Hours after Israeli media reported Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib would not be allowed to enter the West Bank for a planned Congressional delegation, President Donald Trump tweeted Israel should deny the two entry, claiming “they hate Israel” and “all Jewish people.”
Israeli media is reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will bar Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) from entering Israel for a planned congressional delegation over their support for the BDS movement.
A shocking report on a meeting organized by the Jewish Federations of Detroit at which powerbrokers said they were “socking away money” to defeat Rep. Rashida Tlaib because she supports boycott of Israel is evidence of “hate” and dehumanization of Palestinians, Rep. Tlaib says.
Rep Elissa Slotkin of MI says Republicans are talking up Democrats’ supposed anti-Semitism so as to get Jewish donors. “I will just be very honest, right, they are not looking for our votes, because we are a relatively small community, they are looking for our donors, right?” Wait, didn’t Rep. Ilhan Omar get smeared for offering the same insight?
Democrats are all for two states as an article of faith. But their Israeli counterparts can’t use the phrase, instead talking about “divorcing” Palestinians or “separating” from Palestinians. So maybe we should pay more attention to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who says, “separate but unequal” didn’t work in the U.S. and it won’t work over there.
Yesterday, Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addressed a Congressional briefing organized by American Muslims for Palestine on Israel’s abuse of US citizens. She shared her own family’s story of separate-and-unequal treatment by Israel, and urged the Capitol Hill audience to “push back against these kinds of racist policies.”
Despite the overwhelming passage by the House of a resolution condemning BDS, many Democratic politicians are torn about how much to support Israel. Rep. John Lewis voted for the resolution but also supports a bill that affirms the right to boycott. Go figure! And two leading presidential candidates have said that Israel should suffer reductions in aid for human rights violations.
Democrats voted 209-16 for a resolution that characterizes the nonviolent BDS campaign that targets Israel as bigoted. The Dems made the Israel lobby group AIPAC grateful for bipartisan support, and fought off Trump’s efforts to characterize Dems as “anti-Israel.” The vote demonstrates the importance of the Israel lobby for the 2020 presidential race, but if you call out the lobby the NYT will say you’re anti-semitic.
Donald Trump’s charge that four congresswomen are Israel haters is a political tactic aimed at taking pro-Israel donors away from the Democratic Party. Liberals set the table for Trump’s racist comments by roundly condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar as anti-semitic, when she was addressing an important issue in US politics: the role of the Israel lobby in setting foreign policy in the Middle East.
When Trump called Ilhan Omar a “terrorist,” he was echoing an Israeli tactic against Palestinian dissenters. The charge has been used against sitting lawmakers, like when former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called Hanin Zoabi a terrorist, and against poet Dareen Tatour and anti-occupation activist Ahed Tamimi.