Michael Goodwin: Dems have only themselves to blame for Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic comments
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}With zero apologies to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the chickens of the Democratic Party are coming home to roost.
Dems are now squawking mad over the overtly anti-Semitic comments of freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. With some fanfare, speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, citing charges Omar has raised repeatedly, including “the myth of dual loyalty.”
Unfortunately, Omar’s colleagues are not mad enough to name the very person whose conduct they are denouncing. Nor, as it turned out, did they have the votes even to do that. Their latest plan is to water the resolution down to mush by also condemning other forms of hate, including Islamophobia.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Their cowardice is not incidental to the problem. It is the problem.
Nor is it a coincidence that the Democratic Party is increasingly both the anti-Israel party and home to a growing number of anti-Semites. To be clear, the two things are not always the same, but something is going on when both are defining elements of a political organization.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}One obvious truth is that Dems have failed to deal with anti-Semitism forthrightly, and now are confronted by a metastasizing cancer in their ranks.
Years ago, such as in 1984, when Jesse Jackson referred to New York as “Hymietown,” the outcry was slow at first but eventually unanimous. But Democrats are a different party today, in part because they moved sharply to the left under President Obama. He had both prominent Jewish backers and a 20-year relationship with Rev. Wright, whose sermons mixed anti-Semitism with anti-Americanism.
Another development was Obama’s effort to lure Iran in from the pariah-state cold despite its vow to eliminate Israel. And as part of the party’s increased focus on social justice and income inequality, it found itself making common cause with radical bedfellows, including Occupy Wall Street, anarchists and other fringe elements.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}To this day, the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan, who has long embraced dehumanizing imagery and language about Jews, is nonetheless held in high regard by some Democrats, including a handful of top black elected officials. A 2005 picture of Obama with Farrakhan, taken at a Congressional Black Caucus event, only recently surfaced, with the photographer saying he was pressured to keep it secret to protect Obama from criticism.
Tellingly, the emergence of the photo did more to normalize Farrakhan than hurt Obama.
While some far-left groups incorporate anti-Semitism into their global conspiracy theories, others couch their criticism of Israel only in political terms. Yet they never hold despotic regimes, such as Iran, Russia or China, to the same standards they hold Israel, reflecting both their own implicit bigotry and much of the United Nations’ as well.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Consider two groups, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement and Students for Justice in Palestine, which sometimes overlap and have vocal representation on many college campuses, including in New York City.
The standard indoctrination equates Zionism with colonialism, and Jews with white oppressors. To be fair, these ideas are echoed in the national liberal media, including The New York Times, where Israel is blamed for everything wrong in the Middle East and where demands are made on Jews to make major concessions for peace while excuses are made for the fact that many Muslims refuse even to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Is it any surprise that there is a rise of anti-Semitic incidents in America and in New York, where such incidents make up more than half of the hate crimes reported?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The various threads of Jew-hatred, ancient and modern, discreet and naked, meet in the person of Linda Sarsour, a BDS supporter who helped found the Women’s March, part of the resistance movement against President Trump. Sarsour, a Palestinian-American, has made numerous anti-Jewish statements and she and other leaders of the movement stand accused of discriminating against Jewish women.
Sarsour, who supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, is also a big supporter of Mayor de Blasio and received city grants for her Arab American Association, including $500,000 in 2016 alone.
Naturally, Sarsour defended Rep. Omar, and Tuesday she denounced Pelosi for even trying to condemn her anti-Semitism. “Nancy is a typical white feminist upholding the patriarchy doing the dirty work of powerful white men,” Sarsour wrote on Facebook. “God forbid the men are upset.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ah yes, race, gender, religion — they wouldn’t be Democrats if identity politics weren’t driving the bus.
None of this is to suggest there are no anti-Semites on the right. There clearly are, including those in white-supremacist groups, such as appeared in the infamous 2017 rally at Charlottesville, Va.
At least some are members of the Republican Party.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But there is a major difference as it relates to Israel and Judaism: The evangelical Christian movement is almost exclusively Republican, and it is a fervent supporter of Israel growing out of biblical history and because Israel allows access to Christian holy sites in Jerusalem that were mostly closed under Arab rule.
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As a result, any Republican who does not support Israel likely would be shunned by the evangelical movement, which in some states constitutes the largest single bloc of GOP voters.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As Democrats tear themselves apart over what to do about Omar, if anything, they must first realize they have no one to blame but themselves. Maybe then they will also realize that anti-Semitism, like most cancers, is fatal unless it’s removed.