We are three Jewish members of the US House of Representatives. One of us served 20 years as an officer in the US Navy, deploying six times in defense of our nation. She is married to a Navy veteran. Another is the father of a current Navy officer who in his first two years of service deployed three times for his country. One is the grandson of a World War II veteran who fought the Nazis and is married to a woman whose grandparents lost their entire family in the Holocaust. Our loyalty to our country runs deep.

That is why we were disappointed by the comments of our colleague Congresswoman Ilhan Omar suggesting supporters of Israel “push for allegiance to a foreign country.” The dual loyalty canard is one of the more common and most pernicious attacks used to discredit “the other.” It was deployed in the last century against Catholics like Al Smith and John Kennedy. It’s used today to vilify immigrants, minorities, and people of non-Christian faiths, including both Jews and Muslims.