AOC joins boycott of Herzog's speech: Not planning to attend
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known for her anti-Israel statements, joins Reps. Omar and Bowman in boycott of President Herzog's speech to joint session of Congress.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Thursday joined the boycott of President Isaac Herzog’s speech before Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez told Axios that she is “not planning to” attend the speech, which is scheduled to take place next Wednesday.
She joins Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who previously announced they would not attend Herzog’s speech.
Like Omar and Bowman, Ocasio-Cortez who is known by her initials AOC, has a history of anti-Israel behavior.
In 2019, she criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News while arguing that criticizing Israel’s policies is not being antisemitic.
In a previous radio interview, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel is “criminal” in its treatment of Palestinian Arabs, whom she said have no other choice but to “riot” against the Jewish state.
Before that, she said that cutting military and economic aid to Israel as a way to signal opposition to Israeli policies should be “on the table.” AOC has also called Israel an “apartheid state”.
Last year, she was among the signatories to a letter which was sent to the Biden administration, calling on it to keep Israel out of the Visa Waiver Program due to its “disparate treatment” of Palestinian Americans trying to enter Palestinian Authority-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria.
Earlier on Thursday, former US Vice President Mike Pence criticized Omar over her boycott of Herzog’s speech.
"Israel is one of our greatest and most important allies," he tweeted. "Your defense of terrorists and attacks on the Jewish state are sickening. There is no place for antisemitism in our society."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/374135
Rep. Jamaal Bowman joins Ilhan Omar, will boycott Herzog's Congress speech
Rep. Jamaal Bowman confirms he will not be attending President Isaac Herzog's speech before a joint session of Congress next week.
Top Democrats Jamaal Bowman and Nancy Pelosi
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) confirmed on Thursday that he will join Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in boycotting President Isaac Herzog's address to a joint session of Congress next week.
"The Office of Congressman Jamaal Bowman can confirm that the Congressman will not be attending President Herzog's address," a Bowman spokesperson told Haaretz.
Bowman’s announcement comes a day after Omar, in a lengthy Twitter thread, said that “there is no way in hell” she would be attending Herzog’s speech.
Omar is no stranger to anti-Israel statements and actions, going back to 2019 when she suggested on Twitter that Republicans were attacking her at the behest of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
Asked earlier this year about her past antisemitic statements, Omar told CNN that she was not aware that her comments could be viewed as antisemitic.
The House of Representatives later voted to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee due to her past antisemitic statements.
Bowman, for his part, in April spearheaded an initiative by 14 Democrats who urged the Biden administration to ensure US taxpayer funds are not supporting “Israeli settlements projects”, and to determine whether US military aid is in violation of the Arms Export Control Act or the so-called “Leahy Law.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/374132
Rep. Ilhan Omar: No way in hell I am attending Herzog's speech
Anti-Israel Democrat goes on the attack against Israel in Twitter thread, announces she will boycott President Isaac Herzog's speech to Congress next week.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) announced on Wednesday that she would be boycotting President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress, scheduled for next week.
In a lengthy Twitter thread in which she lashed out at Israel’s government, Omar wrote, “There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied Rashida Tlaib the ability to see her grandma.”
“We should not be inviting the president of Israel—a government who under its current Prime Minister barred the first two Muslim women elected to congress from visiting the country—to give a joint address to congress,” she added.
“Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address comes on behalf of the most right wing government in Israel’s history, at a time when the government is openly promising to ‘crush’ Palestinian hopes of statehood—essentially putting a nail in the coffin of peace and a two-state solution,” continued Omar.
“It comes as extreme right wing Israeli cabinet members directly attack President Biden, saying Israel is 'no longer a star' on the US flag,” she wrote, a reference to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s response to criticism of Israel voiced by President Joe Biden.
“It also comes as the Israeli government is pushing through what legal experts describe as a judicial coup to centralize power and undermine checks on their power, prompting months of mass demonstrations against the government throughout Israel,” charged Omar.
“And above all, it comes during the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in history, immediately following Israel’s largest incursion into the occupied West Bank in two decades, one that flattened city blocks, and killed at least a dozen people.”
“These are all deeply concerning trends—especially considering the fact that we provide Israel with nearly $4 billion in annual military aid,” continued Omar, who then added, “It is also not lost on me that the last time an Israeli leader was invited to give a joint address to Congress, he openly defied President Barack Obama and attacked his Middle East policy from the House Chamber.”
While she acknowledged that “executive power in Israel is vested in the Prime Minister and his cabinet,” she added that “the president as head of state as traditionally served as a ‘faithful policy ambassador’ for the government in charge.”
Omar, of course, is no stranger to anti-Israel statements and actions. Omar came under fire in 2019 after she suggested on Twitter that Republicans were attacking her at the behest of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
She subsequently issued a half-hearted apology before ultimately deleting the controversial tweets.
In another incident, Omar shared to Twitter a video of a conversation she had with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which she compared Israel and the United States to Hamas and the Taliban.
After 12 of the 25 Jewish Democrats in the US House of Representatives published a statement criticizing Omar’s assertion, she fired back at her Jewish colleagues and said, “It’s shameful for colleagues who call me when they need my support to now put out a statement asking for ‘clarification’ and not just call.”
She later issued another clarification and claimed she had been misunderstood.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/374074
House Republicans kicked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar off the Foreign Affairs Committee over her anti-Semitic comments
More ‘Squad’ Democrats join Omar-led boycott of Herzog congressional address
Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bring number of lawmakers skipping president’s July 19 speech to four
Three US lawmakers said they planned to boycott Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech to a joint session of Congress next week, joining a colleague who scoffed that there was “no way in hell” she would attend.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush‘s offices each confirmed that they would not be attending the July 19 speech, backing Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was the first to make such a decision on Wednesday.
The New York congressman has become increasingly critical of Israel since entering Congress in 2021 after defeating incumbent Elliot Engel, who was backed heavily by mainstream pro-Israel groups.
Bowman visited Israel and the West Bank in December 2021 with J Street.
Ocasio-Cortez has similarly grown increasingly critical of Israel since entering Congress in 2019. She voted to abstain on the Iron Dome funding legislation and like Bowman, she co-sponsored legislation introduced last year by Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib that would’ve seen the US formally recognize the Palestinian “Nakba” or “catastrophe” that coincided with the establishment of Israel.
In 2021, Ocasio-Cortez submitted a proposal, later defeated, aimed at blocking a $735 million missile sale to Israel. After backlash from pro-Palestinian activists, she withdrew from a September 2020 scheduled speaking appearance at an event honoring the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, which was organized by the left-wing Americans for Peace Now.
In her post on Wednesday, Omar wrote, “There is no way in hell I am attending.”
“We should not be inviting the president of Israel — a government who under its current prime minister barred the first two Muslim women elected to Congress from visiting the country — to give a joint address to Congress,” Omar tweeted in all caps, noting that 2019 ban had meant fellow Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was unable to visit her grandmother who lives in the West Bank.
While Herzog is seen as a more palatable figure for many Democrats who have long soured on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Omar’s announcement demonstrated that animosity toward Israel runs deep amongst the radical left/Muslim Progressives in the Democrat Party.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/more-squad-democrats-join-omar-led-boycott-of-herzog-congressional-address/
Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib hosted an anti-Israel event to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish State
Tlaib is aligned with the far-left 'squad', which includes Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has come under fire for sharing anti-semitic tropes
four members of The Squad, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. AOC invented the "Green New Deal"
Jamaal Bowman, a new member of the Squad
AOC is a founding member of the 'Squad', a group of radical leftist politicians
Representative Ayanna Pressley (left) and fellow squad member AOC.
New Squad member Rep. Cori Bush, Democrat from Missouri, referred to Israel as 'an apartheid state'
Members of The Squad, a group of radical left Progressive Democratic Party lawmakers: Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Ocasio-Cortez, Bush, and Ayanna Pressley. Their criticisms of Israel have fueled anti-Semitic attacks against Jews perpetrated by supporters of Palestine
Leftist Democrat 'squad' member Cori Bush
Rep. Ilhan Omar (left) was roundly condemned last week after finding moral equivalence between USA/Israel and Taliban/Hamas. Fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib (right) said Israel promotes racism and dehumanization.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) and Ayanna Pressley 'publicly support the actions of a recognized terrorist organization'
Minnesota Rep and Jihad Squad member Ilhan Omar paid her husband more than $2.8million from campaign funds during the 2019-2020 election cycle
New York Magazine published a 400 page book of essays on the Greatness of AOC, focusing on her 'beauty' and 'rare authenticity.'
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