The controversy surrounding Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and her apparent enmity toward Israel and the Jewish people has continued to be discussed on the airwaves and interwebs. Critics on both sides of the political divide have called her out for her recent and distant history of making antisemitic remarks.
Last Wednesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a measure to censure Tlaib for recent antisemitic rants and her leading a raucous demonstration at the U.S. Capitol against the backdrop of a bloody war between Israel and Hamas.
The resolution failed as Republicans and Democrats voted against it.
Almost two dozen Republicans joined every single House Democrat in voting to table the resolution and give Tlaib, a member of the progressive "Squad," a pass. The final tally was 222-186. Democrats broke out into applause after the vote, because that's who they are. Many Dems have been largely silent on the myriad recent incidents of antisemitism and pro-Hamas rhetoric coming from the House to college campuses to the streets of our cities.
The resolution was sponsored by Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who had earlier Wednesday expressed hopes for its success on social media.
Now, Tlaib is back in the spotlight for a video she made in which she features the chant “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” Hamas’ motto, which is also known as a thinly veiled way to call for the extermination of the Jews in the region and for Israel to be destroyed. The video shows footage of pro-Hamas protests that took place in major cities all across the country. At the end, the video accuses President Joe Biden of supporting genocide in Gaza and calls on him to change course on supporting Israel or lose support among American voters.
.@POTUS, the majority of the American people are not with you on this one. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/rV97zrMkad
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 3, 2023
The Daily Signal’s Jason Bedrick penned an op-ed in which he detailed Tlaib’s video and called on Congress to censure the lawmaker for featuring Hamas’ slogan.
Congress recently failed to censure Tlaib for her comments during the Israel-Hamas conflict, as well as for “leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol complex.” The measure failed for technical reasons, not substantive ones.
Now that Tlaib is openly calling for the destruction of Israel and genocide against the Jews, a new and more sound censure motion is being filed.
Congress must censure Tlaib to make clear that “Never Again” means something
Many on the right lamented the failure to censure Tlaib and criticized the Republicans who voted against it. RedState’s Bonchie pointed out:
As far as censure votes go, Tlaib's behavior was far more egregious than many before her. Recall that Democrats tried to censure Donald Trump over an off-color comment about immigration. Rep. Paul Gosar was censured for posting an anime video. Those things are a joke compared to Tlaib's fomenting of an insurrection and open support for terrorism.
Remember, censure is simply a formal condemnation of a member. It is not expulsion, though, Tlaib should be up for that as well. Yet, Republicans can't even come together to do something that simple? What is even the point of the GOP?
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), one of the House Republicans who voted against the resolution, explained his vote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. He noted that Tlaib “has repeatedly made outrageous remarks toward Israel and the Jewish people” but that the resolution Greene drafted was “deeply flawed” and “made legally and factually unverified claims, including the claim of leading an insurrection.”
Roy recalled how the term “insurrection” was “stretched and abused” by the left after the Jan. 6 riot in order to damage former President Donald Trump and indicated that lawmakers “should not abuse the term now.”
(1/3)"Rep. Rashida Tlaib has repeatedly made outrageous remarks toward Israel and the Jewish people. Her conduct is unbecoming of a member of Congress and certainly worthy of condemnation - if not censure."
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) November 2, 2023
RedState’s Susie Moore backed up Roy’s arguments.
This may ruffle some feathers, but I don't necessarily disagree with Roy's point here. Maybe it's the legal training, but I believe that legal documents — even mere resolutions with no binding effect, but which nevertheless form part of the Congressional Record — should be precise. Short, sweet, to the point. And I do somewhat see the point of not ceding the language (and the definition of "insurrection") to the Democrat narrative.
But here’s the ultimate question: What good will a censure do anyway?
In the grand scheme of things, having lawmakers vote to say, “Hey Tlaib, we don’t like your antisemitism,” isn’t going to get her to stop. She will continue lashing out at the Jewish people while downplaying the brutality of Hamas. Tlaib has no reason to rethink her rhetoric – her voters will continue supporting her no matter what she says. Unfortunately, these people aren’t going away anytime soon, censure or no censure.
The antisemitism shown by the likes of Tlaib, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and others is best fought on the battlefield of ideas, not the halls of Congress. One cannot legislate against bigotry, no matter how hard they try. The way to fight this is for more people to continue speaking out and educating the public on issues involving Israel, Hamas, and other factions in this conflict.
One of the reasons I look askance at censures and other types of “feel good” measures is because they can lull us into a sense of complacency, giving the impression that the issue has been taken care of when, in reality, nothing has actually changed. If we truly wish to fight back against purveyors of anti-Jewish bigotry, it would make more sense to meet bad speech with good speech instead of relying on Congress to pass a resolution.
