Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) (“one L, two Ns”) made an extraordinarily impressive presentation last week to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Los Angeles, covering a wide variety of topics ranging from health care to taxes to terror trials.
She first went to Israel in 1974, at the age of 18, to live on a kibbutz, and has been to Israel four times since being elected to Congress in 2006. The following is an excerpt from a three-minute extemporaneous answer she gave to a question on the connection of
. . . I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.
Right now in my own private Bible time, I am working through Isaiah . . . and there is continually a coming back to what God gave to Israel initially, which was the Torah and the Ten Commandments, and I have a wonderful quote from John Adams that if you will indulge me [while I find it] . . . [from his February 16, 1809 letter to François Adriaan van der Kemp]:
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
. . . So that is a very long way to answer your question, but I believe that an explicit statement from us about our support for Israel as tied to American security, we would do well to do that.
Bachmann was the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Minnesota (having served in the Minnesota State Senate since 2000) and was re-elected in 2008.
She holds an LLM in tax law and spent five years as a federal tax litigation attorney, owns a small mental health care practice with her husband (employing 42 people), and is one of the leading advocates in Congress for foster and adopted children (having opened her home to 23 foster children along with her five natural-born ones).
More on her at her website.
Thanks G-d for rep.Michele Bachmann! She is got my vo
Posted by: kim f | February 22, 2010 at 05:08 PM
The administration should listen to what Bachmann has to say not just to save our reputation and for the sake of our security. Becoming lenient of this issue, jeopardize our country.
Posted by: Mark @ Israel | February 28, 2010 at 01:47 PM
Michele,
You have my support. Go get them.
John L
Posted by: John F. Lietzow | July 22, 2010 at 10:56 AM