Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Tuesday introduced a House resolution to reaffirm Americans’ rights to boycott Israel “in pursuit of civil and human rights.” The move came ahead of a major vote initiated by the Democrats in the House, H. RES. 246, “opposing efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel.”
The Omar resolution is co-sponsored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), and is part of a nightmare experienced by the Democratic leadership, which took control of the House in 2018 only to have to wade through a dozen or so extreme leftists (and John Lewis, who may be convinced to change his mind) who made it into Congress riding the anti-Trump wave.
How bad a nightmare? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Tlaib accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of singling out women of color. Tlaib, who is Arab and therefore is as “woman of color” as many Jewish Congress members—nobody here but us Semites—nevertheless called on Pelosi (of south-Italian extraction, also olive skinned people) to “acknowledge the fact that we are women of color, so when you do single us out, be aware of that and what you’re doing, especially because some of us are getting death threats, because some of us are being singled out in many ways because of our backgrounds, because of our experiences and so forth.”
This use of the race card is pure hogwash, of course. The “Squad” (Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Omar and Ocasio-Cortez) are not under attack for their skin color, but for their offensive attacks which pretend to be anti-Israel but parade all the anti-Jewish clichés.
President Donald Trump has been using the “Squad” to portray the entire Democratic party as anti-Semites (he uses “Democrat party” because it has the word “rat” in it, a delightful pun invented by Rush Limbaugh back when the dinosaurs still refused to believe a giant meteor was going to make them extinct). Trump has been so outrageous, calling on the Congresswomen who criticize him to go back where they came from (Michigan and the Bronx to name two), that the House on Tuesday formally denounced him, with four Republicans joining the rebuke.
The House announced it “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should ‘go back’ to other countries.”
Trump’s response was to celebrate victory: “So great to see how unified the Republican Party was on today’s vote concerning statements I made about four Democrat Congresswomen. If you really want to see statements, look at the horrible things they said about our Country, Israel, and much more. They are now the top, most visible members of the House Democrats, who are now wedded to this bitterness and hate. The Republican vote was 187-4. Wow!”
Wow, indeed. Nancy Pelosi, who, together with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have measured up to the president and then some in the fight over the government freeze earlier this year, is being dragged down by a very small group of anti-Israel members (15 at most out of 235).
Nevertheless, the Democratic anti-BDS resolution will pass the House of Representatives, to oppose “the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) targeting Israel, including efforts to target United States companies that are engaged in commercial activities that are legal under United States law, and all efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel.” It also reaffirms “strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states—a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state—living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition.”