Last month marked the two-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
This historic agreement ignited a new era of peace and progress in the Middle East, and was followed soon after by Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco also normalizing relations with the Jewish state.
Your work with AIPAC—promoting peace and progress through engagement rather than boycotts—helped pave the way for these growing regional ties that are already fueling new people-to-people engagement, cooperation on security threats, and robust economic growth.
But we know much work still needs to be done to strengthen and expand these historic agreements.
That is why today we are asking Congress to support the bipartisan DEFEND Act, which seeks to expand defensive cooperation between Israel and its Arab partners to help strengthen deterrence against regional threats.
It is also why we are urging Congress to uphold its steadfast commitment to vital U.S. security assistance to Israel. We know that a strong and secure Israel, backed by the United States, is crucial to bringing further peace and cooperation to the region.
The ever-mounting threats facing Israel are a reminder that we must always rise above partisan politics to work with America’s leaders on both sides of the aisle to keep Israel safe and America strong.
When we do that, we ensure that Israel has the security it needs to take risks for peace.