Omar, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, and Pressley only Dems to oppose Israel resolution that omits all mentions of occupation

By Michael Arria

December 08, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - On Friday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.Res.326, a resolution that reaffirms the United States’ commitment to a two-state solution. Nearly every Republican voted against the legislation, but the only Democrats to oppose it were Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (MA).

The resolution was scheduled to come to the floor this summer, but the bill’s cosponsors clashed with hawkish, pro-Israel Democrats who pushed back against some of the language in its text. According to reporting by Politico, lawmakers like Rep. Eliot Engel (NY) did not want the bill to reference the two-solution as the “only” possible resolution to the conflict. A reference to the “broadly held consensus” on the two-state solution was ultimately removed from the text. Additionally, Rep. Karen Bass (CA) cut out all mentions of occupation from the text, in a failed effort to drum up GOP support for the legislation. “When you want to get as many people on board as possible, you have to negotiate,” a staffer for the bill’s author, Rep. Alan Lowenthal (CA), admitted at the time. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (NJ) also added an amendment to the text committing the United States government to a continued policy of unconditioned military aid for Israel.

In a Twitter thread, Rep. Omar detailed her opposition to the resolution. “The goal of these changes was clear: to pass a resolution that will not actually bring a resolution to this conflict,” she wrote, “That’s why the resolution doesn’t have support from Palestinians in Congress or Palestinian advocates. We are told to swallow these changes in the name of ‘pragmatism.’ But there is nothing “pragmatic” about a vote that makes peace unachievable.”