Omar played into well-worn anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish attachments to Israel making them disloyal to the United States. Some were no longer inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. On Monday, House Democrats unveiled plans to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism that reads as a clear rebuke of Omar personally, criticizing the “insidious, bigoted history” of “accusations of dual loyalty.”
Her stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — unapologetically pro-Palestinian — fits with this profile, broadly speaking. It has helped make her into a darling of the insurgent left, which is highly critical of the Democratic establishment’s generically pro-Israel view. Yet when Omar talks about Israel, she has a bad habit of saying things that feed into anti-Semitic stereotypes.
In 2012, she tweeted that “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” The tweet implied that Israel and its supporters were secretly tricking the world into supporting it, a longtime anti-Semitic trope for which Omar apologized after taking office in January.
Omar created another stir when she tweeted that support for Israel in the US Congress was “all about the Benjamins,” suggesting that the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was buying off American politicians. This smacked of the well-worn conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers buy off American politicians, and led to Democratic leadership publicly condemning Omar’s comments.
Omar deleted the original tweet and said she “unequivocally” apologized.
Some people hate Jews. Some people hate Israel. Some people hate both Jews and Israel and act against Israel whenever possible. Anti-Semitism is hatred of Jews and acting against Jews. Ilhan Omar justifies her anti-semiticism on her Muslim religion. That broadens the issue almost to the point of religious war.
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