This past Tuesday, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar voted NAY on House Resolution 845, “Censuring Representative Rashida Tlaib for promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
At issue was Tlaib’s use of the term “From the river to the sea” which, according to resolution authored by Rep. Rich McCormick, “is widely recognized as a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel and its people to replace it with a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”
The US House of Representatives voted 234-188 to censure her, with 22 Democrats crossing party lines to vote with the Republicans.
Less than one month ago, on October 9, Escobar appeared at Temple Mount Sinai Synagogue to speak in solidarity with Israel, alongside County Judge Samaniego, Mayor Leeser, and others.
On October 17, only tens days after the Hamas attack on Israel, Escobar–very controversially–was one of seven US representatives calling for “an immediate ceasefire, or at minimum, a temporary cessation of all hostilities.”
Our previous US Representative, Beto O’Rourke, also had a spotty record on Israel. In 2014 he was one of only eight members of the House of Representatives to vote against funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which passed 395-8.
In March 2015, O’Rourke was one of 58 lawmakers who boycotted the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech to Congress; and in 2018 he opposed the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem. The following year, on April 7, 2019, he publicly called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a “racist.”
When it comes to support for Israel, our Democratic congressional representatives have been inconsistent.
This is in sharp contrast to our other local Congressman, Republican Tony Gonzalez, who introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives calling on the President “to enforce existing law and revoke the visas of foreign nationals who endorse or espouse activity in support of Hamas or other Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).”
The Republican Party in Texas and the El Paso County Republican Party have issued strong resolutions supporting Israel and condemning the terrorists.
The Democrats, including our local party, have so far failed to do the same.
Meanwhile, our City and County have remained silent, even as anti-Israel activists gather by the hundreds in our downtown and, this past Tuesday, blitz City Hall.