much. in addition to pro israel lobbies like apac opposing israel s action on this, lawmakers have also been weighing in. republican senator marco rubio, quote, i disagree 100% with representatives tlaib and omar and the boycott bill we passed in the senate, but denying them entry into israel is a mistake. bds stands for boycott divestment and sanctions. house speaker pelosi called the decision a sign of weakness, president s stamtsz about the women a sign of ignorance and disrespect. joining us now is new jersey democratic congressman josh gottheimer who has been directly involved in this. congressman, thanks very much for being with us. you ve been critical of representative omar and tlaib. thanks for having me. do you believe they should have been allowed into israel? yes, and i think unequivocally. they are members of congress. i think they would have benefited a lot from having that visit and seeing the historic
reporter: well, that was the city of los angeles council member, right after the council passed a boycott bill, but l.a. like several other cities, passing similar bills, are starting to harbor, well, second thoughts, and they re backpedaling a bit. los angeles recently amended its boycott as to as to exempt an arizona-based company that operates stop light cameras. it seems that that company actually made $6 million in income for the city of l.a. last year, and that, of course, changes matters. of course, the official reason for the change was public safety. sacramento also employs a boycott, but then decided to let the police continue to buy tasers from the arizona-based company, saying it would really not be practical to end that current contract. oakland, city officials decided to keep a contract with an ad firm that has its corporate offices in arizona, because, well, technically speaking, when you look at the fine print, the company lists its corporate headquarter as san antoni