MAGNANIMITY, THY NAME IS TLAIB: A prejudice exposed cannot be ignored.

I think she was trying to be nice. Or, if not nice, magnanimous—or what she believed to be magnanimous.

The problem with what Rep. Rashida Tlaib said over the weekend about Jews and Palestinians is precisely this—precisely that she meant to be nice. Her attempt at magnanimity was, in essence, to say this: “given what Jews went through, I feel less enraged and, indeed, even a little ‘calmed’ when I think of the evil they did to my people—my people, who welcomed and helped them!”

This is why Congressional Democrats and figures in pop culture have come to her defense and say that Republicans need to apologize to her. They believe it is exculpatory that she intended to be nice. But she can’t be. Her essential view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is distorted and wrong and mendacious.

Fortunately, Tlaib did receive the apology she deserves: Liz Cheney to Tlaib and Pelosi: I’m sorry — that so many House Democrats are anti-semitic.