The new congresswoman from Michigan wore a thobe, a traditional Palestinian dress with elaborate embroidery, to her swearing-in, and her supporters posted photos of themselves in their own.
The Israel lobby is taking newly elected Congressional representatives, CNN-ABC commentator Tara Setmayer, & California “progressive leaders” on propaganda trips to Israel. AIPAC IS using a loophole that violates the spirit of the law… and seems to be functioning as a foreign agent…
The pendulum begins to swing back: Rep. Rashida Tlaib plans to lead a congressional delegation on a trip to the occupied West Bank – a counterbalance to AIPAC’s standard Israel trip for new Congress members. Rights groups have regularly criticized the AIPAC-sponsored trip as propaganda, and hopes to show what is really happening to Palestinians in the region.
The good news: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib are Israel-criticizing congressional newcomers. The bad news: other Dem midterm winners join the army of Israel supporters – having vowed to keep America’s commitment to Israel “as fixed and as permanent as the sky” and “make sure that we are supporting Israel into the next generation.” In addition, some key leadership positions will be filled by pro-Israel Jews. Norman Finkelstein sees this as a sign of “a growing divide between US Jews and Israeli Jews.”
New York Times reports that a cluster of activist Democrats — most of them young, most of them cruising toward House seats this fall — has dared to breach what has been an almost inviolable orthodoxy in both political parties, strong support for Israel, raising the specter of a crack in the Democratic Party that Republicans could use to attract Jewish supporters.