Democrats have received plenty of criticism regarding their approach to debating the United States’ relationship with Israel.
Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who are the first Muslim women elected to Congress, have been at the center of this discussion simply because their rhetoric, according to many American Jews, has crossed into anti-Semitic territory.
On Thursday, the House passed a watered-down resolution that condemned hatred towards various racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, but obviously stemmed from Omar’s recent anti-Semitic comments about American Jews having dual loyalty.
Given how Democrats handled this recent wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric from this freshman class of congressional members, it raises the question if Democrats will change the party platform in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.
Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, believes that despite this recent hiccup, Democrats will fall back in line.
“I don’t think it will change the platform per se,” Seawright told the Washington Examiner. “Perhaps it will change some of the way members of Congress conduct themselves going forward and remind themselves to be a little more sensitive about people’s experiences.”
When asked whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has ceded power to the progressive, socialist wing of the party, Seawright said that she’s actually doing “an incredible job” trying to balance her caucus.
“The speaker understands that as a caucus leader, her role is to retain and expand,” Seawright said, adding that she needs to help govern the country because “we do not see much governing happening from the executive branch.”
On Friday, Pelosi came to Omar’s defense, saying, “I don’t think our colleague is anti-Semitic. I think she has a different experience in the use of words. Doesn’t understand that some are fraught with meaning that she didn’t realize, but nonetheless we had to address.”
