Squad 2.0: Omar congratulates new far-left House members

“Can’t wait to cause good trouble and make huge progress in Congress,” said Ilhan Omar.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) congratulated representatives-elect Cori Bush (D-MO), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Mondaire Jones (D-NY) on winning seats in the House of Representatives.

“The Squad is growing! Can’t wait to cause good trouble and make huge progress in Congress with @CoriBush, @JamaalBowmanNY, @MondaireJones, and all of our new progressive members!” Omar tweeted Wednesday.

Omar was reelected Tuesday along with the three other members of far-left “Squad”: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

“Congratulations @JamaalBowmanNY and @MondaireJones! Squad 2.0 let’s go,” tweeted Bush, arguably the most anti-Israel of the newcomers.

Bush was criticized during the campaign by her Democrat primary opponent Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO) for her support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS).

In response to a mailer by Clay’s campaign which featured a photo of Bush with anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, Bush doubled-down on her support for BDS.

“Cori Bush has always been sympathetic to the BDS movement, and she stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people, just as they have stood in solidarity with Black Americans fighting for their own lives,” said a Bush campaign statement on August 1.

In a now deleted foreign-policy section of her campaign website, Bush’s stance on Israel read, “In our current geopolitical economy, money talks far louder than speech alone. This is why nonviolent actions like the BDS movement are so important—and why the effort to mischaracterize and demonize the BDS movement by its opponents is so urgent.”

“I stand by the right of Palestinians to live as a free people just as the people of Israel and we as U.S. citizens are allowed to do,” stated the page. “We also stand by their right to call for a boycott on goods and services that the government that is currently oppressing them profits from, in order to draw attention to their plight.”

Bowman, who beat relatively pro-Israel Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) in the primary, shared his views on Israel with City & State New York on August 5.

Bowman said that “as a humanitarian leader” the U.S. needs to be more involved with “what’s happening in Palestine with the Palestinians.”

“One stark contrast between myself and Congressman Engel is I’ve been critical of occupation, annexation and detaining Palestinian children – where Congressman Engel has not,” Bowman said.

“And it doesn’t mean that, you know, I’m not pro-Israel. I am in full support of Israel. I’m also in full support of the human rights of the Palestinian people,” he said.

Jones shared his views on Israel with the Jewish Insider on May 13. When asked about bringing a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jones said, “The best thing we could do is is elect a new president of the United States.”

“We need a two-state solution in the region, and we can’t get that with Donald Trump as president,” he said.

Jones said that he opposed Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. “Donald Trump’s behavior has served to inflame anti-Israel sentiment in the region among members of the Arab world,” he said.

Jones also opposes any effort to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, supports restoring humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and supported the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.