Letter to the editor: Is Rep. Chris Stewart putting Israeli interests before our own?
On Nov. 21 of last year, three members of Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land met with Rep. Chris Stewart’s district director with concerns regarding U.S. relations with Israel. One of our concerns was with Rep. Stewart’s co-sponsorship of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. We wanted to know why Stewart supports erosion of American free speech rights in favor of a foreign power.
We also asked that Stewart co-sponsor the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act. It seemed to us that opposition to child abuse should not be a partisan issue.
We asked Rep. Stewart his opinion of Israeli nuclear weapons and the prospect of a Middle East nuclear-weapons-free zone. We wanted to know his opinion as to whether Israel should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and submit to inspections like Iran does. The only non-signatories besides Israel are India, Pakistan, South Sudan, and North Korea (which withdrew from the treaty).
After several follow-up inquiries and 10 months later, we finally got a letter from Rep. Stewart, which was vacuous and dodged our questions. Stewart certainly has no obligation to share our political views nor support or oppose any particular piece of legislation. But like any elected official, Stewart does have an obligation, as our representative in Congress, to directly and honestly answer our questions on matters before the House of Representatives. Just why he cannot or will not meet that obligation we do not know. Unfortunately, we cannot ask him directly, because he will not meet with us in person.
Utahns deserve better representation than that.
Bob Brister
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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