House Democrats object to Mideast peace plan

(JNS)—About 100 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday expressing their “strong disapproval” of his Mideast peace plan, the details of which were released on Jan. 28.

The congressional members said the proposal will push the two sides towards additional conflict in that the plan gives the Jewish state a “license to violate international law” by annexing settlements in the West Bank, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Jewish Insider.

The letter was spearheaded by Reps. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Andy Levin (D-Mich.), and signed by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). Gabbard is a Democratic candidate for president.

“Coming just over a month before Israel’s third election in a year—against the backdrop of [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indictments—releasing the plan now appears to be an inappropriate intervention in a foreign election,” states the letter. “A U.S. proposal that promotes unilateral annexation and jettisons a real two-state solution is bad for Israel, for the shared values that have historically undergirded the U.S.-Israel relationship, and for the bipartisan consensus in the U.S. on the importance of that relationship, which Israel has long understood to be a crucial strategic asset.”