DV Journal

Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) refuses to rescind his endorsement of Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pittsburgh). While many people would shrug, some members of the Jewish community are incensed.

Lee, a member of the far-left “Squad,” posted a statement to X with Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, a missive implying that Israel was to blame for the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack rather than Hamas.

Hamas attackers killed some 1,200 innocent Israelis, including some 50 Americans, and took 250 hostages, also including Americans, to Gaza, sparking a war that continues a year later.

“I could not disagree more with this statement,” Casey posted on X. “Hamas is a terrorist organization and its horrific attack, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians, must be categorically condemned. Hamas remains a threat to the people of Israel.”

Challenger Dave McCormick, a Republican, called on Casey to revoke his endorsement of Lee.

“All talk and no action. If you were strong, you would revoke your endorsement of antisemitic Summer Lee. But you’re not. So you won’t,” McCormick posted to X.

Lee was notably absent at a high-profile Kamala Harris campaign event in Pittsburgh on Thursday, where former President Barack Obama spoke.

Earlier this year, Lee was slated to speak at a CAIR gathering with antisemitic speakers but she canceled after a public outcry.

McCormick wrote before Lee canceled, “I’m calling for the resignation of Summer Lee,” McCormick said in a social media post. “Summer Lee is the headline speaker for CAIR, an organization whose leadership has spewed antisemitic hatred, an organization where the leadership has celebrated the terrible barbarism, the hatred from Oct. 7.”

McCormick criticized Casey for his vote to approve the Iran nuclear deal that allowed the theocratic state to garner billions. At the time Casey said it would enhance Israel’s safety.  And Casey did not object to the Biden-Harris administration’s withholding military support from Israel during its war with Hamas.

Jeff Bartos, a Lower Merion resident and Republican consultant who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, said, “In 2015, Senator Casey voted for the Iran deal because he feared a primary challenge. He endorsed Summer Lee and now refuses to retract it because he fears losing votes. Why is it so hard for Senator Casey simply to do the right thing – because he is weak and ineffective, and his moral ambiguity is unbefitting a United States Senator from Pennsylvania.”

Casey also refused to state his position on whether he’d vote to confirm a Biden federal judicial appointment with ties to an antisemitic center.

And he failed to strongly condemn antisemitic protests and encampments at universities around the state or call for the resignation of former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill after her problematic Congressional testimony. And a bill to fight antisemitism that Casey sponsored has gone nowhere, although earlier this year it passed the house with bipartisan support.

McCormick hopes to garner support from Pennsylvania’s Jewish community, which is traditionally a Democratic base. Jewish people comprise about 3.3 percent of the state’s population, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.

In January, McCormick and his wife visited Israel and spoke to survivors of the Hamas attack, families of the hostages, and government officials.

He has repeatedly cried antisemitism in Pennsylvania and called for the safe return of the hostages. McCormick was one of the first people to call for Magill’s resignation when she equivocated on whether it was wrong for students to call for Jewish genocide.

He also visited the Penn encampment and spoke out against efforts to intimidate and harass Jewish students. He also condemned The Philadelphia Inquirer for publishing an antisemitic cartoon.

Recently, McCormick answered questions from with Matthew Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition. at a town hall in Philadelphia.

Neither Casey nor Lee’s campaigns responded to requests for comment.

Casey and McCormick will have a second debate at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 on 6ABC in Philadelphia.

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When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) “for promoting false narratives regarding the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the State of Israel,” 22 Democrats crossed party lines to pass the resolution.

None of those Democrats were from Pennsylvania.

All three local Democrats, Reps. Madeleine Dean, Mary Gay Scanlon, and Chrissy Houlahan voted against the censure resolution, which passed the House in a 234-188 vote. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks) supported the resolution.

In particular, members of Congress were outraged by Tlaib’s use of the antisemitic phrase ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ a call to destroy the Jewish nation of Israel. More than 70 House Democrats took the unusual step of releasing a statement condemning the language as “a rallying cry for the destruction of the state of Israel.”

“We reject the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea”— a phrase used by many, including Hamas, as a rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people. We all feel deep anguish for the human suffering caused by the war in Gaza. Hamas started this war with a barbaric terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and neither the Palestinian nor Israeli people can have peace as long as Hamas still rules over Gaza and threatens Israel,” the statement read in part.

Tlaib has made no secret of her animosity toward Israel. The only Palestinian-American currently serving in Congress, Tlaib claims, “‘From the river to the sea’ is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”

Supporters of Israel note that it is a common chant of terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and is usually accompanied by maps with Israel wiped out and replaced by a nation called “Palestine.”

“This phrase means eradicating Israel and Jews. Period. Dressing it up in a new PR ploy won’t change that,” says Florida Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 

Houlahan said in a statement that, while she “wish[ed] Rep. Tlaib hadn’t defended this particular charged phrase,” she accused Republicans of also making offensive statements and argued that censoring members of Congress over “essential freedoms, including speech and expression,” is a mistake.

“As a veteran who has sworn the oath to defend the constitution many times, I support those freedoms, even if I vehemently disagree with what’s being said.”

As for the Democratic letter regarding the phrase, a spokesperson for Houlahan told DVJournal, “There was particular phrasing” in the statement with which she disagreed.

Dean issued a statement saying, “As a longtime supporter of a two-state solution — as someone who works in the pursuit of liberation for Palestinians and long-term peace for both Israelis and Palestinians — I do not believe the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ has a place in our discourse.” And, she added, she believes the phrase “has been co-opted by terrorist groups like Hamas to mean complete and total destruction of the Jewish state.”

But she also refused to sign the Democratic letter of condemnation or vote for censure.

“That’s not to say some of these censures aren’t warranted — but this is not the best use of our limited time,” Dean said via social media.

Scanlon did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

The only Pennsylvania Democrat who didn’t vote against the resolution was embattled Rep. Susan Wild (D-Allentown).

She voted “present.”