Ilhan Omar's latest anti-Semitic comments

[Xeuma]

When talking about money in politics, I think an important issue is often missed and that is politicians do not change their votes based on who gives them money. Rather, lobbyists give money to politicians who supports their goals. The NRA does not give millions to Rubio to sway his otherwise pro-gun-control stance; they give him millions because of his opposition to gun control. The same goes for any lobbyist. When faced with this reality, I think it becomes a lot harder to say that money is not speech. Politicians are not "bought" per se, but rather invested in.

This is just a long-winded way of saying that Omar greatly overestimates the power AIPAC or any other lobbyist wields in the political landscape.

[7,052,770]

The fact that she sincerely apologized speaks volumes about her true character.

[Mr. Morden]

This is just a long-winded way of saying that Omar greatly overestimates the power AIPAC or any PAC wields in the political landscape.

To be clear, AIPAC is a lobbying organization, not a PAC.  It doesn't actually contribute $ to candidates.

AIPAC = American Israel Public Affairs Committee
PAC = Political Action Committee

The "PAC" letters stand for different things in the two cases.

[Chief Justice Keef]

I have to ask the people attacking Omar’s statements what the realm of acceptable discourse on this issue is. What arguments would you make if you were on her side?

[Xeuma]

This is just a long-winded way of saying that Omar greatly overestimates the power AIPAC or any PAC wields in the political landscape.

To be clear, AIPAC is a lobbying organization, not a PAC.  It doesn't actually contribute $ to candidates.

AIPAC = American Israel Public Affairs Committee
PAC = Political Action Committee

The "PAC" letters stand for different things in the two cases.

Thanks for the correction!

[Gustaf]

The fact that she sincerely apologized speaks volumes about her true character.

Yeah, I agree.

[Gustaf]

I have to ask the people attacking Omar’s statements what the realm of acceptable discourse on this issue is. What arguments would you make if you were on her side?

I think the statement in which she apologizes for the way she said but reiterates the basic point was perfectly fine, for example.

[Badger]

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.

I'm not defending AIPAC, per say. They can be subject to legitimate criticism, and I'm not fond of PACs in general. But at least you, of all people, recognize that Omar has said vile things about Jewish people.

I am tempted to agree, especially if someone can find me some hard evidence that she appears not to support a two-state solution. However, it seems to me that when she was explicitly asked about financial support for pro-israel / anti Palestinian policies in this country, she seem to quite rightly imply that AIP AC has a lot of dough. That's just fact, and I'm not sure how being specifically asked about the root of strong Congressional support for Likud's aggressive colonization policies relies in part on big spending by aipac is particularly anti-semitic. Yes, she could have done better in communicating this message which at least implies the old Trope about Jews having all the money, etc, etc. But on the ranking of anti-Semitic tropes I find the overt General threat of 3 well-known Jewish billionaires being a threat to the Republican party to be a couple steps worse.

This is NOT to say that excuses Omar or any Democrat from anti-Semitism because the other side dabbles in it. Not one bit. I would have used the same example if the Democrats had run  an ad  raising the Specter of Sheldon Center whatever his name in Nevada is, along with two other prominent Republican Jewish billionaires if they existed, as equally bad. On that same uniform scale, I'm just not seeing Omar's being explicitly anti-Semitic. I'm having trouble seeing where any of four posts in that article are particularly anti-semitic, with the one possible exception of tweeting everything being About the Benjamins being something more of a gaff in pointing out how a i p a c has undeniably strong financial influence in Washington.

So, help?

"The Benjamins" comment is clearly a reference to the same kind of anti-Semitic financial trope as has been employed by many on the right in referring to George Soros and others. And she retweeted another comment calling Jews "hook-nosed".

Cite/link? Serious question.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What Omar said about AIPAC wasn't exactly entirely wrong, but the optics of how she went about it is mostly certainly not good. I believe her apology was sincere (much like her apology for her 2012 tweets about Israel), but she needs to learn to not step in dog sh**t in the first place instead of just being prepared to clean her shoes well.

Great example of why I didn't vote for her in the primary.

I don't think so. Omar's district has a large Somali-American community (obviously), and she did succeed Keith Ellison, after all. She's not in as much jeopardy in 2020 as Tlaib might be.

LOL, no. The district is maybe 2-3% Somali, with eligible voters being even lower. There's a far larger African-American population, South American population, Asian population, (probably even if limited to just Hmong) and probably Jewish population too. Somalis made up a neglible portion of her voters.

[Beet]

I don't like Omar, but how is what she said anti-Semitic? If she had said a Russian businessman who invested in Trump hotels was buying him off, that would have just been a normal attack. No one would say she was Russophobic.

[Zaybay]

This is just a long-winded way of saying that Omar greatly overestimates the power AIPAC or any PAC wields in the political landscape.

To be clear, AIPAC is a lobbying organization, not a PAC.  It doesn't actually contribute $ to candidates.

AIPAC = American Israel Public Affairs Committee
PAC = Political Action Committee

The "PAC" letters stand for different things in the two cases.

Actually, they do make contributions to candidates, sort of. AIPAC itself doesnt make any contributions, instead, it has a network of PACs that it gives money to, which then give money to candidates. So, it does donate to candidates, but in a roundabout way.

[Pyro]

On point, as usual.

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1095080391084523520

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I have to ask the people attacking Omar’s statements what the realm of acceptable discourse on this issue is. What arguments would you make if you were on her side?

That...is actually a really good point in this instance.  Of course, there's still the issue of the "hypnotizing the world" tweet and subsequent double-down which reflected unambiguous anti-Semitism on Omar's part, but that's a different discussion.  Regarding the AIPAC tweet, I think this is a situation where both perspectives are legitimate.  I think Omar is completely wrong on this issue, but I'm not sure what a better way for her to articulate her point would've been (or rather, one that wouldn't have produced a similar reaction), but speaking as a Jewish-American, I also can't blame anyone for being offended by the tweet since it relies on one of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes and Omar is someone with a history of anti-Semitism. 

I guess this is how I feel: Was Omar's tweet inherently anti-Semitic?  Honestly, no.  Did Omar mean it in an anti-Semitic way?  I suspect she did, but I honestly can't say for sure and the outrage has probably been a bit overblown (also Kevin McCarthy is a hypocritical hack; in other news: water still wet).  Is Omar an anti-Semite based on other things she's said and done in the past?  Yes, absolutely.

[Roronoa D. Law]

I have to ask the people attacking Omar’s statements what the realm of acceptable discourse on this issue is. What arguments would you make if you were on her side?

I don't like that the fact that she said Israel. Most Israelis are against the far right trend of the country and the government increasing involvement in American politics. She should lay blame squarely at Netanyahu's feet where it belongs. 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I have to ask the people attacking Omar’s statements what the realm of acceptable discourse on this issue is. What arguments would you make if you were on her side?

That...is actually a really good point in this instance.  Of course, there's still the issue of the "hypnotizing the world" tweet and subsequent double-down which reflected unambiguous anti-Semitism on Omar's part, but that's a different discussion. 

She did apologize for that too, eventually.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

On point, as usual.

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1095080391084523520

The Onion's transformation from a satire paper to the comedy equivalent of The Intercept has been quite depressing.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

On point, as usual.

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1095080391084523520

The Onion's transformation from a satire paper to the comedy equivalent of The Intercept has been quite depressing.

Its nothing like The Intercept. Its always liberal, not some Democrat-bashing pro-Putin and pro-Assad rag.

[Technocracy Timmy]

LOL, no. The district is maybe 2-3% Somali, with eligible voters being even lower. There's a far larger African-American population, South American population, Asian population, (probably even if limited to just Hmong) and probably Jewish population too. Somalis made up a neglible portion of her voters.

Crunching the numbers for the Minneapolis area, Jews makeup around 1-1.8% of the population there. No different than the national average.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

LOL, no. The district is maybe 2-3% Somali, with eligible voters being even lower. There's a far larger African-American population, South American population, Asian population, (probably even if limited to just Hmong) and probably Jewish population too. Somalis made up a neglible portion of her voters.

Crunching the numbers for the Minneapolis area, Jews makeup around 1-1.8% of the population there. No different than the national average.

That total figure would include St. Paul and MN-03 and most of MN-02 as well.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If the greater Twin Cities is 1 to 1.8% Jewish, that makes the Jewish population from about 36k to 65k. It was estimated in 1987 38% of the area's Jews lived in St. Louis Park. the number is probably lower now as they've dispersed more, but if we go with 30% that equals about 11k to 20k in SLP alone. 20k is about the Somali population of the district I arrived at an estimate of once, and since their turnout is far lower than Jews, based on those numbers I'd safely bet more Jews than Somalis vote in the district.

[Crumpets]

If opposing the two-state solution is anti-Semitic, are the Israeli New Right Party, Tzipi Hotovely, and Uri Ariel anti-Semitic?

I'm not trying to defend Omar here - obviously the "Benjamins" quote is awful for all sorts of reasons - but this line of reasoning is just silly. Sure, anti-Semitic people want a one-state Palestine, and far-right Israelis want a one-state Israel, and most people in the middle want a two-state solution. But the two-state solution has become almost a discussion-ender in and of itself, and an excuse to not pass any other reforms until the two-state solution is reached. We should acknowledge that, for the forseeable future, we will have our mangled one-and-a-half-state status quo, and build policies off of that instead of just saying "well, I support a two-state solution" and washing our hands of all of the bloodshed that happens until that two state solution is reached sometime decades down the road.

[ProudModerate2]

The fact that she sincerely apologized speaks volumes about her true character.

Yeah, I agree.

Agree also.
She even said "I unequivocally apologize."
This is a lot more than what we can expect from other politicians in DC.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Revolting. Happy that she apologized, but I see no reason to suspect that Congresswoman Omar does not hold some strongly anti-Semitic views. That being said, I don't know what's in her heart, so I'm in no position to judge.

The "Palestinian cause" in practice is an albatross on the Left when it comes to being supportive of Jews - who, despite (or maybe, because....) being considerably wealthier, more educated, and being heavily represented in many positions of influence in the US, still face all kinds of latent and blatant anti-Semitism, are still a small minority of the US population, and are still routinely subject to hate crimes and in some cases, murderous terrorism, as we saw in Pittsburgh a few months ago.

This naturally harms those of us on the Left in standing up against strongly and firmly against anti-Semitism emanating from the Right (which clearly exists! "Many fine people on both sides", ((((Soros))), "Jews will not replace us!", etc. ad nauseam), and that is obviously not a good thing. If not us, then whom? The people who say they'll protect Israel (and by implication, Jews) but are perfectly fine with white nationalists in their coalition? Come. On.

And I also obviously agree that on the other side, Netanyahu being a Republican operative for all intents and purposes, the influence of Sheldon Adelson, the mass GOP constituency of End-Times white evangelicals, and yes, AIPAC, don't help matters. The "Israel lobby", to the extent that that is a thing that can be talked about, is literally the Republican Party and a shrinking but still sizeable portion of the Democratic Party ( really, it's the corrupt-as-f--k military-industrial-intelligence-whatever complex that launders arms and money through Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East and the world, and generously funds both major political parties).

My point here is that - (hopefully) sensitive goy that I am - I don't want the last refuge of Jews to be people who have anti-Semitism deep in their ideological hearts, regardless of whether they're Trump-supporting Nazis or Hamas apologists in the BDS movement. Lord knows that there are horrifyingly few places on this Earth that are truly safe for Jews....

[Ban my account ffs!]

LOL, no. The district is maybe 2-3% Somali, with eligible voters being even lower. There's a far larger African-American population, South American population, Asian population, (probably even if limited to just Hmong) and probably Jewish population too. Somalis made up a neglible portion of her voters.

Crunching the numbers for the Minneapolis area, Jews makeup around 1-1.8% of the population there. No different than the national average.

That total figure would include St. Paul and MN-03 and most of MN-02 as well.

Just over 40,000 Jews live in the Twin Cities.  Approximately 2/3 of them live in MN-05.  A rough estimate means the Jewish proportion is 3.8%, the highest of the state's 8 districts and about double the national average.

There are probably around 30,000 Somalis in the district... most of whom cannot vote.

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm pro-Israel so I disagree with Omar's politics but I don't see what's anti-Semitic about saying that pro-Israel lobbying groups lobby for Israel. No one is able to explain the mechanics of why it is. They just go "wow, just wow".