As Israel faces growing isolation around the world, a delegation of US lawmakers representing all 50 states, arrived in Jerusalem.
On Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed what his office described as the largest-ever bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers to ever visit the Jewish state.
The US lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, are there for meetings with senior officials and tours across the country, emphasizing their message that support for Israel in the US is a matter of national consensus.
JNS reports: “We value and cherish your support,” Netanyahu told the delegation of some 250 U.S. state legislators gathered at the Foreign Ministry, noting that there was an “active effort” ongoing to erode the ties between the two countries.
“These efforts are “orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” he continued, accusing China and Qatar of spearheading attacks on the Jewish state’s very legitimacy in the United States and on social media.
“We can break this siege, and we will,” the prime minister vowed.
According to Netanyahu, Jerusalem’s ongoing seven-front war against Iran and its regional proxies “is not a battle just for national interest. Those theological thugs in Tehran who amassed the crowds, who took American hostages on the first few days of their tyranny and who since chant ‘death to America,’ they only see Israel as a roadblock on the way to subjugate you, subordinate you and threaten you,” Netanyahu stated.
“We have a common heritage, and that heritage is being challenged now by people who not only want to bring us back to the early Middle Ages with the incredible fanaticism and cruelty. It’s also savagery,” he said, recalling the Hamas-led atrocities during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
The prime minister noted that after taking on Iran and its Hezbollah terrorist army in Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces soldiers are now “circling back to Gaza to finish the job, where it all began.”
“We are committed with America to receive, to release all the hostages, the living and the dead, and we’re not going to compromise on it, nor will we compromise on eliminating Hamas, because if Hamas is there, they’ll regroup, they’ll recover, they’ll rearm,” Netanyahu emphasized.
Monday’s gathering also included speeches by Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, and two representatives of the delegation, North Dakota Lt. Gov. Michelle Strinden and State Sen. Lori Berman (D-Fla.)
“Two hundred and fifty state legislators from 50 states. Republicans and Democrats. This extraordinary delegation is a testament to the depth of the bond between our nations,” Sa’ar said in his remarks at the event.
“This is probably the most significant delegation brought yet to Israel by the Foreign Ministry,” he noted, adding that “America has no ally more effective than Israel. The alliance between our nations safeguards American national security interests.”