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Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: Sanders defends Omar: Can't equate anti-Semitism with 'legitimate criticism' of Israel [View all]Uncle Joe
(59,676 posts)19. Apparently not
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
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Sanders defends Omar: Can't equate anti-Semitism with 'legitimate criticism' of Israel [View all]
Uncle Joe
Mar 2019
OP
'House resolution intended to rebuke Omar over the comments could end up stifling
elleng
Mar 2019
#2
We can't as a party allow anti-Semitic tropes to be thrown around by our Representatives
CrossingTheRubicon
Mar 2019
#3
'And you can't be in the practice of humanizing and uplifting the suffering of one,
elleng
Mar 2019
#7
As a Jew I have zero loyalty to Netenyahu's policies as regards to Israel. And I don't support
Nanjeanne
Mar 2019
#12
I don't have sual loyalty but people can say what they want. I know what I am.
Nanjeanne
Mar 2019
#14
Nah. Just an unwillingness to allow age old anti-Semitic tropes to take hold.
CrossingTheRubicon
Mar 2019
#11
It ain't difficult to criticise Israeli policies without resorting to anti-Semitic tropes.
CrossingTheRubicon
Mar 2019
#16
Not a bit. No games what-so-ever. Using anti-Semitic tropes is no good.
CrossingTheRubicon
Mar 2019
#21