Opinion

MENKEN: Rep. Omar’s Anti-Israel Resolution Proves Trump Is Right About Her Anti-Semitism

   DailyWire.com

It’s as if Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is trying to validate President Trump’s criticisms of her and other radical Democrats in Congress.

Even while the news media is still obsessing over the president’s tweets calling out Omar and other members of the “squad” of far-left Democrats in Congress for their hatred of both America and Israel, Omar sponsored a new resolution supporting the boycott of Israel.

The startling text of the resolution equates the world’s only Jewish state not only to Apartheid-era South Africa, but also, incredibly, to the Soviet Union, Imperial Japan, and even Nazi Germany.

To anyone who’s been paying attention to Ilhan Omar, this latest outrage comes as no surprise — it’s pretty much par for the course for this Somali-American socialist from Minneapolis.

Omar is a long-time supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement — a well-known hotbed of anti-Semitism. Omar even attacked her fellow Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for criticizing BDS.

Naturally, the movement’s public supporters generally try to downplay its anti-Semitic nature, portraying it instead as an effort to defend the “Palestinian people” from “Israeli occupation.” While that disingenuous claim is patently ridiculous, it’s not even necessary to get bogged down by the fact that there has never been a country called “Palestine,” or even that the so-called “occupation” really just refers to the existence of the State of Israel (“from the river to the sea”).

Rather, we know that BDS is anti-Semitic because economic warfare against the Jews has always been at the forefront of anti-Semitic activity.

Boycotting Israel has a long and bigoted pedigree. Jews have historically been forced into ghettoes and prohibited from owning land outside them. We were denied access to trades and professions throughout the Middle Ages, the Nazis began their murderous regime with a boycott of Jewish businesses in 1932, and the uninterrupted Arab League boycott of “Palestine” (meaning the Jews, the idea of an “Arab Palestinian” being a later invention) that has been in place since 1945. BDS activists claim to be concerned with civil rights and making peace, but when it comes to the Jews’ long and bitter experience with persecution and oppression, they simply don’t care.

Yet, although BDS advocates try to cloak their hatred in sweet rhetoric, Omar can’t quite seem to grasp the nuance of that strategy. She has consistently veered off into overt anti-Semitism.

Omar has claimed that Israeli Jews “hypnotize” the world. She’s used anti-Semitic tropes about money-grubbing American Jews with dual loyalties to Israel while spreading conspiracy theories about AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, owning the Republican Party. She has even visibly scoffed at the very idea that the State of Israel is a democracy!

The only real surprise, then, is that Omar would have the audacity to push this controversial resolution at a time when her own history of anti-Semitic remarks is at the forefront of the nation’s collective consciousness. Interestingly, some of the same liberals who have been yelling themselves hoarse defending Omar from President Trump’s “racist tweets” (in which he condemned her record of anti-Semitism) are now expressing incredulity.

Mark Pocan, one of the most liberal Democratic congressmen in the country — a man who just days ago tried to have President Trump impeached because he dared to offend Ilhan Omar’s honor — cringed over her decision to introduce this legislation now.

“I think the timing would not be very wise to take up additional measures around the Middle East,” Pocan told Politico, referring to both Omar’s resolution and a separate one that the Democratic leadership in the House is pushing that would do exactly the opposite: Condemn BDS.

The Forward, a far-left Jewish magazine that regularly defends Omar and BDS, was also taken aback at her misstep, publishing an op-ed arguing that Omar is the “wrong person” to lead the pro-BDS charge. Ya think?

Omar was under no pressure to push forward her bigoted resolution at this juncture. Her decision to do so at a time when her own anti-Semitic comments are receiving intense public scrutiny is an unforced error and a valuable gift to President Trump, reminding the country that his criticism of Omar is entirely justified.

Of course, Omar’s resolution equating Israel to Nazi Germany has about as much chance of passing the House as the impeachment resolution against President Trump that was introduced the same day — which is, to say, none at all. Nevertheless, it’s still a revealing indicator of just how unapologetically radical Rep. Omar — the most controversial member of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Squad” of fellow leftists — really is.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America.

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