Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw a decisive wrench in global politics in recent days with the announcement of a ban on U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) entering the country for a trip that had been planned for this weekend. Now, House Speaker and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi herself has again spoken out, condemning Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, who pushed for the ban, as “weak.” She also asserted that the U.S.-Israel partnership would withstand the respective leaders’ belligerence.
She told the Associated Press:
‘We have a deep relationship and long-standing relationship with Israel that can withstand Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. We cannot let their weaknesses stand in the way of our ongoing relationship… Members will make their own decisions about this, but I would not discourage travel to Israel. We have a strong relationship with Israel as well as a deep love and respect for the people of Israel. And, again, this is not going to undermine that, try as President Trump will to do that.’
There had been some murmurs about moves jabbing back at Israel like a cut to foreign aid considering the current right-wing government proved themselves intent on aligning with Trump’s stance of relentless racist antagonism substituting for any kind of foreign policy. Considering Pelosi’s comments here, it doesn’t appear as though any kind of aid cut is coming down the pipe — but she certainly seems fed up with Trump’s behavior and intent on continuing with aims she’s previously expressed to work while basically ignoring Trump’s only barely metaphorical wailing in a corner.
At one point — after he criticized her literally with the graves of fallen American service members in the background — she said she was just “done with him.”
Shortly before that — within clear sight of graves of fallen soldiers — Trump had whined to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Pelosi was a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person” and a “disgrace.”
In this case, Trump has employed similar rhetoric against the two members of Congress he successfully got Israel to ban this past week. He’s claimed that the two women and colleagues of theirs including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) are incapable of loving the United States and hate Israel. To be clear, criticism of Trump’s policy and that of the current Israeli government as led by Netanyahu is not synonymous with either some kind of secret anti-American conspiracy or one against Israel or the Jews. It’s just not.
Netanyahu’s government used Omar and Tlaib’s support of the so-called Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions or BDS pro-Palestinian protest movement as an excuse for banning them from entry, also pointing to aspects of their trip like the provisions that had been set to be provided by the pro-Palestinian group Miftah. To be clear, however, just within the last few years, the Israeli government has welcomed a delegation of members of Congress who were coming to Israel with Miftah. Here, Netanyahu had political points to try and score — he himself is up for re-election this fall.
Featured Image via screenshot
