Congress stopping his anti-Israel excess

The [6] Obama team no doubt would tell Steny Hoyer to engage in some self-reflection: “US House Majority leader Steny Hoyer praised Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, called for the Palestinian Authority to drop any preconditions to negotiations, and said that Congress differentiated between building in east Jerusalem and in the West Bank, during an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday.”

It seems the Cairo speech has created a bipartisan consensus—of opposition to the Cairo speech and to Obama’s Middle East approach: “A group of 71 senators that includes senior leaders from both parties sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Monday to press Arab states to recommit to peace with Israel. The effort, led by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), is being promoted and circulated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and comes two months after Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo.”

Congress Reining in Obama on Israel?

Two headlines today give us a sense that the Democratic-led Congress is looking to play a more significant role in countering the Obama administration’s heavy-handed approach to Israel. First, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer [1] gave an interview to the Jerusalem Post, in which he praised Prime Minister Netanyahu, sharply criticized the Fatah conference, and declared that Congress had differentiated between Eastern Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank—nothing less than a slap in the face to the administration’s explicit refusal to make such distinctions.

Second, 71 U.S. Senators sent a [2] letter to President Obama calling on him to press Arab states to take major steps toward normalizing ties with Israel:

Such steps could include ending the Arab League boycott of Israel, meeting openly with Israeli officials, establishing open trade relations with Israel, issuing visas to Israeli citizens, and inviting Israelis to participate in academic and professional conferences and sporting events. We also believe that Arab states must immediately and permanently end official propaganda campaigns which demonize Israel and Jews.

These seem like pretty obvious requirements for any possible reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world. Yet it is the Senate, not the Obama administration, that has undertaken to enumerate them publicly. Combining this letter with the Hoyer interview, we get the sense that Congressional leaders have decided the change in U.S. policy on Israel has gone far enough.