Corker: Republicans Are Not More Supportive of Israel than Democrats

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee pushed back against those who are trying to make the U.S.-Israel relationship a wedge issue in the presidential campaign, during an appearance at the AJC Global Forum on Monday.

“I would love to say to the audience that, you know, Republicans are much more supportive of Israel than Democrats are, but that’s not true,” Corker said during a discussion on the U.S.-Israel relationship. “Thankfully, that is not true.”

According to the Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, while there’s an unprecedented “tenseness” that currently exists in the relationship between the Obama administration and the Israeli government, once a new president is elected, “what you are going to see is a return to the norm, regardless of who comes out of this cycle.”

“But in Congress, certainly, there is bipartisan support for Israel,” Corker said.

A recent Gallup poll showed that more registered Republicans sympathize with Israel in the conflict than Democrats do.

Corker is being speculated as a potential vice presidential picks for Donald Trump, following a one-on-one meeting with the presumptive Republican nominee in Manhattan last month.

In an interview on Sunday, the Republican Senator said that Trump is bringing “a degree of realism” and “maturity” back into U.S. foreign policy. “For years, we’ve had neocons on the Republican side. We’ve had liberal internationalists on the Democratic side. And I think bringing that maturity back into our foreign policy is something that’s important,” Corker said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program.

With regard to the ongoing negotiations over a new memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Israel, Corker told the ACJ conference that his sense is that an agreement will be reached very soon. “My sense is that over the next very short period of time, an announcement is going to be made that an agreement has been put in place,” he said. “I have had multiple conversations about that over the course of the last two or three weeks, and I think that’s going to come to a conclusion very soon.”

Corker added that the new MOU agreement “will be supported overwhelmingly by Congress.”