Can Ilhan Omar revive the Squad after AOC’s betrayal?

The nine Congress members who were widely heralded as a vanguard of progressive politics within the US House of Representatives, earning a nickname the Squad, are no longer on the same page.

Over the question of Israel’s war on Gaza and Palestine’s freedom, the so-called Squad seems to be falling apart.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), the left-leaning Democrat from New York, co-founded the Squad with three other Congresswomen of colour after the 2018 midterm elections mainly to counter then President Donald Trump’s regressive policies on the economy, immigration, minorities and women’s reproductive rights.

Like Ocasio-Cortez, other co-founders—Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts—won their respective House seats on the Democratic Party tickets. Yet they carved out a left-leaning niche for themselves by championing the causes that are usually considered far-left by mainstream Democratic politicians.

In the process, they managed to nudge the whole Democratic Party left of the centre—a shift that proved critical in Joe Biden’s victory against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Squad more than doubled its strength in Congress during the following years by onboarding firebrands like Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York.

However, the future of the Squad appears to be in jeopardy now.

At the heart of the anticipated unravelling of the coalition is the Gaza war in which Israel has killed more than 40,000 people, mostly women and children, since last October.

The nine members of the Squad have been by far the loudest voices in Congress who’ve called for a ceasefire in Gaza. As a result, the group appears to be under a two-pronged attack from their rightwing detractors from within the Democratic Party and outside.

On the one hand, the rabble-rousing Ocasio-Cortez is getting too close to the party’s centrist establishment, which is undermining the very firebrand politics that propelled her to the national political stage six years ago.

On the other hand, two of the nine members of the Squad have just lost their primary contests, which means they won’t be able to run for Congress in November from the Democratic Party’s platform.

Implosion of the Squad

For the first time in its six years of existence, cracks appeared within the Squad after cofounder Ocasio-Cortez addressed the Democratic National Convention earlier this week.

In a forceful endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that the vice president is “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza”.

Her claim flies in the face of facts. Irrespective of public statements to the contrary, the Biden-Harris administration has not only been vetoing UN resolutions for a ceasefire but also providing Israel with arms and ammunition to reduce Gaza to rubble.

Soon afterwards, fellow Squad member Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ripped into Ocasio-Cortez.

“It’s been unconscionable for me the last 10 months to witness my colleagues in this administration refusing to recognise the genocidal war that is taking place in Gaza,” she said on August 21 in apparent response to Ocasio-Cortez’s speech on August 19.

Using the same turn of phrase as her fellow Squad member, Omar said “working tirelessly” for the Gaza ceasefire is “really not a thing”.

“They should be ashamed of themselves.”

In contrast to Ocasio-Cortez, other Squad members have openly questioned the pro-Israel policy of the Biden-Harris administration—and paid a heavy price for it too.

Analysts attribute the obvious toning down of Ocasio-Cortez’s stance on the Gaza war to her so-called co-option by the party mainstream. She is now a vice ranking member of the powerful House Oversight Committee, a coveted position that usually goes to a relatively more experienced legislator.

Ocasio-Cortez—who was among the first members of Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza—also lost the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America in July. The group said it expected her to demonstrate a “higher level of commitment” to Palestinian liberation.

Money beats good politics

Earlier this month, Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri lost in a Democratic primary after an “expensive race” in which the Israeli lobby poured in $8.5 million to prop up her opponent.

The Squad member was targeted after repeated criticism of Israel's genocidal war. In October, Bush said Israel was conducting an “ethnic cleansing campaign” in Gaza.

She said Israel was guilty of a “war crime” for collectively punishing the Palestinians for Hamas’s incursion into Israel on October 7.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York, another member of the Squad, lost his primary race in June to a pro-Israel centrist candidate. Losing the party primary contest means the outspoken critic of Israel would sit out the next electoral cycle for highlighting the plight of Palestinians in the US House of Representative.

His opponent filled airwaves and mailboxes with negative ads, thanks to $15 million campaign finance from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Despite setbacks that the Squad has faced in recent months, the coalition of progressive legislators is expected to survive the November election cycle.

For instance, Omar of Minnesota won the primary race and is expected to succeed in the Congressional election in November.

Ocasio-Cortez is “less and less the fulcrum of the Squad,” the Newsweek magazine quoted Mark Shanahan, associate professor of politics at the University of Surrey, as saying.

“If [the Squad] survives, it is quite likely that Representative Omar will emerge as its next focal point.”