In certain districts being pro-Israel is necessary.
[IsraelTimes] To have another pro-Israel Republican doesn’t help much, argues Tom Suozzi, whose opponent is an ex-IDF paratrooper and mother of 7. ‘You need strong, outspoken pro-Israel Democrats’True.
On Thursday, just under two months ahead of a special election to replace disgraced former congressman George Santos ...a smooth-talking conman-cum-Congressman. The only thing he claimed about himself during his brief political career that turned out to be true is that he’s male...
as representative of New York’s 3rd congressional district, Democrat Tom Suozzi ...CPA, JD, 1st gen. American and 2nd gen. politician, he keeps trying for the governor’s mansion in New York because he really wants to fix the state’s finances, settling for Congress each time he fails....
flew to Israel to express solidarity as part of a campaign increasingly focused on which candidate is more supportive of Jerusalem’s war against Hamas
...always the voice of sweet reason...Suozzi is hoping to get his old job back after quitting the seat in an unsuccessful bid for governor last year, but first he has to defeat Republican contender Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Æthiopian-born Orthodox Jewish mother of seven who served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army before becoming a Nassau County politician.
Really, the only boxes she doesn’t check, for those who care about such things, are queer and Progressive Democrat. But Mr. Suozzi also doesn’t check those last two boxes.
Pilip, 44, has taken a prominent role in campaigning against the spike in antisemitism in New York following the brutal October 7 onslaught in which Hamas-led Death Eaters killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gazoo...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
For his part, Suozzi has a history of speaking out on antisemitism and was one of the drivers behind a 2018 bill allowing for sanctions on terror groups that use civilians as human shields, and "both candidates have reflected the overwhelming bipartisan support for Israel’s fight to remove Hamas from Gaza," an AIPAC spokesperson recently told the Politico website.
"I wanted to demonstrate my solidarity with Israel and with the Jewish people throughout the world through these difficult times," Suozzi told The Times of Israel on Saturday evening, the final night of his trip.
Explaining that he’d "always been in the practice of trying to see firsthand what’s going on," the former congressman said that he had met with the parents of captured IDF serviceman Omer Neutra, who comes from his district, and had toured the Gaza border community of Kfar Aza, where more than 60 people were murdered on October 7.
"It was awful," he recalled.
He lauded the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict and acknowledged that while there will likely be a "long, drawn-out" war, "this is not about Dire Revenge, this is not about retribution; we have to destroy Hamas."
Precisely.
Admitting that he "can’t imagine" what the parents of the hostages are going through, the father of three said that he "can’t shake the image from Kfar Aza.""This is a sophisticated, disciplined terror army with a stated goal of destroying Israel and killing Jews. And they’ve said that they will do it again. There is no remorse. There is no effort, not that there could be, to explain it," he said.
Asked about international pressure for a ceasefire, Suozzi said that it was a "very laudable goal" but contended that the best way to reach a cessation of hostilities would be for Hamas to "release all the hostages and surrender."
Indeed.
Pushed on how he could differentiate himself from Pilip on Israel, a campaign issue of significant importance in his heavily Jewish district, Suozzi argued that "to have another pro-Israel Republican doesn’t really accomplish much."He is absolutely wrong there — those who love Israel should first strengthen the party that already supports Israel, then only afterward weaken the party that hates it...
"What you need are more pro-Israel Democrats, and if you want support of Israel to remain bipartisan in the United States of of America — which I think everybody agrees is an important goal — you really need strong, outspoken pro-Israel Democrats," he asserted. Indeed. A pity more such Democrats don’t win in safe Democrat districts.
"Tom and I have been friends for close to 30 years. He spoke to me about taking him to Israel in October after he declared his candidacy," Todd Richman, national co-chair of Democratic Majority for Israel, who arranged the trip, told The Times of Israel. "He is a true Zionist." A pity they both can’t win.