Middle East

Mike Capuano is deeply committed to the state of Israel, a staunch ally of the United States and a country that shares our democratic values.

Mike believes that Israel's future and the future of all the peoples of the Middle East are best protected by reducing tensions in that troubled region.  Toward that end, Mike agrees with those in Israel who support a two-state solution as long as it assures Israel's long term safety. He firmly believes that achieving a negotiated settlement to end the long and bitter conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is possible, and that the United States has an important role to play in encouraging the parties to resolve their differences. His principle, as a Member of Congress, has been to cast votes that will enable the United States to serve as a credible partner in reaching that goal. 

Mike has done more than just talk about supporting Israel. For example, he strongly opposed ballot initiatives to compel the City of Somerville and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to divest from companies doing business in Israel. He said of those efforts: I supported divestment in South Africa under apartheid, and I support divestment in Sudan now. Divestment can, under some circumstances, protect human rights and promote peace. Divestment in Israel would do neither. He is proud of the leadership role he played, in his home city of Somerville, to defeat this campaign. When a group of British academics attempted to boycott their Israeli counterparts, he worked with concerned scholars here and introduced a resolution in the House condemning these outrageous efforts. He has been vigilant with regard to European anti-semitism.

Moreover, Mike realizes that his long-term effectiveness in helping Israel achieve a permanent peace would be compromised if he did not have the courage to be fair and pragmatic with both sides. Accordingly, Mike has consistently refused to support House resolutions and letters that he judged gratuitously offensive to the Palestinians.

Mike has no illusion, however, that this conflict will be easily resolved. He has clearly supported Israel's right to defend itself when attacked from South Lebanon and Gaza, both territories from which Israel withdrew troops and settlers in hopes of establishing peace with its neighbors. He is concerned about the sufferings of Israeli civilians who live in terror of indiscriminate rocket attacks. But he also recognizes that peace is not possible without recognition of suffering on all sides and that Palestinians are subject to violence and severe material deprivation. Mike has joined with others in the House to urge that humanitarian aid reach Gaza, to alleviate suffering and to defuse tensions.

Mike also recognizes that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a danger to vital U.S. interests, the state of Israel and to the peace of the world. He supports diplomatic efforts to resolve outstanding tensions, including President Obama's willingness to engage Iran, while other options remain on the table. In 2009, he stood in support of Barney Frank's bill, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act (ISEA), which authorized local and state governments to divest from companies with investments of more than $20,000,000 in Iran's energy sector.  He voted for the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, which provides for sanctions on persons and companies investing in Iran’s petroleum sector — a main source of funding for the Ahmadinejad regime. In addition, Mike voted to authorize further punitive measures against foreign banks that handle Iranian central bank transactions — a measure that was signed into law by President Obama on December 31, 2011.  Mike is gravely concerned by Iran's continued and accelerated enrichment of uranium, its development of short- and medium-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads, and its refusal to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In his travels to the Middle East, Mike has sought out a wide range of opinions from Israelis and Arabs alike, meeting with "hawks" and "doves," Members of the Israeli Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council, NGO leaders, academics, physicians, and aid workers familiar with the plight of Palestinian refugees. In Haifa, Boston's sister city, he has talked with university students — Jewish and Muslim, Russian and Ethiopian. In Jerusalem, he met with young people, both Israeli and Palestinian, who had attended the "Seeds of Peace" summer camp in Maine that is dedicated to person-to-person fellowship and understanding. His conclusion was that peace cannot wait for another generation and we must solve this problem once and for all.

Mike will continue doing all he can to make the shared dream of peace a reality. And he has the confidence to express his opinions frankly in the spirit of achieving the goal of peace. He believes that true friends, as we are with Israel, speak their minds to one another and that reasonable people who share a common vision, may not at every moment agree on every issue in the pursuit of a greater good.

Mike's commitment to peace and the well-being of all peoples in the Middle East will never waver; neither will his conviction that achieving a permanent peace is the best means of assuring Israel's future.