Wendy Singer, General Director of AIPAC in Israel, discussed the midterm elections and the role of Jews in Congress this morning on IBA Reshet Bet Radio. Here's the translated text of what she had to say:
Q: Shalom Wendy Singer, General Director of AIPAC-Israel.
WENDY SINGER: Hi Liat. Good morning to you and to all the listeners.
Q: Let's start with the Jewish issue. The Senate is the hands of the Democrats. What are the immediate implications of this for Israel?
MS. SINGER: The implications - first of all, I would like to point out that the support for Israel is across the board. Israel-United States relations are considered to be deep by both parties.
Our representatives are in a pro-Israel community. It does not matter which party will have control, because we have invested so much in the relations.
The whole pro-Israel community has worked and has made huge efforts during the elections over the years, so that now, our relations with the new chairpeople are excellent.
Q: 87 percent of the American Jews voted for the Democrats.
MS. SINGER: That is correct. There is one exception. In Joe Lieberman's race against Ned Lamont from the state of Connecticut, 60 percent of the Jewish vote went to Lieberman.
Q: There is now such a large number of Jewish people in Congress. What happened? That is - how do you explain this rise? Is it just the intensive activity behind the scenes, or are there other reasons?
MS. SINGER: I would not say that there is another reason. It is more an issue of a tradition of intensive activity by American Jews in the political system.
And think about the fact that the number has not risen so dramatically this year. In the legislative body - in the current Congress - there were already 26 Jewish congressmen. This number has supposedly risen by six.
This morning I heard that there is another race being held, in the state of Wyoming, whose results are not yet known. It is possible that there will be 7 more Jewish congressmen.
The Senate has always had 17 Jewish senators. Now it seems there will be another two - Bernie Sanders from the state of Vermont and Ben Cardin from the state of Maryland.
Q: We are talking about Jewish senators who are, you know, Jewish by religion. Are they also all committed to the good of the State of Israel?
MS. SINGER: Ah, no. First and foremost, they are committed to the interests of the United States.
Q: Yes, that is obvious. But I am referring to a level beyond that.
Does the fact that all these senators are Jewish mean that Israel's power is now much greater?
MS. SINGER: I would not say so - not because of the rise in Jewish senators and congressmen. I would say that it is more due to the relationship and the intensive work on both sides of the aisle.
With both the Republicans and the Democrats, there is a deep and close relationship with all the central players. This has lead to the strong, brave support for everything concerning Israel and the United States.
I must add, Liat, that it also comes from the efforts of our activists out in the field. There are currently 100,000 AIPAC members throughout the United States.
They make efforts to identify the candidates of the next generation long before the elections. We are talking about constant activity.
Q: How do they go about this?
MS. SINGER: We try to inform them about everything concerning Israel-United States relations. And of course, our goal is to encourage the candidates to formulate pro-Israel stances in their platforms.
Q: Is this successful?
MS. SINGER: Apparently it is.
Q: Also with candidates who are not Jewish?
MS. SINGER: Yes, obviously. I do not know if you have heard that there is even the first American Muslim congressman - Keith Ellison from the state of Minnesota.
The community met with him! With each and every one, the expression that we work with is 'there is no such thing as an enemy.'
Q: (--inaudible--) the different investigations that were conducted against senior AIPAC members. Did this have any influence?
MS. SINGER: It had no influence.
Q: It did not influence these results.
MS. SINGER: No.
Q: That is what you are saying. Wendy Singer, General Director of AIPAC Israel, thank you very much for this conversation.
MS. SINGER: You are very welcome. Good morning.
Q: Good morning.
END.
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