As the Cajun primary in south Louisiana rages on, observers continue to describe the race between Congressmen Jeff Landry and Congressman Charles Boustany as a typical Tea Party versus establishment Republican race. But it isn’t.
Although Landry is allied with the Tea Party, Boustany is far from an “establishment” Republican when it comes to national security issues—and especially to the question of Israel. Boustany’s record on Israel is far outside the mainstream. He’s one of only two Republicans to have ever been endorsed by J Street, the left-wing advocacy group that bills itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” (with far more emphasis on the latter than the former). In 2009, he attended J Street’s first annual conference, even after Israeli ambassador Michael Oren boycotted it, citing policies from the organization “that may impair the interests of Israel.” Boustany eventually severed all connections with the group, after discovering, he says, that “they were dishonest with me about where their funding came from”—namely, the big dollars from billionaire George Soros.
