(JNS) A group of 15 U.S. Republican senators sent a letter on Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on the Biden administration to rescind its "discriminatory" guidance issued last month halting bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israeli entities operating in Judea and Samaria. "The new guidance as written constitutes an antisemitic boycott of Israel," they wrote. "The American people and Congress broadly and deeply oppose boycott efforts against Israel, which have been repeatedly defined in U.S. law as efforts to limit [commerce] with persons doing business in any territories controlled by Israel." "This guidance in particular puts Americans' safety, security, and prosperity at risk because it politicizes and undermines cooperation on science and technology, including in areas such as defense and medicine where also our Israeli allies have proven themselves critical partners." The move reversed an initiative by the Trump administration in October 2020 that removed geographic restrictions on cooperation with Israel in the areas of science, industrial research and agriculture. In eliminating the restrictions, then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said, "We are righting an old wrong and...depoliticizing a process that should never have been political in the first place."
2023-07-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive