Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumSanders defends Omar: Can't equate anti-Semitism with 'legitimate criticism' of Israel
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday amid an avalanche of criticism shes received over comments about Israel that some have slammed as anti-Semitic.
Sanders, who is running for president in 2020 and in 2016 became the first Jewish politician to win a state's presidential primary, said he fears a House resolution intended to rebuke Omar over the comments could end up stifling legitimate debate over the Israeli governments policies.
Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world. We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel. Rather, we must develop an even-handed Middle East policy which brings Israelis and Palestinians together for a lasting peace, he said in a statement to The Hill.
What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate," he continued. That's wrong.
(snip)
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/432926-sanders-on-omar-cant-equate-anti-semitism-with-legitimate-criticism-of
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,499 posts)Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
elleng
(134,837 posts)legitimate debate over the Israeli governments policies. . .
We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel. Rather, we must develop an even-handed Middle East policy which brings Israelis and Palestinians together for a lasting peace.'
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)without strong rebuke or we will end up like the UK Labour Party.
BS is dead wrong.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
babylonsister
(171,431 posts)What Ilhan Omar actually said
Thanks to the Institute for Policy Studies for transcribing what Ilhan Omar actually said at an event last Wednesday at Busboys and Poets. It would have been great if Jonathan Chait had the decency to not misrepresent Omar. But Chait's gonna Chait. Here are her words, which you can see on video here:
But we never really allow space for the stories of Palestinians seeking safety and sanctuary to be uplifted. And to me, it is the dehumanization and the silencing of a particular pain and suffering of people, should not be ok and normal. And you cant be in the practice of humanizing and uplifting the suffering of one, if youre not willing to do that for everyone. And so for me I know that when I hear my Jewish constituents or friends or colleagues speak about Palestinians who dont want safety, or Palestinians who arent deserving I stay focused on the actual debate about what that process should look like. I never go to the dark place of saying heres a Jewish person, theyre talking about Palestinians, Palestinians are Muslim, maybe theyre Islamophobic. I never allow myself to go there because I dont have to. And what I am fearful of is that because Rashida and I are Muslim, that a lot of Jewish colleagues, a lot of our Jewish constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel, to be anti-Semitic, because we are Muslim. And so to me, it is something that becomes designed to end the debate. Because you get in this space, of like, I know what intolerance looks like and Im sensitive when someone says that the words you use Ilhan, are resemblance of intolerance. And I am cautious of that and I feel pained by that. But its almost as if every single time we say something, regardless of what it is we say, that its supposed to about foreign policy or engagement, that our advocacy about ending oppression, or the freeing of every human life and wanting dignity, we get to be labeled in something, and thats the end of the discussion, because we end up defending that, and nobody gets to have the broader debate of what is happening with Palestine? [applause]
So for me I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is ok for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. And I want to ask, why is it ok for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobby [group?] that is influencing policy. [applause] And I want to ask the question, why is it ok for you to push, for you to be there are so many people I mean most of us are new, but many members of Congress have been there forever. Some of them have been there before we were born. So I know many of them were fighting for people to be free, for people to live in dignity in South Africa. I know many of them fight for people around the world to have dignity to have self-determination. So I know, I know that they care about these things. But now that you have two Muslims that are saying here is a group of people that we want to make sure that they have the dignity that you want everyone else to have! we get to be called names, we get to be labeled as hateful. No, we know what hate looks like. We experience it every single day. [applause] We have to deal with death threats. I have colleagues who talk about death threats. And sometimes there are cities in my state where the gas stations have written on their bathrooms assassinate Ilhan Omar. I have people driving around my district looking for my home, for my office, causing me harm. I have people every single day on Fox News and everywhere, posting that I am a threat to this country. SO I know what fear looks like. The masjid I pray in in Minnesota got bombed by two domestic white terrorists. So I know what it feels to be someone who is of a faith that is vilified. I know what it means to be someone whose ethnicity that is vilified. I know what it feels to be of a race that is, like I am an immigrant, so I dont have some of the historical drama of some of my sisters and brothers have in this country, but I know what it means for people to just see me as a black person, and to treat me as less than a human. And so, when people say you are bringing hate, I know what their intention is. Their intention is to make sure that our lights are dimmed. That we walk around with our heads bowed. That we lower our face and our voice. But we have news for people. You can call us any kind of name. You can threaten us any kind of way. Rashida and I are not ourselves. Every single day we walk in the halls of Congress and we have people who have never had the opportunity to walk there walking with us. So were here, were here to stay and represent all the people who have been silenced for many decades and many generations. And were here to fight for the people of our district who want to make sure that there is actual prosperity, actual prosperity, being guaranteed. Because there is a direct correlation between not having clean water, and starting endless wars. Its all about the profit and who gets benefit. Theres a direct correlation between corporations that are getting rich, and the fact that we have students who are shackled with debt. There is a direct correlation between the White House and the people who are benefiting from detention beds that are profitized. So, what people are afraid of is not that there are two Muslims in Congress. What people are afraid of is that there are two Muslims in Congress that have their eyes wide open, that have their feet to the ground, that know what theyre talking about, that are fearless, and that understand that they have the same election certificate that everyone in Congress does. [applause]
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Uncle Joe
(59,676 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
elleng
(134,837 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
elleng
(134,837 posts)if youre not willing to do that for everyone.'
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
shanny
(6,709 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Nanjeanne
(5,397 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)The old dual loyalty trope.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Nanjeanne
(5,397 posts)the Israeli lobby that influences our policies.
But you can disagree. Aint democracy great.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)It is an old anti-Semitic trope and liberal Democrats should condemn this crap.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Nanjeanne
(5,397 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)to silence any criticism of Israel.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)but not buying it. Sounds like a way to shutdown any criticism of Israel.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)Last edited Wed Mar 6, 2019, 11:30 PM - Edit history (1)
Really. Not hard.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)Our party should have moral clarity on this issue.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)duel loyalty it is playing semantics games.
Plus the duel loyalty accusation has been leveled at Catholics, Mexicans, Japanese-Americans and many other groups it is hard say it is specifically anti-Semitic.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)"So for me I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is ok for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country."
That's not semantics.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)what she wrote or what Sanders said.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)to silence criticism of Israel.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)Got it. Loud and clear.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Trumpocalypse
(6,143 posts)Doesnt change the fact she never used words duel loyalty.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
forklift
(401 posts)is not a criticism of Israel.
Netanyahu is scum ... but Jewish Americans are not Netanyahu.
Conflating the two is at best naïve and at worst nefarious.
Jewish Americans are the base of the Democratic party and we won't have a prayer without their support in may places particularly Florida and NY.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Uncle Joe
(59,676 posts)Ilhan Omars most recent comments have been stripped entirely of their context, their intentions twisted and reversed. During an event in Washington DC last week, she spoke sensitively about her commitment to human rights advocacy, her experiences of Islamophobia, and her compassion for her Jewish constituents. Then Omar said: I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country ... I want to ask, why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil-fuel industries, or big pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobby that is influencing policy?
It wasnt long before Republicans and centrist Democrats pounced. The backlash has reached such a degree of absurdity that Omars own party plans to censure her for her remarks. This is something the Democrats did not do in response to baldly antisemitic statements by Republicans, nor even, as Jeffrey Isaac wisely points out, in the wake of the massacre in Pittsburgh last October the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history, incited by Donald Trump and his supporters xenophobic rhetoric.
To be sure, Omars comments were not perfect few people are flawless during unscripted panels or debates. And given the unfair and disproportionate amount of scrutiny she faces, perhaps it would have been wiser to have avoided some of the terms she used in particular, allegiance to a foreign country. But what she said was not antisemitic: on the contrary, the full text of Omars remarks shows that she was careful not to conflate the pro-Israel lobby (which is also comprised of non-Jewish evangelical Zionists) or the state of Israel with all Jews, nor did she employ the dual loyalty canard, which asserts that Jews are more loyal to each other (or Israel) than to the countries they live in.
In fact, Omar did not say anything that other critics have not said before: that the pro-Israel lobby enforces rigid support for the increasingly rightwing Israeli governments policies, and that questioning US support for a government that commits human rights abuses some of which, the UN recently warned, may be war crimes should be acceptable if not encouraged. If she were not a black, hijab-wearing Muslim woman, the reaction to her words surely would have been different.
(snip)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/ilhan-omar-weaponisation-of-anti-semitism
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
forklift
(401 posts)and they are clear-cut
1. You can support Israel but not its right wing policies (Most American Jews fit here)
2. You can support Israel AND support its government's policies
3. You can oppose both Israel and its government's policies
4. Or be indifferent to either
Congresswoman Omar made the wrong choice. She is no longer a private citizen .. now she is part of the US government and her words have far more gravity now. As a private citizen she could say anything. Now she has to choose her words wisely and not hurt the party in the process.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CrossingTheRubicon
(731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden