Ilhan Omar backs Israel lobby campaign against Iran
Ali Abunimah Lobby Watch 5 May 2020
Woman holds microphone with one hand and gestures with the other
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been the target of vicious smears for
criticizing AIPAC, but is now backing the Israel lobby group's campaign
against Iran. (Gage Skidmore)
In an unexpected move, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has reportedly
signed on to a letter circulated by AIPAC, the powerful Israel lobby group
on Capitol Hill.
According to the publication Al-Monitor, the AIPAC-backed letter is aimed at
"bolstering the Donald Trump administration's efforts to extend the United
Nations arms embargo on Iran."
That embargo is set to expire in October as part of the 2015 multinational
deal in which Iran placed limits on its civilian nuclear energy program in
exchange for sanctions relief.
Instigated by American hardliners as well as Israel and its lobby, the Trump
administration reneged on and withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018.
Since then, the US has ramped up sanctions on Iran, even amid the
coronavirus pandemic, inflicting immense suffering on its population.
Among other impacts, the sanctions cause shortages of medicines, leading to
avoidable deaths of sick people.
Rather than peacefully resolving international disputes, America's ruling
right wing, and Israel and its hardline lobby, want to see Iran destroyed by
sanctions, and if necessary war, to stop the country becoming an effective
check on American and Israeli regional dominance.
Under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic, Israel is escalating its direct
attacks against Iran-allied forces in Syria.
Protecting empire
In other words, Omar has signed on to a letter whose goal is to preserve and
protect American empire and shore up its reactionary and undemocratic client
states in the region.
The letter endorsed by Omar asserts that "Iran's illicit transfers of
weapons directly contribute to some of the most destabilizing threats to the
United States and our partners in the Middle East such as Israel and the
Gulf States."
The letter also calls for sanctions against Esmail Ghanni, the Iranian
general who replaced Qasem Soleimani as head of the country's Revolutionary
Guard. General Soleimani was extrajudicially executed in an American air
attack on his convoy in Iraq in January.
Soleimani was on a mission to promote a peaceful rapprochement among
regional powers at the time he was killed, according to Iraq's prime
minister.
Under Soleimani's military leadership, Iran played a key role in defeating
ISIS, as well as al-Qaida-linked groups, in Iraq and Syria.
Israel, the United States and certain Gulf states armed and financed
al-Qaida in Syria, helping to spawn ISIS, which at one point threatened to
occupy Baghdad.
Omar's signature is all the more baffling, given her forceful criticisms of
US sanctions policy against various countries.
AIPAC still influential
The AIPAC letter has reportedly been signed by almost 400 of the 435 members
of the House of Representatives, demonstrating that despite some erosion in
its influence, especially among Democrats, AIPAC can still pull its weight.
In February, Congresswoman Betty McCollum - like Omar a Democrat from
Minnesota - denounced AIPAC as a "hate group." This was perhaps the harshest
public criticism of the lobby organization ever uttered by a sitting member
of Congress.
AIPAC also waged war against Senator Bernie Sanders, when the progressive
standard bearer was seeking the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential
nomination.
Ilhan Omar had endorsed Sanders.
Based on Sanders' foreign policy record, Columbia University professor
Joseph Massad has termed the Vermont senator a "soft imperialist," a
description that could well apply to Omar.
"While the AIPAC letter has some support from some other progressive
lawmakers, many other prominent left-wing members have not signed on,
including the rest of Omar's self-styled 'squad' - Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of
Massachusetts," Al-Monitor notes.
Inconsistent on embargoes
There's no statement on Omar's official website explaining her signature.
However, her office told Al-Monitor that Omar "has consistently, for a long
time, supported arms embargoes against human rights abusers."
Her office added that her signature does not mean she "supports [Secretary
of State Mike] Pompeo's tactics or that her position on sanctions has
changed, or that she is not in support of the [nuclear deal]. It was just a
narrow ask that we couldn't find anything wrong with."
It is remarkably naive of such a usually astute politician to think that
such purported nuances will cut any ice.
The only headline that her signature is generating - especially in Israeli
media - is that she's backing AIPAC's position.
And while Omar has signed on to legislation sponsored by McCollum calling
for military aid to be withheld from Israeli army units that abuse
Palestinian children, she has not called for a total arms embargo on Israel.
Instead of backing a blanket ban on weapons sales to Israel, Omar has
advocated for the United States to use the billions in military aid it gives
Israel annually as "leverage" to "bring about peace."
Omar does however support the Palestinian-led grassroots boycott, divestment
and sanctions movement to pressure Israel to end its abuses.
To her credit, Omar has also been a strong critic of the US-backed,
Saudi-led war on Yemen.
In February 2019, she signed a letter condemning how US weapons supplied to
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have ended up in the hands of
al-Qaeda-linked groups in Yemen.
Yet the AIPAC letter signed by Omar implicitly supports the ongoing war on
Yemen. It asserts that Iran "routinely violates" the UN-imposed arms
embargo, "particularly in Syria, Iraq and Yemen."
Alleged Iranian influence in Yemen is one of the main justifications for the
ongoing war.
The combined death toll from fighting and disease caused by the US-backed
war on Yemen is estimated to have exceeded 230,000 people by the end of
2019.
Omar, it should be recalled, was last year the target of a vicious smear
campaign falsely labeling her an anti-Semite after she made mild and
accurate observations about AIPAC's outsize influence on US politics.
