House Democrats anti-Semitism resolution is a sham

House Democratic leaders came up with a sham resolution on anti-Semitism that gave a free pass to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in the hopes that it would allow them to move beyond an issue that has dogged their new majority. Now, even a resolution generically condemning anti-Semitism may be too controversial for the modern Democratic Party.

Since being sworn into office, Omar has become a headache for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has repeatedly employed anti-Semitic rhetoric about the nefarious influence of Jewish money and peddled the dual-loyalty charge against American Jews. Last month, Pelosi forced her into a fake apology. Yet Omar proved unrepentant, and engaged in more anti-Semitic rhetoric.

This put Pelosi in a bind. Clearly the “apology” didn’t end the problem. But taking a stronger stand against Omar — such as removing her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee — would lead to significant blowback from the base.

The reality is that Omar is actually representing a much larger portion of Democrats than Pelosi would like to acknowledge. Polls consistently have shown liberal Democrats to be less supportive of Israel than any other group. These Democrats view the party as too reflexively pro-Israel, and they are increasingly willing to excuse Omar’s anti-Semitism by laundering it as legitimate criticism of U.S. policy toward Israel.

By pursuing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, Pelosi thought she had found an easy way out. The text of the resolution contains language criticizing anti-Semitism. But importantly, it does not mention Omar by name and it does not endorse any sort of consequences — going forward

The resolution was basically written in a way that should make it easy enough for even Omar herself to vote for.

The political purpose of the resolution, thus, was that it would overwhelmingly pass, Pelosi could point out that Democrats did something to show they don’t tolerate anti-Semitism, and yet at the same time she wouldn’t have to face the heavy blowback that would have resulted from removing a young rising star from from a committee (especially as Pelosi is out promoting their joint appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone).

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