This week, Arkansas GOP senator Tom Cotton, a staunch supporter of the state of Israel and an equally staunch foe of Israel’s mortal enemy Iran, introduced a Senate resolution condemning the slogan, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.”
The resolution states that the slogan and its derivations are a call for the genocide of Jewish people and the destruction of the Jewish state.
“People who invoke this disgraceful, antisemitic slogan are calling for the mass murder of Jews, whether they know it or not. On October 7, the world saw the genocidal intent of the phrase, ‘From the River to the Sea.’ No one who uses this phrase should escape condemnation,” Cotton stated.
Co-sponsors of the resolution included Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), John Barrasso (R-WY), Katie Britt (R-AL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Kennedy (R-LA), John Boozman (R-AR), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Dan Sullivan (R-AL), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) John Thune (R-S.D), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and James Lankford (R-OK).
Leading conservative British MP Suella Braverman wrote roughly one week after the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israelis that “From the river to the sea” is “a slogan that is widely understood as a demand for the destruction of Israel. Attempts to pretend otherwise are disingenuous. It means the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea- the boundaries of Israel – and comes from the dark days when most Palestinian groups sought to eliminate Israel. It was dropped by mainstream organisations after Israel and the PLO made peace with the 1993 Oslo Accords.”
“The slogan was taken up by Islamists, including Hamas, and remains a staple of antisemitic discourse,” she continued. “To hear it shouted in public causes alarm not just to Jews but to all decent people. Those who promote hate on Britain’s streets should realise that our tolerance has limits.”
Last weekend an intimidating mob marched through London chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a slogan that is widely understood as a demand for the destruction of Israel. Attempts to pretend otherwise are disingenuous. 1/3
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 16, 2023
The slogan was taken up by Islamists, including Hamas, and remains a staple of antisemitic discourse. To hear it shouted in public causes alarm not just to Jews but to all decent people. Those who promote hate on Britain’s streets should realise that our tolerance has limits. 3/3
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 16, 2023
Cotton, who served in combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has opposed Iran for years. He led the fight against the Iran nuclear deal, signed by Barack Obama.
In mid-October, just after the Hamas massacre, President Biden nominated Jack Lew as the new ambassador to Israel. Cotton fiercely criticized the choice when he was asked if the Senate should expedite the nomination, saying, “Absolutely not. Jack Lew is an Iran sympathizer who has no business being our ambassador. It’s bad for the United States. It’s bad for Israel to have an Iran sympathizer as our ambassador to that country. He helped Iran evade American sanctions, and he lied to Congress about it. He defended the Obama administration’s refusal to use our veto … in the final days of the Obama administration to protect Israel from anti-Semitic resolutions.”
On December 2, Cotton stated, “From 2009 forward and under Barack Obama first and now Joe Biden — Democratic Party’s Middle East policy has been to elevate Iran and to empower Iran, in part because of Barack Obama’s delusional ideological beliefs that it’s the United States to blame for the tensions our country has had with Iran going back to 1979. Not the crazed Ayatollah who took Americans hostage and held them more than 400 days or have been killing Americans in various ways and places ever since. But Barack Obama believed it was Iran that was faulted by the United States.”