House Democratic leaders came up with a sham resolution on anti-Semitism that gave a free pass to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in the hopes that it would allow them to move beyond an issue that has dogged their new majority. Now, even a resolution generically condemning anti-Semitism may be too controversial for the modern Democratic Party.
Since being sworn into office, Omar has become a headache for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has repeatedly employed anti-Semitic rhetoric about the nefarious influence of Jewish money and peddled the dual-loyalty charge against American Jews. Last month, Pelosi forced her into a fake apology. Yet Omar proved unrepentant, and engaged in more anti-Semitic rhetoric.
This put Pelosi in a bind. Clearly the “apology” didn’t end the problem. But taking a stronger stand against Omar — such as removing her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee — would lead to significant blowback from the base.
The reality is that Omar is actually representing a much larger portion of Democrats than Pelosi would like to acknowledge. Polls consistently have shown liberal Democrats to be less supportive of Israel than any other group. These Democrats view the party as too reflexively pro-Israel, and they are increasingly willing to excuse Omar’s anti-Semitism by laundering it as legitimate criticism of U.S. policy toward Israel.
By pursuing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, Pelosi thought she had found an easy way out. The text of the resolution contains language criticizing anti-Semitism. But importantly, it does not mention Omar by name and it does not endorse any sort of consequences — going forward — for any member of the House who engages in what it defines as anti-Semitism. It only resolves that the House “acknowledges the dangerous consequences of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes” and “rejects anti-Semitism as a hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States.”
The resolution was basically written in a way that should make it easy enough for even Omar herself to vote for. After all, she and her supporters insist that she isn’t engaging in anti-Semitism, because she’s just criticizing Israeli policies and special interest groups. So a resolution that condemns anti-Semitism in the abstract should be easy vote for her without taking back anything she has said — she can just argue the language doesn’t apply to any of her statements. House Democrats even tried to make it an easier vote by adding language that, condemned “the post-9/11 conditions faced by Muslim-Americans in the United States, including unfounded, vicious attacks on and threats to Muslim-American Members of Congress.”
The political purpose of the resolution, thus, was that it would overwhelmingly pass, Pelosi could point out that Democrats did something to show they don’t tolerate anti-Semitism, and yet at the same time she wouldn’t have to face the heavy blowback that would have resulted from removing a young rising star from from a committee (especially as Pelosi is out promoting their joint appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone).
However, it turns out that even the watered-down resolution faced has blowback. The resolution was expected to easily pass today, but now it isn’t even clear there will be a vote this week. The Washington Post reports, “House Democrats erupted into a full-scale brawl Wednesday, challenging leaders over indirectly sanctioning freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar for alleged anti-Semitic remarks amid an outcry over party inaction to President Trump’s divisive comments on race.” The article describes that even as Democrats agreed to add additional language about anti-Muslim bigotry, “it was unclear whether there was consensus around passing any sort of legislation at all.”
More than two years ago, I warned that anti-Israel liberals were normalizing anti-Semitism. At the time, I was dismissed as an alarmist. Now, even the liberal Jonathan Chait is conceding that anti-Semitism could rip apart the Democratic Party as it did with the British Labour Party, though he arrives there differently.
Even if Democrats end up passing some sort of compromise text, the fact that it’s proving too difficulty to pass a tepid condemnation of anti-Semitism says a lot about the direction the party is heading.
