Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), who was elected Senate majority leader Tuesday, is considered a strong supporter of Israel.
The 55 Democrats in the new Senate, which takes office in January, gave Mitchell a unanimous vote on the second ballot. He won 28 votes, one short of a majority, on the first ballot of the three-way race.
Pro-Israel supporters saw the election as a no-lose proposition, since the other contenders were Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, one of the Senate’s leading advocates of Israel, and Sen. J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, who also has a pro-Israel record.
Mitchell, who is of Lebanese descent, has supported aid to Israel, as well as foreign aid in general. He has opposed arms sales to the Arab countries, signing many of the congressional letters to the Reagan administration against such sales.
He has also taken a tough stand against chemical warfare, urging both the United Nations and the Reagan administration to take steps against Iraq for the use of chemical weapons.
Senate Republicans re-elected Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, another leading supporter of Israel, as the minority leader.
Mitchell succeeds Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va), who stepped down after 12 years in the post.
Mitchell, 55, has been in the Senate since 1980, when he was appointed to replace Sen. Edmund Muskie, who had resigned to become President Carter’s secretary of state.
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