Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish Democrats Criticize Ilhan Omar For Saying AIPAC Buys Pro-Israel Support

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish House Democrats repudiated party colleague Ilhan Omar of Minnesota after she said AIPAC buys the pro-Israel support of lawmakers.

A letter being circulated Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives among Jewish Democrats urged the party leadership there to have the caucus call on every Democrat to speak out against anti-Semitism.

The letter addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and three other leaders was initiated by Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Elaine Luria of Virginia.

“We must speak out when any Member — Democrat or Republican — uses harmful tropes or stereotypes, levels accusations of dual loyalty, or makes reckless statements like those of yesterday,” the letter says.

A day earlier, Omar tweeted “It’s all about the Benjamins,” or cash, when referring to a call by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California to take action against Omar for a 7-year-old tweet that was perceived as anti-Semitic, and for which she has apologized. Asked to clarify whom she was referring to, she replied “AIPAC!” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee does not give money to lawmakers.

A number of Jewish Democrats already had posted statements condemning Omar, including Reps. Eliot Engel of New York, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Jerry Nadler, also of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee; and Ted Deutch of Florida, the chairman of its Middle East subcommittee. Others included Lois Frankel of Florida, Max Rose of New York and Brad Schneider of Illinois.

Omar is a member of Engel’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

“I fully expect that when we disagree on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we will debate policy on the merits and never question members’ motives or resort to personal attacks,” Engel said in his statement.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.