WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to reassure the American Jewish community on March 26 that support for Israel in Congress is bipartisan and bicameral.
“To be anti-Semitic is to be anti-American. It has no place in our country,” she said at the pro-Israel conference American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi at #AIPAC: “I simply declare to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-American. It has no place in our country.” https://t.co/WvH7nMhoMi pic.twitter.com/aL10XNDPYc
— The Hill (@thehill) March 26, 2019
She cited a motion to recommit that the House passed last month that “rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the United States and around the world, including the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance, especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance.”
That legislation was reportedly a response to members of her own party surrounding comments and tweets by freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has made a number of comments widely viewed as anti-Semitic.
In February, Omar wrote a comment on a Twitter about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy chastising her and another Muslim House member Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), saying, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
Omar was chastised by both Democrats and Republicans for furthering the trope that money is fueling American politicians’ support for Israel. Omar has since apologized.
“Some people will just never get it. They’ll never understand why the vast majority of Americans–Jews and non-Jews alike–support Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address from Israel to AIPAC. “Take it from this Benjamin, it’s not about the Benjamins.”
Leading up to the conference, progressive advocacy group MoveOn urged Democratic presidential candidates to boycott AIPAC.
MoveOn posted on Twitter that the boycott is because AIPAC lobbied for the United States to withdraw from the Iran Deal, “peddle[d] anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric,” the conference was to be headlined by Netanyahu, and AIPAC refused to condemn the “anti-Semitism of Republicans.”
#2
AIPAC has been known to peddle anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while giving platforms to those involved in human rights abuses.Source: https://t.co/Jt7uah6leC
— MoveOn (@MoveOn) March 20, 2019
It cited a poll of its members in which more than 74 percent agreed that “any progressive vying to be the Democratic nominee for President should skip the AIPAC conference.”
Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said they were not planning to attend.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spoke at AIPAC after Pelosi, was not as subtle in his criticism of the the freshman Democrats or Democratic presidential candidates.
“For many years, such slurs and tropes were limited to the fringes,” he said. “Sadly, they have recently received new prominence, having been repeated and retweeted by a sitting member of Congress. … And I am troubled that many of the declared Democrat presidential candidates seem to be avoiding this gathering.”
He touted the Senate’s passage of Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019, which authorizes financial assistance and weapons transfers to Israel. It also targets the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at Israel.
“The outcry from the anti-Israel crowd has apparently paralyzed House Democrat leaders and scared them away from even considering our legislation,” he said.
Pelosi, who called the founding of Israel “one of the greatest political achievements of the 20th century,” did not address the legislation in her speech. Her office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
McConnell also took aim at a second resolution the House passed earlier this month that was initially meant to address another set of remarks by Omar that were widely seen as anti-Semitic. After reported pushback by other freshman Democrats, the resolution was changed to cover “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry.” Republicans have complained that it diluted the resolution’s original message.
“I am troubled that leading Democrats seem reluctant to plainly call out problems within their own ranks,” McConnell said.
