Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) is among those Democrats calling on President Joe Biden to freeze the $6 billion to Iran, especially after reports from the Wall Street Journal covered Iran’s support for Hamas’ attack on Israel over the weekend. While Allred could be looking to appear more moderate as he looks to run against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) next November, this call to action is complicated by a letter be signed onto in June 2021, as well as the money he’s taken from J Street, an anti-Israel group, and his support for an anti-Israeli Muslim pastor.
Allred posted his call for Biden to freeze the funds over his official X account on Wednesday afternoon, with the senator posting in reply wanting to know about the funds sent to Gaza.
“What about the millions you urged Biden to send to Gaza, even though the admin concluded that there was a “HIGH RISK” that $$ would be used by Hamas for terrorism?,” Cruz asked. “Should that $$ be halted too? (Hint: yes.)”
From his campaign account on Wednesday, Allred also shared a post claiming that Cruz was “jeopardizing our national security— and putting Israel at risk.”
Cruz had discussed his concerns with such funding at length during the Monday edition of “The Verdict,” the podcast he co-hosts with Ben Ferguson, as we covered at the time.
The senator was passionate, not holding back as he charged the Biden administration with funding terrorism, going easy on Iran, and not being supportive enough of Israel. He came armed with receipts, though.
As the episode discussed in part, explained in a Tuesday article:
The senator became quite passionate as he laid out how “the Biden administration also directly funded Hamas,” pointing to another example of them discussing “something also the corporate media won’t tell you.”
“So as soon as the Biden administration came into office, they immediately began flooding money into the Gaza Strip. At the time, the Biden administration knew for a fact that it would fund terrorism and in fact, one internal document, a Biden official wrote that there was a high risk that Hamas would potentially derive benefit from the money that they were sending, but they wanted to do it anyway. And so what did they do? They actually exempted themselves from American laws against funding terrorism,” Cruz charged.
As Townhall has covered, and as Cruz discussed, the document read in part, “due to its overall strength, and level of control over Gaza, we assess there is a high risk that Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from US assistance to Gaza.”
However, as Cruz stressed, the Biden administration actually “waived U.S. laws that ban funding terrorists because they are so opposed to Israel.” He went on to argue that “they are so in favor of Palestinian terrorists that they wanted to send money to Gaza even though they knew it would fund Hamas.”
“Those rockets that are flying into Israel, you can thank Joe Biden for them,” Cruz pointed out, bringing it all back to the attacks against Israel from over the weekend.
The senator also brought up the role that he played in opposing that money, though many House Democrats insisted in it being released. “And by the way, I fought tooth and nail against sending that money. I led a letter that was joined by 17 other senators, all Republicans, calling on the Biden administration not to send that money. And I gotta tell you, at the same time 145 House Democrats sent a letter, actually slightly later, urging that the money be released,” Cruz shared, putting the blame on those House Democrats. “And so this was every one of those Democrats that signed those letters? Well, congratulations. Aren’t you glad you sent money to Gaza that went to Hamas that is being used now to fund murder and kidnapping and horrific war crimes?”
That April 2021 letter from Cruz and other Republican senators had demanded a halt to that aid sent “into territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas” until the Biden administration could ensure that the necessary aid was not being provided to PA or Hamas. It never came.
“It is unacceptable that the Biden-Harris administration would seek to dampen public debate over these vast sums of general assistance. Since 1993, the U.S. government provided more than $6.3 billion to the Palestinians with the aims of, first, advancing the Palestinians’ capacity to build a state and, second, insulating and distancing Palestinian governance from terrorism,” the letter read at one point. “Measured by the degree to which they have achieved those aims, U.S. programs have not just failed but have been counterproductive, with the money facilitating terrorist incitement and making its way to terrorists. In just the last few weeks, U.S. government documents and announcements by the Palestinians have made clear those failings were systematic and structural.”
Not only did those reassurances not come, but in June 2021, Allred was one of the 145 who signed onto a letter to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) demanding aid be sent to Gaza.
Again, though, as Cruz mentioned during the Monday episode, and has been reported, it was revealed in an internal document that “due to its overall strength, and level of control over Gaza, we assess there is a high risk that Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from US assistance to Gaza.”
Even more complicated is that the Washington Free Beacon reported in May, weeks after he announced his run, “Cruz Challenger Who Says He’s Pro-Israel Rakes in $200K From Anti-Israel Group,” with the headline referring to J Street, a group funded by George Soros.
As the report noted:
Rep. Colin Allred (D., Texas) has taken nearly $200,000 in campaign donations from J Street, which routinely criticizes Israel for defending itself against Palestinian terrorism. The group has given Allred, who claims to be a “strong supporter of the State of Israel,” just under $8,000 since March, and $118,025 in total since 2018, according to federal election disclosures. It has also established an Allred donation page on its website, which also serves as a forum for attacks on Cruz and his pro-Israel policies.
...J Street, which is funded by liberal billionaire George Soros, advocates restricting U.S. aid to Israel and has positioned itself as one of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leading adversaries. The group accused Netanyahu earlier this year of “building and bulldozing [his] way to permanent, undemocratic control of the West Bank.” The group, which employs notoriously terrible pumpkin carvers, boasts the support of notable anti-Zionist figures like the author Peter Beinart.
Allred’s campaign also boasts that the candidate’s “bipartisan and consistent record” on Israel “includes voting to condemn the BDS movement.” But while Allred has pushed to defund universities that back the BDS movement, he has twice voted against congressional measures urging the United States government to condemn Israel boycotts.
In 2019, Allred voted against a Republican-led measure that stated it is “in the national security interest of the United States to condemn and oppose” the BDS movement. That same year, he voted against an amendment that would have required pension plans to abstain from Israel boycotts if they are to be eligible for federal funding.
Allred also has pushed to restart U.S. aid to the Palestinians, even as the State Department admits that this money is used to pay imprisoned terrorists and incite violence against Jews.
The congressman may also run into issues over his support for a Muslim preacher in 2019, as he appeared alongside and praised Imam Omar Suleiman. The picture was posted by Allred himself to his official account, and still remains up on his account.
Allred additionally came under scrutiny from the pro-Israel community in 2019 when he expressed support for a Muslim preacher who has described Israel as an “apartheid state.”
Allred posted a picture of himself on Twitter alongside Imam Omar Suleiman, saying that, “now more than ever,” Suleiman’s “message of peace, unity, and support for our fellow Americans is needed.”
Suleiman has called for an “intifada,” or violent uprising, against Israel and accused the Jewish state of waging a “genocide” against the Palestinians, according to the Washington Examiner. The preacher also defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) after she made a string of anti-Semitic comments accusing Jews of controlling politics with money.
Suleiman’s X feed is full of posts not just lamenting the loss of life in Gaza, but blaming Israel. This is despite how Suleiman’s X bio claims to be someone who is a “bridge builder.” A pinned post from Monday laments "[t]he daily humiliation of occupation.” Still more posts accuses Israel of “war crime[s]” and “apartheid.”
One post from Tuesday mentions "[t]he devil in his own words,” referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Another post, from Monday, tagged Netanyahu’s own account and claimed he “is tooting his own genocidal horn.” The post’s thread also went on to lament Secretary of State Antony Blinken deleting a post supporting a cease-fire, one of no less than two problematic posts that the Biden administration has had to delete with regards to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
On October 7, Suleiman posted a particularly problematic post. “When Israel ‘defends itself’ against the Palestinians, it’s response is as Inhumane & cruel as the apartheid it skillfully operates on a daily basis. Entire families get annihilated & the world says nothing. The only way to end this vicious cycle is to end the vicious occupation,” he claimed, as he shared a VICE video.
There appears to be no post expressing concern about the loss of life that the Israelis experienced, as Hamas terrorists not only killed women, the elderly, and children--including infants--but also kidnapped, tortured, raped, and desecrated corpses. At least 27 Americans have been killed by Hamas, as of Thursday, and the number has been going up.
The official Israel X account also released images of babies beheaded and burned by Hamas, covered earlier on Thursday, embeding those disturbing images that are nevertheless important for the world to see to inform people about such barbarity.
Forecasters still consider the race to be “Likely Republican,” though, and there are numerous Democratic incumbents who are considered far more vulnerable, especially and including in Montana, West Virginia, and Ohio. When it comes to both the seats that Democrats are defending and Republicans are defending, the 2024 map looks to be particularly favorable to the GOP, especially in comparison to 2022.
