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Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged his government “got some things wrong” in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as he gave evidence at a public inquiry into his handling of the global health crisis.

In the first of two days in the witness box on Wednesday, Johnson apologised for “the pain and the loss and the suffering” caused to the families of the victims.

Testifying under oath, Johnson acknowledged that “we underestimated the scale and the pace of the challenge” when reports of a new virus began to emerge from China in early 2020.

The former prime minister has faced a barrage of criticism from former aides for alleged indecisiveness and a lack of scientific understanding during the pandemic.

Johnson – forced from office last year over lockdown-breaching parties held in Downing Street during the pandemic – accepted that “mistakes” had “unquestionably” been made but repeatedly insisted he and officials did their “level best”.

“I understand the feeling of the victims and their families and I’m deeply sorry for the pain and the loss and the suffering to those victims and their families,” he said.

Johnson, 59, was briefly interrupted as a protester was ordered from the inquiry room after refusing to sit down during the apology.

Several others were also later removed.

“Inevitably we got some things wrong,” Johnson continued, adding he took personal responsibility for all the decisions made.

“At the time I felt … we were doing our best in very difficult circumstances.”

Protesters hold placards conveying the message ‘The dead can’t hear your apologies’ during a gathering outside the UK Covid-19 Inquiry building in west London, on December 6, 2023 [HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP] (AFP)

‘Distilled’ advice

Ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the inquiry last week that he had tried to raise the alarm inside the government, saying thousands of lives could have been saved by putting the country under lockdown a few weeks earlier than the eventual date of March 23, 2020.

Britain went on to have one of Europe’s longest and strictest lockdowns, as well as one of the continent’s highest COVID-19 death tolls, with the coronavirus recorded as a cause of death for more than 232,000 people.

Grilled by inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith, Johnson acknowledged that he did not attend any of the government’s five crisis meetings on the new virus in February 2020, and only “once or twice” looked at meeting minutes from the government’s scientific advisory group. He said he relied on “distilled” advice from his science and medicine advisers.

Johnson’s understanding of specialist advice was doubted last month by his former chief scientific officer, Patrick Vallance, who said he was frequently “bamboozled” by data.

The ex-leader has also denied claims he said he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown.

His former top aide Dominic Cummings and communications chief Lee Cain both criticised their ex-boss when they gave evidence at the inquiry.

Cummings, who has faced his own criticism for writing expletive-filled WhatsApp messages, said Johnson circulated a video to his scientific advisers of “a guy blowing a special hairdryer up his nose ‘to kill Covid’.”

Cain said COVID-19 was the “wrong crisis” for his ex-boss’s skillset, adding that he became “exhausted” by his alleged indecision in dealing with the crisis.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was Johnson’s finance minister during the pandemic, is due to be questioned at the inquiry in the coming weeks.

Deleted WhatsApp messages

Johnson arrived around three hours early for the proceedings, with some suggesting he was eager to avoid relatives of the COVID-19 bereaved, who gathered outside later in the morning.

Johnson – whose lengthy written submission to the inquiry will be published later on Wednesday – insisted the “overwhelming priority” of his government had been protecting the National Health Service (NHS) and saving lives.

Rebutting evidence that Britain fared worse than its European neighbours, he argued “every country struggled with a new pandemic” while noting the UK had an “extremely elderly population” and is one of the continent’s most densely populated countries.

Johnson, who was treated in intensive care for COVID-19 early on in the pandemic, has reportedly spent weeks with his lawyers, reviewing thousands of pages of evidence ahead of his testimony.

His grilling began with questions about a failure to provide about 5,000 WhatsApp messages on his phone from late January 2020 to June 2020.

“I don’t know the exact reason,” he claimed, adding the app had “somehow” automatically erased its chat history from that period.

Asked if he had initiated a so-called factory reset, Johnson said: “I don’t remember any such thing”.

Boris Johnson apologises for ‘the pain and the loss and the suffering’ caused to the families of COVID victims.

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Escorted by four fighter jets, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare one-day lightning tour to the Middle East during which he visited the United Arab Emirates before departing for Saudi Arabia.

Putin landed on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, which is hosting the United Nations COP28 climate talks.

He was escorted to the presidential palace, where he was greeted with a 21-gun salute and a flyby of UAE military jets trailing smoke in the colours of the Russian flag.

The Gulf nation’s President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan called Putin his “dear friend”.

“I am happy to meet you again,” Sheikh Mohammed said. He later issued a statement saying they discussed “the importance of strengthening dialogue and cooperation to ensure stability and progress”.

The Russian leader echoed those sentiments.

“Our relations, largely due to your position, have reached an unprecedentedly high level,” Putin told Sheikh Mohammed. “The UAE is Russia’s main trading partner in the Arab world.”

The meeting was part of Russia’s quest to stake out a more influential role in the Middle East, with oil cooperation and the Israel-Hamas war on the agenda.

The two leaders discussed, among other things, bilateral cooperation in the energy industry and advanced technologies, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency.

Putin then jetted off to Riyadh, where he will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, TASS reported – their first face-to-face meeting since October 2019.

Putin’s meeting with the prince, known as MBS, came after oil prices fell, despite a pledge by OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as allies led by Russia, to further reduce output.

However, it was not immediately clear what Putin, who has rarely left Russia since the start of the Ukraine war, intended to raise specifically about oil or geopolitics with the crown prince of the world’s largest crude exporter.

On Thursday, Putin will host the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Moscow. Following that, the UAE will welcome Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday and Saturday.

Putin’s rare trip to the region is his first since July 2022, when he met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran.

The Russian leader has made few international trips after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March, accusing him of deporting Ukrainian children.

Neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia have signed the ICC’s founding treaty, and are not obligated to arrest him if he enters their territories.

On Israel’s two-month bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, Putin has decried the war as a failure of the United States diplomacy. He has suggested Moscow could instead play the role of a mediator due to its friendly ties with both Israel and the Palestinians.

Putin’s Middle East trip is also a part of his efforts to demonstrate that Western attempts to isolate Moscow through sanctions for its war on Ukraine have failed.

“He seems to be pretty delighted to be on the ground in Abu Dhabi,” said James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor. It is unclear how this visit will be seen in Washington, as the UAE also has close ties with the US, he added.

The Russian leader has been bolstering his partnerships with Gulf nations as Moscow faces growing isolation by the West.

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Britons should stock up on torches, battery-powered radios and candles to prepare for power cuts or cyber the deputy prime minister has said, as he announced plans for a national “resilience academy”.

Oliver Dowden suggested people stock up on analogue supplies, including first aid kits and torches in order to prepare for communication blackouts, according to The Times.

In a visit to Porton Down, the UK’s military laboratory, he said it “makes sense” to retain “analogue capabilities” in a digital age.

The visit came as he outlined plans to launch a national “resilience academy” to help people and businesses prepare for future pandemics, natural disasters and digital communication blackouts.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cyber attacks, pandemics, the misuse of artificial intelligence and extreme weather among some of the risks the UK faces Mr Dowden said as he outlined the plans in the House of Commons.

Businesses will be offered training to deal with the impact of such threats, while a new website will provide the public with “practical advice” on how to be better prepared for future risks, he said.

Mr Dowden made the announcement as part of his first annual risk and resilience statement, which he had promised to give last year when launching the government’s UK resilience framework.

He told the Commons: “The government has a role in bringing all actors together and to give them the skills they need. Today, I can announce we are developing a new UK resilience academy that will improve the skills of those groups.

“It will provide a range of learning and training opportunities for the whole of society.

“For professionals, there will be a curriculum to build skills, knowledge and networks, and a centre for excellence for exercising.

“For businesses, there will be greater guidance and particularly assistance on threats to critical national infrastructure and cyber.

“And for citizens, there will be a unified government resilience website, which will provide practical advice on how households can prepare as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the simple steps individuals can take to raise their resilience.”

Mr Dowden also said the government will develop a new volunteer hub aimed at helping authorities draw on a single pool of volunteers who want to help in future events similar to the Covid pandemic, which he said “demonstrated the overwhelming community spirit” of the UK.

Labour frontbencher Pat McFadden welcomed the measures but asked what the government is doing to bolster resilience in energy supplies and the “public estate”, as well as in elections.

He said: “Why is it that the government’s new policy is to roll back on the transition mandated by its own legislation for net zero, and prolong a reliance on international fossil fuel markets? For these failures, the British public has paid a heavy price.

“And how will the government increase resilience in the public estate? Schools’ capital budgets cut back under this prime minister’s watch while he was chancellor. School roofs falling in, disrupting children’s education.”

He also pressed ministers to implement recommendations of Parliament’s intelligence and security committee, aimed at preventing Russia and other states from interfering with upcoming elections.

Source: Itv.com

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China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) has unveiled plans for what could potentially become the world’s largest nuclear-powered containership.

Plans for the 24,000-TEU-class ship was unveiled Tuesday at Marintec China expo in Shanghai. The vessel will utilize a fourth-generation Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) to generate electricity.

“The ultra-large nuclear container ship is designed to truly achieve ‘zero emissions’ during the ship’s operating cycle,” CSSC said in a Weibo post.

Classification society DNV was reportedly on hand for the launch ceremony to issue an approval-in-principle to CSSC shipyard Jiangnan Shipbuilding.

“This ship type has high safety, the reactor operates at high temperature and low pressure, can avoid core melting in principle, and has anti-proliferation and inherent safety features,” CSSC’s Weibo post said (translated using Google Translate).

Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) are a type of small scale modular nuclear reactors that use a liquid mixture of salts as both the fuel and the coolant. The fuel, which is dissolved in the salt, allows for better control and efficiency in the nuclear reaction, providing improved safety and potential for higher fuel utilization.

Considering that nuclear energy has been supplying zero-emission power to naval and government vessels for over six decades, the shipping industry is exploring the use of nuclear propulsion for commercial ships in an effort to increase efficiency and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint to meet international targets.

A study by classification society ABS released earlier this year suggested that nuclear propulsion in commercial marine vessels, specifically a 14,000 TEU containership and a Suezmax tanker, can increase cargo capacity and operational speed while eliminating CO2 emissions and the need for refueling over a 25-year lifespan.

Christopher Wiernicki, Chairman and CEO of international classification society ABS, believes nuclear propulsion is key to achieving a net-zero world.

“A net-zero world is more easily realized through nuclear propulsion, and we are putting in place the foundations for that future today. Turning this into a practical reality will require significant public sector support and ABS is well placed to bring governments and industry together,” he said upon ABS’ release of the study in July.

“Advanced or small modular reactors address many of the issues traditionally associated with nuclear for commercial maritime use, with enhanced safety and efficiency, reduced cost and waste and proliferation prevention. Nevertheless, many questions need to be answered and it is critical that industry evaluate these technologies with a laser focus on safety,” he said.

Source: Gcaptain.com

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A massive solar energy project that sparked a backlash in Adams County has lost a second court fight.

The Commonwealth Court marked its decision “precedential” when it upheld a lower court ruling that denied a key permit to the Brookview Solar project in Mount Joy Township, outside Gettysburg.

That means the decision could inform future cases in which communities fight proposed development.

The opinion focused mainly on local zoning laws.

Tom Newhart, who owns an inn and a farm next to where the company planned to build, said there’s a lesson for everyone in the ruling.

“One should look at one’s ordinance and work on it to get something that makes sense. Not to say you’re totally blocking out anything, but put some restrictions on there to protect the public,” Newhart said.

Newhart and his neighbors had been fighting the project since 2019.

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For those who are confused why the US has spent tens of billions to keep the Ukraine-Russia war going on and on (setting aside of course money-laundering by the Biden crime family) here is your answer: as  FreightWaves’ Greg Miller reports, the unstated mission of the US military-industrial complex in the lead up and following the Ukraine war, was to unseat and replace Russia as the largest source of European energy, both crude and nat gas, and in the process push US crude exports to record highs, driven by a surge in European exports.

Indeed, as diplomats convene at the United Nations’ COP 28 climate change summit, fossil fuel production and consumption are hitting new highs, and tanker owners are in prime position to profit from rising trade flows.

The Biden administration is a leading proponent of decarbonization, yet the U.S. is pumping out record volumes of hydrocarbons. America is on track to be the world’s largest producer and exporter of natural gas this year, as well as the leading exporter of refined products and liquefied petroleum gas.

There are also big wins — for energy producers and shipowners, not decarbonization advocates — on the crude oil front.

The U.S. produced 13.2 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in September, according to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration. That is the country’s highest monthly production level ever.

And not only is America producing more crude, it is exporting a larger share of the crude it produces, further boosting volumes aboard tankers bound for Europe and Asia.

Seaborne crude exports up 19% vs. 2022

Exports of U.S. crude were banned between 1975 and 2015. For 40 years, U.S. production could only be sold overseas if it was refined first, then exported as petroleum products.

The end of the ban dramatically increased market opportunities for U.S. production, thereby stimulating higher output — creating more business for oil companies and tanker owners.

That upward momentum continues. Seaborne crude exports are tracked by commodity intelligence provider Kpler. In January-November, its data shows that U.S. seaborne crude exports averaged 4 million b/d, an all-time high and up 19% year on year.

Exports in November averaged 4.45 million b/d, the second-highest monthly average on record, just slightly below the peak of 4.46 million bpd in March.

Volumes rise sharply to both Europe and Asia

The Panama Canal is wreaking havoc on many cargo supply chains, but it has virtually no effect on U.S. crude exports.

U.S. crude exports to Asia are loaded on very large crude carriers (VLCCs; tankers that carry 2 million barrels) via ship-to-ship transfers in the U.S. Gulf. VLCCs are too large to transit either the Panama or Suez canals; they use the Cape of Good Hope.

U.S. exports to Europe are shipped aboard Aframaxes (750,000-barrel capacity), Suezmaxes (1 million-barrel capacity) and VLCCs.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Europe has hiked its purchases of U.S. crude to help offset banned Russian supply. According to Kpler data, an average of 1.83 million b/d of U.S. crude flowed to Europe in January-November, up 26% from the 2022 full-year average.

Europe’s share of total U.S. crude exports has risen to 46% this year compared to 37% in 2021, the year prior to the invasion, while Asia’s share is 41%, down from 47% in 2021.

“In volumetric terms, the story has been all about Europe this year,” Reid I’Anson, senior commodity analyst at Kpler, told FreightWaves. “Europe continues to grow increasingly reliant on U.S. energy — not just LNG [liquefied natural gas] but across the board.”

Despite the pull of Europe, U.S. crude exports to Asia have also continued to escalate. According to Kpler data, exports to Asia are averaging a record-high 1.65 million b/d year to date, up 15% from last year and up 26% from 2021.

Rising volumes to Asia translate into profitable business for VLCC owners. Brokerage True North Chartering counted 40 spot VLCC cargoes loading in the U.S. Gulf in both October and November, matching the prior monthly high in April.

Source: Zerohedge.com

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The world’s greatest Ponzi scheme is imploding. The wind and solar scam was never going to last. Built on lies and running on subsidies the so-called wind and solar ‘industries’ are being belted from all sides. Rising costs, shrinking subsidies and hostile communities have taken the gloss from the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.

This little example provided by Paul Homewood is only the latest in a string of financial collapses, scrap projects and plummeting share prices being experienced by those who contend that the transition to an all-wind and sun-powered future is ‘inevitable’.

What is different about this one is that the PPA forces the wind farm to buy power on the spot market, when the wind does not provide enough:

In other words, the wind farm is obliged to pay the costs of its own intermittency. And, of course, when wind power is low, spot market prices rise.

This highlights the worthlessness of wind power, as when there is plenty of wind, the value of the product is low.

In this country it is energy consumers who have to pay the costs of intermittency, something which needs changing.

Not a Lot of People Know That

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Washington says ‘no higher priority’ than effort to secure release from Russia of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met families of captives freed from Gaza in an encounter described as tense by the Israeli media.

Tuesday’s meeting came amid intensified fighting in the besieged Gaza Strip following the end of a seven-day pause in hostilities that enabled the return of more than 100 captives, who had been taken by the Palestinian armed group Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel, in exchange for some 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Israel said on Tuesday that some 138 captives remained in the territory.

Several of the relatives who attended the meeting left bitterly critical of the government.

Dani Miran, whose son Omri was among those taken captive, said he was so disgusted he had walked out in the middle of the meeting.

“I won’t go into the details of what was discussed but this entire performance was ugly, insulting, messy,” he told Israel’s Channel 13, saying the government had made a “farce” out of the issue.

“They say, ‘We’ve done this, we’ve done that’. [Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya] Sinwar is the one who returned our people, not them. It angers me that they say that they dictated things. They hadn’t dictated a single move.”

Israel says several women and children remain in Hamas’s hands, while families with adult male relatives in captivity have been calling for them not to be forgotten.

“It was a very turbulent meeting, many people yelling,” said Jennifer Master, whose partner Andrey is still being held by Hamas.

“We are all trying to make sure our loved ones get home. There are those who want the women who are left or the children who are left, and those who say we want the men,” Master told Israel’s Channel 12.

Family members called for immediate action to secure the release of the remaining captives.

“I asked Netanyahu if the primary objective of the war was to bring back the hostages,” Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of 23-year-old hostage Romi Gonen, told Israeli television after the meeting.

“He answered me directly: ‘Yes’,” she said. “I am happy with his answer, but only reality counts.”

Leshem Gonen said she was concerned that captives were being “severely mistreated — women, young girls, and men too”.

Speaking at a news conference afterwards, Netanyahu said he had heard stories that “broke my heart” and included thirst and hunger, as well as physical and mental abuse.

“I heard and you also heard, about sexual assault and cases of brutal rape unlike anything,” he added.

Israel has said it is investigating several cases of alleged sexual assault and rape committed by Hamas fighters during their October 7 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed.

Witnesses and medical experts have said some fighters committed rape and other attacks before killing the victims, although the extent of the sexual violence remains unknown. Hamas has denied carrying out such assaults.

Israel began an intense bombardment of Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s attack, saying it wanted to destroy the group and free the captives. The attacks have killed more than 16,200 people in Gaza, according to Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2006.

Some families, meanwhile, appeared to be losing patience with Netanyahu’s government.

“We have faith in our children, that they are strong and they will overcome this, and we want our government and the military to do what they do as fast as they can — as fast as possible — to start the negotiations,” said Idit Ohel, the mother of 21-year-old hostage Alon, during an online panel organised by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“Sixty days is too much,” she said, her voice rising. “I don’t want 61 days, I don’t want 65 days. I want them back now.”

Israel withdrew its negotiators from Qatar on December 2, blaming an “impasse” after failing to make progress in talks aimed at securing a renewed pause in hostilities.

Afterwards, Hamas said it would not release any more captives until the war in Gaza was ended.

Some accuse government of a “farce” as they demand more action to secure the release of the 138 captives still in Gaza.

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Washington, DC – Palestinian rights advocates are denouncing a congressional resolution that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, calling it a “dangerous” measure that aims to curb free speech and distract from the war in Gaza.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the measure on Tuesday in a 311-14 vote, with 92 Democratic members abstaining by voting “present”.

The symbolic resolution was framed as an effort to reject the “drastic rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world”.

But it contained language saying that the House “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism”. It also condemned the slogan “From the River to the Sea”, which rights advocates understand to be an aspirational call for equality in historic Palestine.

Instead, the resolution described it as a “rallying cry for the eradication of the State of Israel and the Jewish people”. It also characterised demonstrators who gathered in Washington, DC, last month to demand a ceasefire as “rioters”. They “spewed hateful and vile language amplifying antisemitic themes”, the resolution alleges.

Husam Marajda, an organiser with the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), said the resolution is an effort to “cancel” Palestinian rights advocates by accusing them of bigotry and labelling their criticism of Israeli policies as hate speech.

“It’s super dangerous. It sets a really, really bad precedent. It’s aiming to criminalise our liberation struggle and our call for justice and peace and equality,” Marajda told Al Jazeera.

What is Zionism?

Zionism is a nationalist ideology that helped establish the state of Israel in 1948. It contends that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in historic Palestine, which Zionists view as their ancestral homeland.

The rise of Zionism in the late 1800s was partly in response to anti-Semitism in Europe.

But many Palestinians reject Zionism as a driver of the settler colonialism that dispossessed them during the founding of Israel. Israel’s establishment coincided with the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forcibly driven from their homes in what is known as the Nakba, the Arabic word for “catastrophe”.

While Palestinians view themselves as the native people of the land, Zionists say Jewish people have historic and biblical claims to what is today Israel.

Some hardline Zionists, including members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, argue that the present-day Palestinian territories — the West Bank and Gaza — also belong to Israel.

At a United Nations General Assembly speech in November, Netanyahu held up a map of Israel that showed the country stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing the West Bank, Gaza and Syria’s Golan Heights.

Some Palestinians also blame Zionism for Israeli abuses against them, which amount to apartheid, according to leading human rights groups like Amnesty International.

In the US, Palestinian rights supporters have long rejected conflations of Zionism with Judaism, noting that many Jewish Americans identify as anti-Zionist.

“Opposing the policies of the government of Israel and Netanyahu’s extremism is not antisemitic. Speaking up for human rights and a ceasefire to save lives should never be condemned,” Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said in a social media post on Tuesday, explaining her vote against the resolution.

‘Extremely dangerous’

Marajda stressed that Palestinians have a right to oppose Zionism, a position he said has nothing to do with prejudice.

“This resolution is saying that if you’re critical of this Israeli government, essentially you hate Jewish people,” he said. “I didn’t choose — the Palestinians didn’t choose — their occupiers.”

The resolution is one of several pro-Israel motions approved by Congress since October 7. Most US legislators have expressed unwavering support for Israel amid its offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 16,000 Palestinians.

Yasmine Taeb, the legislative and political director at MPower Change, a Muslim American advocacy group, called the resolution “extremely dangerous”.

“It unequivocally equates any criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism. Essentially it smears millions and millions of people demonstrating globally in support of a lasting ceasefire, including Jewish-American organisations,” Taeb told Al Jazeera.

The advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) was also quick to denounce the congressional measure.

“Falsely stating that anti-Zionism is antisemitism conflates all Jews with the Israeli state and endangers our communities. It fuels deadly violence and censorship campaigns against Palestinians,” JVP Action said in a social media post.

“We are proud anti-Zionists Jews. We refuse to pit communities against one another.”

All House Republicans but one — Congressman Thomas Massie — voted in favour of the resolution. But Democrats were split on the measure: 13 voted against it and 95 for it, on top of the 92 who abstained with a “present” vote.

Jerrold Nadler, a key Jewish House Democrat, had decried the resolution on Monday, noting that some Jewish communities oppose Zionism for religious reasons and should not be branded as anti-Semitic.

“While most anti-Zionism is indeed anti-Semitic, the authors, if they were at all familiar with Jewish history and culture, should know about Jewish anti-Zionism that was, and is, expressly not anti-Semitic,” he said.

Democrats divided

Nadler accused Republicans of using support for Israel to advance “partisan wedging at the expense of the Jewish community”. Still, he did not vote against the resolution on Tuesday. He opted for “present”.

The vote highlighted the divisions among the Democrats over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. While the party’s progressive wing has pressed for a ceasefire, President Joe Biden and the majority of congressional Democrats have avoided such calls.

But that could signal a disconnect from the party base. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in November indicated 62 percent of Democratic voters considered Israel’s response “excessive”. Two in three survey respondents backed a ceasefire.

Republicans, meanwhile, have led motions that critics say are designed to bring the Democratic schism to the fore. Last month, for instance, they moved to censure Congresswoman Tlaib, the only Palestinian in the House, over her comments on the Gaza war.

Conservatives have accused Democrats who vote against such measures of being anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic.

That creates a political dilemma for Democratic lawmakers. If they support the bills, they risk upsetting large segments of their base, but if they oppose them, they open themselves to Republican attacks.

Taeb said the lawmakers who voted “present” did not want to go on the record as equating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, but at the same time, they wanted to be seen as countering anti-Semitism.

“It’s just politics,” she told Al Jazeera.

Tuesday’s resolution was co-sponsored by Congressman Max Miller, who has faced outrage in recent weeks for saying, “We’re going to turn [Palestine] into a parking lot.”

Taeb said the fact that lawmakers who have promoted anti-Palestinian hate are championing such resolutions shows that Tuesday’s measure is not about combating prejudice.

“The intent of these members is to smear and silence peace activists calling to end the massacre of Palestinian children and families.”

Palestinian rights advocates denounce a Republican-led measure as push to smear Israel’s critics amid the war in Gaza.

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