Foreign policy is not an abstraction for Ilhan Omar. It is her life.
While Republican members of Congress propose to wall off the United States and many Democrats are shy about engaging with global issues, the Democratic Representative from Minnesota maintains a passionate sense of connection with the rest of the world.

She is an immigrant, and a refugee. She is a Somali American woman who proudly identifies as an intersectional feminist. Her criticisms of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians have drawn a great deal of attention, including bipartisan rebukes. Yet little note has been made of the fact that this Muslim Congresswoman has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of human rights abuses in a number of predominantly Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Even less noticed has been her focus on poverty and injustice in Central America, and her ardent advocacy on behalf of women’s rights and LGBTQ rights in places like Brunei....

Support for Omar has also come from those who want that debate. When Omar was accused of anti-Semitism earlier this year for a controversial tweet she made criticizing lobbying on behalf of Israel, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the pro-Israel, pro-peace group J Street, came to her defense: “What I see is Republicans who, for partisan purposes, are trying to drive a wedge in the Democratic Party.”