Senator to be honored for support of Israel

When The Jewish Chronicle reached U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) last week in his Washington office, he had just returned from a trade mission to Israel. It was his fourth or fifth visit, he said, to the Jewish state, for which he has been a strong advocate ever since he joined the Senate in 1997.

It is for that reason that Sen. Brownback will be honored with the Mordechai Award at the 13th Purim Gala Sunday, Feb. 21, at the Lodge at Ironwoods, 14701 Mission Road. (See below for details)

“We are thrilled to … recognize the Honorable Sam Brownback with the Mordechai Award for this unwavering support of Israel and his long-standing commitment to Israel’s citizens,” said gala co-chair Margie Robinow. Past recipients of the Mordechai Award include Neil and Blanche Sosland, Jim Badzin and G. Richard Hastings.

Sen. Brownback has announced he will not seek re-election to the Senate when his second full term expires at the end of this year, and that he will, instead, pursue the Republican nomination for Kansas governor.

And while Purim Gala organizers are quick to stress there will be no political solicitations at the event, they also said Brownback’s impending job change — and with it a change in his profile on international affairs — made it appropriate to honor him now.

“I think it’s a tremendous loss for the pro-Israel community,” said longtime local activist Esther Levens, founder of the National Unity Coalition for Israel. “He completely understands Israel from every angle — from the political angle, from their needs, for how important Israel is for the world community. He gets an A triple-plus. He has been there at every occasion, whenever he’s called on, and often when he is not.”

Since taking office as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, (he’s no longer a member) Brownback has played a leading role in foreign affairs, not only advocating for Israel but for such other far-flung issues as pressing the Sudanese government to end its repression — he used the term genocide — in the African nation’s Darfur region. That earned him respect across the political spectrum, including from many on the left who oppose his conservative domestic political stands.

‘I love Israel’
Brownback’s personal religious faith has changed during his years in the Senate: He converted from Protestantism to Catholicism in 2002. And he told The Chronicle that his faith guides him in his work.

“My faith is very important to me, and the rootedness of that comes from the Jewish roots of the Christian faith,” Sen. Brownback said. “It gives me that perspective on justice; that you do what’s right. That does help shape it.

“Sudan and Darfur are a matter of justice and dignity of the individual and doing what’s right against people that want to harm you.”
As a freshman senator, Brownback was thrust into the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“I went on Foreign Relations my first year in the Senate, and I chaired the Mideast Subcommittee my first term, and right at the heart of Mideast issues is Israel, so it’s a part of my jurisdiction,” he said. “I love Israel. They are a great ally of the United States … and they have a clear basis of … Judeo-Christian values that are so much at the heart of the American experience. So I have had a wonderful time working with the Israelis and their leadership on a number of different issues. You see a deep core of support for Israel in Kansas. They are on the front line of the war on terror, they are a democracy and we share common values.”

Many Kansans, not to say Arabs, see it another way, of course. And there are lots more Arab/Muslims in the world than Jews. It might be expedient for the United States to stop backing the Jewish state so heavily. But Sen. Brownback is confident he’s done the right thing by supporting military and other forms of aid to Israel.

“I suppose you could look at it that way,” he said, “but I have seen countries in the past look at it that way, as a sheer numbers game, and it had always led them astray. You need to do what’s right and what is just and morally responsible. My experience is it’s never wrong to do the right thing. It will serve the test of time. Look at the beauty of what (President) Truman did in recognizing Israel in 1948. The numbers-game people said it was huge mistake at the time. And if you look at just the numbers, it was the wrong thing. But it was the right thing morally, and a profoundly wise decision today.”

Trade mission
Brownback finds an ideological soul mate at the helm of Israel just now in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the center-right Likud party. The men have met several times over the years, including last month.

“We had a big trade mission over there,” Sen. Brownback said. “We had a lot of very promising meetings, and we’ll see what matures out of it. …

“I’m a big fan of Bibi Netanyahu. He is a strong leader; a good economics leader. He has put a focus on growth areas that Israel can perform in, and they are doing very well with it.”

Brownback explained that he led a delegation that included officials from the National Aviation Research Institute in Wichita, the Kansas Biosciences Authority, Ft. Leavenworth and Kansas, Kansas State, Pittsburgh State and Wichita State universities. They met with leaders of Israeli public institutions and private companies working in the fields of aviation, military technology, agriculture and biosciences.

It’s the sort of thing that doesn’t make headlines, but which advances the U.S.-Israel relationship, he said.

Final status of Jerusalem
What did make headlines last year was a bill Brownback introduced in the Senate, mandating that the United States move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That would doubtless upset Arabs, who claim at least part of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for Palestinian state. And so, ever since Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, presidents have used a loophole allowing them to postpone enactment every six months, citing national-security concerns. Brownback seeks to close the loophole.

“I think it’s a propitious time to push it,” he said. “I spoke to the prime minister ... about it. There is not much happening in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The timing is such that the PA doesn’t feel it can negotiate much. When I spoke to our ambassador, I said it was time for the U.S. to start a discussion with Israel about moving our embassy to Jerusalem. It’s the only capital in the world where we don’t have our embassy in the capital.

“This would begin a serious discussion on a global level about Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It (would be) a strong foreign-policy move by President Obama, who needs to show strength in foreign policy after what North Korea and Iran have done in the past year, with no response from the Obama administration”

Brownback wants to give Israel the advantage in “one of the key final-status-talks issues.”

“You are seeing these things (being) whittled away now,” he said. “If you look at Israel’s security fence, that may end up as a de facto border. … and it has improved their safety substantially. This is one of the ways you start to inch into a discussion about the final status of Jerusalem. It has been the only capital of Israel. It has been the historical, and certainly the theological, capital of Israel.

“So this is how you inch into the final status of Jerusalem, like you do with the borders.

And what would Brownback advise Bibi to do, if and when he gets down to peace talks?

“Israel has generally given up land and not gotten peace,” Brownback said. “Land, you give it up and it’s pretty much permanent. Peace seems like a thermostat that can be turned up or down, depending on how people feel that day.”

Brownback to be feted Feb. 21

Purim Gala 2010, a fundraiser for Congregation Beth Israel Abraham and Voliner, will recognize U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback with its Mordechai Award at 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21, at the Lodge at Ironwoods, 14701 Mission Road. There will be a silent auction as well as donor reception followed by a dinner. The event is in its 13th year.

Sen. Brownback is receiving the award in recognition of his strong advocacy and friendship with the State of Israel. The Mordechai Award is presented to someone who epitomizes the devotion to community shown by Mordechai in the Scroll of Esther, which says that Mordechai “...sought the good of his people and was concerned for the welfare of all his posterity.”

The entire community is invited to attend. Tickets cost $180. For more information, call the Congregation BIAV office, (913) 894-6567.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment