Why Does "The Squad" Refuse to Acknowledge Israel's Nuclear Weapons?

For years, "The Squad" and related Congress people farcically attack Israel and then retreat. All the while, they toe the company line by refusing to acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons.

For the umpteenth time, a “progressive” member of Congress has rhetorically criticized Israel and then walked it back.

This time it was Pramila Jayapal.

These waffling proclamations seem pathetic to me.

They do virtually nothing and the regular walk-back is actually probably beneficial for the pro-Israel establishment.

Meanwhile, Rashida Tlaib got tons of RTs on Twitter for holding up a sign saying “Boycott Apartheid” proclaiming that she is “boycotting President Herzog’s joint address to Congress.”

On the one hand, I get it. Congress is completely demented regarding Israel. It’s slated to pass a resolution stating Israel is “not a racist or apartheid state” — which has all the moral and intellectual rigor of the 1897 Indiana legislature bill which claimed that π was a rational number. And I think there has been at least one time when “The Squad” has actually accomplished something real on this issue.

But do such photo ops do much of anything for the Palestinian people? It’s probably a great branding exercise for Tlaib.

Holding up that sign and $5.95 will get you a cappuccino.

In contrast, as I noted in my profile of the late James Abourezk, while in the Senate, he was actually able to get some stuff done. For example, his office struck a blow against the “neocon” agenda by getting Stephen Bryen, an influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, fired.

What’s especially amazing is that none of these alleged fiery critics of Israel will acknowledge the empirical reality of Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

See my piece “The Ostrich Caucus: Why won't members of Congress just say it: Israel has nukes?” from last year for The Capitol Hill Citizen.

Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, wrote a letter to Jayapal and other members of Congress in 2020 outlining a legal strategy to deal a blow to the power of Israel by going after this issue. None responded, letter below.

So, if you’re ever with a member of Congress — especially one that presumes to be critical of the establishment or of Israel — ask them: “Will you acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons? And will you pursue this strategy outlined by Smith?”: