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Ilhan Omar sponsors pro-Israel resolution on day that Republicans kick her off a key committee
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The resolution is called “Recognizing Israel as America’s Legitimate and Democratic Ally and Condemning Antisemitism,” and its cosponsors are a who’s-who of the pro-Israel Democrats, including leading Jewish lawmakers.
Also on the sponsor list: Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress and who Republicans on Thursday kicked off the Foreign Affairs Committee for past comments that Jewish groups have said were antisemitic.
In a press release sent out just an hour ahead of a successful party-line vote to remove Omar from the committee, Omar’s name is sandwiched between the names of Reps. Brad Schneider and Josh Gottheimer, two of Congress’ most vocal pro-Israel lawmakers.
Also included in the list are Jewish Democrats such as Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Lois Frankel of Florida, Kathy Manning of North Carolina, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Dean Phillips, a fellow Minnesotan who has clashed with Omar in the past.
Among other forms of antisemitism, the resolution condemns a trope Omar was accused of peddling in 2019: that Jewish Americans are more loyal to Israel than the United States. The resolution “rejects hate, discrimination, and antisemitism in all forms, including antisemitism masquerading as anti-Israel sentiment; stands in unity with the Jewish people in the United States and around the world against the rising antisemitism; and explicitly condemns perpetuation of antisemitic tropes, including claims of dual loyalty, control, and other conspiracy theories antithetical to American values.”
Omar — who has been one of the only members of the House to express support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel — on CNN on Sunday again said she regretted two of her remarks: a 2012 tweet that Israel had “hypnotized” the world and a 2019 tweet that pro-Israel support in Congress was “all about the Benjamins.”
“I certainly did not or was not aware that the word hypnotize was a trope,” she said on CNN. “I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money. That has a been very enlightening part of this journey. I voted for every single resolution — no Republican can say that — condemning antisemitism. My work is clear. The collaboration and work that I do with my Jewish colleagues is very clear.”
The resolution to oust Omar from the committee, introduced by Rep. Max Miller — an Ohio Republican freshman who is one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress — was narrowly approved Thursday along party lines.
Miller, in introducing the resolution this week, said “Congresswoman Omar has attempted to undermine the relationship between the United States and Israel, one of the most important strategic alliances we have. She has disqualified herself from serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
Democrats who targeted Omar for criticism in the past say the effort to remove her from the committee is cynical retaliation for Democrats’ removal of Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from committees two years ago. Greene and Gosar were targeted for their associations with white supremacists and for appearing to endorse violence against some of their Democratic colleagues.
“I’m Jewish,” Phillips said Tuesday in a tweet attached to Miller’s resolution. “I love Israel. She and I disagree regularly, and she apologized when she caused offense. This is a repulsive, false-equivalency, weaponization of antisemitism, both irresponsible and far more dangerous.”
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.