not only do we need the difficult conversation we need some difficult action to fulfill the dreams of all of our citizens.
The resolution was meant as a veiled criticism of Omar’s recent comments are pro-Israel advocates, which have been widely condemned as anti-Semitic.
copy editor to aisle LaFond.
…insofar as it was lacking a provision condemning the anti-INCEL movement.
Good for her. The freshmen are learning the ropes.
Good chance that Omar earns herself a primary challenge. I find it hard to believe that voters in her MN district sent her to Congress to focus on the Israel issue.
Omar suggested pro-Israel advocates have a foreign allegiance to Israel — which plays on the anti-Semitic trope of dual loyalty — and weeks ago suggested people who are pro-Israel are motivated by money.
No, she didn’t suggest this. Her critics claim she suggested it. It was clear from her full statement that they are once again weaponizing charges of anti-semitism to shut down a critic of the US government’s support for the far right, war crimes-committing, international law-violating, racist apartheid government of criminally-indicted Benjamin Netanyahu.
Nicole LaFond ought to be ashamed and embarrassed in repeating false claims made about Omar and her statements.
I encourage her to read an evisceration of the kind of idiotic recitation of AIPAC talking points.
Particularly galling is LaFond’s repetition of the criticism of “tropes”…
Consider this resolution against the backdrop of decades of racism and anti-semitism by Congresspersons that has gone unpunished.
This is opportunistic and fraudulent.
The House Democrats’ “Rebuke” of Rep. Ilhan Omar Is a Fraud for Many Reasons, Including Its Wild Distortion of Her Comments
How can anyone possibly pretend that it’s invalid or offensive to observe, as Congresswoman Omar did, that some in America demand allegiance to a foreign nation when American citizens are allowed to boycott American states but are punished for boycotting this one specific foreign nation?
Let’s repeat what the New York Times said in its news article from 2015: “allegiance to Israel has long had nearly unanimous support in Congress.” And let’s repeat what the top funder of the Democratic Party and the Clintons, the billionaire Haim Saban, said: “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”
Long-time Israel supporter and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote in 2011 something far more extreme than anything Congresswoman Omar has ever said: a standing ovation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the U.S. Congress, Friedman wrote, was “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” Friedman mocked Mitt Romney’s views on Israel by writing: “America’s role is to just applaud whatever Israel does, serve as its A.T.M. and shut up. We have no interests of our own. ”
Indeed, the New York Times itself, in news reports, has often described members of U.S. Congress as acting with what the Paper of Record calls “allegiance to Israel”:
Congress.gov lists 103 entries under Legislation Sponsored or Cosponsored by Ilhan Omar. Just because you’re uninformed about what all else she’s doing doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
It’s not me who is the problem. If your a voter in that district and you keep hearing that your member of Congress is making headlines litigating the issue of pro-Israel political influence you’re going to wonder if she’s the right fit for your district. There are many solid liberals who could run for that district and do the job with half the drama. That’s the risk she has to manage. Is she using her position as MoC as a soapbox to litigate issues that she’s invested in that don’t align to her district? Or, is she representing what the district wants? That’s her challenge to manage.
The voters in her district know what she’s doing in Congress. You – very obviously – do not.
We’ll see. Most of her voting record is fine, but could I get a replacement in that district that would vote the same way with half the drama? Probably. Will that be of value to some voters there? Maybe. She has now opened up that possibility with her own actions.
She earned a primary challenge the minute she won the DFL primary last August. All of this only adds fuel to the fire, a fire that AIPAC has been stoking for a long, long time. I just started reading a book on the subject from 1985, written by former Congressman Paul FIndley, and how his quest for Mid East peace and understanding cost him the 1982 election (to none other than Dick Durbin) due to a huge amount of campaign donations coordinated and facilitated by AIPAC. The whole text of the book is online:
Fun fact: Guess which committee he also sat on…
Your fatuous assessment aside, Omar is fully within her Constitutional Right and Congressional responsibility to comment on the corrosive, corrupting influences on Congress and U.S. Policy.
“many solid liberals”… are available. And they weren’t elected, Omar was. To represent her district.
You seem to think your opinion on this counts for something.
It doesn’t.
And she isn’t representing you.
Nope, you’re wrong. You only hear the things you care about and block out the rest. You have some fantasy of silencing all critics of Israel, so you just assume that’s all that matters. Her fellow Somali immigrants are not going to be so easily hoodwinked by a few hit jobs in the press.
My assessment is hardly fatuous. Political observers are saying the same thing. Yes, Omar has the right to comment, but the priority she places on this particular issue may not be shared by the people of her district. That’s usually when challenges happen. So that’s a risk she’s going to have to manage. Perhaps Omar’s true calling is as an activist and not as a representative.
The district is 67% white and 18% black. If you think there isn’t a Keith Ellison type who has a less confrontational approach that would have a chance to beat her and might want to run, then I think you’re probably deluding yourself.
So again, you’re just spouting nonsense. You failed earlier to grasp that in her short time in Congress she’s already sponsored or cosponsored 103 pieces of legislation. I know you failed to grasp (or were unable to hear) that because you mislabeled that as “her voting record”. Her few remarks about Israel are nowhere close to being “her focus”.
One thing that ought to happen is for sane American Muslims and sane American Jews to sit down and start talking about how they can be a force for reason and peace in the Middle East.
The sad part about this imbroglio is that exacerbated tensions rather than lowering them.
I guess if you say so, it must be.
What a pathetic fall back to lean on “political observers are saying”
Give me a fucking break.