By Jacob Miller and Simone Miller-
With a few days remaining before Congress recesses for the winter holidays, ICJA students have increased their lobbying efforts. The lobbying comes at a time when Israel faces threats from terrorist organizations based in Gaza.
On November 12, the IDF assassinated the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group in a targeted killing, prompting retaliation from the terrorist group. The PIJ fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, most of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome, Israel’s missile defense system. Israel responded with strikes killing dozens of Palestinians.
The escalation reminded the pro-Israel community of the need to support the U.S.-Israel relationship. Israel receives $500 million in foreign aid each year from the United States to finance missile defense technology in addition to an annual $3.3 billion aid package for defense expenses as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a ten-year aid agreement between the U.S. and Israel.
The week before the escalation, ICJA sent a delegation of twelve upperclassmen to Washington D.C. to attend AIPAC’s Schusterman High School Summit with Ms. Sennett. The students were chosen based on their involvement in the Israel Advocacy Club and through a random lottery.
The conference took place on November 3rd through 5th and aimed to educate high school students on topical issues pertaining to Israel. It featured informative sessions on a range of current topics pertaining to Israel followed by a trip to the Capitol on the last day to lobby the Illinois congressional delegation.
Sessions included a simulation of how bills are passed; information on regional aggressors such as Iran, Turkey, and Syria; and briefings on three legislative items that students spoke about in their lobbying session.
“I learned so much about Israel from the sessions,” said senior Jack Singer. “There is always so much news surrounding Israel, so this conference put everything into context and deepened my understanding and appreciation for the Jewish state.”
On Tuesday, the Ida Crown delegation traveled to the House Rayburn Building, where they met with Robert Marcus, Representative Janice Schakowsky’s (D-IL) chief of staff, who affirmed Schakowsky’s support of Israel. Students pushed for support for the MOU, support for a letter to U.N. Security-General Antonio Guterres that raises concerns about Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon, and vocalized concerns about threats to Israel’s security from its northern border. The delegation was pleasantly surprised when they learned about Marcus’s involvement in crafting the wording of the MOU when he worked as a staffer for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Junior Noa Brasch said that “lobbying taught me how to discuss issues that are important to me and really made me realize why we were at the conference in the first place: to advocate for Israel and to ensure its safety. That trip to Congress made me really feel like I was making a difference and having an impact.”
Israel Advocacy faculty advisor Ms. Sennett said that “AIPAC empowers students to become involved in the political process, advocating for the American-Israeli relationship.”
The advocacy did not end at the conference, but continued with school-wide involvement. Simone Miller and Sarah Rosenblum led a public Israel Advocacy meeting where they discussed AIPAC’s legislative agenda and their experience lobbying Schakowsky’s staff.
The next week, the Israel Advocacy Club introduced an advocacy initiative for the week before Thanksgiving. The club plans on organizing a phone bank to urge U.S. Senators to support the bipartisan Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act (S.2680).
This bill, introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) as its lead cosponsor, imposes sanctions on supporters of Palestinian terrorist groups. It allows the White House to compile a list of individuals and governments that support Palestinian terrorism and authorizes sanctions on these entities. The bill currently has a total of twelve cosponsors; Illinois Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Duckworth (D-IL) have not yet cosponsored.
The selection of this bill as the club’s first advocacy initiative of the year is due to the recent tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. After the Schusterman summit, Ms. Sennett urged the club to organize an advocacy initiative for the student body so that they could translate education into action. As tensions flared up between Israel and the PIJ, the club decided to make this new bill the subject of their legislative campaign.
“With Palestinians launching hundreds of rockets at Israelis, I understood the urgency of this legislation and so I decided to help coordinate the phone bank,” explained Israel Advocacy board member Benny Grey.
The bill’s companion bill in the House (H.R. 1850) passed the House by unanimous consent this past summer. The Senate bill is currently being considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has received the bill but has not taken any official action on the legislation yet. The committee is led by Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) and Ranking Member Robert Menendez (D-NJ), both markedly pro-Israel senators.
ICJA students hope to amass support for the bill from Illinois’s two senators: Senators Durbin and Duckworth. Passing this bill would hurt groups like the group responsible for the recent attacks on Israel.
The ICJA Israel Advocacy has undertaken a number of other issues as well, educating the student body on debates surrounding Israel in American politics. In a November 14th meeting, senior and Israel Advocacy Board member Jacob Miller discussed the debate about leveraging American aid to Israel for American interests, explaining how aid is allocated and how conditioning the MOU— an aid package designed to check actors like those responsible for the November flareup— runs counter to American and Israeli national security interests, but how other types of aid can and have historically been conditioned.
He also described how President Trump’s tariffs on Israel have exacerbated Israel’s businesses and how bipartisan members of Congress wrote a letter criticizing the administration for not exempting Israel from the tariffs.
“We should be thankful for bipartisan members of Congress for standing up to poor policy, making informed policy suggestions, and supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said at the meeting.
Israel Advocacy efforts will continue into next year with new legislation, the AIPAC Saban Conference, AIPAC’s Policy Conference in early March, and the Democratic Primary in mid March.
The authors are both Israel Advocacy board members. Simone Miller attended Schusterman and Jacob Miller is involved in organizing the lobbying surrounding S.2680.
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