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One might think this story had implications for domestic policy in the U.S. given the Democrats’ embrace of socialized medicine. The American press has largely ignored it. I wonder why?
Matthew Continetti:
“…So far this year the Democrats have floundered in a pit of racism, sexual assault, and anti-Semitism. They’ve embraced policies akin to infanticide, and announced plans to expropriate wealth, pay reparations for slavery, eliminate private health insurance within two years, and rebuild or retrofit every building in the United States before the world ends from climate change twelve years from now. Throughout it all, they’ve received a pass from the know-nothing media. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Sanders have all made the claim that Omar has done nothing but criticize the policies of Bibi Netanyahu. That’s a bald-faced lie, a falsehood not one of the hundreds upon hundreds of reporters covering the Democratic field has scrutinized. These are the very people who have spent the past three years sermonizing on the importance of truth in politics, and they are doing Bernie’s work for him. Elaine Kamarck of the Brookings Institution insists that the Democratic party continues to be center-left. But the election returns and publi- opinion data that support her thesis become much less important when the party’s biggest stars make a hard-left turn. The Democrats seem ripe for a takeover by Bernie and his pals, or at least for a blistering and incendiary battle for control similar to what the GOP experienced last time around…”
Robert Stacy McCain:
“…So, Democrats can’t condemn anti-Semitism because, without anti-Semitism, they’d lose “the younger, far-left wing of the party” — the Jew-haters who support Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
In case I haven’t reminded you lately, some of my cousins are Jewish Democrats. They despise Donald Trump, but I wonder: How long will they be able to maintain their anti-Trump stance if Pelosi fails to suppress the Jew-haters in her coalition? You can go back as far as the 1960s and see how this poisonous weed has grown on the Left.
Anti-Israel politics functioned as a proxy for anti-Semitism among “Black Power” radicals, and anti-Semitism was a proxy for anti-white racism. In 1996, I interviewed a former activist for SNCC who bemoaned how “Stokely Carmichael and that crowd ran the white people out of the movement” circa 1966. That tendency flourished again in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and, while it seemed to fade during the Obama years, it continued growing with the BDS movement on college campuses. Now, with Trump in the White House and Democrats controlling the House, Pelosi finds herself yoked to this radicalism and it will be difficult, if not impossible, for her to disentangle herself from the anti-Israel/anti-white sentiment that flourishes among “the younger, far-left wing of the party.”…”
JOHN HINDERAKER:
“…Today marked a turning point of sorts. The House of Representatives voted 407-23 in favor of the Democrats’ revised, anodyne resolution condemning all forms of bigotry. As Scott has noted, Nancy Pelosi retreated to this meaningless resolution because many House Democrats weighed in to support Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism. Faced with a rebellion in the ranks, Pelosi backed down. She now denies that the resolution had anything to do with Omar.
That is quite a change from the long-ago days (less than a month ago, actually) when Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying, among other things, “Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive.” The Democratic Party leadership’s climbdown is complete: today, as predicted, Omar voted for the resolution that began life as a censure of her anti-Semitism…
…I think we have crossed a Rubicon of sorts. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the Congressional Black Caucus–which supported Omar unanimously, as best one can tell from news reports–are in the driver’s seat. Anti-Semitism is now accepted by the Democratic Party.
Never mind lame attempts to change the subject like the multiple tweets from presidential candidates to the effect that it is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the government of Israel. Of course not, but that is not what Omar did, and not what she got into trouble for doing. She has criticized, rather, American supporters of Israel who she says were bought off by “Benjamins” and are loyal to a foreign power. And she has tried to bring about the destruction of Israel, an important American ally, by supporting the BDS movement, which seeks Israel’s obliteration.
The Democratic Party is not the first to embrace anti-Semitism. A number of European parties did so in the early decades of the 20th century. The political calculus is straightforward: there are only a few Jews, a slow-growing (if growing at all) demographic, while there are lots of anti-Semites, especially among our fast-growing Islamic population. That is, of course, Omar’s base.
We witnessed today the birth of a new Democratic Party. And so far, I haven’t seen a single Democratic officeholder complain about it…”
David Harsanyi:
“…This week, the Democratic Party was unable to pass a watered-down, platitudinous resolution condemning anti-Semitism, due to “fierce backlash” from presidential candidates, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the now-powerful progressive base. Rather than censuring Rep. Ilhan Omar, the intellectually frivolous, Hamas-supporting freshman representative from Minnesota, she was rewarded and inoculated from party criticism.
More consequently, the Democrats deemed Protocols of Zion-style attacks a legitimate form of debate. That’s because Omar, despite what you hear, has repeatedly attacked Jews, not only Israel supporters, and certainly not only specific Israeli policies…”
JOHN PODHORETZ:
“…The struggle is over. At its highest levels, the Democratic Party is defending or excusing its newly minted superstar freshman anti-Semite.
Over the past week, the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives has been trying to find a way to deal with a third set of remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar that expressed anti-Semitic sentiments—words that followed a clearly disingenuous apology she had offered for earlier anti-Semitic remarks. A resolution to condemn Omar by name was floated at first only to be supplanted by a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism, then a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, then a resolution denouncing all hate.
And then, suddenly, everything was all right. Because according to the Speaker of the House, the House Majority Leader, the House Whip, the Senate Minority Leader, and at least three Democratic presidential candidates, Ilhan Omar is not an anti-Semite—and, in the view of some, people are saying so dishonestly for the purpose of shutting down debate on legitimate matters.
Speaker Pelosi said Omar’s words were not “intentionally anti-Semitic.”
Majority Leader Hoyer: “I don’t think she’s anti-Semitic.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer—who has spent his career oleaginously assuring Jewish audiences his true purpose is to serve as a “shomer,” a guardian at the gates of Jerusalem, protecting and defending his people—said Omar had been “wrong and hurtful,” but then immediately sought to equalize her repeated offenses against his people with a poster someone hung up in the West Virginia statehouse—”and those who tried to connect 9/11 to all Muslims in West Virginia were wrong as well.”
He’s a shomer like I’m Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He’s Josephus, not Joseph.
More horrifying were the words of House Whip James Clyburn, who suggested—as my friend Seth Mandel says—that families of Holocaust survivors should check their white privilege in the face of Omar’s history as a Somali refugee: “There are people who tell me, ‘Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors.’ ‘My parents did this.’ It’s more personal with her.” Yes, more personal than the Holocaust. Thanks so much, Third Ranking Official in the House of Representatives.
Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders said that the attacks on Omar were intended to make it impossible to have serious discussion of Israel and the Palestinians. Fellow candidate Kamala Harris suggested that Omar was the real victim here: “I am concerned that the spotlight being put on Congresswoman Omar may put her at risk….I also believe there is a difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and anti-Semitism.”
Let’s be clear here. Nobody baited Ilhan Omar into saying Jews were hypnotizing the world, or that Jews were controlling American politics with their money, or that Jews were engaged in a conspiracy to force her to apologize for her words. She said these things herself, on her own, without prompting. They have nothing to do with “policy,” or with her pain as a Somali refugee, or anything else. They have to do with her idea that evil Jews are manipulating reality. This is as anti-Semitic as anti-Semitism gets…”
