Will House Dems Retaliate Against US and Israel Ambassadors?

by Daveda Gruber:

On Saturday is was reported that House Democrats may use retaliatory moves on two diplomats over the decision to block Representatives Ilhan Omar D-MN., and Rashida Tlaib D-MI from traveling to Israel.

About twelve Senior Democratic Congress members have been reported to have been considering taking action against Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, and David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Allegedly, Democrats are considering a vote on legislative action against Dermer and opening an inspector general investigation into Friedman.

Back in the West Bank, Tlaib’s 90-year-old grandmother, Muftia Tlaib, used harsh words to send President Trump for his comments about the banned trip.

The elder Tlaib said, “Trump tells me I should be happy Rashida is not coming. May God ruin him.”

Here’s where I go off script for a moment. The Tlaib family is Muslim. The word used was most likely Allah and not God.

Omar and Tlaib are both Muslim. The two are also outspoken critics of Israel. They both support boycotts of the country.

In their plan to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank, Omar and Tlaib were going on a tour organized by a Palestinian organization aimed at highlighting the plight of the Palestinians.

The Israeli government blocked the planned trip but later said it would accept a humanitarian request from Tlaib to visit her Palestinian grandmother.

Tlaib’s reaction was that she would not travel to the West Bank to visit family. This was after getting permission hours  before from Israel’s interior minister.

President Trump had tweeted this:

Did Omar and Tlaib have good intentions for this trip? Only if you can decipher that it was going to be good for Palestinians because they were going to show the two freshman Congresswomen what they wanted the women to see.

After all, Omar and Tlaib’s tentative itinerary was titled “US Congressional Delegation to Palestine.” It never mentioned Israel.

Squad Members Blocked from Israel

by Daveda Gruber:

House Representatives Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have been blocked by Israeli officials from entering the country.

President Trump put pressure on Israel with concerns that the freshman Reps. support boycotts of Israel.

Trump tweeted:

The Israeli government was steadfast in defending their decision. They suggested that the lawmakers had ulterior motives with their planned trip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, explained the decision at length on his office’s Twitter account.

He said, through tweets, that Tlaib and Omar’s itinerary “revealed that they planned a visit whose sole objective is to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy.”

Netanyahu explained that their travel plans referred to a trip to “Palestine,” not Israel. The congresswomen were not interested in meeting with Israeli officials.

He went on to say that Israel welcomes critics with the exception of those who support boycotts of the Jewish State.

See the series of Netanyahu tweets here:

The decision was actually made by Interior Minister Arye Deri and was announced earlier Thursday by deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely.

This came despite prior reassurances that the congresswomen would be allowed into Israel.

Hotovely said publicly, “Israel has decided we won’t enable the members of Congress to enter the country. We won’t allow those who deny our right to exist in this world to enter Israel. In principle, this is a very justified decision.”

If you remember, back in July, Omar and Tlaib were among 17 members of Congress who voted against a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Now Netanyahu has confirmed that Deri would consider permitting Tlaib to visit her Palestinian family members under certain conditions.  She would have to file a humanitarian request and furthermore promise not to promote boycotts of Israel.

Trump tweeted this:

Needless to say, the Democrats don’t see this in the same light. They’re ranting and raving about this and taking the side of the Congresswomen who are two members of the “Squad” who we all know about.

New York Post Calls Out Ilhan Omar 9/11 Comments

by Daveda Gruber:

September 11, 2001 was a day when America faced the most horrific attack on American soil that the world has ever seen. It was a day that most Americans who were alive and old enough to know what happening, remember exactly where they were when they first heard the awful and shattering news that the first of the Twin Towers had been hit by an airplane.

Apparently, Rep. Ilhan Omar D-Minn., who became the first Somali-American elected to Congress in November, did not feel the horror that Americans felt on that day.

On Thursday the New York Post hit Omar back on comments she had previously made about the fatal day.

Most Americans have the image that appeared on the cover of the New York Post imbedded in their minds. The dramatic front page had an infamous photo of New York City’s Twin Towers on fire on the day of the attacks.

After two planes that were hijacked hit the towers, they collapsed leaving nearly 3,000 people dead and numerous others injured.

Thursday’s front page of the New York Post read, “Rep. Ilhan Omar: 9/11 was ‘some people did something.’”

“Here’s your something: 2,977 people dead by terrorism.”

While referring to Omar’s recent comments at the Council of American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] fundraiser last month, the newspaper had in small lettering at the bottom of the cover, “Omar outraged the families of 9/11 victims by referring dismissively to the terrorist attacks while speaking to a Muslim lobbying group.”

Omar called upon other Muslim-Americans to “make people uncomfortable” with their activism. As if this wasn’t bad enough, another part of the speech surfaced on social media this week in which Omar went on to describe the terror attacks that Al Qaeda was responsible for.

While speaking at the event, Omar said, “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, is a former Navy SEAL who lost his right eye after being injured by an IED in Afghanistan was quick to notice what Omar had said. He tweeted this out:

Omar made an appearance on the “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday night. She wasn’t asked about her latest comments. She did, however, say that she was still “learning” after she was accused of making an anti-Semitic remark in February.

Omar went on to say, “The whole process really has been one of growth for me, right. I’m learning that everything is not as simple as we might think. As I’ve said to my constituents and my colleagues, when you tell me that you are pained by something I say, I will always listen and I will acknowledge your pain.”

As much as Omar will acknowledge the “pain” of her constituents,  Omar did not seem to concede the “pain” of the American people who suffered and will remember all the details of the day in American history that we cannot forget.

Ilhan Omar: Hurtful Words or Anti-Semitic?

by Daveda Gruber:

A delay looms over the consideration of a resolution condemning antisemitism over comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar D-Minn..

Democratic leaders will put forward a vote on the House floor Wednesday to denounce antisemitism. The text of the resolution and whether Omar would be mentioned by name were left hanging but the latest text being circulated in the House does not mention Omar.

The argumentative environment  could jeopardize bringing up the measure this week because there’s a risk it might not pass.

Over the weekend Omar held her ground and tweeted:

No one had demanded that Omar should have allegiance/pledge support to Israel but she tweeted that she would refuse to “have allegiance/pledge support” to Israel as a condition of serving in Congress.

The Freshman from Minnesota has only been in Congress since January. Yet, she has been the center of controversy over numerous remarks she’s made that have been labeled anti-Semitic, as you can see from her tweets.

Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt said in a recent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Omar’s suggestion that Jews have a divided loyalty between the U.S. and Israel is “a vile anti-Semitic slur that has been used to harass, marginalize and persecute the Jewish people for centuries.”

Greenblatt did not leave out but did condemned the attacks Omar has faced for her own Islamic faith. A resolution would “send the unambiguous message that the United States Congress is no place for hate.”

There are some lawmakers who are pushing for Omar to lose her role on a key House committee.

On Tuesday, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise tweeted:

On Tuesday, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the planned resolution, saying other lawmakers weren’t reprimanded after controversial comments.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:

GOP leaders finally removed Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) from all committees for having promoted white nationalism and ¬supremacy, Democrats should insist on Omar’s expulsion from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

The House Democratic leadership would like to treat the resolution as a “suspension” measure which means that the House can bring the plan to the floor quickly with limited debate. It would need a two-thirds vote to pass.

We all have our own opinions on this matter but I do see that even I got into a little twitter debate on the subject.

I responded to Jack Murphy’s tweet:

One Twitter user was not happy with my opinion. She and I tweeted back and forth:

I didn’t answer the last response to me; should I?