House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the Times of Israel reports.
Netanyahu reportedly said to Issa:
The radical Islamic terrorism now threatens the entire world. It threatens Israel, it threatens the United States, it threatens the moderate Arab regimes, it threatens Europe, everybody. I think that we face the same Islamist terror network and we have to fight it together. Hamas is ISIS, ISIS is Hamas…The free world and democracies have to stand together against this terrorism. That’s the only way we’ll roll them back, ultimately that’s the only way we’ll defeat them. I want to welcome you and I want to thank the strong American support from the President, through the Secretary of State, through both houses of Congress and the Senate, everybody, the American people. It’s a great source of support for Israel at this time.
Issa, who has been openly critical of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, acknowledged the startling cooperation among Israel, Jordan and Egypt in combating Islamic fundamentalism, as well as the support from the U.S. Congress and the American people. He also failed to mention Barack Obama, tacitly acknowledging Obama’s lack of support for Israel and its partners in fighting Islamic fundamentalism. He answered Netanyahu:
I think it’s a point of great discovery that is important that the United States coordinate with its closest ally anywhere and particularly one that knows this area and one that has developed an amazing ability to work with difficult partners. I was in Jordan; I was in Egypt; and they sang very much the praises of how, in common interest, important things are being done to go after fundamentalism, whether it’s the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas or of course the threat of Da’ash. And that’s where this relationship has an opportunity to become even stronger and more united and it’s your leadership that’s helped bring that together. You know you have the support of Congress and the entire American people.
Issa is an Arab-American whose grandparents were from Lebanon. He also has a long record of support for Israel. The Arab-American Leadership Council, a bipartisan political action committee, has called Issa “an important model for Arab American political engagement.”
On his trip to the Middle East, Issa also met with Egypt’s new leader, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Daily News Egypt reports.
Image: Prime Minister’s Office
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