Despite Recent Setbacks, the Alliance for Israel Advocacy Remains Upbeat

The Alliance for Israel Advocacy (AIA) suffered two major setbacks this November in their ongoing efforts to support and publicize Israel’s Biblical claim to inhabit the Land. First, the Democratic Party—widely considered to

be much less supportive of Israeli causes—regained the U.S. House majority after the November midterm elections. The second setback, and perhaps the most serious in the short term, Republican Representative Steve Russell of Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District, who, in cooperation with the AIA, had planned to introduce legislation in January supporting AIA’s goals, was defeated in an election characterized by Oklahoma media as an “upset for the history books.”

Considered to be a lock to regain his seat, Russell reportedly ran an overconfident campaign and was narrowly defeated by Democratic candidate Kendra Horn. Horn garnered 51 percent of the vote to Russell’s 49 and, in the process, broke a 44-year Republican stranglehold on that traditionally con- servative district by winning the seat for her party for the first time since
the mid-70s.