Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) didn’t like the Israeli ambassador’s decision to skip the J Street conference last week, so she wrote him a letter — a fairly harsh one — telling him he was wrong.
McCollum wrote that the embassy’s statement that certain J Street policies may impair the interests of Israel" was an "interesting rationale for rejecting an invitation for discussion."
"Your government’s reluctance to engage in a meaningful dialogue with progressive American Jews and non-Jewish supporters of Israel sends the wrong message to many Americans and to this Member of Congress," she wrote to Ambassador Michael Oren, adding that "if absolute agreement between American interests and Israeli interests is the requirement for dialogue then our bilateral relationship would have been silent for decades."
Identifying herself as an "American, a Christian, and a member of Congress," McCollum says the policies that J Street is promoting do not "impair the interests of Israel" but that ignoring "a large and gorwing American voice working to supporting the U.S.-Israeli relationship … truly would impair the interests of Israel."
McCollum previously had a run-in with AIPAC in 2006, demanding an apology after she said a representative of the group accused her of supporting terrorists for voting against legislation banning assistance to the Palestinian Authority. She later reconciled with the organization. She also declined to attend a Christians United for Israel event in 2007, calling the views of founder John Hagee "repugnant."
Read McCollum’s entire letter here.
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