New House member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is NOT happy with the US policy with Israel….
THAT runs against the traditional American Washington policy of expressing unconditional support of the Jewish State….
With American Jewish lawmakers up in arms against Omar’s comments?
They have been joined by Republicans who want to use the discord to hurt the Democratic party…
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi rushed to get Rep. Omar to apologize on her first comments…
But that has NOT stopped the new lawmaker from continuing to express her views…
THAT puts Pelosi in a tough place….
With the fact that this IS America and people have a ‘Right’ to express their views, even if they are a member of Congress?
Omar is getting backing from Progressives and others….
Nobody is saying that America should cast Israeli adrift like Trump has talked about for other countries and agreements…
But even President Obama had problem with some things from Israel policy….
The first time Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said something about the U.S. government’s support for Israel that was perceived by critics as perpetuating an anti-Semitic stereotype, condemnation from her fellow Democrats was hard and swift. She apologized.
Then Omar made another comment about pro-Israel advocates pressing for “allegiance to a foreign country” that some also found offensive. The calls for a strong rebuke of Omar from within and outside the party have Democratic leaders grappling with how to handle it.
Their answer is a formal rebuke in the form of a resolution denouncing anti-Semitism — and in a last minute add, Islamophobia — on which the House plans to vote on Thursday.
[Rep. Omar’s comments force Democrats to act on anti-Semitism measure]
But to what end? Does Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bring up a resolution every time Omar says something about Israel that some think is anti-Semitic? Does she kick Omar off the Foreign Affairs Committee, as some Republicans had called for even before these latest comments?
After all, Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, has continued to question the United States’ foreign policy as it pertains to Israel even after the rebuke. And if criticizing Israel is conflated with criticizing the Jewish population, then Omar is going to continue to give her critics fodder.
It leaves Pelosi, and to a larger extent the Democratic Party, in an untenable position. No matter what, Pelosi risks alienating people within her ranks who either feel that she hasn’t done enough to condemn anti-Semitism or that the party is unfairly singling Omar out for punishment.
Many high-ranking Jewish Democrats in Congress have been extremely critical of Omar’s comments and have put pressure on leadership to take action. But in recent days, the progressive wing of the caucus has risen to Omar’s defense, including her friend Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Ocasio-Cortez has been using her tremendous reach on social media to defend Omar and criticizing what she says is the double standard of not calling for resolutions when lawmakers trade in xenophobic, sexist or racist tropes…..
Note….
59% of Americans sympathize with Israelis over the Palestinians, the lowest level since 2009, according to Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey.
Why it matters: The poll, conducted weeks prior to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) controversial remarks questioning U.S. support for Israel and the influence of pro-Israel lobbying, indicates that positive American attitudes toward Israel could slowly be changing. However, Americans’ preference for Israel is still much more widespread. Even though the percentage of Americans who favored the Palestinians over Israelis was at a record high since 2001, it still lagged far behind at 21%….
Update…
The FBI is investigating an assassination threat against Rep. Ilhan Omar — written in Sharpie on a gas station bathroom stall in her district.
The investigation was sparked by a message scrawled on a stall in the men’s room at a Holiday gas station in Rogers, Minnesota. It read, “Assassinate Ilhan Omar,” according to an Instagram post last month from 45-year-old Brian Raines.
Omar, a freshman Minnesota Democrat and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, tweeted about the graffiti Friday. She blamed Republicans for linking her to Muslim terrorist acts like 9/11….
image…Breitbart