MN-05: Not a topic about Israel, thank you very much

[Tartarus Sauce]

Yeah, what’s the problem with Omar besides her stringent Anti-Israeli positions? I’m not seeing the big deal.

[Tartarus Sauce]

I will say that Omar comes across as extremely abrasive and unnecessarily combative and confrontational, and her choice of statements in the past indicates some rather questionable decision-making, so I get why she ruffles people’s feathers. However, I’m not convinced she’s actually a raging antisemite. A raging anti-Zionist, yes, but that’s not the same thing. She doesn’t have a smorgasbord of unambiguous previous comments you can hang around her neck like you can most other antisemites, people just seem to be interpreting a Tweet or two in which she chose some very poor wording and extrapolating from that. I don’t know, maybe there’s more from her history that would indicate something more solid, but I haven’t found that tweet that’s been over analyzed to death to be definitive proof.

The debate between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is so fraught because clarity is obscured from two different directions. Hardcore Zionists are quick to label anti-Zionism as being equivalent to antisemitism, while antisemites intentionally package anti-Zionism into their message. There has undoubtably been some overlaps between the anti-Zionist crowd and antisemitic circles, there will probably always be a possibility of the latter at least partially cropping up from time to time within the former. As far as anti-Zionist left-wing politicians dabbling in blatant antisemitism, there are far more egregiously damning and clear cut examples than the accusations against Omar.

[Tartarus Sauce]

I will say that Omar comes across as extremely abrasive and unnecessarily combative and confrontational, and her choice of statements in the past indicates some rather questionable decision-making, so I get why she ruffles people’s feathers. However, I’m not convinced she’s actually a raging antisemite. A raging anti-Zionist, yes, but that’s not the same thing.

In those tweets yes. In general, no.

And she's not even a raging anti-Zionist. She's never called for the US to cease recognition of Israel or cut off diplomatic relations or anything like that.

So in other words we’re down to “critical of Israel’s policies,” in which case she’s in the same boat as a lot of liberal Jews in America (including me). Granted, I don’t think many of us would express that criticism in as bizarre a manner as she has.