White House Expresses Strong Condemnation of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar’s ‘Repugnant’ Comments: Rejects Any Notion of Two Sides

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the statements by some Democratic members of Congress “abhorrent,” telling reporters on Tuesday that “there are no two sides” when it comes to the terrorist attacks in Israel.

Jean-Pierre was asked about comments from Democratic lawmakers who “appeared to compare Hamas’ terror attack to actions previously taken by Israel.”

A trio of members of the left-wing ‘Squad’ – Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush – are under fire for their responses to the horrific attacks, which have killed at least a thousand Israelis, mostly civilians.

Omar called Israel’s efforts to fight back against the Iran-backed terror group Hamas a “war crime,” while Tlaib and Bush both called on the US to stop sending money to Israel.

“Look, I saw some of those statements this weekend and we will remain very clear: we believe they are wrong,” Jean-Pierre said. “We believe they are abhorrent and disgraceful.”

Representatives Ilhan Omar (left) and Rashida Tlaib (right) are under fire for comments they made in the wake of Saturday’s horrific Hamas terror attack on Israeli civilians

“Our condemnation belongs squarely to the terrorists who brutally murdered, raped and kidnapped hundreds and hundreds of Israelis,” she continued. ‘There can be no doubt about that. There are no two sides here, there are no two sides.’

Omar, who is Muslim and has previously been in trouble for using anti-Semitic stereotypes, initially condemned Hamas’s attack on Saturday.

“Such senseless violence will only repeat the back-and-forth cycle we have seen and cannot allow to continue,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

She also asked the international community to pray for the Palestinians as Israel responded to Hamas’ attack.

‘Reminder: Gaza has no shelters or an iron dome. Please pray for them. May peace prevail in the region and move us toward a moral awakening to concern about the human suffering we see. Palestinians are people under siege and deserve protection from the international community,” Omar said.

On Monday, Omar called out Israel’s response to the terror attack.

“The Israeli Defense Minister has called the Palestinians ‘human animals’ and promised to cut off all electricity, food and fuel to civilians in Gaza,” Omar wrote on X. “This is collective punishment, a war crime, and the United States must oppose any violation of international law if we truly support a rules-based international order.”

Rep. Cori Bush, one of the members of the left-wing ‘Squad’, called on the US to stop financing Israel

In a series of posts on X, Omar called out the Israeli response to the attack

Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat who is of Palestinian descent, posted a statement to her Instagram account saying she mourned the “Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today and every day.”

She continued that the “path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, inhumane conditions that can lead to resistance.”

“As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue,” she added.

Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, said in a statement posted on X Saturday that she was “heartbroken by the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel.”

“Our immediate focus must be saving lives, but our ultimate focus must be on a just and lasting peace that guarantees security for all in the region,” the statement continued. “Human rights violations do not justify more human rights violations, and a military response will only worsen the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis.”

“As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to end this violence and trauma by ending the U.S. government’s support for Israel’s military occupation and apartheid,” Bush added.

Representatives Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, and Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, condemned Tlaib and Bush’s comments in statements to Jewish Insider.

“Two of my colleagues called on America to end aid to Israel, despite countless images of Israeli children, women, men and the elderly, including Americans, murdered by radical, Iran-backed Hamas terrorists,” Gottheimer said in a statement .

A volley of rockets was fired into Israel from Gaza by Palestinian militants on Tuesday in the aftermath of Saturday’s brutal Hamas terror attack

“It sickens me that Israelis, as they clean up the blood of their relatives shot in their homes, feel that Congress should strip American funding from our democratic ally and let innocent civilians suffer,” the New Jersey lawmaker added to it.

Torres said U.S. assistance to Israel “must be unconditional, and never more so than at this moment of critical need.”

“Shame on anyone who glorifies ‘resistance’ in the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust,” he continued. “It’s reprehensible and abhorrent.”

Rep. Haley Stevens, a Democrat from Michigan, distanced herself from Tlaib’s comment in a statement to Jewish Insider.

“We must continue to come together as a Congress and as a country to denounce terrorism and support the Jewish state, our democratic ally, Israel,” Stevens said. ‘Israel has the right to exist and defend itself.’

Christopher Hale, a Democrat running for a US House seat from Tennessee, responded to Bush’s write post on X“Congresswoman Bush, I am a Democrat, but this is like issuing a statement mourning the deaths of the nineteen hijackers and the 2,900 murdered in the September 11 attacks.”

“The grandchildren of the Holocaust deserve stronger support against terrorism than this,” Hale said.

The Anti-Defamation League also criticized Bush’s comments.

“More than 600 Israelis have been killed, more than 200 injured and scores more are being held hostage by the terrorist organization Hamas,” the ADL said. “Taking this opportunity to smear our ally Israel and suggest that the US cut off military aid is tone-deaf, callous and unreasonable.”