Clearly a good many Democratic politicians are not ready to go on record with their real animus toward Israel in the face of the traditional American support of the Jewish state, or there actually is a pro-Israel silent majority in the Democratic party despite the loud noises made by a small number of of their membership.
[IsraelTimes] No’ votes more than double those against 2021 bill for Iron Dome funding; J Street protests resolution’s omission of backing for two-state solution but didn’t call to oppose it.The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to pass a resolution marking Israel’s 75th anniversary, heralding the importance of the US-Israel relationship and urging the expansion of the Abraham Accords.
H.Res.311 passed 401-19, with 18 progressive Democrats opposing the measure amid growing comfort within the party to take such public stances against the Jewish state, along with protests raised by the dovish J Street lobby group over the initiative’s lack of inclusion of support for a two-state solution.
Previous resolutions introduced every five years to mark Israeli Independence Day have included mentions of the two-state solution or peace with the Paleostinians. The Haaretz daily reported that Democratic congressional leadership sought to add such language but were rebuffed by Republicans, who have increasingly moved away from openly backing two states.
The 19 politicians who voted "no" were more than double the number of representatives who voted against a September 2021 bill to provide Israel with $1 billion for its Iron Dome missile defense system. That resolution passed 420-9.
While Tuesday’s resolution was far more symbolic than the 2021 initiative, both were seen as barometers of Congressional support for Israel, with the results on the latest bill indicating that backing has slightly waned.
Voting against Tuesday’s pro-Israel resolution were eight of the nine politicians who opposed the Iron Dome funding in 2021 — Democratic Representatives Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Chuy Garcia, Raul Grijalva, Ilhan Omar
...Somali-
AmericanDem representative from Minnesota. She was apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side...
, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. (The ninth politician, Democratic representative Marie Newman, lost her reelection bid last year.)
Joining them were Democratic Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Mark Desaulnier, Jared Huffman, Pramila Jayapal, Hank Johnson, Summer Lee, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan, Alexandria
Boom BoomOcasio-Cortez
Dem Congressgirl from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details. She was the inventor of the Green New Deal, though she doesn't talk about it much anymore...
, Delia Ramirez and Nydia Velazquez.
The legislation was co-sponsored by Republican Representatives Ann Wagner and Michael McCaul along with Democratic Representatives Kathy Manning and Brad Schneider, demonstrating sustained bipartisan support for Israel in an ever-polarized political climate in Washington.
Both Manning and Schneider made a point of stressing their support for the two-state solution in the floor debate ahead of the vote.
The text’s mention of support for the Abraham Accords avoided using the Biden administration talking point about the importance of leveraging Israel’s new relations with Arab states in order to advance peace with the Paleostinians.
The resolution "encourag[es] the expansion and strengthening of the Abraham Accords to urge other nations to normalize relations with Israel and ensure that existing agreements reap tangible security and economic benefits for the citizens of those countries and all peoples in the region."
J Street did not specifically urge politicians to vote against the bill but did share its concerns with members.
"We regret that the House resolution introduced to mark Israel’s landmark 75th anniversary omits key commitments and aspirations that have been central to the US-Israel relationship for decades," the group’s spokesperson Logan Bayroff told Jewish Insider.
"This anniversary should be a time — as has been the case with prior resolutions marking milestone anniversaries for Israel — when long-standing bipartisan consensus positions on Israel are reinforced, rather than excised to accommodate the Republican party’s growing rejection of them," Bayroff added.
AIPAC, on the other hand, lobbied in favor of the bill and hailed its passing.
[Breitbart] Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google have donated vast sums of money to members of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee in advance of its Big Tech hearing on Wednesday.
[The Intercept] NABILAH ISLAM, the 30-year-old daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, is one of six Democratic candidates vying for the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Rob Woodall, a five-term GOP incumbent who entered office as part of the 2010 tea party wave. Islam is regularly touted in the press as "Atlanta’s AOC," and is trying to demonstrate that a populist message can work in this working class district.
[CT] Washington ‐ Congressional Democrats who fear Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham may be conducting a partisan investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe into Russian meddling in U.S. elections are calling on him to resign.
[Free Beacon] MSNBC PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton mourned the passing of journalist Cokie Roberts on Tuesday by sending out a tweet with pictures of the still-living journalist Christiane Amanpour.
[Breitbart] Some Democrats in Congress are suggesting that Attorney General William Barr broke the law in announcing the principal conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report last week, according to a report.