Udall Responds to Moran Aipac Comments

Press Release

UDALL RESPONDS TO MORAN AIPAC COMMENTS

Washington, DC - Congressman Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, released the following statement responding to comments made by U.S. Rep Jim Moran (D-VA) to Tikkun magazine about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) involvement in the United States' decision to invade Iraq.

"Yesterday, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer (D-MD), asked our colleague in the House, Rep. Jim Moran to retract comments Rep. Moran made in the September-October issue of Tikkun magazine, in which Rep. Moran argued that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, ‘pushed' the war in Iraq in 2003. I support Rep. Hoyer's decision to call these remarks into question and I hope my colleague, Jim Moran, whom I know to be a good man, will agree that his remarks were injudicious and inflammatory.

"The truth is that George Bush and a Congress unwilling to ask hard questions pushed this country into a reckless war in Iraq. AIPAC and the American Jewish community are not responsible for the lack of wisdom and failed leadership we have seen in the White House. The implication that America's Jewish community or AIPAC bear greater responsibility for the folly of a mismanaged war than any other constituency is simply wrong-headed. While I am sure that Rep, Moran did not intend to be hurtful, his words are reminiscent of a time when Jews were wrongly made the scapegoats for all kinds of social ills. We cannot permit this implication to go uncorrected."

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