On Saturday, a man stabbed five people with a machete at a Hanukkah party at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, N.Y. The very next day, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Impeach the Motherf**ker) sent out a fundraising email blaming the “far-right” government of Israel for “Jim Crow-style policies against Palestinians and Black Israelis.” She also blamed President Donald Trump for the “hate” behind attacks on synagogues, echoing the disgusting charge that Trump is somehow responsible for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
The comments came in a fundraising email for the liberal Jewish group “IfNotNow,” which opposes the Israeli government in the name of progressive politics. The organization aims “to end Israel’s occupation and transform the American Jewish community.”
While this Jewish group supports her, Tlaib has made atrocious comments about the Holocaust, saying it gave her “a calming feeling.” She has supported a one-state solution where Palestine replaces Israel. She has ties to an organization that seems to be acting as Iran’s proxy in the U.S. She and her fellow “squad” member Ilhan Omar (D-Married her brother?) shared a cartoon from an Iranian-sponsored Holocaust cartoon contest. Tlaib and Omar even got banned from entering Israel.
Tlaib’s racially-charged attack on Israel’s government arguably echoes the anti-Semitism making terrifying inroads in the Democratic Party. Her email mentions “neo-Nazis,” Trump, and Israel together, blaming the Jewish State for “Jim Crow-style polices.”
“IfNotNow supported me when Trump and Netanyahu banned me from visiting Israel and Palestine,” the congresswoman wrote. “They’ve supported me as neo-Nazis have threatened my life and attacked me for speaking out.”
The very next paragraph blames Trump and Israel for racism and violence. “Right now we have a president in the White House whose hate has emboldened neo-Nazis, and that hate has translated into mass shootings at synagogues, mosques, and churches, as well as death threats against myself and my colleagues in Congress. He’s allied with the far-right Israeli government, that’s enacting Jim Crow-style policies against Palestinians and Black Israelis,” she wrote.
This statement from Rashida Tlaib fundraising letter (today) for INN won’t stir up any hate towards Jews…
“…the far-right Israeli government that’s enacting Jim Crow-style policies against Palestinians and Black Israelis.” pic.twitter.com/hocYjxCOeR
— FJnyc (@FJnyc) December 29, 2019
Criticizing the Jewish state is not necessarily anti-Semitic, but this paragraph is beyond the pale — especially coming one day after the Hanukkah stabbing. Trump does use coarse rhetoric, and Tlaib likely has faced threats from neo-Nazis. Some mass shooters have drawn a perverse encouragement from the president’s rhetoric, but Trump has repeatedly and immediately condemned mass shootings.
Furthermore, the man who slaughtered 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., last year wrote a manifesto expressly condemning Trump. Indeed, he condemned Trump for his close association with Jews. Yet the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center tried to blame Trump for the shooting.
Whatever his faults, Trump is arguably the most pro-Israel president in American history, and his decisions to welcome Jared Kushner into his family and celebrate his daughter Ivanka’s conversion to Judaism speaks volumes about his sentiment toward Judaism. Earlier this month, he signed an executive order to protect Jews from the rising tide of anti-Semitism on American college campuses — spurred in part by the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement championed by Tlaib and her allies.
Trump represents many things, but his support for Jews makes him a rather odd fit for neo-Nazis.
Yet Tlaib’s decision to blame Israel for “Jim Crow-style” policies may be worse than her attacks on Trump. This charge attempted to weaponize black identity politics against the Jewish state.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is one of the most notorious anti-Semites in America. He unites black identity politics and Islam in a poisonous cocktail of anti-Semitism. Even so, many prominent Democrats have sidled up to him.
The fundraising email was likely sent by IfNotNow and may not have even been written by Tlaib, but the congresswoman or her staff almost certainly had to sign off on it. Furthermore, Tlaib should have directed the Jewish group not to send the email so quickly after such a horrific attack.
Hanukkah celebrates the independence of Israel following the Maccabean Revolt, so attacking Israel in these terms shortly after the Hanukkah stabbing is particularly horrific.
After the stabbing, Washington Examiner Executive Editor Seth Mandel tweeted, “The idea that at a time like this one of the leading candidates for president would be a Corbyn-endorser who centers his campaign on Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar is absolutely terrifying.”
The idea that at a time like this one of the leading candidates for president would be a Corbyn-endorser who centers his campaign on Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar is absolutely terrifying.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 29, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s Labour Party, lost in a landslide after he was unable to expel the many anti-Semitic members of his party. Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-USSR) endorsed Corbyn, anyway.
Democrats in America seem to be headed down the same path as Corbyn on these issues.
Tlaib’s straining to connect Israel and Trump to neo-Nazis and the explicitly racist Jim Crow policies of the South is bad enough, but the fact that she did so one day after an anti-Semitic stabbing at a Hanukkah party is beyond the pale.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member