RUTHFULLY YOURS

Ms. Omar came to America after fleeing Somalia. Her election marked several congressional firsts: the first Somali-American, the first naturalized citizen from Africa, the first nonwhite woman from Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim women (along with Ms. Tlaib).

Part of their notoriety comes from their willingness to match President Trump’s outrages and raise them. More comes from their willingness to clap back at their own leaders, even if that means accusing Speaker Nancy Pelosi of racism. They remain largely unrepentant—and energized.

It’s giving their party leaders fits, especially on Israel. Months ago Ms. Omar played to an ugly trope when she tweeted that American politicians’ support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins, baby.” When Mrs. Pelosi responded with a resolution flatly condemning anti-Semitism, she discovered it would split her party. So it was watered down to the point where Ms. Omar and Ms. Tlaib themselves voted aye.

Democrats had hoped a mutual condemnation of Mr. Trump would restore party harmony. But no sooner had the House formally condemned the president for racism than Ms. Omar reached into her inner Louise and introduced a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at harming the Israeli economy and making the Jewish state an international pariah.

The bill, co-sponsored by Ms. Tlaib and Georgia’s Rep. John Lewis, is clever. It doesn’t specifically mention Israel, the Palestinians or even BDS. It just affirms the right to boycott, and invokes boycotts against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and apartheid South Africa as moral inspiration.

But the parallel is obvious: Boycotting Israel is like boycotting Nazis. The BDS movement tweeted that it “warmly welcomes” the bill. Ms. Omar herself says her bill is an opportunity to talk about the BDS movement.

The bill isn’t going anywhere in Mrs. Pelosi’s House, but it puts the speaker in a pickle. In a May speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Mrs. Pelosi cited BDS as an example of “bigoted or dangerous ideologies masquerading as policy.” But other Democrats are increasingly timid about saying the same.

In February, the Senate passed an anti-BDS measure. Of the seven Senators running for the Democratic nomination for president, only Michael Bennet and Amy Klobuchar voted for it. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren each voted against it.

At their 2012 convention, after Democrats removed platform language recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Barack Obama personally intervened to have it restored. When convention manager Antonio Villaraigosa put it to a vote on the convention floor, it was booed—but he ruled it carried anyway. Today there is no one with the stature of Mr. Obama to hush Reps. Omar and Tlaib. Their trip to Israel will give them a global stage that practically guarantees incendiary language on the “occupation,” questions at the presidential debates Democratic candidates would rather duck, maybe even a divisive convention fight.

How far all this is from March 2018, when Conor Lamb, a former Marine, won a special election for a Republican House district in Pennsylvania by eschewing attacks on President Trump and presenting a moderate Democratic face. When Democrats took the House majority by flipping more than two dozen seats in districts Mr. Trump had carried, the received wisdom was that Democrats had learned their lesson and Mrs. Pelosi was firmly in charge. This seemed confirmed in January when Mrs. Pelosi was elected speaker even as many expected her to step down.

The Squad is now in the driver’s seat of the Democratic debate. They are not letting go of the wheel even it means, à la Thelma and Louise, taking the whole car over a cliff.