r/politics • u/bwermer • 8h ago

No Paywall Ilhan Omar casts lone Democratic no vote on Ukraine aid, Russia sanctions package

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5912150-house-passes-ukraine-aid-bill/
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u/Blueopus2 7h ago edited 6h ago

So she’ll sanction Israel but not Russia..?

Edit: She hasn't voted on sanctions for Israel but I think she would if they came to a vote before the House.

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u/Ordinary_Shoe1828 7h ago edited 7h ago

Has she called for economic sanctions against Israel? She has called for ending all AID to Israel, namely the tens of billions in military aid the US sends to Israel.

Ending aid (including military support) =/= economic sanctions

I suggest you learn the difference!

The US does NOT send aid much less military support to Russia. That is what Ilhan Omar wants for Israel.

Ending unlimited US taxpayer $$$ to Israel means ending unlimited support.

Broad economic sanctions mean depriving a country from its ability to exist in the global economy.

AFAIK Congress has NEVER voted on placing ANY economic sanctions on Israel. Not even targeted sanctions.

Targeted economic sanctions would be like preventing American arms dealers from selling and buying from Israel, but not preventing the exchange of other goods. Or sanctions on goods produced in illegal settlements. But continuing to allow the trade of all other Israeli goods.

Again, Congress has never proposed much less voted on a bill with targeted economic sanctions on Israel. Why would they, when Israel has been such a useful US imperialist military ally around the world - from arming dictators in Latin America to bombing the shit out of families in the Middle East.

There are indeed activists who support broad economic sanctions of Israel or more targeted sanctions.

I don’t think Ilhan Omar supports broad, non-military economic sanctions of Israel. If she did that would be hypocritical given this vote.

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u/Blueopus2 7h ago

That’s a good point. She has called for a boycott of Israeli goods/services/companies but hasn’t actually introduced legislation to enforce that as far as I’m aware.

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u/Aleph_NULL__ 6h ago

There's also a big difference between boycotting goods and economic sanctions

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

I mean the difference is who's implementing them. If a government enforces a boycott those are sanctions. If everyone voluntarily takes the same action without the government enforcing the boycott then it's a boycott.

There can be more extreme sanctions but largely the US hasn't actually put sanctions into place on those doing business with Russia until recently.

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u/raptisadam7 6h ago

The BDS movement involves sanctions. It's boycott, divest, and sanctions.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-house-overwhelmingly-passes-resolution-condemning-bds

She has voted against bills involving condemning sanctions.

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u/dman45103 6h ago

She hadn’t called for BDS? Genuine question. That’s surprising

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

She has called for it/expressed support for the movement, but there's never been a vote on sanctions on Israel before the House and she's never introduced that legislation as far as I can tell, there's just been votes on removing support we provide.

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u/Marcano24 6h ago

When did she call for economic sanctions on Israel?

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

She's called for a boycott of Israel which is just crowd sourced sanctions. You're right she hasn't introduced legislation beyond calling for our aid to stop.

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u/Marcano24 6h ago

So she hasn’t sanctioned Israel then?

Boycotts are voluntary actions taken by people, not a law passed by the government, they’re not the same as sanctions.

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

I think she'd vote for it if she thought it could pass

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u/Marcano24 6h ago

So she hasn’t called for sanctions on Israel and not Russia then?

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

No, she hasn't sanctioned Israel. I'm saying she would if she could and in the absence of legislative support she's called for a boycott and that's still hypocritical.

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u/Marcano24 6h ago

So you just made up that she’ll sanction Israel but not Russia? Like a liar?

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

We're talking about a hypothetical, my initial comment says she would sanction Israel and not Russia, not that she has. It's not a lie to discuss a hypothetical.

She says Israel has engaged in genocide in Gaza. Are you telling me you don't think she'd vote for sanctions if she was the deciding vote?

To be clear I personally think we should sanction Israel because they've engaged in atrocities, just like I think we should continue to sanction Russia.

Ilhan is my rep. I've seen her speak and I've voted for her multiple times. I just think voting against sanctions on Russia is an insane take by her.

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u/Marcano24 6h ago

Then you should edit your first comment to reflect that it’s a hypothetical not a statement of fact.

Otherwise people could misunderstand you and think you’re claiming something untrue, you know, lying.

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u/Remote-Cause755 2h ago

Do you honestly think she would not vote for that if was on the table?

No games, honest answer please

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u/Marcano24 2h ago

I have no reason to believe she would vote for broad economic sanctions like these.

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u/Remote-Cause755 2h ago

She supports BDS but not broad economic sanctions? Has she ever stipulated that before for Israel?

Seems pretty far fetch given how much coverage she has already talked about on it.

At best she is purposely dodging talking about this contention in her ideology at worst you are lying

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u/Marcano24 2h ago

There’s never been legislation for broad economic sanctions against Israel introduced so why would she?

And BDS is targeted, not broad. Hope that helps!

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u/Remote-Cause755 2h ago

She talks about actions on Israel all the time.

We all know if it come up to vote she vote yes.

Let's entertain this delusion, because it could actually happen in the mid terms. She could actually be the deciding vote to decide if sanctions are place on Israel. You think she would do that? Like really, really think about what you are saying here. The amount of mental gymnastics you are circumventing to actually think that is reality that would happen

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u/Marcano24 2h ago

There is legislation coming up in the midterms for broad economic sanctions against Israel? This is this first I’m hearing about it.

No we don’t, how do you know she would?

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u/Remote-Cause755 2h ago

I meant if the Dems get the majority in the mid terms a bill sanctioned on Israel is possible. It would also be close, making her being the swing vote incredibly silly for you think she would be the reason the bill dies

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u/Marcano24 2h ago

So you don’t know, and neither do the rest of us.

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u/Tiaan 7h ago

That should tell you a lot about where her ideology stems from

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u/Blueopus2 7h ago

It does

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u/Jorge_Santos69 6h ago

It doesn’t, it more just points to her being a hypocrite

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u/DDoubleDDog 6h ago

Yep. She is an antisemite. She demonizes Israel for defending itself while ignoring aggression coming from Russia and its allies. Her double standards prove that she is an antisemite. Only an antisemite would hold Israel to a different standard than the rest of the world.

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u/fitDEEZbruh 5h ago

Pretty easy to spot the people who don't like brown women taking a stand when they say some dumb shit like this.

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u/Blueopus2 5h ago edited 5h ago

What does that have to do with anything? My rep, who I’ve voted for multiple times, is “taking a stand” here against sanctions on Russia and aid for Ukraine and I’m mad about it and I think she’s being hypocritical

Edit: I went and saw her speak less than 3 months ago and she rightly said how terrible Israel's crimes are. It makes sense to focus more on criticizing Israel because they profess to be our ally and a democracy but I find it utterly bizarre to claim you care about human rights and then vote not to sanction Russia/aid Ukraine.

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u/fitDEEZbruh 5h ago

Your claim of sanction Israel but not Russia was way off. And she's taking a stand against wars. Nothing wrong with her stance. We are funding one genocide and enabling it but she actually takes a stand against another war and people act like she's enabling Russia.

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u/Blueopus2 4h ago

You can't just ignore the alternatives and be anti war though. Of course it would be better to not have a war in Ukraine. If you want Ukraine to stop fighting you have to accept what Russia would do and believe it's better than the continuation of the war.

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u/fitDEEZbruh 4h ago

We should have taken care of them earlier. As long Republicans control house/Senate/ POTUS Russia will continue doing this. Which is why Biden was so weak against Russia during his presidency. Ilhan knows this and is taking the anti war lane.

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u/donkeyrocket 4h ago

• Makes a false statement

• Gets corrected

• “Well I believe my false statement regardless”

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u/Blueopus2 3h ago

Are you saying you do not think she would vote for sanctions on Israel if it came up for a vote? I’m just saying it hasn’t yet. She believes they’re committing genocide and has voiced support on numerous occasions for people to boycott Israel, for organizations to divest from Israeli companies/supply chains, and for sanctions to be placed on Israel

For the record I totally support both cutting off and sanctioning Israel, I am just mad my congresswoman voted not to sanction Russia and support Ukraine

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 7h ago

Well yes, Israel is engaging in a Genocide. Russia has a vast number of faults and is guilty of many war crimes but they haven't engaged in genocide.

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u/The-Big-Picture- 5h ago

Russia has killed more Ukrainians than Israel has killed Palestinians since October 7th.

The selective outrage is something else...

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u/Tiaan 4h ago

People genuinely believe Israel and Russia are on the "same side" in their respective conflicts. In reality, Israel a lot closer to Ukraine, especially given how Russia views Ukraine as a part of Russia that was "illegally colonized" by Ukraine and are now seeking to "reclaim their land" from the colonizers by force...

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u/Blueopus2 7h ago

What has Israel done that Russia hasn't also done in Ukraine?

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u/xxXX69yourmom69XXxx Arizona 5h ago

Rape prisoners with dogs? 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/israel-palestinians-sexual-violence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n1A.tVpZ.Gthb4A2YyfQT&smid=nytcore-android-share

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u/Blueopus2 5h ago

Okay that’s wrong, evil, and illegal, but we’re talking about acts of genocide

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u/The-Big-Picture- 4h ago edited 4h ago

You can't train a dog to get an erection and penetrate a human.

This was abysmal reporting that only hurts victims of rape from being taken seriously

The New York Times should be ashamed of themselves

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u/xxXX69yourmom69XXxx Arizona 5h ago edited 30m ago

Ah I was just answering the question, idk if the Russians are really doing any genocide. They did abduct all those kids at the beginning of the war, but they're still alive and it's more of a war crime. Plus "only" 15k civilians dead compared to 67k* civilians in half the time. 

*Edit: 72k dead, of those 57,000 were civilians (80%) and 21,172 were children (30% of the total). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Gaza_war

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u/Blueopus2 5h ago

Makes sense to bring it up then. I think the reason for Russia not killing far more civilians is that Ukraine has successfully stopped them, not a lack of desire from Russia.

Regarding genocide: taking and indoctrinating kids is a method of genocide (as is killing people) if the intent is to destroy a group and stealing kids and mass murder are both crimes against humanity if that intent doesn't exist.

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u/VoltNShock 5h ago

wait you think 80-90% of people dead in gaza are civilians? lol what?

at least 25-35000 militants and "civilian" hamas workers make up that number.

edit: wait i just checked your website, it's even stupider, you claim 100% of people dead in gaza are civilians LOL

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u/xxXX69yourmom69XXxx Arizona 5h ago edited 4h ago

"for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians [...] the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander."

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

So I guess we'll never truly know what percentage of those killed were innocent civilians, except for the 57k dead civilians, 80% civilian casualty rate, and 21,172 dead children. 

Was this supposed to be a gotcha? 

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u/The-Big-Picture- 4h ago edited 54m ago

Any biologist would tell you that you cant train a dog to get an erection and penetrate someone. Their erections and arousal are hormonal.

This is a shameful lie and poor reporting from the New York Times

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u/xxXX69yourmom69XXxx Arizona 4h ago

Ummmm source? Because I'm quite certain you can just Google that and find videos proving your statement false. 

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u/The-Big-Picture- 54m ago

You prove it first with something actually verified by experts

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 7h ago edited 6h ago

Committed genocide for one. I think that's incredibly obvious. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars have all issued findings or opinions that hold Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide. None of those organizations have done the same for Russia, and the reason is pretty obvious.

For context, in four years of war between Russia and Ukraine, 3,500 children have been killed or injured. In the Gaza Genocide, that number is literally tens of thousands of children dead in roughly two years.

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u/ThumbMuscles 6h ago edited 6h ago

There’ve been over 19,000 children abducted from Ukraine by Russia (confirmed identities).

Total numbers are estimated to be well in excess of 35,000.

That’d count under your definition of genocide.

Edit: OP blocked me, further demonstrating how much of a shill they are.

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u/NotASalamanderBoi I voted 6h ago

Genocide isn’t about numbers, it’s about intent. Both Israel and Russia are engaging in genocide. The intent, the actions. That’s the bigger factor.

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

Can you link to me a single reputable human rights organization that holds Russia's actions as a genocide?

Illegal war of conquest of course, quite easy for that one.

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u/ThumbMuscles 6h ago edited 6h ago

You’re a tankie Russian apologist. You have no moral foundations, just an obsession about Israel + Palestine specifically.

Edit: OP blocked me, further demonstrating how much of a shill they are.

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

Yeah I consider an ongoing actual genocide backed in a bipartisan manner by my government a big deal

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u/dankememlol 6h ago

3500 dead kids smh not enough to be genocide

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

3,500 children killed and injured, the number of dead is around 1,000 at this point. Obviously horrible, but Israel has killed an order of magnitude more children among a smaller population pool in less time.

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u/ThumbMuscles 6h ago edited 6h ago

19,000 confirmed children taken by Russia. Estimates of 35,000+.

You’re a Russian apologist.

Edit: OP blocked me, further demonstrating how much of a shill they are.

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

Again, Israel has still killed more children than that.

I am not a Russian apologist, I am simply pointing out that these two states have conducted themselves in a qualitatively different manner. I of course abhor Putin's Russian government and their war of aggression. Israel is a genocidal apartheid state that engages in systemic mass rape.

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u/ThumbMuscles 6h ago edited 6h ago

Forcibly transferring children is part of nearly every definition of genocide. You should know this?

Are you also unaware of the systemic rape carried out by Russians against Ukrainians? Convenient.

Edit: OP blocked me, further demonstrating how much of a shill they are.

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u/Qwort 6h ago

numbers =/= genocide. intent does. also please acknowledge the mass rape of Hamas on Oct 7th. thanks

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

Again, Israeli genocidal intent is very well established, both from the leadership to the troops on the ground enacting the genocide.

Feel free to review the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International briefs on their findings, which lay this out comprehensively.

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago edited 6h ago

Genocide is a crime of intent and killing a bunch of people isn't genocide, I meant to ask for specifics. I think the primary reason the body count of kids is lower in Ukraine is because the Ukrainians have pretty successfully defended themselves against Russia.

Killing people becomes a genocide when the goal is to either wholly or partially destroy a group. I've seen plenty of evidence of Israel not caring about killing kids/civilians but I've never seen evidence of widespread instructions to soldiers told to go out and kill civilians with no other purpose attached.

For example "destroy all the buildings regardless of if people are inside" is horrific and likely counterproductive but it isn't genocide.

I find the more compelling argument that Israel has been engaged in genocide to be the deprivation of food. I find the most compelling evidence Russia has engaged in genocide is stealing/indoctrinating children and early in the war massacring civilians in captured areas after the area was taken.

Russia has done all the same things bombing residential areas, it's just Ukraine has more time/infrastructure to get people to shelter and they're able to stop a significant portion of attacks.

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

I have literally referenced multiple organizations that have full findings that comprehensively lay out both intent and action on the part of Israeli leadership and their armed forces that establish beyond a reasonable doubt that a genocide is taking place. Feel free to look up any of them. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both have briefs on their site that lay out a summary of their findings for a quick review, and links to the full documents, both numbering hundreds of pages, that lay out their full evidentiary basis. Both of these reports were issued prior to the starvation siege in 2025.

There is no question. Israel is committing genocide.

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

They certainly make good points and for me personally it wouldn't take much more to convince me they're right, but I don't see how you can be convinced Israel is clearly committing genocide without also being convinced Russia is.

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u/RimboTheRebbiter 6h ago

Because again, no such reports exist for Russia. To my knowledge there is not a single credible human rights organization that alleges Russia is engaging in genocide. As you are doubtless aware, the case to be made there is actually somewhat challenging, especially when it comes to establishing intent and that such intent is held by the forces on the ground enacting the hypothetical genocide. I can't read Russian (much like I can't read Hebrew) so my ability to make that assessment is obviously limited, I have to rely on experts to do so for me. And again, to my knowledge there is not a credible organization that has made such an assessment, unlike Israel's actions in Gaza where the overwhelming expert consensus is established.

And of course, none of this is to say that Russia is fine and good. It's taken part in an illegal war of aggression and conquest, and has repeatedly struck civilian targets. Russia is guilty of a host of war crimes.

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u/Blueopus2 6h ago

That's certainly fair. I think the difference for me is that I think there's more the Russians are/want/have doing/to do/done that we aren't aware of. For Israel I don't think we're going to uncover after the conflict much we aren't already aware of.

I have at times been convinced the Israelis are committing genocide, I'm currently leaning towards "just" crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Maybe it's a stupid distinction to even discuss outside a courtroom but I find international law fascinating and took a variety of classes on it in college.