The US House of Representatives on Tuesday said it was convinced that Israel is neither a racist nor an apartheid state and that the United States will always be a staunch partner of the country, going so far as to reject anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
A resolution The establishment of these principles was unsurprisingly and overwhelmingly adopted by both parties by 412 votes to 9 This had more to do with partisan power struggles than any actual concern for Israel.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who was one of nine votes, all Democrats, against the resolution and was the only Palestinian-American woman in Congress, called it an attempt to “monitor the words of women “. the color.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog is due to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, and his invitation to address a speech sparked a chain of events that led to both parties accusing the other party of being ahead of the speech soft on antisemitism.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a prominent critic of Israel, kicked things off Saturday when she denounced the recent deterioration in Israeli-Palestinian relations as part of her remarks at the Netroots Nation progressive conference that Israel is “a racist state”.
This was condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California) told reporter Monday Jayapal’s comments were just the latest in a string of anti-Semitic statements by party members.
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“There’s a whole bunch of them over there,” he said. “I think that’s a role for [House Democratic Leader] hakeem [Jeffries]the leader to prove that they are not anti-Semitic and cannot allow their members to continue saying what they have said in the past.”
Jayapal retracted her statement On Sunday, however, Democratic leaders issued their own statement in support of Israel, and 43 of Jayapal’s Democratic peers issued their own separate statement, distancing themselves from Jayapal’s original remark.
And ironically, the revelation that Thursday’s hearing involved a prominent witness, a presidential candidate and a known anti-vaccination opponent has exposed Republicans in the House of Representatives to accusations of anti-Semitism Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had made anti-Semitic statements at a recent dinner in New York City.
Kennedy checked in with the other dinner guests a video posted by the New York Post that he believes COVID-19 is “ethnically targeted,” affecting some populations such as whites and African Americans, but not others such as Ashkenazi Jews and people of Chinese descent.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Kennedys notes: “Perpetuating harmful and debunked stereotypes.””
McCarthy said again Monday that he disagrees with “everything he says.” also said that Kennedy’s comments should have no bearing whether he will testify at Thursday’s hearing.
“The hearing we have this week is about censorship. I don’t believe [censoring] “Someone here is actually the answer,” he said.
“I think if you’re dealing with censorship in America, that’s your first action [censor] He’s probably playing a role in some of the issues we’re having.”
And although, as expected, the resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority, the battle over the optics is not over yet.
When McCarthy was asked Friday whether a group of Democrats planned to skip Herzog’s speech and whether he thought it would be anti-Semitic just not to be there, McCarthy simply replied, “Yes.”
