Op-Ed: Swiftboating Sestak on Israel

Sari Weintraub — July 30, 2010 – 10:04 am | Democrats | Election 2010 | Israel | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

Joel Rubin, the Deputy Director of the National Security Network, wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post in which he condemns the Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) for “swiftboating” Senate candidate Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) on his support for Israel.  Rubin highlighted some of Sestak’s impressive pro-Israel credentials while debunking the “myths” perpetuated by ECI’s television ads. In one of his key points, Rubin said:

These ads would have you believe that Sestak’s opponent, Pat Toomey, is stronger on Israel than Sestak. Yet Toomey voted against military aid to Israel when he was in Congress while Sestak has consistently supported it. In addition, Sestak personally helped to protect Israel at the start of the 2003 Iraq war when he was in the Navy, while Toomey was sitting safe in Congress, voting for that war.

Rubin concluded about using Israel as a partisan issue:

There is a lesson in this, as the hard right partisans that use Israel policy as a political wedge may find that not only is it not to their advantage to make such attacks, but that it can actually backfire. It certainly contradicts America’s most celebrated military officers, Gen. David Petraeus, who is firmly on the record in stating that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in America’s interest. Perhaps someone should remind the Emergency Committee for Israel about this fact, before they do more damage.

 

To read the full article, click here.

For more information on ECI, click here to read NJDC’s fact sheet.

To read more on Joe Sestak’s pro-Israel record, click here for NJDC’s fact sheet.

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