After longtime GOP Rep. Peter King announced that he would not seek reelection, ending a career defined by his history of racism and Islamophobia. Rep. Ilhan Omar took to Twitter to make it clear that she wasn’t exactly upset by the news, while Senator Chuck Schumer praised the retiring Representative. “Peter King stood head & shoulders above everyone else,” tweeted Schumer, “He’s been principled & never let others push him away from his principles.”

Author Thea Halo, whose memoir follows her mother’s life as a survivor of the Greek Genocide, notes the House res. acknowledged genocide against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, yet most news organizations failed to report the full scope of who were the victims.

The push to acknowledge the genocide on a federal level has hit roadblocks for decades, but recent geopolitical events have forced the issue. On October 29 the House passed H.Res 296, a resolution that recognizes the mass-killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War 1 as a genocide. While the measure passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 405-11, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is facing criticism for simply voting “present.”

US Ambassador David Friedman blatantly lied to Congress when he said he would oppose Israel’s annexation of West Bank lands and support a Palestinian state. He should be impeached for those misrepresentations, as well as for helping to block the visit to Palestine of Congress members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.

A liberal Zionist group promotes the view of Israeli professor Jonathan Rynhold that progressive Democrats will support Israel once Netanyahu is gone. His argument would be more persuasive if he even mentioned the human rights violations and Gaza massacres that are at the heart of progressive disaffection with Israel.

Bari Weiss has been everywhere lately promoting her book that says that anti-Zionism is dangerous anti-Semitism, and oh by the way, white nationalism is also a threat to Jews. She says anti-Zionist Jews are just trying to blend in with the “cool group,” when they should be celebrating Jewish specialness, and our “radical ideas” that still “drive people crazy.”

Trump’s refrain that the Democrats are anti-Israel is a strategic effort to foster division among Democrats over Israel so that he can get Jewish donors and voters in 2020. That division exists. The party’s progressive base wants to strip US aid to Israel, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Israeli President Rivlin are leaping in to assure the Democratic establishment that Israel is above politics.

In the wake of Israel’s ban on Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the media has jumped on the supposed ‘radical’ dealings of MIFTAH, the local sponsor for the planned delegation to Palestine. In Palestine, the group maintains a relatively a-political, non-controversial presence with a focus on female empowerment and self-sustainability projects.

With national attention focused on the two US congresswomen who have been denied entry into Israel, members of Congress and even presidential candidates are not only openly criticizing Israel, they are considering ways to hold it accountable. At what is clearly a watershed moment, activists and organizers must be extremely cautious about steering the conversation in the right direction. 

When US congress members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were barred from entering Israel it was shocking for many. Traveling for an American citizen is a privilege often taken for granted. But if you are a Palestinian living under Israel occupation it becomes almost impossible. “Most of our visas get rejected,” Malkon Marizian explains to Mondoweiss. “This is related to our status. It is all related to the occupation.”