The Incredibly Anti-Semitic Democrats

Honestly, I take no satisfaction with having to discuss anti-Semitism in one of the country's two major parties. However, my concern lies not just with the two new Muslim women members of Congress, although they are bad enough. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has quite a history of making anti-Semitic comments. "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel." She has also suggested that support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins." And, she has accused Jews of having dual loyalty: "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has similar beliefs; referring to those fellow members of Congress who support Israel as forgetting "what country they represent."

Not surprisingly, these two women support the Palestinians, but do not believe they suffer from any dual loyalties. The US supports Israel because of -among other reasons - shared values, mutual assistance in the development of missile defense and other technologies, and shared intelligence - with the Mossad being one of the world's premier intelligence agencies. The Democrats in the House attempted to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism following another of Omar's anti-Semitic comments. Even with the insistence on adding condemnation to "unfounded, vicious attacks on and threats to Muslim American Members of Congress," to a resolution that was supposed to resist anti-Semitism, the measure could not pass. The resolution did not even name Omar for making repeated anti-Semitic comments, let alone seek any censure or punishment of her. Ultimately, a resolution did pass condemning every conceivable form of bigotry that the drafters were able to imagine. That resolution did condemn anti-Semitism, as well as white supremacy, white nationalism, neo-Nazis, the KKK, anti-Catholic bigotry and anti-Muslim bigotry.

The new resolution easily passed with 407 aye votes. However, twenty-three Republican members of the House voted against the resolution, expressing their anger that a resolution originally prompted by anti-Semitic comments by one of their members was so watered down that the original message was lost. Worse yet was the support given to Omar by her fellow Democrats following her anti-Semitic tirade. Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucaus, said: "Let me just generally say - there's not a rise of anti-Semitism in the House of Representatives." Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader, opined "I don't think she's anti-Semitic." And Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed this nonsense: "I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic. I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn't understand that some of them are fraught with meaning that she didn't realize." I wonder what part of "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel," Pelosi thinks Omar did not understand. Excusing anti-Semitism only encourages more of it. Shame on these three leaders of the Democratic Party.

Three Democratic Senators running for President, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, all attempted to justify Omar's anti-Semitism. They all suggested that criticism of Israel does not equate to anti-Semitism. So what? Omar's remarks were indeed anti-Semitic. And Kamala Harris further added: "...like some of my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus I am concerned that the spotlight being put on Congresswoman Omar may put her at risk." The original resolution did not name Omar but did focus on anti-Semitism - and the Black Caucus opposed it.

A group called 'The Progressive Change Campaign Committee' is raising money for Democrats who support Omar, and will seek to defeat Democrats who criticize her. It is bad enough for Democratic leaders to make excuses for anti-Semitism. Now we have a left-wing group that will seek to punish those who criticize the anti-Semite. The Intercept is a left-wing site. In defending Omar, the founder of the site said this: "she raised entirely legitimate concerns about US support for the murderous apartheid government of Israel and the subservience of US politicians to the agenda of a foreign power." These lies about Israel, and those who support her, are all too often seen and heard from the left. And the left is an increasingly influential part of the Democratic Party. Recall the Pew poll from early last year showing that 79% of Republicans support Israel over the Palestinians. The number was 27% for the Democrats. Why do I bring up those numbers? Because with such little support for Israel in the Democratic Party, there is very little downside to the type of comments being made by Omar and Tlaib - whether those comments are legitimate criticism of Israeli policies or clearly anti-Semitic. And let me add, much criticism of Israel is, in fact, anti-Semitic when it singles out Israel over countries with truly horrific records.

Case in point. The incongruously named UN Human Rights Council has a standing agenda item - Israel - because they view Israel as the worst country in the world. Recently, the inaptly named Council again condemned Israel for allegedly committing war crimes at the Gaza border. Since last March, when Hamas instituted their Great March of Return, 189 Palestinians have been killed at the border (according to the Council). Hamas has bused thousands of Palestinians to the Gazan border with Israel in an attempt to breach the border and invade Israel, and they have done it every Friday (the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath) since March, 2018. The Palestinians throw rocks, molotov cocktails and send incendiary devices/kites over the border, with the result being thousnds of acres of fields and forests being burned. Since Israel relinquished Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched 10,000 or more rockets into Israel, and have dug underground tunnels into Israel from Gaza for one purpose - to allow Hamas terrorists entry into Israel in order to kill Jews.

Jeremy Corbyn is the head of the Labour Party (equivalent to the Democratic Party in the US) in the UK. He may be their next Prime Minister. Based on the one-sided UNHRC report, Corbyn said: "The UK government must unequivocally condemn the killings and freeze arms sales to Israel." Not only would the above-referenced Congress members like to see aid to Israel cut, but I have no doubt that they could succeed in getting many in their party to go along. I am aware of the fact that an overwhelming number of Democrats, including Jewish Democrats, have a visceral hatred of Donald Trump. I wonder if they have the same feelings about the growing anti-Semitism in their party; because as the party continues its leftward march, the anti-Semitism within the party will continue to grow proportionately. At what point will liberal Jews say "no, I cannot vote for such a party."