“I think it will be very clear that a top priority of the Republicans, if we get the Senate, would be to follow the lead of the House, which has already passed enhanced sanctions, and give the opportunity for Sen. [Mark] Kirk (R-Ill.) and [Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert] Menendez (D-N.J.) to get their critical legislation through the Senate and to the president,” Brooks added.
Brooks also pointed to the August battle in the Senate to pass emergency funding for Israel to replenish the Iron Dome missile defense system’s supply of interceptor rockets. Though the funding passed unanimously minutes before the Senate adjourned for its August recess, Democrats included the Iron Dome assistance in a broader emergency appropriations bill that included funds for fighting fires in Oregon as well as funding requested by Obama to handle the influx of illegal immigrants from Central America. At the time, Republicans called for a separate bill for Iron Dome funding.
“Those kind of shenanigans, at a time when Israel was in the middle of a critical battle in which they needed to have strong support from America, [prove that] Majority Leader Reid would rather have played domestic politics than help Israel,” said Brooks.
“In the end we got there, but that kind of stuff, I think, is not going to happen when it’s [the job of] Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.), who was one of the strong voices pushing Harry Reid to free up the $250 million emergency appropriation [for the Iron Dome].”
Rabbi Jack Moline, executive director of the NJDC, does not believe Republicans will take control of the Senate, citing races in states such as Georgia, where Democrats are relying on an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort among a growing demographic of young and non-white voters to deliver Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn with retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss’s (R) seat.
“I think bicameral Republican [majorities] in Congress will be problematic for the social issues that are of concern to 70 percent of the Jewish community,” Moline told JNS.
“I think it’s a pretty fair bet that you will see attempts to stymie meaningful immigration reform, you’ll see attempts to further restrict the ability for women to control their own healthcare. I think you will find problematic approaches to religion in government from a Jewish perspective. I think that initiatives to create equal pay for equal work and to raise the minimum wage would be frustrated by a philosophy by an economy that is more identified with the Republicans than the Democrats.”
Moline noted that the Pew Research Center’s 2013 survey of U.S. Jews showed that 70 percent of respondents still identify or lean Democrat, compared to only 22 percent identifying or learning Republican.
Unlike Brooks, Moline does not see a shift in control of the Senate changing American foreign policy in the Middle East, including with regard to Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“I think there will probably be some tension between the president and the Senate over his pursuit of certain foreign policy objectives, but I don’t think that’s any different from the way things are now,” he said.
Brooks, meanwhile, said Republican legislators have “demonstrated throughout the president’s term a willingness to work with the president.”
“The question is how much the White House is going to want to engage in partnership and bipartisan work with a Republican House and Senate,” he said. “That remains to be seen. It would behoove the president, at a point where his political standing is at an all-time low for his presidency… to work with the Republicans to get important things done for the country.”
(JNS/Washington Jewish Week)