It is true that our letter to Speaker McCarthy and Minority Leader Jeffries generated a spate of prominent media coverage. But even more importantly, others claimed that “this coalition [CJV]’s work helped to remove antisemite Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” implying our work may have been decisive in achieving this outcome.
CJV protested Omar’s placement on this powerful committee since her appointment. Three times we wrote to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, expressing our grave concerns. Three times, she and her allies ignored us.
This year, our letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (and House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries) found a very different audience. High-ranking Members of Congress, including those who focus on other issues, were grateful to receive our letter. Its message strengthened their resolve. And while we do not know which arguments individual Representatives found most compelling, we do know that three Republicans who initially announced their opposition to Omar’s removal eventually voted in favor—after House leadership received and shared our letter.
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It was the Jewish Leadership Project, by the same team of advocates (Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser) that previously led the David Project, that claimed on Twitter that our work helped ensure that Omar was removed.
Numerous prominent news outlets wrote feature stories about our letter, or mentioning it in the context of the fight to remove Omar from the committee. These included Daily Mail, Daily Wire, Newsmax, NY Post, CNS News, Bloomberg, VIN News, and DV Journal, among others we may have missed.
Especially remarkable is the following description in Bloomberg’s coverage:
Omar’s position on the committee has drawn mixed responses from within the Jewish community.
The Coalition for Jewish Values called for House members to back McCarthy’s vow to kick Omar off the committee in a letter on Tuesday while a group of liberal Jewish groups issued support for Omar’s tenure on the committee in December 2022.
This “group of liberal Jewish groups” was a who’s who of the Jewish Left: Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Bend the Arc, Habonim Dror, J Street, T’ruah (the “Rabbis for Human Rights”), the New Israel Fund, and even the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism all supported the ludicrous claim that Omar faced “false accusations that she is antisemitic or anti-Israel.”
And Bloomberg depicted CJV as equal to them all, and even as the first, most important viewpoint.