House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the U.S. not sending troops to Syria had led to the current conflict in Ukraine and called President Obama’s foreign policy “outrageous” during a small gathering at a private home attended by Shalhevet students.
Roughly 50 people attended the March 16 question-and-answer session on Israel-related issues, which was held before Middle East peace talks collapsed in late April.
“This administration has in some ways employed a foreign policy of disengagement,” said Rep. Cantor. “I can’t think of anything more outrageous.”
Jewish History teacher Mr. Jason Feld managed to obtain invitations for five students to the event, which was held at the home of Charles and Victoria Frankel. The Frankels are members of a local AIPAC leadership group which lobbies members of Congress.
Rep. Cantor strongly criticized the United States’ policies toward Syria, where a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people shows no sign of abating.
He said that had the U.S. actually attacked Syria militarily, instead of just with sanctions and diplomatic action, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would not have invaded the Crimea, located in southern Ukraine.
Instead, U.S. inaction in Syria led Prime Minister Putin to think he could get away annexing the area into Russia and breaking international law, Rep. Cantor said.
A Virginia Republican and second-in-command to House Speaker John Boehner, Rep. Cantor also encouraged stronger sanctions against Iran’s nuclear weapons program and urged the audience to participate actively in Israel advocacy.
“Any deal with Iran should never allow Iran to enrich,” said Rep. Cantor. The statement was met with a round of applause.
He said that he and the House Minority Whip, Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland), had co-authored a letter encouraging President Obama to develop stronger sanctions against Iran. So far, the president is yet to meet the letter’s demand for a negotiation with Iran that requires the complete dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Additionally, Rep. Cantor expressed his discontent with the Obama administration’s efforts to lead peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Cantor told the audience that when he met with Netanyahu privately, he sensed that Netanyahu was unhappy with all the pressure for peace talks.
“Bibi told me the U.S. ought to focus on delegitimizing things like the international criminal court instead,” said Rep. Cantor. “Bibi is feeling the pressure.”
Overall, the audience seemed to agree with Rep. Cantor’s statements, though they thought he was biased because of being a Republican.
“His criticism was expected because of his position in Congress, and although he became very biased at times you could tell that he was frustrated with the administration’s hesitation in situations like these,” said sophomore Yonah Feld.
Freshman Alec Fields agreed.
“I really liked what he had to say, even though sometimes he seemed to focus a little too much on attacking the Democratic Party as opposed to attacking specific policies,” said Alec.
Mr. Feld seemed to understand where Rep. Cantor was coming from.
“As a leader of the opposition it’s his role to criticize the other party,” said Mr. Feld.  “That being said I think a lot of the criticism that he made was well-founded.”