After Israel trip, LaTurner hits Rep. Watkins on Middle East in Kansas GOP primary
Headed into this weekend’s Kansas Republican convention, Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner is attempting to draw a clear contrast with incumbent Rep. Steve Watkins on Middle East policy.
Watkins, a Topeka Republican, served as an Army ranger and paratrooper in Afghanistan and worked as defense contractor in Iraq, a background he highlighted during his successful 2018 run for Kansas’ 2nd congressional district, which includes Lawrence and Topeka.
LaTurner, the Pittsburg Republican and primary challenger, has been hammering Watkins as soft on Middle East policy since he voted last month for a Democratic resolution against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in support of a two-state solution with Palestine. He was one of only five House Republicans to cross over.
“This is without a doubt a key issue for Kansas voters. Kansas voters are incredibly supportive of Israel,” LaTurner said.
“These are God’s chosen people in the ‘Promised Land’ and that is incredibly important to the Christian community across this country, but it’s also a strategic ally to the United States in the Middle East that can’t be replaced,” said LaTurner, a Catholic. “We need Israel and Israel needs us.”
The United Nations considers the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory a violation of international law, a policy the U.S. shared for decades.
But President Donald Trump’s administration announced in November that the U.S. would no longer consider the settlements illegal. Trump’s reversal prompted the Democratic-controlled House to pass its non-binding resolution as a rebuke.
LaTurner traveled to Israel earlier this month, his second trip to the country in two years, to visit an Israel Defense Forces base near Jerusalem and an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
The trip was paid for by LaTurner’s campaign and the visit to the base was organized by the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a New York-based on nonprofit which provides support for Israeli soldiers.
“The trip had been in the works for a little bit. We reached out to them. When Congressman Watkins made the ill-advised vote that he did to condemn (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo and Trump’s policy on settlements it made it all the more important that I go,” LaTurner said.
Prior to this month, LaTurner has mostly remained mostly quiet as Watkins faced a series of political and personal headaches, including an ongoing voter fraud investigation in Shawnee County.
But as he prepares to make his case to GOP activists at this weekend’s state party convention in Olathe, LaTurner is ratcheting up his rhetoric and seeking to highlight policy differences with the incumbent.
Watkins’ campaign spokesman Bryan Piligra dismissed LaTurner’s criticism and reasserted the congressman’s foreign policy credentials, but he did not directly comment on Watkins’ rationale for the December vote.
“Skipping out on official state duties to embark on two politically motivated trips to Israel does not make Jake LaTurner smart on foreign policy in the Middle East, it makes him an ego-driven opportunist. Voters will have a clear choice between a self-serving career politician who went to the Middle East for pictures, or a seasoned war veteran who went to fight insurgents,” Piligra said.
LaTurner’s most recent trip came at a point of escalating tensions in the Middle East, roughly a week after Trump ordered an airstrike to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The base he visited serves both military and domestic functions, overseeing travel permits for people going in and out of the West Bank for jobs and medical treatments.
In addition to his visit to the IDF base, LaTurner visited the headquarters of Israel Chemicals, LTD, a multi-national chemical and mineral company which also has a facility in Lawrence with 120 employees.
He also went to the Israeli settlement of Efrat. LaTurner contended that the name “settlement” is an unfair description of the communities, which he compared to Kansas towns.
“I believed before that Congressman Watkins’ vote was a bad idea, but after being there, looking at these people in the eyes, he is dead wrong in his position on this,” LaTurner said.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, a group backed by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, sent a letter warning GOP lawmakers against voting for the resolution before the vote and reached out to Watkins’ office to express its displeasure after the vote.
“I can tell you this is definitely one of the key votes we look at when measuring where our support is going to go in the upcoming election,” said Neil Strauss, spokesman for the group, which plans to spend millions on federal races this cycle.
Alan Edelman, a Leawood resident involved with J Street, a progressive group which works to promote a two-state solution, said he’s not surprised to see LaTurner use Israel policy as a wedge issue in the campaign. Trump employed similar tactics in 2016 to appeal to right-leaning Jews and evangelical Christians, Edelman said.
However, “the vast majority of the Jewish community supports a two-state solution,” said Edelman, who next month will lead a group of 30 Jews, Christians and Muslims from the Kansas City area to Israel in his role as Jewish director of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated which organization paid for LaTurner’s Israel trip. It was paid for by the campaign.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
