The usual suspects came out in support of the people who launched rockets at Israel over the weekend. Sadly, it is not surprising to see the likes of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) or Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) siding with terrorists. It should, of course, be surprising — shocking, even — for members of the United States Congress to express such views, but we are far past being shocked over terror-sympathizing among Democrats. Yet there is one thing — one little three-letter word — that makes this case significantly different. Reacting to what she considered an unfair headline in The New York Times, Tlaib tweeted this:
When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free? Headlines like this & framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress & target Palestinian children and families. #FreePalestine
Uh. “Our?” Tlaib does not call them just “Palestinian people,” or “the Palestinian people,” but instead adds the possessive “our,” transforming this from run-of-the-mill Democratic terror-sympathizing to a declaration of loyalty to a foreign entity. I don’t think I’m making too much of this. We should all be profoundly disturbed to see a representative of the American government using the phrase “our people” in reference to those who are not American.
I have heard two excuses for this wording choice. One is that she meant it in a global sense. When she said “our,” she meant “our” as in “the world’s.” We are all one people, one world, etc. I would still have a problem with that kind of one-world rhetoric from an American politician, but that’s clearly not what she meant. Besides, how would the media react if President Trump made a similar expression of global unity by referring to “our Russian people”?
The other excuse is that Tlaib is a self-described “Palestinian American,” despite the fact she was born in Detroit. If she still considers Palestinians to be “her people,” how is that not an example of dual loyalty? How can we expect her to keep America’s interest first at heart, and her constituents’ interests at heart, if “her people” are in the Middle East?
Indeed, I probably do her a favor by accusing her of dual loyalty. In reality, there is little evidence that she is loyal to America at all. She already has a history of making anti-American statements. Consider how she described her feelings after 9-11:
“I immediately called my brothers and told them to be very careful who you hang out with. Telling my sisters, ‘Just be real careful out there,’ and being really afraid of my fellow Americans.”
Here Tlaib identifies herself as an American, but only in the context of expressing fear and suspicion of Americans. Now she tells us that Palestinians are her people. This is beyond merely concerning. It calls for an investigation, though none will be conducted for fear of “racism” charges. So we are stuck, it seems, with a congresswoman who is not an American first, and doesn’t even pretend to be.