A Top Democratic Foreign Policy Staffer Reflects on 14 Years on Capitol Hill

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021 THE WEEKLY PRINT A top Democratic foreign policy staffer reflects on 14 years on Capitol Hill; The Instagram community connecting Jewish women experiencing infertility; Blake Bailey’s complaint; Gabrielle Bluestone is out to get internet scammers; Kyrsten Sinema’s independent streak runs deep: APRIL 6, 2021 A top Democratic foreign policy staffer reflects on 14 years on Capitol Hill Daniel Silverberg, who recently stepped down as Steny Hoyer’s national security advisor, talks to Jewish Insider about the Iran deal and why the U.S.-Israel relationship will remain bipartisan By Gabby Deutch s a Shabbat-observant Jew participants to give us that gratifying of [Republican Rep.] Marjorie Taylor and one of Capitol Hill’s sense of professional fulfillment of Greene, who just continue to poison A most senior national security being in the epicenter of European the democratic process and poison how officials, Daniel Silverberg long ago foreign policy that weekend. And also members do their business.” figured out that the best way to travel that feeling of shabbas kodesh,” the In his new role at Capstone LLC, internationally was to fly out Saturday holiness of Shabbat. a company that describes itself as night, spend every minute of the trip Silverberg took a break from his first a “global policy and regulatory due either in meetings or sleeping on planes, day of private sector work in nearly 20 diligence firm,” Silverberg will “explain and get home by sundown the following years to speak with Jewish Insider about Washington and legislative oversight, Friday. U.S. policy on Israel and Iran, his tenure rule changes [and] developments” to But sometimes being away over working for four prominent pro-Israel corporations, he told JI. “Over the last Shabbat could not be avoided. Democrats, and why — despite all the number of years, particularly in the Silverberg, who recently stepped down partisanship and animosity — he still sanctions space, foreign policy has as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s thinks working on Capitol Hill is the become far more of a regulatory space (D-MD) national security advisor after best political job a young person can where rules the State Department or 14 years on the Hill, recalled the time have. Commerce or Treasury Departments he went to a small kiddush in Sen. Joe “What I’m going to miss most is the are making directly impact business Lieberman’s (I-CT) hotel room during entrepreneurship, the idealism and the decisions of U.S. companies.” the Munich Security Conference. “As ability to be focused on the entire world. For the last 14 years, Silverberg any Sabbath-observant traveler knows, I had a global focus; everything that was a Democratic staffer on the Hill, you always find the other similar happened around the world fell into my working most recently as Hoyer’s travelers,” Silverberg observed. “We portfolio,” said Silverberg, 47. “I could national security advisor. “I was didn’t have a minyan, but there certainly tell you what I won’t miss, and that is primarily his eyes and ears on what was was a healthy crowd of shomer Shabbat the increasing dysfunction and the likes happening in the Democratic caucus 1 and in Washington generally, and then Silverberg’s upbringing in suburban Los said. But, he added, “Bibi’s visit in 2015 was around the world on any major national Angeles. But as a Jewish kid growing up in cataclysmic, in my view, for the U.S.-Israel security or foreign policy issue that the 1980s, he learned about the Soviet Jewry relationship,” referring to Israeli Prime would be of interest to him and be of movement, advocating for Jews in what Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision interest to Democrats in Congress,” was then the USSR to be able to emigrate to address a joint session of Congress in Silverberg explained, noting that he and practice their religion. That activism 2015 after receiving an invitation from was not speaking as a representative of sparked his interest in both politics and Republican House Speaker John Boehner Hoyer’s office. foreign affairs. “I’m right now staring at a (R-OH), which was widely viewed by Silverberg often traveled picture of my father and I at the 1987 Soviet Democrats as a snub to then-President internationally with Hoyer, and told JI Jewry rally in Washington, D.C.,” Silverberg Barack Obama, who was not made aware of that he frequently required a translator told JI. “That was one of the first catalysts the invitation beforehand. to explain the tefillin he carried with for me. We took an overnight trip to join the “It was an event from which we still have him to security personnel. “It would be L.A. delegation to D.C., and I just got totally not recovered. It made Democrats overall no problem, but just the look [they had] jazzed up at a really young age.” more wary of the Israeli government’s of utter confusion, that clearly, they He interned at the State Department after intentions, particularly with respect to were somewhat puzzled by my tefillin,” his junior year at Harvard. Before beginning Iran. It emboldened Republicans in a way he recalled. He knew that on some trips, law school, he worked for the American that I still think is reverberating on the Hill. he would be surveilled, and he tried to Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for And it harmed the Israeli government’s find the humor in it: “I would often use a year in Warsaw as a grassroots organizer relationships with key constituencies within the placement of my tefillin bag as kind in Poland’s Jewish community, not long the Democratic Caucus, particularly the of a marker of what was happening in after the fall of the Soviet Union. “I didn’t Congressional Black Caucus, which took his my hotel room when I wasn’t there. I have a specific sense of what I wanted actions as a direct affront to the first African- would always leave my tefillin in the to do, but I just knew that I wanted to be American president,” Silverberg explained. exact same place, and so when I would doing something international and global,” At the same time, Democrats — see my bag moved in a way that just Silverberg noted. particularly those in leadership positions didn’t look like the hotel cleaner had After graduating from Stanford Law like Hoyer — have had to contend with come but someone had been rifling School, Silverberg spent a couple years rising numbers of progressive members who through my bags, that was always the in private practice before joining the are challenging pro-Israel orthodoxies in signal to me,” he said. Department of Defense as an attorney in Washington. Some have, at times, ventured Before joining Hoyer’s office in 2014, 2005. He moved over to the Hill in early into antisemitic tropes, most notably when Silverberg worked for the House Foreign 2007 after Democrats regained control of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tweeted, “It’s all Affairs Committee under three of the most the House following the 2006 elections. about the Benjamins baby,” in reference to prominent Jewish Democrats to ever serve However, the majority of his time in U.S. support for Israel. Silverberg maintained in Washington: Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), Congress was spent in the minority, with that despite a few dissenters, Democratic the Budapest-born Holocaust survivor Republicans controlling the House from support for Israel remains strong. who represented the Bay Area for 27 years 2011 to 2019. “My standard of success was “Attention gets focused on members until his death from esophageal cancer in not seeing how quickly things moved, or if who are the loudest and will sometimes say 2008; Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), who we even got bills done. It was, were we able the most unhelpful things. Unfortunately, represented parts of Los Angeles for 30 years to influence the overall policy conversation? they wind up tarring the overall Democratic before losing to fellow Democrat Rep. Brad Congress still serves that function,” he brand. ‘The Squad’ is not representative,” Sherman (D-CA) in 2012 after redistricting; said. But now, in a more partisan era, “it is Silverberg said, referring to a group of and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), whose 16-term no question more challenging to do so in a progressive lawmakers composed of Omar tenure ended in a primary defeat last year. bipartisan fashion.” and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Alexandria “I feel grateful that I have all of those Still, Silverberg pointed out, “there are Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley members’ brands as a part of me, and that some key issues that could serve as balms, (D-MA). through them I got to work on the most, in some way, for the bipartisan relationship. His former boss echoed this sentiment in I think, important, sensitive, challenging One of those is democracy and human a speech at AIPAC’s March 2019 conference: issues of interest to the Jewish community, rights… And another one is Israel,” he “By the way, there are 62 freshman and do so in a way that was totally argued. “I’d like to think that with Trump Democrats. You hear me? Sixty-two. Not compelling,” Silverberg stated. “Where gone, Republicans will take a step back three,” Hoyer told conference attendees, Howard Berman stood, and where Steny from so blatantly exploiting Israel for their in what was widely assumed to be a Hoyer and these other members stood on immediate political benefit.” reference to members of the Squad.

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