The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who has been openly critical of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) comments about Israel, told CNN Tuesday evening he didn’t want to kick Omar off the committee.
“First of all, it’s not up to me, this is done by leadership,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) said. “I don’t know that that would do anything except exacerbate the situation even more. I’m looking to get rid of anti-semitism, not looking to punish anybody.”
Engel says he has not interest in kicking Omar off Foreign Affairs Committee pic.twitter.com/QUt5dLUCPS
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 6, 2019
Republicans have called for Omar to be removed from the prestigious House committee, but Democrats have not entertained those suggestions.
Engel condemned Omar’s remarks over the weekend when she insinuated that pro-Israel advocates have an allegiance to a foreign country, perpetuating an anti-Semitic trope about Jewish Americans’ loyalty to the U.S. Engel called Omar’s remarks a “vile anti-Semitic slur,” and he is part of the group of Democratic leaders drafting a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism.
The resolution was meant to rebuke Omar’s comments, though she isn’t named in the original draft. The vote was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, but has been delayed until Thursday.
Once again there is a rush to conflate any criticism or Israel or policy toward Israel as an attack on Jews. Israel is a foreign country. We need to be able to criticise US policies toward it as toward any other country. And we should be able to criticise US organisations that promote foreign governments.
Sounds as if the backlash is working. I read someplace that resolution is being delayed. Let’s hope so.
Let’s instead focus on the Orange Elephant in the room, folks…
Joe (“You lie!”) Wilson sits on this committee and no one is looking to kick him off.
But Gym Jordan is stepping down from his committee assignments after his $tyer tweet, right?