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| Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar |
"Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel."
No - this is not Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini speaking. It is a American. And no - it is not someone on fringes of American society. This is Ilhan Omar, a Muslim of Somalian descent and the newly elected member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota.
First I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not anti Muslim. I am just strongly opposed to people that want to destroy the Jewish State
Omar is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) which is a thinly veiled attempt to destroy the Jewish State. BDS has declared Israel an Apartheid State that oppresses its indigenous Palestinians. It advocates boycotting companies that do businesses with Israel; divestment from Israel by companies that already do; and punishing Israel itself with sanctions.
The use of the term ‘Apartheid’ to describe Israel is so offensives that it ought to set off alarms about BDS’s real intentions. In my view, the moment that term is used - the conversation should end. Anyone that knows the slightest bit about what Apartheid in South Africa was really like ought to be outraged by that comparison. Even if they believe that Israel treats Palestinians on the West Bank unfairly, that comparison is odious in the extreme!
And yet this is how BDS and those that support that movement choose to characterize the Jewish State. In 2017 while serving as a member of the Minnesota legislature, Omar voted against a bill that would have banned state dealings with companies that participate in BDS. Thankfully the bill passed with overwhelming support despite her opposition to it. Minnesota joined 19 states that had passed similar legislation.
But Omar is not the only anti Israel Muslim to be elected to the House. So too was Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim of Palestinian descent. From WJD:
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, openly advocates Israel's destruction, saying she wants a "one-state solution" that would immediately turn Israel into an Arab state.
"It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work. I’m only 42 years old but my teachers were of that generation that marched with Martin Luther King. This whole idea of a two-state solution, it doesn’t work," she said.
Earlier this year, Tlaib angrily accosted a Jewish reporter who was asking her uncomfortable questions.
The Democratic Party and the mainstream media are celebrating their achievement as the first Muslim women to be elected to congress. Totally ignoring their foreign policy positions with respect to Israel.
Now I have no clue what their views are on other issues. My guess is that they are probably pretty mainstream liberal views. But I don’t know how anyone can celebrate an elected official that seeks to destroy America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Unless they just don’t know what their views are on that subject.
Both Omar and Tlaib while stridently anti Israel will in the same breath claim they are not antisemitic. But so too does Louis Farrakhan. I’m not saying that they are anything like him. (...or maybe they are?) Nevertheless their opposition to Israel is so strident - declarations against antisemitism like that are tepid at best.
It is not surprising that both Omar and Tlaib are Democrats. Nor is it surprising that their party is celebrating their victory. Diversity is apparently what the Democratic Party is all about these days. It is as though they care more about the diversity of their party membership than about the issues they support.
It is difficult for me to support a political party that seems to care more about diversity than it odes about what they support. It is almost like they have a quota system for membership that will result in their demographics proportionally matching the demographics of the total population in America.
Diversity is a fine goal. But shouldn’t values come first? Shouldn’t someone’s position on any given issue be more important than from which constituency they come?
And it isn’t only the Democratic Party. It is the fawning mainstream media, too. All I have been hearing in the mainstream media (which is decidedly left wing) is praise for how diverse the Democratic Party has become. Which is why Omar and Tlaib’s victory is so widely celebrated by them as well as the Democratic Party itself.
For me, that is enough to run as far away from the Democratic Party as I can. And to not place much value on what the mainstream media thinks is important.