I can’t blame either congresswoman for fearing for their lives.
“Posting a photo with an assault rifle next to the faces of three women of color is…incitement,” tweets U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. “There are already death threats in response to this post.”
Adds her pal Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “It’s dangerous in a time of rising political violence openly encouraged by this fascist president that a soon to be member of Congress thinks a post threatening women’s lives is acceptable.”
So how do they feel to be threatened? A legitimate question if voiced by Brooklyn Jews who have been repeatedly attacked by strangers, or Jews in the Fairfax section of Los Angeles whose businesses and synagogues were vandalized by a rampaging mob last May.
All amid periodic outbursts by Tlaib and Omar during their first two years in Congress to bash Israel, whose distorted remarks reflect on American Jews.
Omar and Tlaib are both destined to return to Congress in early January for their second terms. They defeated their challengers in their respective Democratic primaries last August. That was the only practical opportunity pro-Israel Democrats would have to oust them from office. Their districts are heavily Democratic – Tlaib in Detroit, Omar in Minneapolis – and they are fully expected to be re-elected next Tuesday.
Between the day they are re-elected and take their oaths for another term in office, they will certainly feel emboldened to press their issues – the twin activities to seek domestic reforms and attack Israel, whether right or wrong.
It is impossible to determine how rhetoric – whether theirs or that of President Trump – translate into violence and other discriminatory acts against Jews, African-Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic groups. Will anyone stand up to them?
I would expect that from those Republicans who survive next week’s electoral massacre. Some Republican members of Congress, along with President Trump, have not let them get away with any anti-Israel comments in the past.
The Democratic-controlled House should have censored Tlaib and Omar every time they opened their big mouths. Some Democrats got tough almost immediately when the current term opened in January 2019, but they just as quickly backed off and passed a watered-down resolution which essentially proclaimed: BIGOTRY: NOT NICE.
As in past attempts at speculation, the Democratic leadership walks a tightrope between so-called progressive lawmakers from Democratic districts – meaning that a Democrat would represent their constituents no matter what – and roughly 40 newcomers who flipped House seats held by Republicans in 2018. In the end, Democratic leaders must bend to more moderate members or they will risk losing the majority. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cannot afford to lose progressive voters, so they must give those members of Congress something – even if it means humoring them.
That could explain Pelosi’s endorsement of Omar during last August’s primary when she was challenged by a respected attorney whose intellect and sensitivity could not be remotely matched by her.
Assuming Omar and Tlaib win re-election next week, Republicans in the House will be left with the task of taking them on. Before they respond, let’s hope they heed the lessons of two of their GOP associates as to what not to do.
Trump single-handedly turned Omar into a martyr for a day when he told voters in Ocala, Fla., on Oct. 17: “She hates our country. She comes from a place that doesn’t even have a government, and then she comes here, tells us how to run our country,” as quoted in Newsweek. He even accused her of “entering the country illegally” and “married her brother or something,” repeating unproven claims from her.
How to run our country? Isn’t that what a congresswoman is supposed to do? For the record, she moved from Somalia to Minneapolis as a refugee when she was 12 years old.
Our president supplied her with unlimited space to play multiple cards, probably a record – gender, immigrant, race (she is black) and religion (Muslim). During a TV interview, she pointed out that political rivals can debate issues as opposed to spewing rhetoric that endangers people.
She was able to present herself as a victim without reminding viewers that she has lied about her approach to Israel and she once referred to the “evil doings of Israel.” Tlaib, a Detroit native whose family is from Israel’s West Bank, placed a map in her office which included a fictitious nation called “Palestine” where Israel is located; she is also a Muslim.
Other Democratic House members are less than friendly to Israel, but they are not quite as hostile to Israel or express themselves in the same crude way. Many Jews despise Omar and Tlaib not for their race or religion but their approach to the issue.
The Washington Post reports that the Omar-Tlaib aforementioned fears of incitement were addressed to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia who in early September posted an image of herself holding a rifle with photos of Omar, Tlaib and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York accompanied by this caption: “Squad’s worst nightmare.”
Greene wrote, “Hate America leftists want to take this country down. Our country is on the line. America needs fighters who speak the truth. We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart. Americans must take our country back. SAVE AMERICA. STOP SOCIALISM. DEFEAT THE DEMOCRATS!”
The Squad is a group of progressive Democrats composed of those three along with Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Boston, and Greene is expected to be elected in her conservative district.
Come Tuesday, Republicans will probably maintain a formidable presence in the House even if they are still in the minority. Both parties support Israel, but I have noticed that Republicans are reliable and consistent in defending Israel while Democrats sometimes tend to rationalize, not withstanding a hostile minority. The reverse is the case when social justice issues are debated.
Israel’s future will provide Republicans with a legitimate issue, and some appear to stand up for Israel because they genuinely believe in it. Three House members come to mind, and all are particularly vulnerable because they share the ballot with Trump in parts of the more liberal Northeast.
If any Republican representative hangs on by a string, it is Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, who co-hosted a program on Israel two years ago with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a northern New Jersey Democrat. Fitzpatrick was re-elected in 2018 by one or two points. He was challenged then by a Democrat whose position on Israel was suspect, but this time Democratic nominee Christina Finello participated in an advertisement for Democratic congressional candidates who pledged support for Israel.
Bucks is home to 50,000 Jews who can readily swing the election, and Joe Biden’s coattails could pull in Finello and hundreds of other down-ballot Democratic candidates.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who represents the southernmost part of New Jersey, told a Jewish Insider reporter that he is a staunch backer of Israel. “There are numbers of new members who have joined the Democratic Caucus, who, quite frankly, are not in support of Israel, and not in support of this very close and unique relationship we have,” he said.
He also opposed the Iran nuclear deal, explaining, “We know that Iran is one of the most dangerous forces of terrorism and exporters of terrorism in the world, particularly in the Mideast, and that, quite frankly, they hate Israel.”
Van Drew was elected as a Democrat in 2018, flipping a seat long occupied by Republicans, but the retired dentist later switched to the GOP. He is running in a very close race against Democrat Amy Kennedy, who is married to former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. The district covers Atlantic City and Cape May.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, one of two Jewish Republican House members, swiftly castigated Tlaib and Omar soon after the current term began. He was re-elected in 2018 by four percentage points, and is locked in a tough race with Democrat Nancy Goroff, a chemist and professor at Stony Brook University who is fond of reminding eastern Long Island voters that she will apply her scientific expertise to tackle the pandemic.
I sense that none of these three Republicans will return to Washington. They may well deserve defeat because they backed most of Trump’s policies, but hopefully some Republicans who are left will not give Democratic bashers of Israel a free pass.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World