A Muslim US congresswoman’s remarks deemed anti-Semitic by colleagues has exposed deep fault lines among Democrats, with the party seeking to contain the damage with the passage on Thursday of a measure condemning bigotry and hate.
After days of soul-searching and febrile recrimination, the Democratic leadership appeared desperate to move past a controversy that has left the party split two months since reclaiming the majority in the US House of Representatives.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a resolution that she called the “strongest possible opposition” to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacist bigotry.
The decision followed acrimonious debate over how to reprimand US Representative Ilhan Omar, who sparked a firestorm over repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts influence in US politics.
The resolution passed 407-23, with all Democrats voting in favor, including Omar herself.
The former Somali refugee has been assailed for suggesting that supporters of Israel are urging lawmakers to have “allegiance to a foreign country.”
Lawmakers expressed outrage, warning that Omar was peddling in age-old anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish people having dual loyalties.
Several weeks ago, she drew ire for suggesting that Jewish political power comes through the Jewish community’s money and that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group pays US politicians to support Israel.
A vote had been expected on a resolution specifically condemning anti-Semitism, but on Wednesday, some Democrats pushed to include language decrying Islamophobia and other bigotry.
It condemns anti-Semitism, as well as discrimination against Muslims and other minorities as “hateful expressions of intolerance” contradictory to US values.
The resolution does not mention Omar by name and some Republicans complained that the measure’s original intent was “watered down.”
“Today’s resolution vote was a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism,” US Representative Liz Cheney said.
Omar joined the two other Muslims in the US Congress, Rashida Tlaib and Andre Carson, in praising the measure’s passage.
“It’s the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation’s history,” they said, adding that they saw a worrying rise of extremism in the US.
“Our nation is having a difficult conversation and we believe this is great progress,” they said.
Some Democrats, including three presidential contenders for next year — Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris — expressed frustration that Omar faced an implicit rebuke, while racist statements by Trump and other Republicans have gone largely unchallenged.
“We must not ... equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing [Israeli Primes Minister Benyamin] Netanyahu government in Israel,” said Sanders, who is Jewish.
Pelosi declined to condemn Omar outright.
“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,” she said.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman and White House chief of staff, nevertheless slammed Omar and described her dual loyalty charge as anti-Semitic, not anti-Israel.
“She is casting Jewish Americans as the other, suggesting a dual loyalty that calls our devotion to America into question,” he said.
The expansion of the resolution to broadly address hate did not sit well with some lawmakers.
“When one of our colleagues invokes the classic ... anti-Semitic language that Jews control the world, that Jews care only about money, that Jews cannot be loyal Americans if they also support Israel, this too must be condemned,” Democrat US Representative Ted Deutch said in a passionate floor speech.
Another Jewish House Democrat, Elaine Luria, said that over a 20-year military career she deployed six times on US Navy ships, “overseeing nuclear reactors, driving ships and ultimately commanding a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors.”
“Is that not enough to prove my loyalty to our nation?” she asked.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion