Israelis Cheer Record Number of Jewish Legislators in the US, 13 Senators and 32 Representatives

Friday November 21, 2008 07:58 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

A number of editorials in Israeli newspapers over the last two weeks have celebrated the fact that the November 5th elections resulted in a record number of Jewish legislators elected to the U.S. Congress.

According to the Jerusalem Post, there are now 45 Jewish legislators serving in the US Congress – 32 Congressmembers and 13 Senators.

Jewish legislators have traditionally been strong supporters of the Jewish state, but with the growing movement for Palestinian rights within the Jewish community, analysts report that the traditional uncritical support for Israel may be shifting.

As Israeli commentator Eitan Haber wrote in an op-ed in the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahranoth, “American Jewry is not what it used to be when it comes to its attachment to Israel, and the generation of the children and grandchildren no longer blindly follows Israel’s leadership, its speeches and demands.”

But what the record number of Jewish legislators may actually mean for the Israel-Palestine conflict remains to be seen.

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