07 January 2008
Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor elected to the United States Congress, will not seek re-election in November because of health concerns. Lantos, one of the most powerful members of Congress and the chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that he would serve out his term, but not run again for a new term. "Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus," he said. Lantos, a Democrat from California, most recently led the battle to substantially expand sanctions against Iran, a bill that passed overwhelmingly in the House and is under consideration in the Senate. He also is a strong advocate of reaching out to rogue states, even Israel's most dire enemies. He played a role in swaying Libya to give up its own weapons of mass destruction program in 2003 and has said he was willing to meet Iran's leadership.
Lantos, who turns 80 next month, was 16 when the Nazis invaded his native Hungary in 1944. He fought in the anti-Nazi underground and arrived in the United States three years later. He was an economist and a consultant prior to his election in 1980 to represent a San Francisco area district. "It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country," he said.
