A Small Victory against BDS in Congress, but Further Battles Remain

July 26 2019

After the determinedly anti-Israel congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib introduced a resolution defending the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction the Jewish state (BDS), Speaker Nancy Pelosi and more mainstream Democrats responded with a resolution condemning BDS—which was passed by a crushing bipartisan majority. Jonathan Tobin warns, however, that this victory over anti-Semitism may be only a temporary one:

The House had an opportunity to deal decisively with this issue earlier this year when both Omar and Tlaib made anti-Semitic statements in which they accused American Jews of dual loyalty to Israel and stated that supporters of the Jewish state had bought Congress. . . . [T]hat should have been enough to motivate Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership to strip the pair of their committee assignments and to pass a resolution rebuking them by name. But with the very vocal Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others on the left springing to their defense, Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats were cowed into backing down.

Rather than being isolated, Omar and Tlaib became the darlings of the mainstream media, as well as fodder for late-night shows where they were given laudatory coverage and fawning interviews. Their undeserved status as popular heroines was only enhanced when earlier, this month, President Trump denounced the two congresswomen and suggested that they “go back where they came from.”

Had Pelosi chosen to let the House vote on the Senate’s [more muscular anti-BDS] bill, it’s likely that it, too, would have passed overwhelmingly. But loath to stand up to liberals who have bought into the false arguments about the Senate bill violating free-speech rights of BDS supporters, the only measure that she allowed to come to a vote was a resolution without any penalties for those who engage in the kind of discriminatory actions that should be considered just as illegal as bias rooted in race, sex, or sexual orientation.

[S]o long as Ocasio-Cortes, Omar, Tlaib, and others making egregious comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany are still being treated as the “future of the Democratic party”—in the words of the Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez—and benefiting from being the objects of Trump’s Twitter abuse, the BDS movement they support won’t be confined to the fever swamps of American politics.

Read more at JNS

More about: BDS, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Ilhan Omar, Nancy Pelosi, Rashida Tlaib

Israel Strikes a Blow for Freedom

June 18 2025

To Mathias Döpfner, a German and the publisher of the online magazine Politico, the war between Israel and Iran

is a central front in a global contest in which the forces of tyranny and violence in recent years have been gaining ground against the forces of freedom, which too often are demoralized and divided. In a world full of bad actors, Iran is the most aggressive and dangerous totalitarian force of our time.

But Israel is only the first target. Once Israel falls, Europe and America will be the focus. . . . It is therefore surprising that Israel is not being celebrated worldwide for its historic, extremely precise, and necessary strike against Iranian nuclear-weapons facilities and for the targeted killing of leading terrorists, but that the public response is dominated by anti-Israel propaganda. The intelligence and precision of Israel’s actions are not admired but are instead used here and there to perpetuate blatantly anti-Semitic stereotypes.

If Israel does not achieve its goals—destruction of the nuclear facilities, maximum weakening of the terrorist regime, and, ideally, the removal of the mullahs—the world will quickly look very different. China will seize this historic opportunity to annex Taiwan sooner than expected. Largely without resistance. . . . That is why America and Europe, in their own interests alone, must stand united with Israel and do everything in their power to ensure that this historic liberation is achieved.

Read more at Politico

More about: Europe, Iran, Iran nuclear program, U.S. Foreign policy