House Foreign Affairs Committee Unanimously Passes Anti-BDS Resolution
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed an anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution unanimously on July 17.
The resolution, House Resolution 246, condemns the BDS movement for engaging in “efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel” and undermining prospects of peace with its opposition to a two-state solution.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), one of the co-sponsors of the resolution, tweeted:
Great News! @HouseForeign just passed HRes246 opposing the BDS movement, which is a blatantly anti-Israel & anti-Semitic effort that targets Israel & the Jewish people. The full House should pass this reso ASAP & then do something about it by passing S-1/HR336 as well!
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) July 17, 2019
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) similarly said in a July 18 statement that the committee’s passage of the resolution is a “testament” to the “overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress for strengthening our relationship with our vital ally Israel.”
“I’m looking forward to this measure being brought to a vote on the House floor, to emphasize the broad support for a two-state solution and for combating bias and anti-Semitism,” Gottheimer added.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt praised the resolution’s passage in a July 17 statement.
“We are pleased that the vast majority of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are affirming their opposition to efforts to delegitimize Israel, especially the boycott movement targeting Israel, while supporting a pathway to peace,” Greenblatt said. “This constitutionally sound resolution protects the right to speak out freely against BDS, while not impinging on the free speech rights of those with other views.”
The resolution’s passage comes after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a resolution celebrating the right to boycott as the impetus for supporting BDS. Zeldin criticized Omar pro-BDS statements:
Israel is our best ally in the Mid East; a beacon of hope, freedom & liberty, surrounded by existential threats. Shame on Rep @Ilhan Omar for bringing her hateful twist on that reality to House Foreign today, propping up the BDS movement & blaming Israel for all of its challenges pic.twitter.com/y975D0JCaC
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) July 17, 2019
JJ Inside The Print
I knew the Kol Nidre crowd at the Beverly Hills Hotel was probably expecting me to talk about big issues. Since I deal with such...
This Yom Kippur, I relied on three pastimes to help me through synagogue services: connecting with God as a loving redeemer, imagining what glorious food...
The 19th-century Danish Christian theologian Søren Kierkegaard lamented about many of his co-religionists that their form of religion was merely “Sunday Christianity” and, even more...
Next week, we begin again to read the Torah from Page One. In the opening chapters, we will be confronted, as we are every year,...
You are reading at Simchat Torah time, the joyful high point of the High Holy Days journey. I am writing on the day after Yom...
Last Yom Kippur, soon after my then 9-year-old son Alexander and I got home from services, we heard a gentle knock on the door. “Hi,...
On Simchat Torah, we enliven our senses.After spending a week joyously immersed in Creation while sitting in a sukkah, we now take the Torah, the...
Late on the night of Oct. 6, the White House issued a statement announcing that after a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President...
Ruth Kabbesa Abramzon invites me for a ‘Shabbat Yerushalmi’ at her Jerusalem home with her husband and four small children. “We have a small room...
The civil war in Syria started almost a decade ago. Millions were forced to flee. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Condemnations aside, the international community...
Most Los Angeles Jewish voters support liberal positions on domestic policy issues, identify more as Democrats than as Republicans, and strongly disapprove of President Donald...
Funny how the things that bothered are the things I miss jumbled pj’s in the closet toothpaste landscape in the sink feather tickle that raised...
One verse, five voices. Edited by Salvador Litvak, Accidental Talmudist Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face...
For me, Tuscany is a place where time slows down and afternoons stretch out like golden pathways leading toward long, soul-nourishing meals. In the United...
Unpleasant odors wafting into Rabbi Yonah Bookstein’s office sometimes prompt closing the windows. The stench is not from exhaust typically clogging the heavily trafficked West...
In Orthodox synagogues on Shabbat and holiday mornings, men are called up to the Torah, while the women sit in a separate area divided by...
Internationally famous recording artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna and Bruno Mars are prime targets for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), in part...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 11 signed into law an Assembly bill establishing the California Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides grants for security...
New Zealand Jewish director Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” takes the tropes of World War II movies and flips them on their head. Tipping his hat...
On a brilliant Sunday afternoon in September, actress-comedian Wendy Hammers bounded onto the stage at the American Jewish University’s Shapiro Hall, barefoot and dancing. Hammers...
Israeli director Lilach Dekel-Avneri likes to break all the rules of traditional theater. With a background in interdisciplinary arts and post-dramatic theater as well as...
Amid the dire headlines out of the Middle East, we sometimes lose sight of the good news about Israel. That’s exactly what we find in...
Shirley Bean died Sept. 16 at 98. Survived by daughter Barbara; son Stuart; 3 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild. Mount Sinai Seymour Bessen died Sept.16 at 96. Survived...
Simchat Torah is a time for rejoicing, and one way to spread the joy is with these miniature Torahs made with Tootsie Rolls. They make...
In 2013, Ron Wolfson published “Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community,” designed to boost Jewish affiliation in Jewish organizational...
At the Larger Than Life gala event in the Beverly Hilton, 37 children stood onstage singing “Yad Beyad” (“Hand in Hand”), a song by the...
FRI OCT 18 “Sukkot in Mexico” Young professionals in their 20s and 30s should feel as if they are in Mexico when entering this exotic-looking...
Praise for Sukkot Edition Stories by Kylie Ora Lobell (“The Work of Sukkot is Worth It,” Oct. 11), Paul Starr (“The Sukkah Challenge”) and Louis...
