Israel
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar kicked off House Foreign Affairs Committee
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was voted off the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday. The action was expected, as Republican members of Congress had criticized Omar’s antisemetic and anti-American rhetoric.
After intense debating on the House floor, the resolution passed with a 218-211 vote. Democrats attempted to pull the race card, accusing Republican House members of racism for removing Omar from the committee.
Omar also accused House Republicans of racism, saying, “I am Muslim, I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa…Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy, or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?”
“There is this idea that you are a suspect if you are an immigrant or if you are from certain parts of the world or certain skin tone or a muslim.” Omar said during the heated debate. A fiery Alexandria Ocasia Cortez also chimed in shouting, “This is an attack on women of color!”
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, from New York, said she had personally witnessed Omar spew anti-American rhetoric. Malliotakis said, “I have been in that committee room where, the representative, equates Israel and the United States to Hamas and the Taliban. Absolutely unacceptable for a member of that committee.”
A four-page resolution was written for the justification of removing Omar from the house Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution states that in 2019, Omar suggested that Jewish people were buying U.S. political support when she posted on Twitter, “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
Omar also commented on the September 11th attacks saying, “some people did something.” This type of comment is unacceptable for any representative who is sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lawmakers said.
In the resolution it states that members of this committee should all be held to an “equal standard of conduct due to the international sensitivities and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee.”
Middle East
Biden Admin Weakens Israel’s War in Gaza, Favors Overthrow of Bibi’s Government
Follow Steve Postal @HebraicMosaic
The Biden administration and its Democratic allies continue to hamstring Israel’s war in Gaza by undermining Israel’s war generally, contemplating withholding aid from Israel, and favoring the overthrow of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Undermining War Effort
The Biden administration continues to undermine Israel’s war effort. President Biden has stated that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a “red line,” that he needed to have a “come to Jesus meeting” with Bibi, and that Bibi was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in commanding the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel looks like it will continue with its invasion of Rafah to root out Hamas, as the Israeli defense minister stated that “…there is no safe place in Gaza for terrorists” and that “…[t]hose who think we are delaying will soon see that we will reach everyone.” An estimated 75 percent of Jewish Israelis support the IDF invading Gaza. In Rafah, the IDF recently killed a commander in Hamas’ Operations unit in Rafah who was responsible for scouting IDF positions and also for stealing aid intended for Gazans. While there have been some reports that the Biden administration may allow a limited IDF attack in Rafah to pursue “high-value” Hamas targets, the administration has yet to show that it will allow the IDF to defeat Hamas in Rafah and in Gaza generally.
In fact, a recent intelligence report released by the Biden administration further undermines Israel’s war in Gaza, basically writing off Israel’s right to defend itself as pointless. Specifically, the report predicts that “Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from Hamas for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize Hamas’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces.” Interestingly, while the report notes that the Israeli public “broadly supports” Hamas’ destruction, the report does not endorse these views on behalf of the US defense establishment.
The report also equivocates the October 7 attack and Israel’s response to that attack, stating that both have “increased tensions throughout the region as Iranian proxies and partners conduct anti-U.S. and anti-Israel attacks, both in support of Hamas and to pressure the United States.”
Conditioning Aid
While maintaining that “[t]here’s no red line [in which] I’m going to cut off all weapons so that they don’t have the Iron Dome [missile defense system] to protect them,” President Biden is reportedly in fact mulling conditioning future aid to Israel if Israel goes forward with an invasion of Rafah. Israel Bernie Sanders, along with Elizabeth Warren and six other Democratic senators have called on President Biden to suspend military aid to Israel, which includes “assistance for missile defense, such as the Iron Dome, or other defensive system.” The letter calls on military aid to Israel to be conditioned on Israel “immediately and dramatically expand[ing] humanitarian access and facilitat[ing] safe aid deliveries throughout Gaza.” Such calls sound eerily similar to Sanders’ and AOC’s 2019 support of cutting Israeli aid as a means to pressure the Jewish state.
Trying to Overthrow Bibi
The Biden administration has telegraphed that it wants to see Netanyahu’s government overthrown. A “serious administration figure” has reportedly asked an Israeli expert what it would take to force the collapse of Netanyahu’s government. Additionally, the intelligence report mentioned above states that:
Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultra-orthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy. Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility.
In response, a “very senior official” in Israel, described in Israeli media as “the most senior Israeli political source you can imagine,” (i.e., most likely Netanyahu) stated that Israel is an independent democracy that elects its own government and not a “protectorate of the US,” and called for “our friends” to help to “overthrow the terror regime of Hamas and not the elected government of Israel.”
Israel should continue to resist counter-productive forces trying to stymie its war effort, and pursue total victory of Hamas. Only then can there be durable peace between Gaza and Israel.
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Sad4theUS
February 4, 2023 at 7:55 pm
She shouldn’t even be in our Congress at all, she is so anti-American!