Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Pro-Israel group attacks Sestak in Pennsylvania Senate race

The Daily Caller reports:
The race for Pennsylvania’s junior Senate seat between Democrat Rep. Joe Sestak and former Republican Rep. Pat Toomey is heating up and American policy toward Israel is taking center stage.

Pennsylvania has one of the largest populations of Jewish voters of any state in the country and, like Jews nationally, Jewish voters in the state tend to vote for Democrats. In the 2008 presidential election, for instance, President Obama won more than 80% of the Jewish vote in Pennsylvania. While Sestak supporters are adamant that their candidate will continue this trend, Sestak’s questionable record on the U.S.-Israel relationship is raising red flags in Pennsylvania’s Jewish community.

Last week, a newly formed national group composed of evangelical Christians and Jews called the Emergency Committee for Israel launched an advertisement campaign in Pennsylvania accusing Sestak of hostility toward Israel. In the ad, the group criticizes Sestak for a 2007 speech in front of a group they say is sympathetic to the terrorist group Hamas, affixing his name to a congressional letter pushing for Israel to ease its blockade of Gaza, and for not signing a letter reaffirming the strong bond between the U.S. and Israel.