BDS Supporter Ilhan Omar: ‘Sanctions Are … Failed Foreign Policy’

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who supports sanctions against Israel, has published an op-ed in Thursday’s Washington Post that attacks President Donald Trump’s use of sanctions as “part of a failed foreign policy playbook.”

Omar came out in support of the anti-Israel “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (BDS) movement shortly after being elected to Congress in 2018 (and after misleading voters during the campaign into believing she did not support BDS).

She also co-sponsored a House resolution earlier this year supporting the BDS movement. Israel barred her from entering the country in August, in accordance with an Israeli law that prevents BDS supporters from visiting.

In her Post op-ed, Omar attacks sanctions against Turkey — even though they led to that country accepting a cease-fire with Kurds in northern Syria — and argues that sanctions are an overly punitive and counter-productive tool:

Kim Jong Un swipes at South Korea’s progress building a nuclear submarine while inspecting his own

Poll: Young Protestants Are Officially Outnumbered by the ‘Nones’

Wild Christmas Miracle: Watch a Bona Fide Miracle in Real Time as Skydiver Gets Caught on Plane, Plummets, then Manages to Cheat Death

Biden nearly invisible in own Christmas family photo as Hunter takes center stage

Lawmakers attempt to tackle NIL, giving it the ‘old college try’

LA Garbage Crisis Is So Bad One Man Quit His Job to Pick Up the City’s Slack

And We Thought Fruitcake Was Bad: Italian Company Is 3D Printing ‘Pastries’ That Are Made of Truly Gross-Sounding Ingredients

Migrant truckers sue California DMV over canceled commercial drivers’ licenses

‘Shop With a Cop’ Sends Less Fortunate Kids on Mini Christmas Shopping Sprees With New Police Pals

The iciest moments of 2025: The 5 political feuds that froze Washington

A Growing Share of British People Are Returning to Religion – But Not Christianity

Trump lists accomplishments, says ‘Radical Left Scum’ are ‘failing badly’ in Christmas message

It’s Easy to Lose Hope, but Twitter/X Has Gotten Massive Victories We Never Would Have Gotten in the Past – and Even More Wins Are Coming

How US troops celebrate Christmas abroad

Here Are Some New Trump Tax Breaks That Could Give Republicans an Advantage in the 2026 Midterm Elections

In so much of our foreign policy, we rely on muscle memory and a limited toolbox to decide the best course of action. And, too often, sanctions regimes are ill considered, incoherent and counterproductive.

Research has shown that sanctions rarely achieve their desired goals. In the worst-case scenario, they hurt the people of a country — generally the very people we’re purporting to help — without making a dent in the country’s behavior. And in the case of human rights abusers, research suggests that more abuses typically occur with economic sanctions in place than without them.

Sanctions are not meant to be an end in themselves, but we too often use them as a lever without a plan for what comes after, whether they achieve the desired result or not.

Omar also attacks U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela. She does not attempt to explain why Israel alone is deserving of sanctions, or why the reasoning she applies to other countries does not apply to the Jewish state.