How do you combat claims of anti-Semitism? According to this Dynamic Duo, the answer is MORE anti-Semitism.
The TL;DR summary of the press conference held by half of “the Squad” — Tlaib cried and Omar lied.
Actually, they BOTH lied, but Tlaib got emotional as she did it.
Rep. Ilhan Omar(D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib(D-MI) are grabbing the spotlight in the wake of the decision made by Israel to deny entry based on a 2017 Israeli law that allows the government to bar foreign Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions activists from entry. The freshman Congresswomen cried foul even after the Israeli Minister of the Interior had made allowance for Rep. Tlaib to visit family in the West Bank, she refused entry and is blaming Israel.
The pair have decided to double-down on their anti-Israeli rhetoric and held a presser to make the dispute appear to be about blocking Muslim women from the country. That’s not the reason. They are activists. That was made clear by the press conference that they held yesterday.
Both Tlaib and Omar spouted a whole lot of false information and opinion as fact.
Here’s what you need to know.
First, she says that the United States gives “$3 million” in military aid to Israel every year. She’s wrong and likely misspoke. The U.S. provides $3 billion in aid to a country approximately the size of New Jersey because all of its neighbors want to destroy it for simply existing.
The biggest one is by Rep. Ilhan Omar who said that Israel’s actions in barring a U.S. Congresswoman — who also happens to be a strident BDS activist — reveals that they are not a democracy nor are they an ally of the United States, and we must therefore reconsider providing aid to Israel. This was the goal all along — to kneecap Israel.
That. Is. Utter. Horsecrap.
NEW: Rep. Ilhan Omar on U.S. aid to Israel: "We must be asking, as Israel's ally, the Netanyahu government stop the expansion of settlements on Palestinian land and ensure full rights for Palestinians if we are to give them aid." https://t.co/BflAp7aeir pic.twitter.com/tsSWcN22SU
— ABC News (@ABC) August 19, 2019
How is Rep. Ilhan Omar still on the House Foreign Affairs Committee?
I’m old enough to remember when Rep. Steve King(R-IA) said something that many found offensive and tantamount to white supremacy in an interview (he says he was misquoted) nevertheless, the GOP stripped him of all his committee roles.
The Democrats weren’t even able to denounce Rep. Ilhan Omar’s overt and repeated anti-Semitism, even though Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted to.
Rep. Omar doesn’t seem to be changing her rhetoric at all.
The entire purpose of the trip by Omar and Tlaib was not as Congresswomen wanting to “learn more” about the land dispute in the Middle East but to overtly push the anti-Israel, pro-BDS movement. This wasn’t a “Congressional” visit, but a visit by activists to advance their agenda.
The Congresswomen decided to skip a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Israel in order to have a private delegation only to the West Bank, which they referred to as “Palestine.” They were not planning on meeting with Israeli officials, although Omar denies this. Unfortunately for Omar, the itinerary of the visit to “Palestine” was published by her own office.
This is a lie, here is your full schedule published by your office, you didn’t plan a single meeting with members of the Knesset or Israeli security officials. https://t.co/TuP3HeCNrs pic.twitter.com/iHtIElwDPz
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) August 16, 2019
The trip was co-sponsored by Miftah, a group that spouts overt anti-Semitism like blood libel, praises suicide bombers, excused terrorism, and pondered whether or not Israel is the rightful homeland for the Jews. They literally partnered with vile, anti-Semites. David French has an excellent article on what should be a national scandal at National Review.
For the most part, there’s been Media(D) silence on what kind of group Miftah really is, a gentle whitewashing of the anti-Semitism, or worse — defense of the indefensible.
Rep. Omar is claiming that Israel is lying but it seems that she is the one doing the lying.
A tearful Rep. Rashida Tlaib spoke about the “dehumanizing” checkpoints that her family members and others in the West Bank have to live with because of the “Israeli occupation” but says nothing about the repeated terror attacks on Israelis.
Democratic Rep. @RashidaTlaib laments her family having to go through “dehumanizing” checkpoints and the “psychological damage” of having Israeli soldiers in their town.
No mention of the thousands of Jews who have been butchered by terrorists operating in her family’s region. pic.twitter.com/tpBQlCSP9b
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 19, 2019
She then says that she is determined to humanize the people in the Palestinian territory and that’s why she won’t go to Israel.
Yeah, no.
The pair also said that Israel “occupies” Palestinian land and compared Israel to South Africa under apartheid which is absolutely outrageous. Israel has made many concessions for peace including giving up land (the Gaza Strip) that was allocated to them by international law in order to appease Palestinians. What did they do with it? Elected a terrorist group, Hamas, whose goal is the annihilation of Israel.
As for “dehumanizing” of Palestinians, Israel allows Arab Muslims, Bedouins, Christians, the same rights as Israeli Jews. Several elected members of the Knesset are, in fact, Muslim. is it the same for Jews in the West Bank and Gaza? No.
Yet, the pair was requesting discrimination of Israeli Jews by demanding that Israel stop expanding Jewish settlements.
Rep. Tlaib complains about Israel’s walls and that residents of the West Bank cannot go to the “better” hospitals in Israel. That’s because of the terrorism perpetrated by the Palestinians against Israel — even willing to use ambulances to conceal terrorists. The issue still isn’t Israel.
Tlaib then used her grandmother (that she hasn’t visited in more than a dozen years) to garner sympathy. She could have chosen to visit her but she decided not to in order to play the victim. That’s pretty vile.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib on talking with her family about Israel's decision to restrict her travel: My grandmother "said I'm her dream manifested. I am her free bird. So why would I come back and be caged and bow down?"
More: https://t.co/2GorASVESX pic.twitter.com/gbk37yGIqI
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) August 19, 2019
It’s quite telling that Tlaib said that her election gave Palestinians hope. Wasn’t she elected to represent a district in Michigan and not the West Bank?
Another telling thing was when the Congresswomen claimed that the move by Israel made it difficult for them to do their jobs.
No, it doesn’t.
Neither of them are on the Middle East Committee, thank goodness!
It was one great, big load of crap.
President Trump responded today:
Sorry, I don’t buy Rep. Tlaib’s tears. I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long. Now tears? She hates Israel and all Jewish people. She is an anti-Semite. She and her 3 friends are the new face of the Democrat Party. Live with it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019
The thing is, the typical coverage in the Media(D) is much like Peter Beinart on CNN spreading more anti-Israel B.S.
CNN's Peter Beinart defends Palestinians who commit terrorism against Israel: “A lot of Palestinians believe that because they are subject to daily violence of a system which denies them basic rights they have the right to respond violently”pic.twitter.com/cUc0fqssoA
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 19, 2019
You can watch the full presser by Omar and Tlaib here:
Perhaps if Tlaib and Omar were able to condemn the Palestinian violence instead of excusing it and blaming Israel as the lone hindrance to peace in the Middle East they would not be labeled anti-Semites.
But their immediate instinct was to paint this as a Muslim vs Jew narrative shows that they are the bigoted ones. After all, it’s anti-Semites who only blame the Jews.
