'Squad' Dem faces backlash for smearing Israel as 'racist state': 'Truly disgusting'

A member of the "Squad" of far-left House Democrats received backlash over the weekend on social media after she accused Israel of being a "racist state."

The condemnation of Israel from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, came in response to outbursts from pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted a panel she spoke on. 

"As somebody who’s been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations, I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us, that it does not even feel possible," Jayapal said at the far-left Netroots Nation Conference in Chicago. 

"It is people that are literally trying to make sure that we do not take the positions we take, that the rest of the progressive caucus has been pushing and pushing," she added.

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The video of the exchange quickly went viral, with a wide variety of criticism toward Jayapal.

"A disgraceful statement that's particularly tone deaf when thousands of Israelis are in the streets protesting to protect their democracy," Jason Brodsky, the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, tweeted." "#Israel's previous government included Ra'am in the coalition. That's not what a racist state does."

"You can never be extreme enough for these people," Miranda Devine, a New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor, tweeted.

"[Rep. Jayapal], you are despicable," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., tweeted. "This is truly disgusting, especially coming from a member of Congress."

Several members of "The Squad" have announced they will boycott Israel President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress this week. Jayapal has repeatedly called for a two-state solution in the region.

"There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied [U.S. Rep. from Michigan] Rashida Tlaib the ability to see her grandma," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said in a series of tweets. She also said the U.S. government should not have invited him to speak in the first place.

"Pramila Jayapal is on stage, slandering Israel, and by extension the Jewish people's right to freedom and self-determination as 'racist.' This is anti-Semitism," Caroline Glick, a senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate, tweeted.

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"Calling the only nation state of the Jews ‘racists’ when offers all its citizens, including Arabs & Muslims equality rights, is something I would expect to hear from the Ayatollahs in Iran or members of the mullah regime "parliament", NOT a member of Congress! FOR SHAME JAYAPAL!" Karmel Melamed, a journalist, tweeted.

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AOC and Crenshaw form unlikely team in bid to give troops access to psychedelic drugs

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, are forming an unlikely alliance, teaming up in a bid to allow troops access to psychedelic drugs.

"Psychedelics have shown so much promise," Ocasio-Cortez said of the effort, according to a report from the New York Daily News. "We desperately need the resources to treat PTSD, traumatic brain injury and depression. At least one in two PTSD patients cannot tolerate or do not respond adequately to existing treatments."

The progressive lawmaker's comments come as the military and Department of Veterans Affairs grapple with the growth of post-traumatic stress disorder in the ranks, an ailment that has doubled among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan compared to Vietnam-era veterans. According to the VA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 450,000 combat veterans have suffered from a some sort of traumatic brain injury between 2000 and 2021.

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But new data suggest that unorthodox treatments with psychedelics help, leading Crenshaw and Ocasio-Cortez to form an unlikely alliance.

"This is a real wild coalition," Crenshaw, a Navy SEAL veteran who lost an eye in Afghanistan, said of his partnership with Ocasio-Cortez, according to the New York Daily News. 

Crenshaw said the issue has personally touched him, recounting the stories of friends who have returned from war and were not cured of their aliments until they gained access to psychedelics, which are typically illegal in the United States.

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"I was turned on to this issue because I had so many friends… who were going down to a specific clinic and doing ibogaine – one treatment of ibogaine would cure them," Crenshaw said.

The duo targeted this year's National Defense Authorization Act to introduce their proposal, managing to get a "watered-down version" of the bill they authored into the massive yearly legislation.

Crenshaw said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has promised the lawmakers to get a comprehensive version of the bill, which will include funding and clinical trials, in the legislation during meetings with the Senate to combine the two chamber's versions of the bill.

Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez called on veterans to apply pressure to the Senate to make sure the provision gains approval.

"I know the power of this community to rise up and make itself heard," Ocasio-Cortez said.

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