“There was a time when support for Israel was not a partisan issue in Congress,” the vice president said, later adding: “How things have changed.”
By Mike DeBonis Mike DeBonis Congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives Email Bio Follow March 25 at 12:41 PM Speaking to thousands of U.S. supporters of Israel, Vice President Pence took dead aim Monday at Democratic critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship and called for a freshman lawmaker recently accused of anti-Semitism to be removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
While Pence did not mention Rep. Ilhan Omar by name, he described several comments she had made that prompted charges of anti-Semitism — such as tweets, since deleted, that accused Israel of having “hypnotized the world” and suggested that its American supporters were motivated primarily by campaign contributions.Earlier this month, the House passed an anti-hate resolution after Omar suggested that support for Israel could amount to “allegiance to a foreign country.
Republicans have reacted sharply to Omar’s remarks, seeking to use her comments to argue to pro-Israel voters that Democrats are at the very least tolerating anti-Semitism. President Trump has called Democrats “anti-Jewish” and called for a so-called “Jexodus” of Jewish voters from the Democratic Party.
He went on blast Democratic presidential candidates for “boycotting” the AIPAC conference. While some left-wing groups have encouraged candidates not to attend in protest of AIPAC’s support of the current right-wing Israeli government, presidential candidates typically are not invited to speak in nonelection years, according to an AIPAC official.
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