-documented outbursts by student radicals, members of Columbia’s faculty turned classrooms into safe spaces to indulge the world’s oldest form of hate.

I’d like to share with our colleagues some of the initial coverage of the report.

Quote: ‘One professor encountering a Jewish-sounding surname while reading names before an exam asked the student to explain their views on the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. Another told their class to avoid reading mainstream media, declaring that ‘it is owned by Jews.’ A third revealed a student’s complaint about an offensive comment regarding Jews by publicly displaying their email to fellow students.’

This isn’t coming from the professional activists who swept in to occupy the academy. It’s coming from the heart of the academy, itself.

The rot runs deep. It is impossible to ignore. The scourge of anti-Semitism is a blight on once-prestigious institutions across our country. And unfortunately, it reaches from college campuses to the U.S. Capitol.

Next month, a growing list of elected Democrats will boycott a joint session of Congress welcoming the duly-elected leader of the world’s only Jewish state and the only democracy in the region.

Their plans, of course, are predictable. When Prime Minister Netanyahu last addressed Congress in 2015, nearly 60 members refused to attend.

And in the years since, Washington Democrats have ceded more and more influence to despicable causes like the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement and to high-profile newcomers who traffic in unvarnished anti-Semitism.

I’m proud to live in a country that – as our former colleague Ben Sasse has put it – protects people’s rights to make abject idiots of themselves. And far too many powerful people have taken the horrific attacks of October 7th as an invitation to do exactly that.

But I’m also proud to live in a country that the world expects to stand with our allies. And the President’s conduct toward America’s close ally is straining that expectation. Unfortunately, so is the conduct of other elected Democrats.

Grotesque attempts to interfere in Israel’s politics by calling for the removal of its Prime Minister have lowered the bar for outrageous behavior.

And micromanagement and withholding assistance has repeatedly made Israel’s task – to restore its security and bring terrorists to justice – even more difficult.

Next month’s joint session ought to be an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that America’s commitments to allies facing existential threats cannot be held hostage by the loudest fringes of our politics. That they’re not at the mercy of our lapses in moral clarity.

The last thing a sovereign democracy under siege needs is a public tongue-lashing from the White House or a scolding speech from the floor of the Senate.

Israel needs the weapons the President has withheld.

It needs the time and space to finish the job against the terrorists trying to destroy it.

It needs the freedom to operate on its own timetable, based on tactical reality in the Middle East, not on the political winds in Washington.

And Americans should be united in support.”

The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.