Congressional Glance
I am a proud Jewish American. My father fled Poland in 1921 to escape poverty and antisemitism. Those in his family who stayed were murdered by the Nazis. Since childhood, I have known very well where antisemitism, racism, fanaticism and demagoguery lead.
So let me be clear. Speaking out against the horrific and inhumane actions of Israel, and its extremist leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not antisemitic. Speaking out about the dangerous and destructive role that Israel plays in shaping US foreign and military policy is not antisemitic. It is, in fact, what every member of Congress and every American should be doing.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas, a terrorist organization, attacked Israel. They killed more than 1,200 innocent men, women and children and took hundreds of hostages. Like any other country, Israel had the absolute right to respond to the Hamas attack. But they did not have the right to violate international law and wage an all-out war of enormous destruction against the entire Palestinian people – in what experts have correctly concluded is a genocide.
They did not have the right, out of a population of 2.2 million, to kill more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wound over 170,000 - the majority of whom are women, children and the elderly. They did not have the right to destroy almost all of Gaza’s infrastructure, including its water and sewer systems and its supply of electricity.
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They did not have the right to demolish every one of Gaza’s 12 universities, along with hundreds of schools – dismantling their entire educational system. They did not have the right to damage or destroy over 90% of the housing units in Gaza, resulting in the vast majority of the population now sleeping in tents.
A striking 40 Democratic and allied senators voted to block a shipment of American-made bulldozers to Israel on Wednesday. The vote represented the biggest-ever rejection from Congress of American military aid for the country, demonstrating that widespread public frustration with devastating U.S.-Israeli cooperation — in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and beyond — is resonating among lawmakers to a new degree.
Representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, announced on Monday he was stepping down from Congress after acknowledging an extramarital affair with a staffer.
Rep. Eric Swalwell announced on Sunday, April 12, that he is suspending his campaign for California governor after several women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct.
Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) campaign for California governor lost two co-chairs and key endorsements on Friday after the San Francisco Chronicle reported on allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staffer.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Wednesday echoed Democratic calls to hold former Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt if she failed to comply with a subpoena to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the Jeffrey Epstein files.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appears to have dropped his demand that a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security include money for ICE and Border Patrol, accepting a deal he disparaged as unacceptable only days earlier.
