Even now that she is no longer a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee , Representative Ilhan Omar’s supporters in her fight to be reappointed are really going to have to settle on either racism or political retribution as having driven the Republican leadership in this decision. The two are hardly complementary notions, and taken together would surely dilute the issue of her removal going forward.
Of course, we rather believe that she disqualified herself because of her incessant attacks on the Jewish community and Israel. The important takeaway here though is the willingness of the House Democratic caucus to overwhelmingly support her despite her open antisemitism and defamation of her Congressional colleagues.
As we said here last week, no one should be distracted by debates over whether or not she understood that she was employing antisemitic tropes. She has asserted she did not, or that she did it out of ignorance; but her claim that Jewish money has corruptly bought Congressional support for Israel hardly required knowledge of the stereotypes about Jews and money to be blameworthy.
And does this not also smack of the old cabal of Jewish “dual loyalty.” She has used the old libel of “dual loyalty,” but even if she had ever heard that trope before isn’t it obviously antisemitic to any rational person? And how should other members of the Committee take the charge that their votes were bought and paid for by “the Jewish lobby?” Is this not also “dual loyalty?”
It is hard to understand why Rep. Omar’s Democratic colleagues would be indifferent to these calumnies. How do they fail to understand that a vote for her is a vote to sweep under the rug problems that really matter? Should someone with her views have a role in crafting American foreign policy?
If maligning the Jews and Israel were not enough for Congressional Democrats, what about their own self-respect? After all, Omar maligned them as well when she didn’t specify which elected officials are swayed by “the Benjamins.”
