Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib bring resolutions to block weapons sales to Israel

Jayapal previously called Israel a "racist state," and Tlaib was censured by Congress for her antisemitic remarks. According to Jayapal's office, the proposed resolutions are designed to block the sale of various munitions, including 35,529 2,000-pound bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits, and Caterpillar bulldozers used for demolitions.

Ignoring that the weapons were promised to Israel then blocked by the Biden administration after having been paid for, Jayapal said in a statement, “These weapons sales are especially concerning given that the Trump Administration bypassed years of standing practice and immediately noticed the sales without oversight from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.“

Jayapal’s statement also included dubious Palestinian casualty numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

The resolutions are supported by fellow anti-Israel Democrats, including Greg Casar, Jesús G. "Chuy" García, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Jayapal also touted the support of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization singled out as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a 2013 Justice Department Office of Inspector General’s report during the largest terror trial in US history against Muslim charity the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was revealed to have funneled millions of dollars to Hamas. The 2008 case “linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist organization, and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.”

Last year, the Biden administration scrubbed CAIR from the White House task force on antisemitism after the group’s co-founder, Nihad Awad, celebrated the Oct 7 atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians.

Steve Emerson, founder and director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, previously told the Jewish News Syndicate that “CAIR was created as a Hamas front group and still functions as a propaganda arm of Hamas to this day.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, "Antisemitism is in the DNA of CAIR. It is part of CAIR’s intrinsic fiber. CAIR leaders often traffic in antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric...some of its leaders have cultivated suspicion among the public toward a wide array of American Jewish institutions."

The embattled Muslim advocacy group, one of the largest non-profits operating in the US, recently agreed to settle a case with a former employee rather than open its books to reveal sources of foreign funding.