Eric Ivan Cantor (born June 6, 1963) is the U.S.
Representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district, serving since 2001. A
member of the Republican Party, he became House Majority Leader when the 112th
Congress convened on January 3, 2011. He previously served as House Minority
Whip from 2009 to 2011.
His district includes most of the northern and western
sections of Richmond, along with most of Richmond's western suburbs and
portions of the Shenandoah Valley. Cantor is the Jewish Republican that
currently serving in Congress and is actively involved with the Pro-Israel
lobby, AIPAC.
Cantor worked for over a decade with his family's business the
real estate development.
Cantor is a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Republican National Committee. He is one of the Republican Party's top fundraisers, having raised over $30 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). He is also one of the three founding members of the GOP Young Guns Program. In the fall of 2010, Cantor wrote a New York Times bestselling book, Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders, with the other two founding members of Young Guns. They describe the vision outlined in the book as "a clear agenda based on common sense for the common good." Cantor said in 2010 that he worked with the Tea Party movement in his district.
After the passage of the health care reform bill in March
2010, Cantor reported that somebody had shot a bullet through a window of his
campaign office in Richmond, Virginia. A spokesman for the Richmond Police
later stated that the bullet was not intentionally fired at Cantor's office,
saying that it was instead random gunfire, as there were no signs outside the
office identifying the office as being Cantor's. A preliminary investigation
indicated that the bullet was fired into the air and hit the office window
going down. The bullet landed within a foot of the window. Cantor responded to
this by saying that Democratic leaders in the House should stop
"dangerously fanning the flames" by blaming Republicans for threats
against House Democrats who voted for the health care legislation.
Cantor also reported that he had received threatening
e-mails related to the passage of the bill, but he declined to hand over copies
of the e-mails, saying that doing so would encourage similar activity.
As of December 2010, Cantor is the only Jewish Republican in
the United States Congress.He supports strong United States-Israel relations.
He cosponsored legislation to cut off all U.S. taxpayer aid to the Palestinian
Authority and another bill calling for an end to taxpayer aid to the
Palestinians until they stop unauthorized excavations on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem.
In May 2008, Cantor said that the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is not a "constant sore" but rather "a constant
reminder of the greatness of America", and following Barack Obama's
election as President in November 2008, Cantor stated that a “stronger
U.S.-Israel relationship” remains a top priority for him and that he would be
“very outspoken” if Obama "did anything to undermine those ties."Shortly
after the 2010 midterm elections, Cantor met privately with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just before Netanyahu was to meet with US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to Cantor's office, he
"stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the
Administration" and "made clear that the Republican majority understands
the special relationship between Israel and the United States." Cantor was
criticized for engaging in foreign policy; one basis for the criticism was that
in 2007, after Nancy Pelosi met with the President of Syria, Cantor himself had
raised the possibility "that her recent diplomatic overtures ran afoul of
the Logan Act, which makes it a felony for any American 'without authority of
the United States' to communicate with a foreign government to influence that
government’s behavior on any disputes with the United States."
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