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josh gottheimer
12 House Dems Join GOP to Approve Tax Gift to Rich Alongside Israel Aid for Gaza Slaughter
"Instead of funding more bombs with American taxpayer dollars," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, "our leaders should be calling for a ceasefire now, before this violence claims thousands more lives."
Nov 03, 2023
A dozen House Democrats on Thursday evening joined with nearly every Republican in the chamber to approve legislation that would provide $14.3 in military aid to Israel while cutting an equal amount from IRS funding that would be used to target wealthy individuals who avoid taxes—a cut to the agency that would act as a revenue destroyer, not an offset.
Despite the bill being dead-on-arrival in the U.S. Senate, it passed the House in a 226-196 vote, with 12 Democrats voting in favor along with 214 Republicans, and just two Republicans voting with the 194 Democrats who said nay. President Joe Biden has also vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
Dubbing the House Democrats who crossed the aisle as the "Tax Cheat Twelve," David Dayen of The American Prospectdetailed in his coverage how the group "received a combined $8 million in campaign support from [pro-Israel lobby group] AIPAC and its affiliates last year."
"Not only do some of my colleagues want to send more weapons to carry out war crimes and violations of international law, but they want to do it by providing tax breaks to billionaires and undermining crucial investments in our communities."
—Rep. Rashida Tlaib
The Democrats who voted with Republicans are: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Jared Moskowitz (Fla.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Lois Frankel (Fla.), Jared Golden (Me.), Juan Vargas (Calif.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Darren Soto (Fla.), Haley Stevens (Mich.), Frederica Wilson (Fla.), Don Davis (N.C.) and Greg Landsman (Ohio).
While the bill has little or no chance of becoming law, Dayen observed that the group "stuck to their principles" by joining with the Republicans anyway.
Defenders of Palestinian rights horrified by the ongoing onslaught in Gaza criticized all those who voted in favor of the bill.
Progressive Democrats—including Reps. Tashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Summer Lee (D-Pa.)—spoke out forcefully against funding Israeli military operations at a time the IDF is bombing the besieged Gaza Strip without mercy following the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that claimed as many as 1,400 lives. Latest figures put the Palestinian death toll in Gaza well above 9,000 people, including nearly 4,000 children, with thousands more wounded or missing under the rubble.
"The American people do not support funding for war crimes—like the use of white phosphorus bombs—and are calling for a ceasefire," Tlaib said in a statement following Thursday night's vote.
"As the Israeli government carries out ethnic cleansing in Gaza, President Biden is cheering on Netanyahu, whose own citizens are protesting his refusal to support a ceasefire," she continued. "We must be laser focused on saving lives, no matter their faith or ethnicity. The number of children killed in Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world's conflict zones since 2019—yet instead of helping end this violence, President Biden baselessly casts doubt on the Palestinian death toll."
Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, a CBO score of the proposal showed that the $14.3 billion cut to the IRS would actually slash federal revenues by $27 billion.
Explaining her no vote, Congresswoman Bush tweeted, "I was sent to Congress to save lives, I was not sent to Congress to have my constituent's tax dollars buy bombs to kill thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. We choose peace and love."
And Rep. Summer Lee said: "I refuse to spend more money on weapons of war and tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of children in Pennsylvania, Gaza, and Israel when what is needed now is investment in American families, de-escalation of violence, diplomacy, and humanitarian aid."
According to Tlaib, increased U.S. military aid for the Israel while it carries out the attack on Gaza, with no humanitarian conditions, takes "us farther away from ending the violence and reaching peace" in the region.
"Achieving a just and lasting peace requires lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the dehumanizing system of apartheid," Tlaib said. "Not only do some of my colleagues want to send more weapons to carry out war crimes and violations of international law, but they want to do it by providing tax breaks to billionaires and undermining crucial investments in our communities. Instead of funding more bombs with American taxpayer dollars, our leaders should be calling for a ceasefire now, before this violence claims thousands more lives."
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'This Is an Attempt to Silence My Voice': Tlaib Condemns GOP Censure Motion
"I'm the only Palestinian voice right now in Congress. If anything, my voice is needed here more than ever."
Oct 12, 2023
Facing attacks by fellow Democrats and a censure motion from a Republican congressman from her home state of Michigan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Wednesday accused her critics of intentionally misportraying her as a Hamas sympathizer due to her condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Palestine.
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)—whose third-biggest campaign contributor during the 2022 election cycle was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—on Wednesday introduced a motion to censure Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, for what he called "her antisemitism and disgraceful response to the attacks on our ally, Israel."
On Saturday, Hamas and other militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza in a wave of attacks that have since killed more than 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians, including many women and children. Israel responded by bombarding Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and killing over 1,400 Palestinians—including at least 447 children—while cutting off power and water and trapping 2.3 million people in the besieged enclave.
"Much of what I'm hearing from Jack and a number of other colleagues is rooted in bigotry, that somehow because of my ethnicity and my faith that I support terrorism."
On Sunday, Tlaib issued a statement mourning the "Palestinian and Israeli lives lost," while asserting that the path to a peaceful future must include lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, ending its illegal occupation of Palestine, "and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance."
Tlaib's statement also asserted that the "heartbreaking cycle of violence" would continue until the United States stopped giving "billions in unconditional funding" to support Israel's apartheid government.
Citing unverified claims that Hamas "beheaded infants," Bergman's resolution—which was joined by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), another beneficiary of AIPAC's largesse—called Tlaib's statement "disturbing and evil."
Responding to Bergman's motion, Tlaib told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday that "I'm the only Palestinian voice right now in Congress. If anything, my voice is needed here more than ever."
"This is an attempt to silence my voice because I want the violence to stop, no matter whether it's toward Israelis or toward Palestinians," she asserted. "Much of what I'm hearing from Jack and a number of other colleagues is rooted in bigotry, that somehow because of my ethnicity and my faith that I support terrorism."
Tlaib and other "Squad" members including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—who condemned the killing of civilians on both sides while urging an end to U.S. support for "Israeli military occupation and apartheid"—also faced harsh rebuke from fellow Democrats in the Biden administration and Congress.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called their comments "disgraceful" and "repugnant," while pro-Israel congressional Democrats piled onthe condemnation.
"It sickens me that while Israelis clean the blood of their family members shot in their homes, they believe Congress should strip U.S. funding to our democratic ally and allow innocent civilians to suffer," Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said of Tlaib and her Squad colleagues in a Tuesday interview with Jewish Insider.
"U.S. aid to Israel is and should be unconditional, and never more so than in this moment of critical need," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) told Jewish Insider. "Shame on anyone who glorifies as 'resistance' the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. It is reprehensible and repulsive."
AIPAC was by far Gottheimer's largest contributor in the 2022 electoral cycle, donating more than $216,000 to his campaign. The same goes for Torres, who received over $141,000 from the group during the same period.
The Nation's John Nichols noted Thursday that Tlaib, Bush, and Omar are being condemned "for saying what prominent Israelis are saying."
Nichols cited Israeli human rights lawyer and rules-of-war expert Michael Sfard, who said: "Hamas committed abominable war crimes for which there can be no forgiveness. But the laws of war weren't meant only for situations in which our blood is cool, or when there is no justified anger or understandable desire for revenge."
He also quotes Israeli journalist Amira Hass, daughter of Holocaust survivors, who wrote in Haaretz that "in a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing."
"Therefore, this must be said once again—we told you so," Hass added. "Ongoing oppression and injustice explode at unexpected times and places. Bloodshed knows no borders."
Critics have noted that Israelis can freely express truths that, when voiced by Americans, result in condemnation, ostracism, and even loss of employment.
This isn't the first time Tlaib and other progressive Democrats have faced possible censure for defending Palestinians' human rights and criticizing U.S. support for Israeli apartheid, occupation, illegal settler colonization, and other crimes. In 2021, a trio of GOP lawmakers tried and failed to censure Tlaib and Omar—the first two Muslim women elected to Congress—and other Squad members for comments criticizing Israel.
In February, Republicans removed Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in what Jewish Voice for Peace called a "racist attack by the far-right to silence progressives in Congress who speak up for a human rights-centered foreign policy, including Palestinian human rights."
Tlaib and Omar have also received death threats for expressing their views, and have been targeted by a vast international fake news operation exploiting far-right social media accounts to spread Islamophobia.
Undaunted, Tlaib told the Free Press Wednesday that she will continue to remind her congressional colleagues that "a Palestinian life is just as important as an Israeli life," and that, like Hamas, the Israeli government "has to be held accountable for some of its atrocities."
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