The Democratic Party Caves to the pro-Israeli Lobby

Democrats hate it when being pro-choice is equated with condoning murder.

Democrats hate it when being critical of Trump is equated with being unpatriotic.

Democrats hate it when a more equitable distribution of income in America is equated with promoting class warfare.

Democrats hate it when government-run health care is equated with communism.

Democrats hate it when fighting climate change is equated with being against coal miners.

Democrats hate it when challenging sexism is equated with being against men.

Democrats hate it when a humane immigration policy is equated with “open borders.”

Democrats hate it when fighting for voting rights is equated with voter fraud.

But Democrats love it when opposing the Israeli government is equated with anti-Semitism. Today it is literally impossible for an elected Democratic official to criticize the Israeli government without being tarred as someone who despises the Jewish people. This is not only un-American and nauseating but illustrates the Democrat Party’s utter hypocrisy when it links opposition to Israeli government policies with anti-Semitism but sees no relationship between attacking Trump’s racism and corruption and being un-American.

It’s not anti-Semitic to challenge why the rights and perspective of the Palestinians is not given equal weight to the rights and perspective of Israelis by our government and our media.

It’s not anti-Semitic to acknowledge that the Israeli government’s 11-year blockade of Gaza has subjected its two million inhabitants to collective punishment and a growing humanitarian crisis.

It’s not anti-Semitic to ask why Israeli snipers in Gaza have targeted people clearly identifiable as children, health workers and journalists.

It’s not anti-Semitic to claim that Israel’s policy of expanding its West Bank settlements and infrastructure is illegal and makes a peaceful settlement impossible.

It’s not anti-Semitic to point out that the Israeli lobby has a major influence on American politics.

It’s not anti-Semitic to say that the Israeli government is corrupt and racist. Prime Minister Netanyahu was just indicted on corruption charges. Israeli police had previously recommended that he be indicted on three other occasions for bribery and fraud. Just ten days ago, Netanyahu announced a political alliance with the openly racist Jewish Power and Jewish Home parties—the first time odious racist extremists in Israel have been invited to be close to the center of power in that country.

In a recent tweet about the GOP attacking critics of Israel, Minnesota Representtive Ilhan Omar responded with “It’s about the Benjamins, baby.”

U.S. politicians were outraged—outraged!—at the inference that they are pro-Israel because they get paid to be so, but Omar was in fact pointing out that the Israeli lobby pays American politicians who are pro-Israel. This is not a slur. This is a fact—for both Democrats and Republicans. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party demanded that Ilhan apologize for publicly acknowledging this obvious truth.

Then a 2012 tweet from Omar surfaced in which she stated “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doing of Israel.” Critics insisted, preposterously, that Omar was regurgitating an old anti-Semitic trope about Jews possessing secret, dark powers and that “the evil doings of Israel” meant that Jews were evil, when in fact Omar had specifically focused in her tweet on the actions of Israel and not on Jews in general. Once again, the Democratic Party forced Omar to apologize or be ostracized.

Now Omar is being vilified again, this time for saying this at a recent event: “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.” Attackers are claiming that this statement accuses American Jews of possessing dual loyalties—to this country and to Israel—when in fact she is making the point that stifling any and all criticism of Israel rises to the level of a pledge of allegiance to that country.

The Democratic Party’s response to this latest completely legitimate statement of Omar’s is to introduce a Congressional resolution condemning anti-Semitism. It’s a brave party that tries to muzzle one of its own members by passing a resolution to protect its funding by the pro-Israel lobby that completely mischaracterizes that member’s legitimate criticism of that very lobby.

Let’s get real here. Omar is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. Her references to Allah disturb many Americans. She is also a vocal supporter of boycotts, sanctions, and divestments against Israel, which are perfectly legitimate—if unpopular—responses to the actions of the racist Israeli government. While she has apologized for the impact of some of her tweets, she continues to insist on exercising her right to criticize the Israeli government.

“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee,” she said recently. “I have not mischaracterized our relationship with Israel. I have questioned it and that has been clear from my end.”

Republicans, predictably, are now calling for her resignation and linking her with 9/11, a slaughter that was committed by citizens of another country sheltered from legitimate criticism by a very strong American lobby—Saudi Arabia. The Democrats are punishing Ilhan Omar as demanded by the pro-Israel lobby. If the Democratic Party is anything like the party it claims to be, it would be focused not on silencing its members but on condemning and countering the disastrous and racist Trump/Netanyahu partnership.

The Show Trial of Ilham Omar

I am a registered Democrat. One reason for that is that I want to be associated with a political party that supposedly has no tolerance when it comes to racism, religious bigotry, xenophobia, and misogyny. So I am glad that the Democrats in Virginia are calling for the resignations of their own who cross those lines—that’s the kind of political party with which I want to be associated. That other party is the home of racists, religious bigots, false patriotism, and miserable patriarchy.

That said, I have issues with standard Democratic Party ideology, and the one that simultaneously depresses and infuriates me the most, not surprisingly, is the topic on which the Democrats and the Republicans are virtually indistinguishable: Israel.

For centuries anti-Semites have stereotyped Jews in terms of their relationship to money, promoting a vicious caricature of them as scheming misers and unethical money lenders, and spreading insane conspiracy theories that claim that Jewish money is financing most if not all of the evil in this world. No moral or thinking person would hold or promote such beliefs.

The corrupting influence of money on politics is, however, a very real thing and, in my view, the root of quite a bit of the depravity in American politics.

Since the wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe that begin in the 1880s, American Jews been associated with liberal politics, the labor movement, and civil rights. The majority of Jewish Americans have voted Democratic since 1916. FDR got 90% of the Jewish vote in 1940 and 1944. More than 75% of Jewish voters voted Democratic in the 2018. Jews represent 2% of the American electorate, but they are responsible for 50% of all financial contributions to the Democratic Party. With the skyrocketing cost of political campaigns and the legalization of dark money, the influence of Jewish donors has increased, as have the efforts of the GOP to use support of Israel as a wedge to divide the Democrats and to start redirecting Jewish donations in its direction. Jewish businessman and donor Sheldon Adelson, who contributed $150 million to the GOP in 2012 and $100 million to the Trump campaign, is one of the most powerful people in the Republican Party.

The corrupting influence of money American politics due to money is fundamental to the progressive movement in the Democratic Party that was ignited by Bernie Sanders in 2016 and that saw some notable successes in the 2018 midterms. It is literally impossible to discuss this issue without touching upon the sizeable political contributions by American Jews. That is not an endorsement of age-old anti-Semitic stereotypes.

The country of Israel is overwhelming Jewish. But the actions of its government are not synonymous with the Jewish faith or the Jewish people, any more than Donald Trump’s GOP is synonymous with Americans and American values. No country in the history of humankind has ever been beyond reproach, and that includes Israel and the United States. Many of Israel’s actions in the West Bank have been criminal and racist. Americans who criticize the actions of their government are not un-American, and Americans who criticize the actions of Israel are not by definition anti-Semites.

The Republicans are running with this anti-Israel con just like they used to accuse Democrats of being soft on crime and weak on terrorism. And the Democrats are falling for it.

Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress in November, suggested in a Tweet that some politicians in Washington have been influenced by campaign donations from Jewish lobbyist groups.

This is just true—just as it is undeniably true that politicians are influenced by donations from the NRA, labor unions, billionaires, Wall Street, the banks, manufacturers, the pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, casino owners, movie producers, tech companies, and on and on and on.

The Democratic leadership, which claims to be fighting to the influence of money on politics, responded to Omar’s truth telling by frog marching her out in front of her colleagues and the media to apologize for her “insensitivity.” In her apology, Omar thanked her “Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”

Omar never used such a trope. Her “crime” was that she didn’t exclude pro-Israeli-government lobbyists from her absolutely justified condemnation of the system of legalized bribery that is American politics today. The Democratic Party still has a long way to go.