Issue Position: The U.S-Israel Relationship

Issue Position

I want to update you on my efforts to strengthen the US-Israel relationship, stop Iran's nuclear program, move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and push back against attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel. For 15 years, I have served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. I have served as the lead Democrat on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade since 2003. Throughout my time in Congress, I have worked to strengthen US friendship and cooperation with Israel, our closest ally and friend in the Middle East.
Securing Aid for Israel
In 2008, the US and Israeli governments announced a new ten year aid program that will ensure that Israel retains an edge in military strength over its adversaries. Under this new arrangement, aid will be increased from the $2.4 billion provided in military assistance in 2008 to an average $3 billion per year over the ten years. I am pleased to report that Congress has provided $3.075 billion in security assistance for Israel as part of a larger spending package for 2012. While it will be necessary to trim federal spending in many areas, including on foreign and security programs, I am fighting to continue full funding of our assistance to Israel. Israel typically spends most of its aid buying US made items. The aid helps Israel meet its security needs in the face of unprecedented rising threats in the region, including from Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.

Increasing Pressure on Iran
Iran's regime and its nuclear weapons program threaten the security of the United States and our allies in the Middle East. Recently, Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran. Last year, I reintroduced the Stop Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Act, the toughest Iran sanctions bill ever introduced.
Several of the provisions in my bill, the Stop Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Act,were approved by the House of Representatives when it recently passed two major sanctions bills targeting Iran for greater economic and diplomatic pressure: the Iran Threat Reduction Act and the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act. I cosponsored the first bill and am the lead Democratic cosponsor of the latter.
On December 15, 2011, the House voted to pass the Iran Threat Reduction Act by a vote of 410 to 11. The House also voted to pass the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act by a vote of 418 to 2 on the same day. I am urging my colleagues in the Senate to take swift action and pass these bills. The provisions I authored that were included in the Iran Threat Reduction Act include requiring an expedited effort at the Treasury
Department to sanction the hundreds of front companies and agents that operate on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and tough sanctions against foreign companies that do business with them. The IRGC is an elite army that controls much of Iran's economy, suppresses dissent in Iran, and exports terror abroad.

The Iran Threat Reduction Act also includes provisions I contributed to sanction the purchase or issuance of Iranian sovereign debt, including government bonds or bonds issued by a state-controlled firm. Furthermore, the bill includes provisions I authored to effectively end the "Halliburton loophole" by sanctioning parent companies for the activities of a foreign subsidiary that would violate current US sanctions. Finally, the bill included my provision to require the State Department to better define and publish the types of technologies and services that enable Iran to disrupt the flow of information and monitor and crush dissent in its population. The regime
used software technology provided by European firms to identify individual activists and crush the uprising in June 2009. The Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act includes a provision I authored that would provide for sanctions against firms that provide those countries with equipment or technology relevant for mining uranium. Iran is facing a uranium shortage, and has been searching for foreign sources of uranium as well as trying to improve its domestic capability to mine uranium.

Moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
For 3,000 years, Jerusalem has been the cultural and religious focal point of the Jewish people. Israel has the right to have Jerusalem recognized as its capital. Yet the US refused to open an embassy in Jerusalem and instead operates an embassy in Tel Aviv.
Throughout my time in Congress, I have supported moving our embassy to Jerusalem. In 1998, I introduced the Jerusalem and Berlin Embassy Relocation Act, which would have prohibited the expenditure of State Department funds for the construction of a new embassy in Berlin (to which Germany was then moving its capital) unless the construction of an embassy in Jerusalem commenced simultaneously.
Recently, I cosponsored the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act, which requires that the US Embassy in Israel be established in Jerusalem no later than January 1, 2013. This is strong legislation which does not allow the State Department to waive or delay.
I have also been a consistent advocate of allowing Jerusalem-born American citizens have "Israel" listed as the country of birth in their US passports. The current and previous Administrations have not enforced the provisions of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2003, which was signed into law in 2002, regarding US citizens born in Israel. That legislation, which I strongly supported in 2002, required that passports of American citizens born in Jerusalem denote "Israel" as their place of birth if they choose to do so.
The longstanding State Department practice has been to note the place of birth on the passports of such citizens as simply "Jerusalem." Along with others, I submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in September 2011 regarding the case Zivotofsky v. Clinton, that further expresses my strong support for a change in the State Department's policy. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in the Zivotofsky family's challenge to the State Department policy that prevents nine-year old Menachem Zivotofsky from having his passport show he was born in Israel. I hope that the eventual decision of the Supreme Court will require the Executive Branch to enforce the important law passed in 2002.

Urging UN Member States to Vote No on Unilateral Palestinian Statehood
I wrote to Permanent Representatives from 81 countries to the United Nations to oppose a unilateral attempt by the Palestinians to declare statehood at the UN last Fall. The 81 countries from every corner of the world are the likely "swing states" (out of 193 total UN member states) that are not firmly decided on the issue. I asked the UN ambassadors not to support this pending resolution, but to "cast a vote instead for the principle of peace through negotiations." Israel's Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, personally expressed his appreciation for my efforts.
In the letter, I warned that Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood unilaterally through a UN resolution could have dire consequences for the Middle East peace process. The unilateral Palestinian move violates the all important principle that the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is through negotiations leading to a peace treaty fully accepted by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Last November, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted to admit the Palestinians as a full member nation. However, the Palestinians have not succeeded in achieving full member status in the General Assembly yet. I will continue to battle against efforts to de-legitimize Israel and to oppose the unilateral push for Palestinian statehood.

Leading the Effort to Fund U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation
I wrote the US-Israel Energy Cooperation Act, which became law in late 2007. The Act provides for cooperative research between American and Israeli scientific institutions in various fields of energy. The Israeli government matches the US contribution, so that for every dollar Congress appropriates, two dollars of research is performed.
In 2011, we were able to secure funding for US-Israeli cooperative research programs for the third year in a row. Currently, six cooperative programs are underway in various fields: energy grid management, biodiesel, photovoltaic technology, solar panels, micro-turbines, and other fields in which the unique talents of American and Israeli researchers offer the opportunity of genuine breakthroughs.
This energy cooperation program is a significant part of our efforts to cooperate with our ally Israel, which has a proven record of innovation in the field of energy research. Our national security depends on the development of alternative energy.

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