Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jewish Democrat Alan Grayson Says Syria Measure Doomed in House of Representative

Rep. Alan Grayson, a liberal Jewish Democrat, is planning to vote against President Obama’s proposal to authorize intervention in Syria — and predicts the measure will fail by a wide margin in the House of Representatives.

The Florida congressman told Politico that constituents in his Orlando-area district are dead set against getting involved in Syria’s brutal civil war, despite the president’s pleas that the U.S. has to punish the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons.

The House doesn’t want it, the American people don’t want it,” Grayson told the web site. “People here listen to their constituents. First of all, public opinion is entirely against it. Secondly, public opinion is vehemently against it.”

Pro-Israel and Jewish groups have lined up strongly in favor of Obama’s plan.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee openly backed intervention in Syria, although it insisted it was not doing so out of concern for Israeli interests.

But it’s not clear if Jewish lawmakers, most of whom are liberal supporters of Obama, will line up behind the measure, especially with many Americans on both sides of the political spectrum skeptical of the plan. Two non-Jewish liberal Democrats voted against the proposal in the Senate foreign relations committee.

Tea Party Republicans are likely to vote against almost any proposal put forward by Obama. That means the president must convince a large majority of Democrats and moderate Republicans to back him.

Grayson says he believes large majorities of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are leaning against the measure because of the strong public outcry against it.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.