U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn was one of the lawmakers who attended this week’s Israel Allies Foundation Chairman’s Conference, which took place at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem – a conference that brought together parliamentarians from around the world in support of Israel.
“This is a great conference. It's parliamentarians and Congressmen from all over the world who support Israel and who want to take that message back to our countries,” he says, speaking with Israel National News from the conference. “We'll work together on legislation and other ways of supporting our friend Israel.”
When asked his opinion on the negotiations with Iran about rejoining the nuclear deal, Lamborn expressed worry that a bad deal may be agreed upon by the Biden administration.
“I’m very concerned that an Iran nuclear deal will allow Iran a pathway to create nuclear weapons. We cannot allow that to happen because they've made threats against the very existence and future of Israel,” he said.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, he praised Israel for its assistance to the Ukrainians, including sending a mobile field hospital.
“Every country should help Ukraine as much as they possibly can. I hear that yesterday Israel sent a mobile field hospital to Ukraine, that's a wonderful gesture of support,” he says. “But we can all do more – the USA, Israel, and everybody.”
There is a perception that there may no longer be bipartisan support in Congress for Israel, and a growing concern regarding the Biden administration. Lamborn doesn’t agree, and remarks that besides a few exceptions members of both parties in Congress are supporters of Israel.
“In Congress there is support for Israel from both parties,” he says. “There are a few holdouts that are in the tiny minority but most Congressmen do support Israel from both parties. The administration I think wants to be supportive but they do have some people that they chose for certain positions, like the Iran negotiations where they have a history of not being very supportive. So I’m concerned about some of the people in the Biden administration.”
The Republican Congressman adds: “One good thing that I try to do to support Israel is to point out the good things that Israel is doing. We just came out of a meeting where it's very clear, and this should be a message to the entire world, that Israel includes all people of all religions and ethnic backgrounds in their government and as voters and as participants in democracy there's no discrimination against any ethnic group or religion whatsoever. That's a good message and we need to take that to everybody.”