MN-04: Rep. McCollum is taking a lot of crap for being right

Comes with the territory, I suppose, for any public figure who supports an honest, humane, intelligent approach to this issue.

Congresswoman Betty McCollum is not backing down from her criticism of AIPAC. 

After issuing a daring statement lambasting the pro-Israel group, the US legislator vowed to continue advocating for the human rights of Palestinian children and push against attempts to silence her.

In an interview with Middle East Eye, McCollum said AIPAC's attacks on Israel's Democratic critics in Congress prove that the organisation is not "inclusive or non-partisan" as it claims to be. - Middle East Eye

This, too:

 Congresswoman McCollum (MN-04) released the following statement:

“I’m proud to represent the largest Hmong community in the U.S. The remarkable contributions of our Hmong and Lao neighbors keep our community strong and successful. Many Hmong and Lao people arrived as refugees and resettled in Minnesota after fleeing their homeland because of their help and support of the U.S. government during the Vietnam War. It is a betrayal of the courage and sacrifice of our Hmong and Lao veterans and their families for the Trump administration to deport anyone to Laos. I completely reject efforts by the State Department to pressure the Lao government into signing a repatriation agreement. Such an agreement would result in a green light for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport individuals in our community with orders for removal to a country they fled decades ago. This is a dangerous policy that will tear Hmong and Lao families apart, and I will do everything I can to stop it.” - mccollum.house.gov

MN-05: How dare Rep. Omar tell it like it is!

Perhaps you saw the headline across the top of the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning, assuring its ornery old subscriber base that someone is being put in her place. The following is quoted from the sort of reality-based item that, in a better world, would be the stock-in-trade of corporate media like the Strib as well.

It should be pointed out that Rep. (Ilhan) Omar (D-MN) has been relentlessly hazed because she is a Somali Muslim and critical of Israeli policy toward their Palestinian semi-chattel. One of her critics is close to the hate figure Frank Gaffney, purveyor of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories of the sort the Nazis used to circulate about Jews...

She may be wrong about the motives of some of her opponents. The anti-Palestinian politicians in the United States may have come by their determination to keep millions of displaced people stateless and without basic human rights honestly. That is, many may just be racists who believe that brown people should be kept down.

Nor should consideration of the Israel lobbies only focus on money. Their propaganda techniques, for instance of equating any criticism of Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank to terrorism, are also extremely effective. - Informed Comment

I get that it's not just Republicans who are spouting off about this. That fact is a big part of the real problem, here.