U.S. Rep. Manning says bill supporting Israel will await new House speaker

U.S. 6th District Congresswoman Kathy Manning says she’s expecting a flurry of bills to be filed in support of Israel as soon as a new speaker is chosen.

Before she was elected to Congress, Greensboro’s Manning, a Democrat, was a local and national leader on Jewish issues, including having served as the first woman to chair the Jewish Federations of North America.

Now speaking as a member of the U.S. House, Manning says it’s critical that the fighting on the border of Israel and Gaza not spread to other areas on Israel’s border.

“Our government is working with a wide variety of other countries in the region to make sure that they do not enter this war," she says. "The United States has moved the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean, as well as some other military equipment as a strong signal that the United States will stand with Israel.”

Manning is also a co-chair of the Bipartisan Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism. She says hostility against Jewish people has been rising in recent years on both the right and the left.

“Antisemitism has for more than a millennium, been a shape-shifting conspiracy theory that attributes to all Jews whatever the ills of a society is," she says. "Jews have always been a convenient scapegoat when societies are under stress. And one thing we know from history is what begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews.”

Fifth District Rep. Virginia Foxx’s media representatives did not reply to a request for an interview. House Republicans spent much of the week following the attack trying to fill the House speakership position.

U.S. Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina was out of the country on Senate business and unavailable for an interview. In a release, he joined other Republicans in calling for the Biden Administration to freeze a $6 billion transfer to Iran, citing the country’s role in global terrorism.

The Biden Administration says none of the money in the account, which is meant for humanitarian aid, has been spent.