A Step Towards MidEast Peace: Shedding Ilhan Omar

Peace in the Middle East has long been a goal and struggle, as the Arab-Israeli conflict is well into its second century. While the situation has had many highs and lows, a small hurdle towards peace was cleared this week.

Under a new Republican-led Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, a position she was granted under Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who sought to embrace the far left extremists of her party.

As a Congresswoman, Omar made many anti-Semitic remarks, much like her comrade in arms, Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Their vitriol does not make them unfit to serve on committees; it makes them unworthy of being in Congress. It says pretty horrible things about the majority of their constituents to vote them into office. Repeatedly.

*Rep. Ilhan Omar (right) with fellow anti-Semite Rep. Rashida Tlaib (left)*

But Congress can protect itself, to a degree, from the stupidity and malice of voters, by shuttling the worst voices into minor committees. Pelosi did the opposite, and it took a change to a Republican-led House to make a course correction.

The reason Omar was an obstacle to peace was not just her anti-Israel views but her basic lack of understanding about foreign affairs, and her mainstreaming toxic ideas.

In September 2021, Congress voted to supply $1 billion of supplemental military aid to Israel to restock its defensive Iron Dome missile intercept system. The Israeli-design shield prevented thousands of Israeli deaths and billions of dollars in damage during the barrage of missiles fired by Gazan terrorists into Israeli towns. It also saved the lives of thousands of Arabs, as Israel was not compelled to retaliate in an extreme manner due to the loss of Israeli lives. Instead, the violence ended rather quickly.

Everyone in Congress understood this basic arithmetic of peace, except for nine people who voted against the resolution: Cori Bush (D-MO), Andre Carson (D-IN), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marie Newman (D-IL), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) voted present.

None of these people should be anywhere near policy related to foreign affairs. Two of them sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee: Omar and Massie.

Here are the committees of the other members of Congress who have no concept of foreign affairs.

CongressPerson	Committees
Cori Bush	Judiciary; Education and the Workforce
Andre Carson	Energy and Commerce
Chuy Garcia	Education and the Workforce
Raúl Grijalva	Natural Resources
Thomas Massie	Foreign Affairs; Judiciary; Rules
Marie Newman	Transportation and Infrastructure
Ayanna Pressley	Education and the Workforce
Rashida Tlaib	Oversight and Accountability

House Resolution 76 called out the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments by Rep. Omar, and the vote to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee was fortunately passed. However, the resolution failed to mention her extremist vote against funding the Iron Dome system which saved thousands of Jewish and Arab lives. In doing so, the House missed the opportunity to remove another unfit member of the committee, Rep. Massie.