Washington » Almost every dime Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, raised this year comes from supporters of Israel, continuing a relationship that began with his first run for Congress and has become one of his main sources of campaign funds.

Bishop raised $10,900 in the first three months of 2009, according to campaign finance reports released last week. Small donors from Utah sent in $400. The rest came from supporters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and NORPAC, a group that funds both Democrats and Republicans who support Israel. They held a fundraiser for Bishop in New York this January, and have held similar events in the past.

Throughout his congressional career, Bishop, now in his fourth term, has received more than $30,000 in donations from the powerful pro-Israel lobby, making it one of his five largest financial backers. The others are defense contractors, realtors, credit unions and EnergySolutions, a Utah company that disposes of low-level radioactive waste.

"I'm very empathetic with the situation Israel finds itself in. I'm also concerned for the future of Israel because the demographics are not on their side in that particular region," he said referring to the larger number of children in surrounding Arab countries. "And yet they have every right to exist."

Bishop backed President Barack Obama's decision to boycott this week's United Nations conference on racism because the draft communiqué linked Zionism to racism.

"It was wise to do that," Bishop said in rare praise of the president.

As a high school student in the 1960s, Bishop watched with interest as Israeli and Arab fighters clashed in what became known as the Six-Day War. That brief and bloody battle started a fascination with Israeli politics that continues to this day.

Bishop has visited Israel twice. In 2005, he took a $14,000 trip with his wife funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He returned a couple years later as part of a congressional delegation. He said the trips, which included excursions into lands held by Palestinians, brought home the dangers of living in the region.

"It is a tough life to live when everyone is ganging up around you," he said. "We wouldn't tolerate that kind of stuff."

NORPAC President Ben Chouake called Bishop "a steady reliable vote" on issues that protect and expand the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

Since Bishop was a high school history teacher, Chouake talked to him about education at the most recent fundraiser. Chouake wants Congress to require the Palestinian Authority to remove anti-Semitic language from its textbooks as a condition to receive U.S. foreign aid.

Each year, the U.S. sends millions of dollars in foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority. That includes $150 million in 2008 to help plug budget shortfalls. That amount is a tiny fraction of the financial assistance the U.S. provides to Israel.

Bishop said he is supportive of Chouake's position but said he has not yet taken any action on the testbook topic. He is also supportive of Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he met in 2005 when he served as the nation's finance minister.

"Netanyahu would be an excellent American politician," said Bishop, a Republican, noting he is conservative and pushed for tax cuts.

mcanham@sltrib.com