The new representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional Democrat Ilhan Omar has made headlines recently because of her anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions. Many are complaining that since the Republicans punished Rep. Steve King for his bigotry, Rep. Omar should be penalized for hers. The problem with punishing Ms. Omar is that she is just one of many anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Democrats in office. Even if they were motivated to do so, the party could never censure all of them.
In 2012, Omar tweeted that Israel had “hypnotized the world” to ignore its “evil doings.”
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/269488770066313216
Wow, Jews have the power of hypnotism. Wait, if that’s true how come I can’t get my kids to clean their room? The truth is that her comment about hypnosis shows her support of one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards, that the Jews control the world, Heck I don’t even control my household.
Defending that tweet during the 2018 election season, Omar said tweeted that calling attention to the “Israeli apartheid regime” was not anti-Semitic. That might make good campaign fodder, but her description of Israel as apartheid is anti-Semitic and so is her support of the BDS movement.
The BDS movement is anti-Semitic because it bases its attacks on fabricated tales of human rights violations, double standards, comparisons to apartheid South Africa, and false accusations of “war crimes.” Understand, this movement has just one purpose, to delegitimize Israel and to deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination. The founders and leaders of the BDS movement support a “one-state solution” that destroys Israel as the Jewish state. Both the U.S. State Department and Pope Francis have declared that denying that the Jews have the right to have their own state, is a form of anti-Semitism.
As this coming Monday, we commemorate the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, allow me to mention that he too believed that many of the anti-Israel attitudes were anti-Semitic.
During an appearance at Harvard University shortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism which is a movement supporting the rights of the Jewish people to a nation in their historic homeland. The question was openly hostile. King responded, “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.”.
When Ms. Omar’s controversy erupted again this week, she went on CNN Newsroom and said, “I don’t know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish Americans,” when asked about her anti-Semitic tweet calling Israel “evil. For her bigotry, Rep. Omar was rewarded by Democratic leadership with a position on the House Foreign Affairs committee. I suppose the Jews hypnotic power didn’t work.
Louis Farrakhan was justifiably criticized for calling Jews termites, but before him, Hank Johnson (D-GA) used that phrase. At an event at the 2016 Democratic Convention Johnson, who once worried that too many people on the Island of Guam might tip it over, Jewish people who live in disputed territories to “termites” that destroy homes. Johnson also compared Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a remark that drew vocal agreement from those in the room.] Johnson said during an event sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, an anti-Israel organization that galvanizes supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS. The event was not an official DNC one, but there was no similar event at the Republican Convention.