In Minnesota, a woman running to replace Fifth District Democratic Congressman and noted Israel-hater Keith Ellison, who is now running for Minnesota Attorney General, has demonstrated repeatedly that she hates Israel. Worse, she has been endorsed by the Democratic governor, Mark Dayton.
Here’s what candidate Ilhan Omar has said about Israel:
As Armin Rosen noted in Tablet Magazine last week, Omar had no trouble doubling down on her hateful 2012 tweet:
2012 is ancient history, which is why it’s notable Omar defended the tweet on May 31, when another Twitter user resurfaced her 2012 post: “Drawing attention to the apartheid Israeli regime is far from hating Jews. You are a hateful sad man, I pray to Allah you get the help you need and find happiness.” In Omar’s mind, equating Israel with “evil” and accusing the country of having a creepily metaphysical ability to impose itself on the entire world counts as legitimate criticism.
Omar’s anti-Semitism is apparently no problem for Dayton:
Omar was born in Mogadishu in 1982 and was raised in Somalia. In 2016, she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, becoming the first Somali-American Muslim legislator elected to office in the United States.
In 2017, the Minnesota House passed HF400, the “Israel Boycott Ban” bill, which banned the state of Minnesota, including Minnesota colleges and universities, from contracting with vendors boycotting Israel. Omar voted against the bill, saying, “I would have loved to vote for a bill that expands our ideals of fighting against discrimination, that actually stood up against all discrimination. I don’t want to be part of a vote that limits the ability of people to fight towards justice and peace.”