Barely one month after Ilhan Omar joined congress as a freshman Justice Democrat representing the state of Minnesota , she was falsely accused of anti-Semitic tropes and smeared as an anti-Semite , simply because she dared criticize Israel’s influence on the U.S. government through AIPAC. She has since apologized , but Republicans seem determined to punish her anyway , because she refuses to blindly support Israel and turn a blind eye to its transgressions against Palestinians.
The title of this article is laughably absurd , and it’s factually incorrect. It’s also absurd – and hypocritical – of Republicans to call for Omar’s resignation , when certain members of their own party have been far more guilty of antisemitism , and have yet to be called out by Republicans , or the president.
- Kevin McCarthy. The day after George Soros received a failed pipe bomb by a Trump supporter , the House Minority Leader tweeted that Soros , Michael Blomberg , and Tom Steyer , all Democratic donors , might try to buy the mid term elections. He later deleted the tweet.
- Louie Gohmert. Arguably the dumbest senator in congress , Gohmert went on Fox Business with Stuart Varney to talk about the supposed bias against conservatives on Google , but found time to attack the Republican party’s favorite bogeyman , George Soros. “He’s supposed to be Jewish ,” Gohmert said , “but you wouldn’t know it from the damage he’s inflicted on Israel. And the fact that he’s turned on fellow Jews and helped ( Nazis ) take the property that they owned.”
Gohmert , like any conservative who believes in conspiracy theories , has never validated such accusations , and believes Soros was also responsible for sponsoring the migrant caravan that was hyped on Fox News as a crises to justify a ridiculous wall. He also believed the Democrats might have been involved in organizing the Unite The Right in Charlottesville. On Fox Business he said : “This has been stirred up and I think the Democrats , I mean this needs an investigation. And the president or the AG can appoint an independent council – this is so political. This is being driven by forces of evil that are beyond what normal people think about. How do you have instances of people with KKK shirts and Black Lives Matter shirts getting off the same bus? I mean somebody must be stoking this.”
- Matt Gaetz. The Florida Republican , invited Chuck Johnson a right wing internet troll , proliferator of fake news , and an anti-Semite , to the State Of The Union address. Johnson believes the Jewish holocaust never happened , and Gaetz later defended him , by saying , to the effect that , he was neither a holocaust denier or a white supremacist.
Gaetz has also shared anti Soros memes connecting him to the migrant caravan.
- Paul Gosar. A Republican from Arizona so extreme in his politics , even his siblings want nothing to do with him. In the mid terms they created an ad calling him out , and endorsed his Democratic opponent. In addition to being a birther , Gosar has previously suggested that the Nazi marchers at the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville , were really leftists led by an Obama sympathizer , and that George Soros had sponsored the event to make the right look bad. This belief was also shared by other Republicans , like Dinesh D’Souza , Louie Gohmert , Rush Limbaugh , Allen West , and by fake news sites like World Net Daily , the Gateway Pundit , and American Thinker.
The article also quotes Marco Rubio : “There’s a growing group of people in the Democratic party that are openly anti-Israel , and I think they’re afraid of them.”
Yes , so afraid , that most of them openly condemned Omar’s alleged antisemitism , and joined the Republicans in smearing her. Every Democratic member of congress supports Israel , even the progressive Democrats. Criticism of Israel does not make one automatically anti-Israel.
There are actual safe spaces where antisemitism is tolerated and enabled. But one of those places is not the Democratic party , or the progressive movement. Those safe spaces are the Republican party , right wing media , and social media. Conservatives have shared and spread anti-Semitic memes and conspiracy theories – mostly about Soros – on line for years. Conservative media , including Fox News , NRATV , and Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV , have portrayed Soros as an evil puppet master , pulling the strings behind everything they hate : immigrants , Jews , Muslims , Black Lives Matter , the civil unrest in Ferguson , the Kavanaugh protesters , the NFL protesters , the Parkland , Florida protesters , and the Unite The Right rally.
Democrats creating a safe space for antisemitism? Not even close. Ilhan Omar makes a perfectly legitimate criticism of the Israeli lobby , and both Republicans and Democrats lose their s**t. If they want to be taken seriously , the Republican party should sound a bull horn about the antisemitism in their own party.
The Weekly News 