Trends in Congress spell hope for Palestinians
They can change the story about Israel in Congress (Top row, left to right: Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13), Cori Bush (D-MO-01), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16); bottom row, left to right: Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07))
by Kathryn Shihadah, reposted from If Americans Knew
Before the elections, If Americans Knew assembled our election-year Scoreboards for the Senate and the House to give voters an idea of where candidates stand on the issue of justice for Palestinians.
We told you who sponsored and cosponsored legislation, and how each Congress person voted on each bill related to Israel; and we provided the amount of money and endorsements each received from pro-Israel organizations. We then calculated a “pro-Israel score” to sum up each person’s performance over the past two years (spoiler: most of them, Democrat and Republican, scored very, very high on the pro-Israel metric).
Perhaps most eye-opening about the Scoreboards is the sheer quantity of pro-Israel legislation that the two houses of Congress entertained. As we’ve reported, the number of bills and resolutions reached almost one hundred.
All of this might suggest that support for Israel – despite its multitude of human rights abuses, its discrimination, and the damage it has done to Americans – is here to stay.
But the devil, as they say, is in the details – the winners and losers (both old and new), the rhetoric, and campaign spending tell the story.
‘The Squad,’ with Representative Ilhan Omar at the podium, 2019, Washington (TOM WILLIAMS/CQ ROLL CALL VIA AP IMAGES)
The young and the restless
Several newly-elected Congress members give reason for Palestine advocates to feel hopeful.
If “several” sounds meager in an ocean of 535 Congress members, consider the sea change initiated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) and her bold colleagues, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07).
These four women – “the Squad” – gave President Trump fits, as they refused to sit quietly and ride the learning curve. They have been flipping the script on Capitol Hill ever since, insisting that Congress actually begin to address the needs of the marginalized, instead of doing the bidding of the powerful (like Israel). They don’t always play nice, they are not always “ladylike,” and they do not hold back.
As a result, they have come under numerous attacks and attempts to misrepresent who they are. Despite that, all were re-elected with resounding numbers.
In the Minnesota primaries, Ilhan Omar prevailed over her pro-Israel opposition, Antone Melton-Meaux – in spite of the $2 million his campaign spent, much of it donated by rightwing individuals and organizations (at least $500 thousand from pro-Israel PACS, and an undisclosed amount from pro-Israel conservative billionaire Seth Klarman). Omar survived vilification and Israeli disinformation campaigns, as well as schemes to overthrow her, winning her district with 64% of the vote.
Rashida Tlaib also successfully faced a well-funded primary opponent, then beat her challenger last week with an impressive 78% of the vote. Like Omar, Tlaib weathered sizable attempts by pro-Israel power brokers and media to take her down because she supports the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement and because as a Palestinian-American, she lends a face and voice to the people of Palestine.
Ayanna Pressley, who has come out strongly against Israel’s annexation plans and other Israel-related issues, took a whopping 87% of her district in the general election.
And Ocasio-Cortez took 69% of her district after taking a stand on conditional aid to Israel and declining to participate in an event celebrating the legacy of former Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, who had initiated the “break the bones” policy against Palestinian men, women, and children.
No doubt these women will continue shaking things up on Capitol Hill, and Israel partisans will do their best to malign them in any and every way possible.
Newcomers
Newcomer Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16), a middle school principal, appears poised to join with the Squad in speaking truth to power, as he told Jacobin magazine:….[read full article here]