Meeting Elise Stefanik
Next week over one thousand members of NORPAC will be traveling to Washington, DC to meet with lawmakers and thank them for their ongoing support of Israel and encourage them to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The organization was founded back in 1994 as a bipartisan, multi-candidate political action committee (PAC) that works to strengthen U.S.-Israel ties, and while such a group was vital at that point in history, the fact is that with the open hostility of much of the Western world to Israel’s efforts to defend itself and the worrisome explosion of antisemitism in our cities and college campuses, the NORPAC Mission has never been more vitally important than it is today.
Elise Stefanik greets Shalom and Iris Maidenbaum at Israel Justice Organization Event
Photo Credit Manuel Torres
Elise Stefanik greets Esta and Larry Gordon at Israel Justice Organization Event
Photo Credit Manuel Torres
Israel Justice Organization Event
Photo Credit Manuel Torres
Elise Stefanik greets Holocaust survivor and philanthropist Jerry Wartski at Israel Justice Organization Event
Photo Credit Manuel Torres
So, while it’s true that we will be meeting with lawmakers to demonstrate how important it is that our U.S.-Israel alliance remains strong, this time around we will have another important message for the legislators. And that is that their help is needed to fight the scourge of anti-Semitism that continues to rear its ugly head on far too many levels.
Before I get back to NORPAC, I’d like to talk about the relatively small dinner we had in Manhattan with upstate New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who has represented New York’s 21st Congressional District for six terms and currently serves as Chairwoman of House Republican Leadership.
Stefanik’s appearance at the dinner coincided with the release of her book, Poisoned Ivies, which focuses on the matter of Jew-hatred on American college campuses. You will likely recall how Stefanik questioned those Ivy League presidents during House committee hearings on a rather simple and even mundane matter. When she asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews or threatening Jews on campus violated their student codes of conduct and their rules on bullying and harassment, the three college presidents responded in lawyerly, rehearsed fashion that it “depends on context.”
Stefanik was livid when she heard that response. It seems unimaginable that high-priced attorneys for schools like Harvard, UPenn, and MIT thought it was an acceptable response to a legitimate question. In other words, under what circumstances does coming after Jews and committing acts of violence against them constitute a violation of school policies?
The shocking thing was that the university presidents had to hesitate before responding. And only then did they finally blurt out that trying to harass and kill Jews on campus depended on “the context” of the situation. One of the three college presidents questioned by Stefanik was asked whether Jews need to be physically assaulted or G-d forbid killed in order for the attackers to be considered as having violated school policy. Sadly, that seemed to be what these senior university officials were saying. Their utter lack of moral clarity and sympathy sparked a fiery national debate and triggered the resignations of two of them with the third—the president of MIT—still hanging in there.
While the primary function of a group like NORPAC is to support U.S.-Israel relations, that priority has shifted to include expressing concern about the scourge and the spread of anti-Semitism, including, for some odd reason, in the halls of Congress itself.
Today in Congress, showing support for Israel entails at times exposing the unbridled Jew-hatred of their fellow members, which is often masked as criticism of Israel and/or Israel’s leaders and the country’s right to self-defense. But who are we kidding? We all know what it’s about. October 7th exposed them all.
The funniest anti-Israel critic today, Tucker Carlson, likes to pose the question of whether there is a lineage between the biblical Moses and Bibi Netanyahu. He complains that Bibi did not come face to face with G-d because the Prime Minister is not worthy of that kind of holy encounter.
He thinks Bibi is a nationalist and a secular Zionist while Moshe or Moses had a personal relationship with Hashem. The bottom line is that Tucker has no clue what he’s talking about, but modern Israel is aligned with the U.S. and keeps on defeating her enemies. Tucker doesn’t like that.
Regardless, the over 1,000 NORPAC members will be holding meetings with members of Congress on Capitol Hill, expressing their gratitude for the U.S. support of Israel, and a key focus of these meetings is to make sure they feature a bipartisan approach.
Right now, Republicans control all three branches of government, but we all know from past experience that things can change. To that end, Trudy Stern, the Five Towns co-president of NORPAC, told me that the over 1,000 people on the mission have 87 appointments to meet with members of Congress.
It’s important to note that the members of Congress take their duties to the people they represent and serve very seriously. Congressional staff receive letters and phone calls from constituents all day every day. But a letter is a letter and a call to express your opinion is just that. But when a person takes time off from work and travels across the country to lobby Congress, they consider that one person to be the equivalent of 10,000 phone calls. Now that is a display of impact and influence.
Trudy and her husband Stanley have some of the best relationships with members of Congress. Just over the last few years, if memory serves, they’ve hosted people like JD Vance when he was an Ohio Senator, Joni Ernst, an influential Senator from Iowa, Jim Banks an Indiana Senator, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and Congressman Mike Lawler of New York, amongst others.
These are just some of the people who contribute to major and important decisions that affect the vital U.S.-Israel relationship. And a part of these meetings is about pushing back against the anti-Israel sentiment that exists in a small part of Washington and primarily emanates from the Democratic Party.
To that end, NORPAC members will meet with a number of Democratic members of Congress, such as Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, amongst others. Both are critics of Israel and in particular, Bibi Netanyahu. Ossoff, who is Jewish like Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders, seems to be playing by the same rulebook by creating difficulties for Israel. And while they would say otherwise, their agenda as far as U.S.-Israel relations are concerned is to minimize it and if possible, create distance between the two countries.
The fact is that when you add it all up, there’s no one like Elise Stefanik for moral clarity and courage. At one point, she was President Trump’s first choice for United States ambassador to the United Nations, but when the president decided he needed her vote in the House, he then supported her run for Governor of New York. But then Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman threw his hat into the ring. As Stefanik explains it, she feels she would have won, but at this point in her career, she did not see the benefit of a Republican primary battle.
For now, her book, Poisoned Ivies, says it all on the cover: “The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities.”
Her House committee hearings on campus antisemitism was a shining moment for Ms. Stefanik, and expressed her determined support of the rights of students on campus, in particular, Jewish students who were so vilified and endangered by the very rot that exists in American higher education.
Stefanik, who at 41 is married with a 4-year-old son, has a long and bright political career ahead of her. As she said at the dinner, “You’ll be hearing from me.”
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
