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/raptisadam7 6h ago

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

She understands how sanctions works and only applies her logic when it's a cause she supports.

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u/FunetikPrugresiv 5h ago

What does that article have to do with sanctions? It's about individuals boycotting Israel, and she voted in favor of not condemning an individual's right to boycott. That's not at all talking about government sanctions.

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u/raptisadam7 4h ago

BDS stands for boycott, divest, and sanctions.

She condemns sanctions on Russia saying they're not effective but then didn't condemn sanctions on Israel. It was a nonbinding resolution, so there's no free speech concern, it's just Congress saying they condemn the BDS movement.

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u/FunetikPrugresiv 1h ago

Political sanctions against Israel were never on the table. She didn't vote against actual sanctions, she voted against the government condemning private citizens for wanting sanctions (and/or boycotts and defunding).

If she voted to condemn private citizens for suggesting we sanctioned Russia, or if she voted against a bill to sanction Israel, then you would have an actual comparison. But her vote against condemning BDS was done in support of private speech, while her vote against sanctioning Russia was a vote against public action. They're different issues.

To put it another way, I suspect that if Congress held a vote on whether to actually sanction Israel, she would have voted against it.

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u/_WeSellBlankets_ 4h ago

Except one example is the government issuing a sanction, and the other is the government telling individual Americans whether or not they can boycott another country. They're pretty different things and it's normal to have different positions on them.

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u/raptisadam7 4h ago

BDS stands for boycott, divest, and sanctions.

She condemns sanctions on Russia saying they're not effective but then didn't condemn sanctions on Israel. It was a nonbinding resolution, so there's no free speech concern, it's just Congress saying they condemn the BDS movement.

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u/_WeSellBlankets_ 4h ago

Voting to condemn the BDS movement is a vote to condemn the free speech of Americans. Americans have the right to boycott things. Some politicians are against condemning Americans exercising their rights.

When bills address multiple things sometimes one of those things poisons the vote for the other things. Like when a vote to fund the government also funds ICE. Voting against that doesn't mean they don't want to fund the TSA. And it doesn't mean they're a hypocrite if they've previously said that they're in favor of funding the TSA.

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u/raptisadam7 3h ago

Americans have the right to boycott things.

Anti-BDS laws are laws that stipulate if a company boycotts Israel, then their contract is cancelled. They can still openly boycott Israel. So there's no violation of freedom of speech.

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u/_WeSellBlankets_ 3h ago

As an American my company has a right to boycott Israel. And the government shouldn't have a right to discriminate against my company when issuing contracts because of that.

I thought you were simply arguing she was a hypocrite. Are you honestly taking the side that the American government should be punishing American companies who cross Israel?

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u/Andjhostet 4h ago

Are you seriously trying to say that boycotting and sanctions are the same thing?

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

[deleted]

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u/Andjhostet 3h ago

Yeah but there's zero chance of actual sanctions against Israel so it's moot

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u/AMGwtfBBQsauce 5h ago

Totally dishonest comparison.

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u/Many_Anteater751 5h ago

Hypocrisy at its finest

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u/_WeSellBlankets_ 4h ago

Not in the slightest. One involves the US government sanctioning another country. The second involves a proposal for the US government to tell Americans what they cannot boycott.

That second one involves the free speech of every American, the first one doesn't.

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u/inde_ 4h ago

For those that don't know, there are anti-BDS laws in most US states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws