Pelosi Struggles To Manage Ilhan Omar And Anti-Semitism Resolution

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Image by Getty Images

By Alyssa Fisher March 7, 2019

Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought advice Wednesday as tension grew over Representative Ilhan Omar’s controversial comments, dividing House Democrats, Politico reported.

Pelosi met with senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus for 20 minutes to discuss a new resolution condemning anti-Semitism. The group did not back the original draft, claiming it singled out Omar, a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, for her remarks about Israel.

It’s a new situation for Pelosi, who hasn’t often found herself at odds with the party’s black and progressive House caucuses. Now she’s trying to the balance the resolution’s language to satisfy all House Democrats.

She had called the emergency meeting to hear both sides of the debate, according to Politico, and it ended without a final decision.

The resolution currently condemns the “dual loyalty” trope Omar is accused of spreading, in addition to other other slanderous comments that have been heard from Republican leaders. Representative Ted Deutch of Florida, who was among the Jewish members in the meeting, said he found Omar’s recent remark, that she felt pressure to pledge “allegiance” to Israel, hurtful.

Pelosi was asked Wednesday by NBC if she felt pressure to put out resolutions every time there was an offensive comment.

“I don’t think so, and I don’t think this is just about comments by Congresswoman Omar, which I do not think were intentionally anti-Semitic,” she said.

Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO