Ilhan Omar's latest anti-Semitic comments

[Landslide Lyndon]

Both things can be true.
AIPAC is a shady organization which essentially bribes politicians so they always support Likud's hawkish policies.
And Omar seems to be all too eager to use anti-Semitic tropes and stereotypes.

[Landslide Lyndon]

If only AIPAC were half as influential as conspiracy loons like Duke and Omar think...

You are half right. They are wrongly considered the 800-pound gorilla in the lobbying room, though they are still at least a 400-pound gorilla.

I see, that's why almost all Democrats ultimately voted for the Iran deal and all major Democratic presidential contenders, who are surely competing for big donors, voted against the bill that would defund BDS-supporting organizations.

Maybe the fact that Bibi has become a de facto Republican precinct captain has something to do with this.

[Landslide Lyndon]

He argument is correct. Her phrasing was ill-advised an dumb.

Exactly. It's people like her who give cover to those who want to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Former Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) was able to succinctly describe the AIPAC problem without (to my knowledge) being decried as an antisemite:

Ah, the AIPAC problem. I suppose that's contemporary American for Judenfrage.

LOL, excessive hyperbole alert.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Last time I checked, critizing aipac is not comparable to calling neo-nazis "very fine people" or a sitting Republican Congressman endorsing white supremacist ideas.
Ohmar should have never apologized and I say this as a jew

Why are Atlas Socialists so supportive of Omar and so critical of AIPAC? I mean this as a general observation. And I should know the answer, giving that the left is becoming increasingly critical of Israel.

Yeah, why on earth are progressives so supportive of a progressive congresswoman, and critical of an organization aligned with the right-wing Netanyahu and Likud?  It’s a total mystery.

AIPAC has nowhere near the influence that some on here have claimed. And it has received the greatest amount of opprobrium on here. I also notice that people have continually ignored Omar's earlier tweet about Israel, and her claim that it has "hypnotized" the world.

We talked ad nauseum about Omar's other antisemitic tweets back in the summer when they surfaced. If you want to re-litigate them, knock yourself out.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Without getting into Omar's tweets specifically, whether or not there was racist subtext or tropes, how she went about getting her point across, all of that... the mainstream media has been relatively silent on this one simple fact. Simply criticizing the Israeli government in and of itself is NOT anti-semetic or racist, and anybody who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. A government is an organization of people (with power) whose actions cannot be blamed on an entire country full of civilians, and people who share that ethnic makeup living abroad.

HOW you critcize Israel can certainly be racist or anti-semetic, obviously.

Newsweek reported the other day that Omar's comments have received 5 times as much coverage on cable news than Steve Kings explicit defense of white supremacy. I don't think we can accuse the media of having been silent on the matter.

Considering how few journalists/media owners of color exist in comparison with white/Jewish ones, that's not a surprise.
It's also a reason why voter suppression gets minimal coverage from the same media.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Without getting into Omar's tweets specifically, whether or not there was racist subtext or tropes, how she went about getting her point across, all of that... the mainstream media has been relatively silent on this one simple fact. Simply criticizing the Israeli government in and of itself is NOT anti-semetic or racist, and anybody who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. A government is an organization of people (with power) whose actions cannot be blamed on an entire country full of civilians, and people who share that ethnic makeup living abroad.

HOW you critcize Israel can certainly be racist or anti-semetic, obviously.

Newsweek reported the other day that Omar's comments have received 5 times as much coverage on cable news than Steve Kings explicit defense of white supremacy. I don't think we can accuse the media of having been silent on the matter.

Steve King, of course, has been effectively disciplined by his party, having been stripped of his committee assignments.

Ilhan Omar remains unsanctioned.

Steve King should have been disciplined 10 years ago. No cookie points for doing the right thing with such delay.