Nothing says “I support free speech” like refusing to listen to what someone has to say, covering your ears and condemning him before he’s uttered a syllable. Ilhan Omar has in her characteristically blustering way announced that “there is no way in hell” that she will sit still to listen to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a well-known moderate, address a joint session of Congress on July 19. She has now been joined by three other members of The Squad – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Bush – who have announced that they will go and do likewise. And any moment now, we can expect other members of The Squad, including Ilhan’s fellow Muslim and BFF Rashida Tlaib, as well as Betty McCollum, to announce that they, too, will join the boycott. By the time the dust has settled, perhaps as many as ten members of Congress, out of a total of 535 (100 Senators, 435 Representatives) will refuse to listen to President Herzog. More on this latest demonstration by The Squad of its deep anti-Israel animus can be found here: “More ‘Squad’ Democrats join Omar-led boycott of Herzog congressional address,” by Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, July 14, 2023:
Three US lawmakers said they planned to boycott Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech to a joint session of Congress next week, joining a colleague who scoffed that there was “no way in hell” she would attend.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush‘s offices each confirmed that they would not be attending the July 19 speech, backing Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was the first to make such a decision on Wednesday.
All four lawmakers are part of the so-called Squad of progressive Democrats and additional members of the eight-member group are expected to follow suit.
The four other members of The Squad are Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Greg Casar of Texas. Tlaib will certainly join the boycott. Pressley, however, has recently been sending mixed signals on her view of Israel, voting against funding the Iron Dome project, but more recently condemning the Mapping Project of pro-Palestinian activists, a website that claims to show the ties between various Massachusetts institutions and “support for the colonization of Palestine.” Summer Lee, who narrowly won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional district, thereby ensuring her election to Congress, may worry about a primary challenge in 2024 and decide to mute her anti-Israel image by attending Herzog’s speech. Greg Casar, though on domestic issues he has agreed with The Squad, has supported “U.S. aid for Israel’s self-defense” and opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It is unlikely that he will boycott Herzog’s speech.
Few others are expected to blackball Herzog, whose figurehead role and ties to Israel’s peace camp make him a far less divisive figure than many other Israeli leaders, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bowman was the only lawmaker of the three latest additions to the list who offered comment on his decision, telling the right-wing newspaper Epoch Times that “I don’t think Israel has gone far enough in protecting and uplifting Palestinian rights and Palestinian lives.”…
Israel supplies the Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, with electricity and water. It also provides them with a total of 125,000 work permits (20,000 for Gaza, 100,000 for the West Bank), so that Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank can work in Israel and earn salaries three to ten times larger – depending on the job — than what they would earn at home. It is not Israel that has the responsibility for “protecting and uplifting Palestinian rights,” but rather, Hamas in Gaza and the PA in Judea and Samaria, both of which are cruel despotisms that cannot be dislodged democratically from power.
Perhaps Jamaal Bowman is thinking not of the Palestinians, but of the Israeli Arabs. He needn’t worry about their “rights.” They have the same rights as Israeli Jews. Arabs serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, go abroad as ambassadors. The chairman of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, is an Arab. Jews and Arabs work in the same offices and factories, play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras, attend the same universities and professional schools, and go into business together, in everything from restaurants to high tech start-ups. The only difference in their treatment is that Jews must, while Israeli Arabs may, serve in the military. Can Jamaal Bowman really not know any of this?
In her post on Wednesday [July 12], Omar wrote, “There is no way in hell I am attending.”“We should not be inviting the president of Israel — a government who under its current prime minister barred the first two Muslim women elected to Congress from visiting the country — to give a joint address to Congress,” Omar tweeted in all caps, noting that a 2019 ban had meant fellow Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was unable to visit her grandmother who lives in the West Bank….
Surely Omar is well aware that Herzog is very different in his outlook than Netanyahu, whom he opposes on a number of issues, including judicial reform, and that he had nothing to do with the ban on Omar and Tlaib entering Israel. But she’s determined not to make such distinctions; collective punishment of Israelis is her stock in trade.
Ilhan Omar is against all Israeli Jews, of all political persuasions, save possibly for the farthest left members of the Meretz Party, who are eager to help the Palestinians squeeze Israel back within the indefensible 1949 armistice lines in order to obtain a specious “peace.”
At the same time, the hardline nature of the current coalition is sure to make it easier for other progressive lawmakers to follow Omar’s lead.
Why are these people called “progressive”? There is nothing “progressive” — a word with positive connotations – about them. Are they not better identified as “fascistic” in their methods? Do you doubt that they would silence, if they could, all pro-Israel voices, with a vindictive thud reminiscent of Mussolini’s Black Shirts permanently silencing – with a bullet – Giacomo Matteotti?
Even if every one of those eight members of the Squad decided to stay away from Herzog’s speech, and even if two more Congressmen were to join them, that would mean a total of ten members of Congress, out of a total of 535, would have boycotted Herzog’s speech. That’s less than 2%. Nothing for Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) or Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah) to write home about.
Hindu American says
Liberals/progressives/commies mantra: “We support the right to free speech if it’s only ours”.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Well, the squad has never been supportive of free speech. Recall how AOC called for the de-platforming of Tucker, & celebrated when he was gone?
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
There’s no way in hell Ilhan Omar should be a citizen of the United States let alone a representative of our Constitutional Republic. As for Baby Brain AOC, take her words for what they’re worth. Anyone got a bottle? Alcohol free of course.
Pray Hard says
It’ll be fun watching those two moslems cannibalize AOC when they’re finished using her.
somehistory says
i elmi, alias i. omar, has no idea what awaits her. It’s a real wonder she can find any scarf large enough to cover her ugly head; her opinion of self is so over-sized.
i elmi is a rotten tree producing rotten fruit. i elmi will reap as she is so freely sowing; poison weeds, thorns and spurs.
aoc has no idea worth writing about; she’s a loudmouth airhead.
Some years ago, I took a class in the use of media of various kinds. One of the “kinds” was “social media.” I wondered at the time who would spend so much time on that platform to make it worthwhile. aoc knows social media usage and that’s about her limit.
As for the others not doing the job they are paid to do….listen to people from the other nations speak to them regarding their relations with the U.S….they won’t be missed any more than the lying snake from somaila and the airhead from NY.
Blougeoisie says
Cortez seems to forget what the Tlaibs and Omars did to Iberia. For someone who colonialism, she sure loves colonials.
But what else would you expect from the descendant of a conquistador?
somehistory says
i elmi’s father, alias omar, was a terrorist who lied to get into this country. So what should one expect from i elmi, alias omar, when it comes to terrorists? It’s no surprise that she hates Israel and the Jews. Also, Americans.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I doubt that she considers herself “Spanish”: by Hispanic, she probably claims ethnic descent of native Puerto-Ricans but linguistic heritage of Spain
tim gallagher says
From what I hear about these shitheads, anything that they decide not to attend would only be greatly improved by the absence of such vile scum of the earth. They could improve the American political scene by pissing off permanently and boycotting politics altogether. That would really improve the political scene immensely.
tgusa says
I’m contemplating joining the demrat, burn it all down coalition, just to see the squad and the rest of them suffer. I know, its akin to calling in an artillery or airstrike on your own position. Get low and pray.
tgusa says
Crack House (formerly the White House) condemns Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, calling his alleged comments about the coronavirus “vile,” “racist,” and “antisemitic.
Oh boy, bring me more popcorn, this is getting interesting.
somehistory says
And the “investigators” at the crack house, know whose fingerprints are on the cocaine, but they deny having the evidence….saying the investigation is closed and they don’t know to whom it belonged.
Just as they denied knowing that the “virus” came from the lab in china, likely being released as a bio-weapon.
Anyone who tells the Truth, is “racist, antisemitic, and vile. as well as being a domestic terrorist.”
what is the price of popcorn, these days?
tgusa says
They didn’t need to sweep it under the rug they smoked and snorted it away. Easy peasy.
Whatever the price is I will buy it.
somehistory says
It’s often that I’ll ask my daughter to buy some certain thing and she will tell me, “It was on sale.”
I’ll ask her for popcorn. Maybe it will be on special. It’s about time we could sit down and relax.
tgusa says
Those two in the picture look like the masses fleeing their countries who are on the US border and coming out of Africa. Where will the fools go when they wreck America? No one would want them.
O’er the land of the flee’er and the home of the slave!
tgusa says
71% of the illegal aliens coming in in one month went to Republican congressional districts.
If your Sheriff doesn’t take care of that make sure he and his men are not comfortable living among you. Just sayin. The democrat party are enemy combatants, insurgents. Democrats have sought to split up America since 1861.
tgusa says
Democrats get the majority vote of US Semites. Seems like Semites are voting for antisemitism. And yet, Speaker McCarthy Slams Democrats; “Absolutely Unacceptable Antisemitic Remarks. It Has Got to Stop” I’m not a democrat, I’m not a democrat voting Semite. I dont have a dog in this fight but even if I did dems and dem Semites would try to pull my dogs teeth, and shoot it dead. That is a loose loose situation. This is a personal problem among dems and dem Semites. They need to sort it out themselves, or not.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I agree that US semites are overwhelmingly deranged. But the same is not true about Israeli ones, and besides, the deranged behavior of US semites is not a good reason to abandon the one country that Jews worldwide can go to if they feel threatened. I am fully supportive of Israel, even if I am very suspicious of Jews who’re not from Israel, barring a handful
tgusa says
You’re probably right. I am seeing a disturbing pattern emerging among democrat Semites and I dont like it one bit. If they think I care more about them than I do my Republic they are very wrong.
The Turkeychoker says
well, at least the odor problem in Congress will be absent also. for a time at least.
SeeStraight says
Sure! The Arab squad will boycott Herzog! They are busy establishing a GO FUND ME’ for Arab terrorists!
M. Tiro says
Let them boycott. Who cares?
Making a BFD about it just gives them undeserved publicity. Ignore those hateful, dishonest women. Let them fade into a well-deserved obscurity.