For thousands of years, Jews have been persecuted and murdered by antisemites who falsely claimed the Jews brought the attacks on themselves by their own conduct. This lie has surfaced again after Hamas’ barbaric October 7th assault and massacre. The Iran-proxy terrorist group continues to fire thousands of rockets into Israel, which continues to defend itself and has vowed to annihilate the genocidal entity.
While Israel continues to be attacked, and as pro-Hamas mobs have been demonstrating around the world, for the last three weeks Americans have also been watching the chaos of the House of Representatives as the GOP had a very public fight choosing a new Speaker after booting Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the job. Finally, this week Representative Mike Johnson was elected as the 56th Speaker of the House. Speaker Johnson told the media that there would now be an “aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead,” and he wasn’t kidding. First out of the gate was an important and simple resolution—HR 771, affirming America’s support of Israel and condemning Hamas’ terrorist attacks.
Shamefully, some far-left congressional Democrats have joined the Israel-bashing chorus of Hamas, Muslim nations, the United Nations, the left-wing media and others. This comes even though 32 Americans were murdered Oct. 7 during the terrorist attack on Israel, and with at least 12 Americans believed to be among hostages Hamas is holding in the Gaza Strip.
Most members of Congress are supporting Israel following the unprovoked surprise terrorist attack. The House voted Wednesday for the resolution titled, “Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists” which passed by a vote of 412 to 10 with six members abstaining. The resolution says the House “stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas” and “condemns Hamas’ brutal war against Israel.” It says Hamas should “cease these violent attacks” and release all hostages.
Never in my life could I have imagined any member of our Congress voting “no” on a resolution supporting an ally, but even more so condemning a savage, inhuman attack on unarmed civilians including infants and children, pregnant women, the disabled, and the elderly. But we didn’t have just one, we had ten voting “no,” and then equally as disgusting were the six who abstained. How do you abstain from condemning genocide?
Not surprisingly, one of those voting against the resolution was Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a leading opponent of Israel in Congress. She often makes note of her “Palestinian” heritage and behaves as though she is more concerned with representing Palestinians and demonizing Israel than with representing the people of her district.
Moreover, this week the Jerusalem Post reported the Canary Mission, a group committed to fighting antisemitism, issued a report revealing disturbing claims of campaign finance links between Tlaib, Hamas-linked organizations, and activists. The Post reported, “The group states that Tlaib used the Facebook group PAC-USA (Palestinian American Congress-USA), for her congressional campaign. This group, Canary said, shared pro-terrorism, antisemitic, and Nazi propaganda content. The group no longer exists but had over 12,000 members in June 2020,” said the newspaper. “Moreover, Tlaib allegedly hired the founder of the group as the chairman of her campaign’s Finance Committee…”
The Canary report itself states: “Canary Mission can confirm that Rashida Tlaib has extensive fundraising ties to Hamas supporters. She employed no less than three Hamas-linked activists to fundraise for her 2018 election campaign, one of whom spent 8 months in prison for his alleged connections to Hamas.”
Democratic House members (many with long anti-Israel records) also voting against the pro-Israel/anti-Hamas resolution were “Squad” members and more: Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York, Andre Carson of Indiana, Cori Bush of Missouri, Al Green of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Delia Ramirez of Illinois. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also opposed the resolution.
The six Democrats voting “present” were: Reps. Greg Casar and Joaquin Castro of Texas, Nydia Velázquez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Jesús “Chuy” Garcia of Illinois and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state (chair of the far-left Congressional Progressive Caucus).
Tlaib endorsed a propaganda claim by Hamas last week promoting the now internationally debunked Hamas claim that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza and killed 500 Palestinians. Despite the United States confirming the rocket was launched by Islamic Jihad, Tlaib has called for an independent investigation, saying: “I cannot uncritically accept Israel’s denial of responsibility as fact.” Tlaib continues to victim -blame insisting Hamas’ “resistance” (Tlaib’s euphemism for bloodthirsty terrorism) is the fault of Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians. This is absurd.
Meanwhile, at the notorious snake pit of Jew-hating also known as the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has taken much the same position as Tlaib. He said Tuesday that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. was so outraged by the victim-blaming that he demanded Guterres “resign immediately.” But to no one’s surprise, Guterres didn’t step down.
When certain members of Congress vote “no” or abstain on a resolution condemning terrorism and violence against Jews, a very specific message is sent to the terrorists and thugs of the world—that genocidal mass murder is an acceptable act against not just Israel, but Jews everywhere. Sixteen American congressmembers refused to condemn a level of inhuman violence worthy of prehistoric beasts. Yes, it was an attack against Jews, but in its genocidal savagery, rank barbarism, and the desire for it to metastasize and infect the rest of the civilized world, Hamas’ actions are no less than a crime against humanity.
On the shameful vote of Tlaib and the others who voted no on the resolution, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee told Brian Kilmeade on Fox Radio:
Those nine Democrats are a complete disgrace. Cori Bush comes from my home state. She advocates for defunding the police. The city she represents, in my home state, per capita, has more murders than anywhere else in the United States. These people are not rational. They want to destroy our society and they promote propaganda that is as fake news as you possibly can find. The fact that they’re harboring and supporting terrorists who have killed more Jewish people since the Holocaust is absolutely unacceptable and these people do not deserve to serve in the halls of Congress.
Now that the House has its new speaker, it appears two Democrats will be facing censure votes. A resolution to censure Congressman Jamaal Bowman, responsible for pulling the fire alarm at the Capitol complex, has been introduced, as has one for Tlaib. Both face possible removal from committee assignments. Considering the violence and chaos unfolding here and around the world, losing committee assignments is the least they deserve. They certainly do not deserve to hold any position involved in determining this nation’s future.