Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) went on a Democratic mission to Israel this week instead of staying home and talking to constituents about health care reform. The Mississippi political and legal Web site Y’all Politics didn’t like that, so it put together a video slamming the congressman for his decision — a video that will probably offend a lot of people in the Jewish community.
As "Hava Nagila" plays, the video notes a recent Childers quote that he would like to talk to constituents about the issue "if they’re civil." The words on the screen then say, "Go make some new friends," shows a photo of an Orthodox Jew in Israel and states, "Tell ’em we said ‘hi.’" The next image reads "And grab a souvenir yarmulke," followed by a picture of a yamulke emblazoned with "Obama ’08," and then "Come on back home, Travis."
In a press release detailing his trip last week, Childers notes that the trip was scheduled several months ago and that he will be visiting sites of specific relevance to his congressional district:
The trip will include stops of specific relevance to North Mississippi. The Congressman will meet with the Chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and will tour IAI’s world headquarters. IAI is the parent company of Stark Aerospace, which is based in Starkville and has a second facility under construction in Columbus. These two facilities will employ approximately 100 people in North Mississippi in high-paying jobs.
Congressman Childers will also visit with members of the Israeli military to observe Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in action, which were produced at the Navistar facility in West Point. Navistar is currently working to extend its contract with the U.S. military to produce more of the vehicles. Congressman Childers hopes to highlight the need for the vehicle not only by the U.S. military but also by our allies like Israel.
