It’s curious that U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib would travel to a country – namely, Israel – that they suggest replicates Nazi Germany.
Of course, Israel is no Nazi Germany. No concentration camps, no gas chambers, no fuhrers, no German-style ghettoes, no storm troopers, no boxcars moving Omar and Tlaib to their doom. On the floor of the House of Representatives, Tlaib compared economic boycotts of Israel to boycotting Nazi Germany or South African apartheid , and Omar incorporated those sentiments into a resolution supporting the concept of boycotts of oppressive countries.
Omar’s resolution does not identify Israel, and most observers readily accept that she is referring to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Worse, respected House Democrats signed onto Omar’s resolutions as co-sponsors. Does this mean that Reps. John Lewis, Donald M.Payne, Ayanna Pressley, Earl Blumenauer, Andre Carson, Peter DeFazio, Joaquin Castro and Tulsi Gabbard regard Israel as Nazi Germany-south? These obnoxious comparisons must be removed from the resolution, or its co-sponsors must remove their names from the bill. Otherwise, they risk damaging their credibility.
Israel has made serious mistakes, and the Palestinians have made far more of them, yet Tlaib, Omar and their more rigid followers blame only Israel. This week’s uproar was a manufactured crisis. No doubt that Israel on Thursday barred the two Muslim congresswomen because President Trump urged Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to refuse to let them visit.
Israel’s stated reason is that Tlaib and Omar support BDS, as a recently-enacted Israeli law bars entry to backers of BDS. According to media reports, Trump is exploiting anger with the pair to turn pro-Israel Democrats against the party. If he thinks that will save his job in 2020, he is as desperate as it gets. I believe most Jews will remain with the party unless the conflict with the likes of Tlaib and Omar becomes intolerable. Which could happen.
I was initially pleased with Israel’s decision. It is a sovereign country that should not tolerate a foreigner’s hostility to its very existence. As a Florida caller to C-SPAN said Friday morning, “If you say publicly you want to hurt us, they shouldn’t let them in.”
However, all members of Congress have the power of the vote over foreign appropriations, and the United States supplies Israel with billions of dollars in aid. Says Robert of Kentucky, also on C-SPAN: “She has a right to see how that money is spent.”
Potentially, Congress could threaten to cut off funds to Israel, but there is little sentiment in Congress for such a move.
Both congresswomen exercised their usual trademark judgment in responding, with Omar comparing the action with Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries. “Trump’s Muslim ban is what Israel is implementing…it is both an insult to democratic values and a chilling response to a visit by government officials from an allied nation,” she said, as quoted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Trump’s ban indeed discriminates against Muslims, but Netanyahu only acted against two politicians who bash Israel and ignore the sensibilities of American Jews, some of whom criticize Israel themselves. If Omar cared about “democratic values,” she would not lie to her Jewish constituents, as she did before her election last year when she called BDS “counterproductive.” Most Jews in her Minneapolis-area district live in St. Louis Park west of the city.
To paraphrase the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, it turns out that Tlaib hates Israel more than she loves her grandmother and other family members. After Israel announced its decision to block their entry, Tlaib applied to visit on humanitarian grounds that would allow her to see her grandmother, who at 90 years old lives in a single-story, flat-roofed home in the small but scenic hamlet of Beit Ur al-Fauqa near Ramallah in the West Bank. “This could be my last opportunity to see her,” she wrote.
Israel approved her request while still denying her the opportunity to “promote boycotts,” The New York Timesreported. Tlaib accepted the conditional approval, but then she was accused of selling out the Palestinian cause, so she decided against visiting her grandmother, Muftiya Tlaib, under such circumstances.
“Visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in,” Tlaib tweeted. “Silencing me and treating me is not what she wants for me. It would kill a piece of me.”
This would be quite the heartfelt argument if one morning she were to drive out of Detroit, her hometown, and arrive at the border of Dearborn, Michigan, home only to be turned back. Or if the same happened in Ohio, Indiana or any other state.
Unless Tlaib holds dual citizenship in Israel, she has no rights there. Israel is a sovereign nation and can deny entry to anyone it wants. When I visited Canada long ago, I was vetted by border guards and granted a limited time to stay. Tlaib would be “a criminal” if she violates Israeli laws.
In the process, Tlaib is treating her grandmother and family like props in an absurdist play. If her relatives who claim to support her decision are being truthful, they are just as pathetic.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World