Ilhan Omar taken to the woodshed

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The House will vote as early as this week on a "resolution condemning anti-Semitism," according to two Democratic aides, following comments made last week by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, at a "progressive issues town hall" at Busboys & Poets last week, where she said, "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country."

According to a draft copy of the text provided to CBS News by a Congressional aide, the resolution "acknowledges the dangerous consequences of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes" and "rejects anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States," but it does not mention Omar by name.

Instead, the text references a 2010 "working definition" of anti-Semitism drafted by the State Department which references accusations of dual loyalty as an example of anti-Jewish prejudice.

"The myth of dual loyalty, including allegations that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens, has been used to marginalize and persecute the Jewish people for centuries for being a stateless minority," the resolution reads. It also says that accusing Jews of dual loyalty for supporting Israel "suggests that Jews cannot be patriotic Americans and trusted neighbors, when Jews have served our Nation since its founding, whether in public life or military service."

The draft notes that accusations of dual loyalty "have an insidious, bigoted history," and it points out as examples the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and "the post-9/11 conditions faced by Muslim-Americans in the United States, including unfounded, vicious attacks on and threats to Muslim-American Members of Congress."

One aide said the resolution would be on the floor on Wednesday, though the timing has yet to be finalized.

Omar received pushback for her remarks from senior Democratic lawmakers, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel, D-New York, who put out a statement last week calling it a "vile anti-Semitic slur" and Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-New York, who wrote in a series of tweets she was "saddened" that Omar was continuing to "mischaracterize support for Israel" and said, "no member of Congress is asked to swear allegiance to another country."

In response, Omar tweeted, "Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!" She also tweeted, "I have not mischaracterized our relationship with Israel, I have questioned it and that has been clear from my end."

Omar herself, however, has been the target of racist slurs and imagery. Just last week, the chairwoman of West Virginia's Republican party denounced an anti-Muslim poster on display at the state's Capitol during a Republican event. The poster appeared to link Omar to the 9/11 attacks, depicting planes flying into the World Trade Center with the phrase "never forget, you said" with a photo of Omar underneath, saying, "I am proof you have forgotten."

Omar tweeted about the poster, writing, "No wonder I am on the 'Hitlist' of a domestic terrorist and 'Assassinate Ilhan Omar' is written on my local gas stations." Engel, who has repeatedly criticized Omar over comments about Israel, came to her defense, writing on Twitter, "Absolutely horrible to see this blatant Islamophobic smear. Bigotry and dog-whistles of all kind are unacceptable. Whether its anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or any kind of hatred, we must call it out when we see it."

This will be the second time that the entire House is called to vote on legislation related to remarks made by Omar.

The decision by House Democratic leaders to put a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on the House floor Wednesday has touched off a furious debate between older House Democrats and a new breed of young liberal activists over whether Representative Ilhan Omar is being singled out for disparate treatment.

The issue is pitting veteran Democrats like Representatives Eliot L. Engel, Nita M. Lowey and Jerrold Nadler — all of whom lead major House committees, and all of whom are Jewish — against Ms. Omar and left-leaning groups like Justice Democrats and IfNotNow, a movement led by young Jews to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

A draft of the resolution being circulated on Capitol Hill does not name Ms. Omar. But there is little question it is aimed at her.

It states that “accusing Jews of dual loyalty because they support Israel, whether out of a religious connection, a commitment to Jewish self-determination after millennia of persecution or an appreciation for shared values and interests, suggests that Jews cannot be patriotic Americans and trusted neighbors, when Jews have served our nation since its founding, whether in public life or military service.”

"Our generation refuses to ignore the shameful role the out-of-touch leaders in our community have played in elevating the attack on Ilhan,” IfNotNow said in a statement, adding, “Instead of combating the most severe dangers against Jews and all marginalized people, our Jewish and political leaders are attacking one of the first Muslim women in Congress.”

And President Trump’s decision to insert himself into the fight has only inflamed it.

@realDonaldTrump
Representative Ilhan Omar is again under fire for her terrible comments concerning Israel. Jewish groups have just sent a petition to Speaker Pelosi asking her to remove Omar from Foreign Relations Committee. A dark day for Israel!

Ms. Omar, in a daring act for a freshman, engaged in a Twitter fight with Ms. Lowey over the weekend, in which Ms. Lowey called Saturday for Ms. Omar to retract the comment.

“I am saddened that Rep. Omar continues to mischaracterize support for Israel,” Ms. Lowey wrote. “I urge her to retract this statement and engage in further dialogue with the Jewish community on why these comments are so hurtful.”

Ms. Omar responded by quoting Ms. Lowey and doubling down on her own remarks.

“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee,” Ms. Omar wrote on Twitter.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, came to Ms. Omar’s defense, laying bare the generational divide vexing Democrats. She suggested that comments obliquely expressing racism or bigotry toward Latinos have never sparked such a furious backlash and rapid response from leadership.


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities (during the shutdown, a GOP member yelled “Go back to Puerto Rico!” on the floor).

Peter Daou
The GOP under Trump has run roughshod over our norms and values. They've kidnapped babies from breastfeeding mothers. They've stolen health care from the sick to enrich oligarchs. They pollute our air and water.

But we're supposed to believe @IlhanMN and @AOC are the problem?

Ms. Omar’s refusal to stand down has presented Democratic leaders with the question of how far to go to punish her, and whether she should lose her seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which Mr. Engel chairs.

So far, the leaders have shown little inclination to do so. But in an interview last month, Mr. Engel said he had a blunt talk with Ms. Omar before she took her seat on the panel.

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“I talked to her about my views on Israel, and I said to her that we respect everyone’s views but this was something that I wasn’t going to allow to be swept under the rug,” he said then, adding, “it wasn’t a confrontational meeting. She was pleasant, but I made it very clear to her where I stood and what I expected.”

But it has also raised sharp questions from defenders, who say Republicans are not facing nearly the same kind of scrutiny. Mr. Nadler accused Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, of anti-Semitism for using a dollar sign for the “S” in Tom Steyer’s name. Mr. Steyer, the billionaire liberal activist, has Jewish roots.

"To be clear, this tweet counts both as inane AND anti-Semitic".

@Jim_Jordan
C’mon @RepJerryNadler—at least pretend to be serious about fact finding.

Nadler feeling the heat big time. Jumps to Tom $teyer’s conclusion—impeaching our President—before first document request.
What a Kangaroo court. https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1102209824853499904 …

And it took years for Republican leaders to take action against Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, despite a long history of racist and bigoted comments. He was removed from his committee assignments this year after questioning when “white supremacy” had become a bigoted term.

How very ridiculous, it seems people are going to start attacking all forms of speech and claiming it's hate speech.

A vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in response to controversial comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar is set to slip past Wednesday amid intensifying pressure from the left both inside and outside the House Democratic Caucus.

An array of progressive groups declared their support for Omar, while both the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus — two of the most important factions among House Democrats — wanted more time to review the situation, lawmakers and aides said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that the vote would likely happen Thursday. They also said a draft resolution would be updated to include additional language rejecting anti-Muslim bias, although some Democratic sources believe that an entirely new document might be crafted.

What is clear, however, is that the furor over Omar's remarks — the second time in two months the Minnesota Democrat has made comments that were condemned by her own colleagues as anti-Semitic — is threatening to overshadow everything else happening in the House. House Democrats are set to pass a major anti-corruption package that deals with ethics and campaign finance reform initiatives and voting rights, but much of the attention is on Omar and how party leaders respond to her comments.

House Democratic leaders are struggling to contain the controversy over Rep. Ilhan Omar's comments about Israel, with the caucus fighting behind closed doors over whether — and how — to respond.

Tensions ran high at a caucus meeting Wednesday as some Democrats privately vented that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team had failed to adequately respond to the escalating political crisis, with too little outreach to their own rank and file.

Freshman Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut stood up and confronted Pelosi directly, arguing that she shouldn’t have to learn about the official Democratic Caucus response from MSNBC. Hayes said she now has to vote on a resolution that she’s barely read, without a private briefing from leadership, according to five sources.

Pelosi countered that the Democratic measure to condemn anti-Semitism is not final, though text had been circulating and a vote had been tentatively planned for Wednesday. That vote was postponed amid a last-minute backlash from progressives in the caucus.

Pelosi also said Democratic leaders were forced to respond quickly over the weekend — a task made trickier with Omar on a congressional delegation trip to East Africa over the weekend.

As Hayes was then talking to another member, Pelosi said, “Well if you're not going to listen to me, I’m done talking,” then set down the microphone and walked out of the room, the sources said.

A senior Democratic aide disputed that it was a tense exchange, saying Pelosi was merely trying to explain why things unfolded the way they did over the past few days.

Hayes later said in an interview that she didn’t hear Pelosi responding to her and had already started to walk out of the room.

hat moment of frustration reflects widespread anxiety in the caucus over how to handle the latest bout of remarks from Omar — one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress — after she suggested that pro-Israel advocates had “allegiance” to Israel. The remarks offended multiple top Democrats, who said it alluded to painful, decades-old stereotypes that Jews had “dual loyalties.”

Multiple Jewish lawmakers, including Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) stood up in the caucus meeting to explain why Omar’s latest remarks were so offensive and potentially dangerous. But other Democrats — including a Jewish lawmaker — stood up to defend Omar and say they didn’t see the remarks as deeply offensive.

Omar did not speak in the meeting, multiple sources said, although she was spotted chatting with some Democrats one-on-one and received hugs from others.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is now rushing to rewrite that resolution to condemn hate speech more broadly to win over a group of lawmakers — including progressives and lawmakers of color — who have rushed to Omar’s defense.

Bass, as well as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, were adamant Wednesday they would not support any resolution that specifically named Omar — something that several Jewish Democrats had privately pushed for in the resolution.

Several members from those caucuses also said they thought the measure as drafted, which did not did not specifically name Omar, was an unfair rebuke.

Omar, after returning from her trip to East Africa, has begun making amends with Jewish lawmakers, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

“I do not believe that Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic,” Schakowsky said. “I absolutely believe that she has become, as a result, a target. I think the Republicans love that, and frankly, I think the media loves to exploit the divisions.”

Schakowsky said the personal attacks against Omar have become so extreme that there are conversations about giving Omar a security detail in the U.S. Capitol.

Meanwhile, House Republican leaders on Wednesday morning reiterated their calls for Democrats to remove Omar from her spot on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

The panel’s Jewish chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), had previously derided Omar’s “vile, anti-Semitic slur,” though he said Wednesday morning he would not support ousting her from the committee.

Republicans have tried to paint a contrast between how Democrats and Republicans have responded to controversies involving one of their own, with GOP leaders repeatedly highlighting how they kicked Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) off his committee assignments after he made racist remarks in January.

Privately, some Jewish lawmakers are still fuming about Omar’s latest comments, which come after she has already apologized for other remarks criticizing the political influence of pro-Israel activists.

In the closed-door meeting Wednesday, Pelosi tried to shift the blame for the firestorm over Omar in part to the press, and repeatedly stressed party unity in the public eye.

Pelosi quipped of the press, “If you say the bacon is not crispy enough, they'll have an article about this unrest and unease in the Democratic Party.”

Multiple other Democrats urged their colleagues to stay off Twitter — where some lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Juan Vargas — sparred over the weekend.

The House approved a resolution Thursday to condemn "anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry" in a move that Democrats hope will quell the latest uproar over Rep. Ilhan Omar's criticism of Israel.

The vote on the measure was 407-23. The 23 opposed were all Republican lawmakers.

Party leaders initially decided to punt on the resolution vote in order to address concerns across the caucus about the text of the resolution. Democrats reversed course early Thursday and announced the House would vote on it hours before the resolution was even released. Democrats feared that House Republicans would be able to force a vote on the floor if the party did not take control of the matter.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was an early supporter of the resolution that began to take shape over the weekend. On Thursday, she said she did not believe Omar harbored anti-Semitic views. "I feel confident that her words were not based on any anti-Semitic attitude, but that she didn't have a full appreciation of how they landed on other people where these words have a history and a cultural impact that might have been unknown to her," Pelosi told reporters.

Republicans have amped up attacks against Omar, with one top Republican suggesting Democratic support of her could lead to violence.

House GOP leaders are calling for her removal from the Foreign Affairs panel, but Democrats have not gone there. The panel's chairman, Eliot Engel, has been a leading critic of Omar's rhetoric, but he has not called for her ousting from the committee.

Thursday's resolution was co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is Jewish, and Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who is black. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus had also voiced concern about the resolution and the haste with which the House was moving to condemn a Muslim, African-American woman, while other offensive comments made by lawmakers — and President Trump — often go by without notice or attention. To accommodate members' concerns, the resolution was broadened to condemn all forms of racism and bigotry beyond anti-Semitism.

The controversy spilled out across the U.S. Capitol and onto the 2020 campaign trail.

Leading 2020 Democratic presidential contenders including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren came to Omar's defense this week. Sanders, who is Jewish, said attacks on Omar from Republicans are intended to silence debate about U.S.-Israel foreign policy. "What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate," Sanders said in a statement, adding: "That's wrong."

Harris also raised concerns about Omar's personal safety. "We should be having a sound, respectful discussion about policy. You can both support Israel and be loyal to our country. I also believe there is a difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and anti-Semitism," Harris said.

"Branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse and makes it harder to achieve a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians," said Warren, "Threats of violence — like those made against Rep. Omar — are never acceptable."

"No one should be attacked for criticizing AIPAC, certainly not the esteemed Congresswoman Omar. She should be lauded for differentiating between Jews and Zionists. Judaism is a religion which teaches service of the Almighty, while Zionism attempts to transform Judaism into nationalism."
Rabbi Dovid Feldman

Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews express solidarity with Rep. Ilhan Omar

Neturei Karta International is a nonprofit religious Jewish organization committed to publicizing the authentic Torah view which is strongly opposed to Zionism and the State of Israel.

U.S. President Donald Trump slammed House Democrats for not advancing a planned resolution condemning anti-Semitism Wednesday, in the wake of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s controversial statements surrounding Israel in the past week.

Trump tweeted on Wednesday, “It is shameful that House Democrats won’t take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it’s inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!”

Democratic Congressman Jim Himes from Connecticut replied, “Guy who says there were 'good people on both sides' of a Nazi march weighs in. And, as usual, lies....”

The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein wrote, “The guy who tweeted out an image of Hillary Clinton over a Star of David and piles of money, who said Jewish donors controlled pols with their money, and who excused Neo Nazis is DEEPLY worried about Anti-Semitism fueling atrocities.”