Omar OK With Aid To Israel If Husband’s Consulting Firm Gets Percentage

Provisions of the arrangement mandate that the monies cover only US-manufactured products and US-based services.

Washington, December 23 – One of the small number of opponents to American funding of Israeli military procurement and development conceded today that her principled stance against the practice could reverse if, as on at least one occasion involving her election campaign, some of the funds found their way to the operation where her spouse works.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) told reporters yesterday following the passage of the Defense Department’s annual spending bill that while she voted against the proposal owing to its inclusion of hundreds of millions of dollars toward Israeli defense needs, she might be persuaded to change her position if her husband Tim Mynett’s E Street Group consulting firm could obtain a percentage of that funding, following the model that her 2020 reelection campaign used in directing $2.78 million in contracts to that outfit.

“The moral position demands that we refrain from funding the ongoing human rights abuses that Israel perpetrates daily against Palestinians under brutal, illegal military occupation,” she stated in a post-vote interview. “Yes, the bill that passed despite my principled opposition – and that of a handful of others, and this does them credit – contains much that is good, but that all pales in comparison to the cardinal sin of funding anything involving the Israeli military. So solid is this ethical principle that the only thing I can contemplate might outweigh it is if an appreciable chunk of the funds somehow get diverted to the E Street Group. Then I might be willing to swallow this pill.”

Congressional sources noted that the funding for Israeli military acquisition and development ends up funding American jobs, as the provisions of the arrangement mandate that the monies cover only US-manufactured products and US-based services. In keeping with that provision, Representative Omar observed, her husband’s firm qualifies as a legitimate entity to receive such monies.

“I’m sure AIPAC can use them,” mused the lawmaker. “I’m not entirely sure that’s a legitimate ‘defense’ expenditure under the funding rules, since, my aides now inform me, AIPAC isn’t an Israeli defense entity, and isn’t even funded or run by Israel, so it’ll have to be even more indirect. In any case, I’m sure we can make it work the way my campaign handled it, just doing it and weathering the right-wing storm of criticism. I’ve got the ‘Islamophobia!’ trump card to play, and that’s always good for some sympathetic coverage in the mainstream media if it attracts too much scrutiny.”

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