Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Thursday that it was the right move for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bar “anti-Semitic” Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) from entering Israel.
“What good could possibly come of these people showing up to showboat in Israel with a duly sycophantic media in tow?” Limbaugh posed. “What possible good could it have done? Israel is making a decision in its own best interests here and they are entitled to this. Just as we are in charge of who gets into our country, so is Israel and every other country in charge of who gets in.”
The prominent conservative media figure went further, ripping the freshman congresswoman for their apparent disdain for Israel and the Jewish people. “You have two women who are out of control in their hatred for Israel and Jewish people,” he said. “It’s their lifeblood. Before they became elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, these women grew up hating Jews. They grew up as anti-Semites.”
“They openly support the Palestinians who want there to be no Israel. Omar and Tlaib openly support whatever will happen to replace Israel with Palestine, Palestinians, and Israelis with nowhere to go but the Mediterranean Sea,” Limbaugh added.
Both Omar and Tlaib openly support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), is “the most prominent effort to undermine Israel’s existence,” The Daily Wire’s Molly Prince noted Friday. Furthermore, Omar, in particular, has posted tweets and made comments that have been widely criticized as anti-Semitic.
The ban is not extraordinary by any measure; as noted by Prince, “the Israeli Knesset passed an anti-BDS law in 2017 that blocks foreign activists from gaining entry to the country.”
“No country in the world respects America and the American Congress more than the State of Israel,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement. “As a free and vibrant democracy, Israel is open to critics and criticism with one exception: Israeli law prohibits the entry into Israel of those who call for and work to impose boycotts on Israel, as do other democracies that prohibit the entry of people who seek the harm the country.”
Before Israel’s decision to keep Tlaib and Omar out of their country was announced, President Donald Trump publicly said it would be a mistake for Israel to allow them entry.
“It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!”
In a turn of events on Friday, Tlaib’s request to be allowed entry into Israel to visit her elderly grandmother was accepted by the nation with the stipulation that she refrain from any anti-Israel activism. However, Tlaib, appearing to show her hand, declined.