Eliot Engel Puts Kosovo First — Not America

Congressman Eliot Engel, who represents the Bronx and points north, is facing a tough challenge in tomorrow’s primary. His challenger, progressive Jamaal Bowman, has been endorsed by prominent Democrats from Elizabeth Warren to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz, and has raised a significant war chest in the course of the campaign.

Bowman has accused Engel, who is currently chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of pursuing pet foreign-policy issues at the expense of his district. That criticism misses the mark. Some 60,000 Albanians live in New York State, many in Engel’s district. What Engel has done is systematically put the interests of the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo — which is majority Albanian — ahead of American interests. He has been richly rewarded.

Members of Congress are allowed to receive such “gifts” from personal friends, but not if they use their office to advance the benefactor’s personal interests. And Bajraktari, who owns significant real estate in Kosovo as well as New York City, has benefited greatly from Engel’s lobbying on Kosovo’s behalf.

Engel slammed the Trump administration’s mediation efforts, and in addition has called for the U.S. to sanction Serbia for its close ties to Russia, including arms purchases.

Albania and Kosovo are majority-Muslim, and Kosovo has been a fertile recruiting ground for ISIS, as the New York Times has reported. There are reportedly multiple ISIS training camps in Kosovo, and hundreds of Albanian Kosovars have joined ISIS. Some of this unfortunate proclivity has made it to the New York Albanian community; late last year, 26-year-old Bronx Albanian Sajmir Alimehmeti was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being found guilty of terror charges.

Engel is a hero in Kosovo. The government there has awarded him numerous honors, including his face on a stamp, and his name on a major boulevard. Whether New Yorkers have a reason to see Engel so positively is another story.

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