Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Tuesday at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit in Washington, DC, that the ties between the United States and Israel are secured by our common religious heritage and our commitment to liberty for our citizens.

Cotton told the crowd of hundreds of Christians and Jews that they have to stand together against Iran and the threat it poses to both nations, but they should also stand for the Iranian people who also are victims of the tyrannical Islamic regime in that country.

“We should do these things not only because it’s in our common interest [but] because we have a special friendship with Israel that is no accident of history and isn’t a mere alignment of interest,” the senator said.

“There’s a reason that the largest Jewish metropolitan area in the world outside Tel Aviv is New York,” Cotton said. “There’s a reason the pilgrims called America the New Zion.”

“Both of our nations are beacons of freedom in a dangerous world,” Cotton said, adding that even before the modern state of Israel was established 70 years ago, Americans and the Jewish people have had a “special bond.”

Cotton serves on the Senate banking housing and urban affairs, intelligence, budget, armed services, and joint economic committees.

He is a lawyer and a Navy veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like many of the other speakers at the summit, Cotton praised President Donald Trump and his administration’s accomplishments in support of Israel, including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and ending the Obama-era terrorist-funding nuclear deal with Iran.

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