The City of Minneapolis is going to ruin under the feckless leadership of its far-left City Council and boy mayor Jacob Frey. Yet, what was the first order of business yesterday, when the City Council held its first meeting following last year’s election? An anti-Semitic resolution:
In their first meeting after being sworn in for two-year terms, council members voted to discuss a symbolic resolution on the conflict — amid chants from a crowd of people critical of Israel’s continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The council did not vote to take a formal position. But what would normally be a largely ceremonial “organizational meeting” turned into a raucous affair when five council members proposed amending the agenda to tackle the issue.
Because left-wing urban governments can’t be troubled with mundane issues like crime and potholes. The world is waiting, they believe, to hear their opinions on foreign conflicts.
The resolution being backed by several council members is anti-Israel:
“This is a complicated issue, but that doesn’t mean we should avoid it,” said Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, one of the sponsors of the draft resolution that will serve as a starting point for the council.
That draft calls for a cease-fire, humanitarian aid, release of hostages and prisoners held by both sides, and, perhaps most controversially, an end to U.S. military funding of Israel.
Other controversial aspects of the resolution can be found in the page and a half of preamble, which speaks of a “56-year illegal military and settler occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.” That draft is sponsored by Payne, newly elected Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Council Members Jeremiah Ellison [son of Attorney General Keith Ellison], Jason Chavez and Chowdhury.
City council meetings don’t normally draw much of a crowd, but pro-Hamas demonstrators were out in force yesterday.
In the eyes of these demonstrators, and perhaps a majority of the City Council, Jew-hatred is such a priority that it needs to be the city’s first item of business in the new year.
As drafts circulated last week, dueling news conferences set the stage for Monday’s acrimony. Frey said he believed common language could be found but also suggested conflict in the Middle East was well outside the wheelhouse of City Hall.
Despite his many failings, that sane observation by Mayor Frey puts him on the conservative fringe of Minneapolis city government. I think we can infer that a renaissance in that city is not to be expected any time soon.
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