Big Red Car here on a dark and cloudy day that will top out at 82F. For comparison, Manhattan will have a low of 28F and a high of 36F, but it will be sunny.
So, the ether is abuzz with darts and arrows about anti-Semitism and, by association, Israel.
This was all triggered by idiotic comments made by freshman Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota’s 5th District.
In the picture above, Congresswoman Omar is pictured with Palestinian supporter Linda Sarsour, a controversial figure who once tweeted about two women with whom she had debated, “She’s asking 4 an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.”
This type of remark sets the tone for the discussion.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia and immigrated legally to the United States from a refugee camp in Kenya after what she describes as a grueling vetting.
On numerous occasions, she has expressed her personal anti-Semitism and antipathy toward Israel as well as her animosity toward the United States, the country that welcomed her and her family from a refugee camp.
What nobody will accuse her of is any semblance of gratitude to America for having taken her and her family in — an action that millions of other refugees would have appreciated.
She is a champion of the BDS movement.
She supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction of Israel, an effort to delegitimize Israel and to damage Israeli businesses in much the same way that the Nazis boycotted Jewish businesses at the start of the Holocaust.
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism, the historic hatred of Jews for no reason other than their religion, is a centuries old phenomenon though the name was not widely used until the early 1900s.
It is credited to Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist, who first used the term in 1879.
It is the driver of the pogroms, the power behind the Blood Libel, the emergence of the Nazis, the unending wars in the Middle East, the refusal to acknowledge the right of Israel to peacefully exist, and a continuing, virulent social animosity alive and well in America today.
It is pure evil. It is unAmerican.
In her most recent antic, Congresswoman Omar has so offended the Congress that Nancy Pelosi allowed the Congress to fashion and pass a Resolution denouncing anti-Semitism.
However, in imitable fashion, Speaker Pelosi allowed the Resolution to be hijacked such that the Resolution did not focus solely on anti-Semitism, but added a wholesale condemnation of “hateful expressions of intolerance” including anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim utterances and white supremacist attitudes.
This kitchen sink Resolution provided anonymity to the root cause of the Resolution — Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic speech.
In fact, she became so anonymous that she voted for it and then took a victory lap suggesting it was really about the condemnation of anti-Muslim hatred.
Even the Speaker of the House, Mrs. Pelosi, covered for Ilhan Omar’s hate speech, saying, “It’s up to her [Omar] to explain. But I do not believe that she understood the full weight of her words.”
The woman is a US Congresswoman and she didn’t understand the “…full weight of her words?” Huh?
While it is up to Congresswoman Omar to explain, it is also up to the Speaker of the House to embrace and enforce fundamental decency. Speaker Pelosi could have sent a powerful message by removing Congresswoman Omar from plum committee assignments in punishment for her offensive words a la Republican Congressman King — who was stripped of all committee assignments for similar behavior?
Nancy, she understood it perfectly the first time she said that support for Israel was a pledge of “…allegiance to a foreign country.” She understood it when she accused her colleagues of coloring their support under the weight of campaign money — “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
Israel
Israel, the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, is the home to 8,985,000 citizens, of whom 74.5% are Jewish, while 20.9% are Arabs.
To put that into perspective, the US population is 12.3% black and 12.5% Hispanic. We have 5,300,000 Jews in the US, 1.6% of the US population.
Israel is a small country, but it is the staunchest American political ally in the region. It is our only capable military ally in the region.
Countries in the region, like Iran, have pledged to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth. We have common enemies in Iran.
We share values with Israel that are not recognizable in many other despotic regimes in the region — talking to you, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait, Iran and the list goes on.
I point this out because anti-Semitism may be focused on a group of people, but it also impacts our nation-state alliances, particularly programs like BDS.
Our alliance with Israel is not based on the religion of 75% of their population. Neither should it be impacted by hatred for that same religion.
Bottom line it, Big Red Car
America must carefully decide whether the cute hijabs worn by Congresswoman Ilhna Omar are sufficient justification for the country to look past her virulent anti-Semitism and whether the Democrats want to become the party of the anti-Semites.
Of course, anti-Semitism is the embodiment of evil, but is not just an idea. It is a hatred that put more than 6,000,000 Jews in their mass graves during the Holocaust. This is not a debate about “fake news.” This is a debate about the soul of America.
For Democrats, it is also a debate about the fundamental values of their party.
Are we the kind of country that allows a US Congresswoman to put the flame to anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews for their religion?
I pray we are not, but we are going to need some more definitive proof than a watered-down, faux Resolution from the Nancy Pelosi controlled House of Representatives.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. 