The support for a boycott of Israel by the first two Muslim women in the US Congress has opened a breach in the Democratic Party and threatens to create a fissure in the ironclad US-Israeli alliance.
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib made their debut in the House of Representatives in January openly declaring their support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, or BDS.
The movement, launched more than a decade ago and modeled on the 1960s movement to pressure South Africa over apartheid, calls for people and groups to sever economic, cultural and academic ties to Israel, and to support sanctions against the Jewish state.
But for Israel partisans -- including many Democrats and Republicans in Congress -- BDS smacks of anti-Semitism and poses a threat to Israel.
Tlaib, 42, has Palestinian roots and represents a district of suburban Detroit, Michigan that is home to thousands of Muslims.
She argues that BDS can draw a focus on "issues like the racism and the international human rights violations by Israel right now."
"Because I know that if we see that in another society we would criticize it -- we do that to Iran, any other place that sort of upholds its religion."
Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin urged his colleagues "to reject the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred that we are starting to see infiltrating American politics and even the halls of Congress."
Amy Elman, a political science professor at Kalamazoo College, said anti-Semitism should not be used as a "political football by any party."
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