The loud and frequent condemnations of Hamas and its American supporters in Congress have been welcome and reassuring thus far. The far smaller number (thankfully) of calls to either support Hamas or suppress Israel have been significantly fewer in number. But there are still a number of members who have been curiously silent and you can barely find any on-the-record comments from them regarding the current war in Gaza. As The Daily Caller discovered, those representatives seem to have a couple of things in common. First, most of them are Democrats from vulnerable swing districts where Joe Biden didn’t perform as well in 2020. But we may be able to ascertain their feelings from the other thing most of them have in common. They’ve taken a lot of campaign funds from pro-Hamas “Squad” members. And one of the most generous donors was Pramila Jayapal of Michigan.

House Democrats in toss-up seats took campaign donations from anti-Israel “squad” lawmakers during the most recent election cycle, according to campaign finance data.

Vulnerable Democratic lawmakers in Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and New York have taken donations from Political Action Committees (PAC) tied to anti-Israel “squad” Democrats such as Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

Democrat Mary Peltola took thousands from Jayapal’s Build Our Movement PAC after upsetting Sarah Palin to win Alaska’s congressional seat. Peltola has put out a couple of statements in support of “Israel’s right to defend itself” and she managed to vote in favor of the recent resolution condemning Hamas. (Jayapal voted present.) But Peltola has largely flown under the radar otherwise. She’s also firmly aligned herself with the Starbucks workers’ union, which condemned Israel shortly after the October 7 attacks.

The Daily Caller found Democrats from a dozen other states who took cash from Build Our Movement and are facing tight poll numbers heading into the 2024 elections. The rest of the “Squad” members have also been doling out cash. It’s worth noting that it’s really not unusual for members in either party who are considered to be in “safe” districts to share their contributions with colleagues facing tough and potentially expensive election campaigns. Also, all of the contributions in question were made prior to the October 7 Hamas invasion, so drawing direct lines is challenging.

But with that said, how difficult should it be for any elected official to condemn Hamas after all we’ve seen? Taking that one step further, is it still unthinkable to call out a member of your own party who actively condemns Israel and excuses Hamas as some sort of “oppressed victim?” That would seem to raise questions about your own moral clarity in my opinion.

Of course, for most of the Squad, none of this is new territory. You can go back to Biden’s first year in office and find the same people complaining about American support for Israel, particularly when it comes to military aid. In May of that year, Rashida Tlaib took to the House floor and said that based on statements from Biden and Antony Blinken, “you would hardly know Palestinians existed at all.”

During that same session, Ilhan Omar referred to Bibi Netanyahu as an “ethno-nationalist leader”. Cori Bush chimed in to condemn supposed “state terror” and “occupation.” And all of that was happening in response to some military aid for Israel being included in the spending bill under consideration at the time. Now, even after all we’ve seen since October 7, this same crew is singing the same old songs. But a lot of Democrats have no trouble taking their campaign money anyway. We should really be asking ourselves why and if that’s actually okay.