U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s jabbing accusation during the Cohen hearing must give us pause: “I’m saying that in itself it is a racist act.”
So should U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s statement of Dec. 23, 2016: “Earlier this fall I joined Senate colleagues urging the Administration to uphold its position opposing one-sided resolutions at the U.N. Security Council regarding Israel. Any lasting peace must be negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians, not imposed by the international community.”
Tlaib was at her hypocritical worst last Wednesday, yet Brown was establishing his credibility for criticizing both Israel and its foes. Then there is Layla Moran, a British Parliament MP (member of Parliament) who asserts that anti-Semitism only harms the Palestinian cause. Like Tlaib, Moran is of Palestinian descent.
A show-stopping spectacle triggered Tlaib’s claim of racism amid Michael D. Cohen’s testimony on Wednesday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The self-parodying incident occurred when Lynne Patton stood in abnormal silence behind Rep. Mark Meadows like a mannequin in a store window display.
Meadows, a Republican from western North Carolina, produced Patton to discount Cohen’s testimony that President Trump is indeed a racist. An African-American, Patton is a political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“I asked Lynne to come today in her personal capacity to actually shed some light,” said Meadows, who once pledged “we’re going to send President Obama back home to Kenya.” “She says that as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Ala., that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist.”
Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat, characterized it as “insensitive” and perhaps racist “to use a black woman as a prop. As a person of color in this committee, that is how I felt at that moment and I wanted to express that. I’m saying that in itself it is a racist act.”
Is it “insensitive” to suggest dual loyalty of American Jews when Tlaib tells senators that “they forgot what country they represent” in sponsoring pro-Israel legislation? Chief sponsor Marco Rubio of Florida is not Jewish, but an estimated 800,000 Jews live in his state.
How can we take Tlaib seriously when she insults up to 6 million Americans? If exploiting a black woman is “a racist act,” then by her standards Tlaib’s dual loyalty accusation is an anti-Semitic act. Tlaib backed off the implication that Meadows is a racist, but we must wonder if Tlaib is an anti-Semite. By her standards, of course.
Earlier in the week, Brown and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for forming a political alliance with a reputed devil, a party called Jewish Power, that promotes violence against Palestinians and the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and its territories, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Both senators have pro-Israel records, and it means they are willing to criticize both Israel and the Palestinians. Tlaib, along with Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, treat the Palestinians as innocent victims who would never think of annihilating Israel.
Granted, political considerations are involved since Klobuchar, of Minnesota, is a presidential candidate and Brown, from Ohio, may announce his candidacy. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, also a presidential candidate who has defended Israel, took Netanyahu to task on Friday for facing corruption charges.
In a dust-up across the pond, Liberal Democrat Layla Moran was quoted in London’s Jewish Chronicle to say, “My plea to those who feel they need to step up for the Palestinians: Please do that, my God do we need it but also please don’t do it in a way that stokes anti-Semitic. You don’t have to be pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic.”
Too much to hope that Tlaib follows Moran’s example?
And another thing…
At a gathering in Washington following the Cohen hearing, tensions over Israel rose to the surface when Omar, of Minneapolis, groused about being compelled to defend her criticisms of Israel and implied the oft-used accusation that Israel is an apartheid state, all while she is being eyed through the prism of her religious identity, that of Islam.
A gay colleague, Rep. Marc Pocan of Madison, Wisc., seemed to equate the Middle East conflict with homophobia at the event. The Jewish Insider quoted him as saying, “As someone who’s not religious and (is) gay, it doesn’t seem to be natural that Palestine would be an important issue, but it’s an important issue because it’s a human rights issue.”
Does Pocan consider it a human rights issue that Palestinians murder homosexuals while gays in Israel march in pride parades?
Finally…
The Onion, a website that satirizes politics, conjured up a tall tale that Netanyahu allied himself with the far-right Aryan Supremacy Party, with the prime minister saying, “People need to focus less on their broad anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and look at the positive ideas these skinheads can bring to my future coalition government.”
Republished from San Diego Jewish World