Two Jews, three opinions.
Jewish proverb
Many people in the Ilhan controvery are citing that because some Jewish people didn’t take offense, that it’s not a problem.
We, as Jews, have a long history of maintaining our own opinions, holding others’ opinions in mind, and settling on a third more neutral position. So just because one Jewish person says it’s a problem and another says it’s not doesn’t mean the situation is zero sum. It just means we have a much larger discussion to have.
Speaking of discussions:
…I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.
Ilhan Omar
There is a long-standing anti-Semitic trope that Jewish people have a dual loyalty, that we would put the good of Israel before the good of the US. It’s similar to the trope that drove the US government to wrongfully imprison almost 120,000 Japanese people in WWII. The idea is that these people aren’t actually loyal to the United States, so they must be stopped.
Loyalty is not a zero sum game. Ask any immigrant what they want for their home country and for the US. Ask the children of immigrants what they want for the countries of their heritage.
They all want the same thing: the best leadership as per their world view. Naturalized immigrants in the US and their children born here want the same thing that anyone else wants: a healthy home country.
Coded Anti-Semitic Tropes
Anti-Semitism has been around for thousands of years. During those thousands of years many anti-Semitic stereotypes have become rote.
The most common and persistent one is that Jews have a proclivity to control money. This shows up in literature, in media, and in general conversation. The writer Alexander Dumas, in The Three Musketeers, wrote:
Well, then, off to the nearest goldsmith’s, and sell that diamond for the highest price you can get from him. However much of a Jew he may be, he will give you at least eight hundred pistoles.
This attitude is still so pervasive that “Jew” has become a dysphemism for “haggling”. I personally experienced this while on a cruise ship and a family next to me started bragging about how they “jewed them down” referring to some jewelry merchants at the last port.
Another anti-Jewish trope is that we have split loyalties. That we would sell out the US for Israel. Language of this can be seen in many places, most recently and notably from Rep. Omar. This started before The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was published, and persists to this day.
The only way I can prove that we have no dual loyalty, and that we do not have an impulse to protect Jewry above whatever land we live in, is to cite “dina d’malkhuta dina (??????? ????????????? ???????)“, which means “the law of the land is the law”. It’s an edict issued, as far as I can tell, around 180 CE to reinforce that Halakha (Jewish law) does not supercede secular law in the country one lives in. This goes further to even give secular law preferential treatment to religious law in many cases.
One other outdated anti-Semitic stereotype which mostly faded in the 70s is that Jews have horns, much like most depictions of the Christian Satan. This stems from a misunderstanding of an old Torah verse where Moses was radiant after speaking with G-d. Basically, the word for “radiant” can also mean “horned”.
This image was used for about 400 years to paint Jews as having been allied with Satan. Satan, in Judaism, is not a being or an entity. Satan, in Judaism, is not horned, nor corporeal. In Jewish tradition, satan is simply “the evil impulse”. It’s the mean voice inside everyone.
There are too many tropes to list, from baking Christian children into our matzoh to organ harvesting Haitians. A fairly inclusive list can be found on Wikipedia.
What This has to do with Rep. Omar
In 2012 Ilhan Omar tweeted
“Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
This said that Israel and its supporters were forcefully tricking the world into supporting it, restating the ancient trope of false loyalty to our home country.
She apologized. And if she had left her use of loaded and coded anti-Semitic language at that, it would have been fine. However, in February, She tweeted a now-deleted tweet:
It’s all about the Benjamins baby ? https://t.co/KatcXJnZLV— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 10, 2019
“Benjamins” refers to $100 bills, which feature the face of Benjamin Franklin. This is a pop-culture reference to saying that something is corrupted by money.
When Batya Ungar-Sargon asked Re. Omar, on Twitter, to what she was referring, she replied “AIPAC.”
AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Commitee. It’s a lobbying group which aims to strengthen the US-Israel alliance. It doesn’t aim to undermine the US, only to bolster mutual interests of the two countries.
What does Israel have to do with the US?
Israel is a strategic area in the Middle East. It is basically the Silicone Valley of the region. They have numerous climate change and humanitarian progams underway, including advanced desalination studies and technology, medicinal studies, and innumeral consumer goods innovation.
If you’ve ever used a USB thumb drive, that’s an Israeli invention. If you’ve ever used a personal computer, the first CPU was designed in Israel.
There’s a lot that Israel contributes to the world, all of which helps not just the US, but the world at large. From ongoing cancer treatments to making clean water, Israel is a critical piece of humanity in the world.
In addition to their scientific prowess, Israel is also the only country in the Middle Easy which guarantees LGBT rights, abortion access, and women’s rights. Women aged 20-33 have free access to abortion, regardless of their circumstances. Transgender people have access to support under Israeli healthcare, too. There are some problems with the current transgender support and many advocates are working on it, but it’s still better than what the US has and far better than anything else in the region.
Israel is, by and large, a haven for humanity in the Middle East.
A (Very) Brief Background of Israel and Palestine
Israel has a long standing problem with Palestine.
Since Israel was established as the only Jewish state in the world in 1948 it has undergone many changes. Most notably, the border expanded in a series of wars started from outlying countries. These wars were started by outside aggressors and Israel took land to strengthen their border security.
When I talk about border security here, it’s about protecting people in a small space of land. It’s not equivalent to the 2000 mile US/Mexico border. This is about protecting a country from militant people, not from economic migrants.
There are two areas most contested right now: the Gaza Strip (Gaza) and the West Bank. Vox wrote a really comprensive article about this here if you wish to have the entire back story.
West Bank
The West Bank is loosely controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is arguably under Israeli occupation. Israel maintains that the West Bank is a disputed territory, the Palestinian Authority maintains the land is rightfully theirs. Regardless, there are Israeli troops stationed in the West Bank working to restrict Palestinian activities. There are also Israeli settlers who are making Jewish settlements.
The Palestinian Authority recognizes Israel’s right to exist. In addition, many countries recognize the Palestinian Authority as a valid government.
Gaza
The Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas. Hamas was elected to run Gaza in 2006. It is an acronym of ?arakat al-Muq?wamah al-?Isl?miyyah. It’s an Arabic word meaning “zealotry” and a Hebrew word meaning “violence”. They are a fundamentalist Islamic group.
Hamas has a short term goal of “libertaing Palestine” which includes taking all of Israel and turning it to a Sunni Islamic state. They have a longer goal of creating an Islamic state spanning from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.
Hamas is known for taking international aid and using it to build primitive missiles. They launch these missiles from schools and other civiliant areas so that any preemptive or retalitory action will hurt children or other vulnerable targets. They fire these missiles into civilian areas, like markets and neighborhoods.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Canada, the US, Israel, Japan, the EU, Jordan, and even Egypt. The only major foreign countries who ally with Hamas are Russia, Turkey, and China.
The charter of Hamas is deeply anti-Semitic, outright calling for the destruction of Israel
‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.’ (Preamble)
‘The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews’ usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.’ (Article 15)
It even goes so far as to undermine and invalidate any peace initiative.
‘[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.’ (Article 13)
To free Palestine, as so many Leftist people want, would be to see the literal destruction of all Jews in Israel. It would be to destroy Israel as a country. It would be to sentence every LGBT person, every Jew, every Christian, every atheist, every non Sunni Muslim in the region to death. Remember, Hamas is a fundementalist organization — not Muslim, but Muslim fundamentalist. It would be like arming the Westboro Baptist Church and letting them install their own religious law in the US.
Where Rep. Ilhan and Leftists Take Umbrage
Leftists equate the ongoing arguable occupation of the West Bank with the atrocities of Hamas. As such, they have created movements like BDS (Boycott Divest Sanction) and Free Palestine.
Leftists also seem to believe that since Hamas was democratically elected, they are a legitimate government. However, they don’t see that Hamas is diametrically opposed to every Leftist ideal. Whether it’s toward peace, women’s rights, religious liberty, freedom of the press, or any number of ideals, Hamas exists for one reason: to kill Jewish people and destroy Israel.
The West Bank and Gaza are two extremely different situations with extremely different nuances.
The West Bank wants to find a way to coexist with Israel.
Gaza, via Hamas, does not want to coexist. They are opposed to coexistence.
These two situations get conflated.
Israel has the backing of the US and some incredible technology at their side. Because of this, they’re able to defent themselves against multiple threats. They are not perfect, but they are a valid democracy and they do have checks and balances. Just like any major government they can always do better, but they aren’t the fascist regime many leftists make them out to be.
Because Leftists have a propensity to side with seemingly oppressed people, a propensity which I admire and laud, the Palestinian narrative is easy to latch on to. It’s a seductive narrative: a group of people have been pushed out of land, they’ve been blocked off from most aid, their motion is hindered and tracked, and their people are often killed. All of this is done by a supposed bully country with technology eons past theirs. What’s not to love? It’s the foundation for so many hero-saves-the-day movies.
The problem is that it’s not the case. Yes, Israel has forced people out. It’s because it was established as a historical homeland for displaced Jews after World War II. Israel has been attacked on Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur. Israel has suffered incursions from all sides. Still, they do what they can to limit civilian deaths and injury. They’ve offered aid to Hamas before, and they continue to offer aid to the residents of Gaza. They put their own civilians at risk when they hold back from firing at Hamas missle sites next to schools and hospitals.
The Real Problem
The vast, vast majority of people in the Middle East want a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. This means they want an Israel and a Palestine. A one state solution would be one territory gobbling up the other.
With Hamas fervently opposing peace talks and Leftists and Democratic party members lining up with Hamas, a two state solution becomes less and less likely.
People should be able to criticize a government. This is not something I’ll ever argue on. The problem is that many leftists, such as Rep. Omar, use loaded, coded anti-Semitic language which demonstrates a prejudice toward the people they’re criticizing.
Here is Omar’s full quote
What I’m fearful of — because Rashida [Tlaib] and I are Muslim — that a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we are Muslim. And so to me, it’s something that becomes designed to end the debate because you get in this space of — yes, I know what intolerance looks like and I’m sensitive when someone says, “The words you used, Ilhan, are resemblance [sic] of intolerance.” And I am cautious of that and I feel pained by that.
But it’s almost as if, every single time we say something regardless of what it is we say that is supposed to be about foreign policy or engagement or advocacy about ending oppression or the freeing of every human life and wanting dignity, we get to be labeled something, and that ends the discussion. Because we end up defending that and nobody ever gets to have the broader debate of what is happening with Palestine. So for me, I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.
In the very first line she talks about how she’s afraid that because she and Rep. Tlaib are Muslim, they’ll be scrutinized as having ulterior motives, the very thing they are accusing Jewish people of.
Leftists accuse Israel of wanton human rights violations, of gleeful land grabs, and of intentional misuses of power. They accuse the Jewish people of duplicity, of power grabs, and of racism. The problem is that coded languge of “corruption” or “allegiance” or “power” or “influence” has been used so often for so many thousands of years, along with ideas that Israel shouldn’t defend itself against threats, that this criticism metamorphoses into flat out anti-Jewish thought.
In fact, even just the words “Free Palestine” line up with two movements. One which is sponsored by Syria and opposes the existence of Israel, the other which is based in California and seeks to empower Gaza, which would see to the destruction of Israel.
People have a right to criticize Israel just as they have a right to criticize the US or Amazon or Guy Fieri’s Palace of Mediocre Caloric Junk. They have to learn to temper it with language that doesn’t threaten the existence of the people living in that region. They need to learn the institutions they put their trust in, just like Conservatives with Trump, may not be as aligned as they initially thought.
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