In that case, Omar apologized for language that was perceived as insensitive--or, much more often, that people with entirely different motives pretended to perceive as insensitive--but at the same time, she reiterated her initial criticism:
The affair ended with a "To Be Continued...""Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes. My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole. We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity. This is why I unequivocally apologize."At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry. It's gone on too long and we must be willing to address it."
Though she's certainly playing to the pro-Israel lobby and trying to keep it happy, Pelosi's big interest here--mirroring that of the Republicans and of the rest of the Dem Establishment playing this game--is in kneecapping and neutralizing one of the new progressive legislators, who represent a challenge to everything she is. Pelosi isn't going to strip Omar of committee assignments--she knows that would, at present, be an overreach that would probably backfire--but she's still trying to triangulate on the issue by pushing that resolution.
Politically speaking though, there's no way to straddle this fence. Republicans are presently engaged in an intentional strategy of portraying Democrats as anti-Semites. It's a daily theme of Fox News and other rightist outlets, where Omar is savagely attacked and compared to the likes of Louis Farrakhan. Pelosi is playing right into this, going along with the false anti-Semitism charge, thus giving it weight, while simultaneously advancing what amounts to a toothless resolution to address it, making it look as if Dems acquiesce to bigotry. Omar isn't going to stop criticizing either the Israeli government or the corrupt influence of pro-Israeli groups in the U.S.. She is, in fact, serving on a committee wherein the matter will probably come up on a pretty regular basis. Is Pelosi going to put us through this same sort of farce every 2 or 3 weeks? Is the point just to continually smear Omar with these bad-faith attacks until, it's hoped, she's such damaged goods that she can be ejected from her committee assignments and turned into a pariah without there being much of a fuss? Even that wouldn't be an end to it. Omar is currently the tip of the spear because she's a Muslim but she's representative of a new breed of progressives who are pro-civil liberties, pro-human rights and are going to force a reexamination of U.S. relations with Israel, just as they're going to force a reexamination of policy toward a great many other things. As they see it, the present Israeli government and the pro-Israel lobby, which is aligned with the increasingly extreme Israeli right, often pushes for policy that is antithetical to the best interests of the U.S. (the Iraq war, opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, etc.) and, in the case of anti-BDS laws, blatantly unconstitutional.[2] They're the rising tide, the future. Scurrilous accusations of "anti-Semitism" isn't going to stop them, particularly the many who are, themselves, Jewish. The game Pelosi is playing has no end. One way or another, that debate is going to happen. Fighting it in this way will only yield a record of smears and tears.
Meanwhile, what appears to be a good legislator--one of the rarest species in all of politics--is being dragged through the mud by this. The attacks on Ilhan Omar are happening against the backdrop of the corrupt, gore-spattered Israeli Prime Minister openly aligning himself with fascist terrorists and beginning to echo the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler while his regime systematically commits what the UN has called crimes against humanity.[3] For standing up against corruption and for basic human rights in the face of this murderous right-wing apartheid state and its apologists, Ilhan Omar, who, throughout all of these fabricated controversies, has never said anything negative about Jews, is being systematically destroyed as an "anti-Semite."
That's a disgrace, and people of good conscience shouldn't stand for it.
Activist Phyllis Bennis, who is herself Jewish, was present with Ilhan Omar at that bookstore and, writing in the Nation, refutes the charges of anti-Semitism. She was also good enough to transcribe some of Omar's remarks. The disconnect between Omar's words and the ugly attacks on her speak for themselves, and it's only fitting that she have the last word here:
"I know what intolerance looks like and I'm sensitive when someone says, 'the words you use Ilhan, are resemblance 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 it’s supposed to be about foreign policy or engagement, our advocacy about ending oppression, or the freeing of every human life and wanting dignity, we get to be labeled in 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 OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask, why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil-fuel industries, or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobby that is influencing policy.…
"I mean, most of us are new, but many members of Congress have been there forever. Some of them have been there before we were born. So I know many of them, many of them, were fighting for people to be free, for people to live in dignity in South Africa. I know many of them fight for people around the world to have dignity, to have self-determination. So I know, I know that they care about these things. But now that you have two Muslims who are saying, 'here is a group of people that we want to make sure they have the dignity that you want everyone else to have!'…we get to be called names, we get to be labeled as hateful.
"No, we know what hate looks like. We experience it every single day. We have to deal with death threats. I have colleagues who talk about death threats. And sometimes…there are cities in my state where the gas stations have written on their bathrooms 'assassinate Ilhan Omar.' I have people driving around my district looking for my home, for my office, causing me harm. I have people every single day on Fox News and everywhere, posting that I am a threat to this country. So I know what fear looks like. The masjid I pray in in Minnesota got bombed by two domestic white terrorists. So I know what it feels to be someone who is of faith that is vilified. I know what it means to be someone whose ethnicity is vilified. I know what it feels to be of a race--like I am an immigrant, so I don’t have the historical drama that some of my black sisters and brothers have in this country, but I know what it means for people to just see me as a black person, and to treat me as less than a human. And so, when people say, 'you are bringing hate,' I know what their intention is. Their intention is to make sure that our lights are dimmed. That we walk around with our heads bowed. That we lower our face and our voice.
"But we have news for people... what people are afraid of is not that there are two Muslims in Congress. What people are afraid of is that there are two Muslims in Congress that have their eyes wide open, that have their feet to the ground, that know what they’re talking about, that are fearless, and that understand that they have the same election certificate as everyone else in Congress."
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--j.
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[1] Vargas, like the vast majority of federal and state legislators indicted by the Omar comments dubbed "anti-Semitic," is not Jewish.
[2] Two courts have already voided two of these laws on constitutional grounds; more will follow.
[3] One hopes Israelis will soon cast off this squalid regime and, with a reinvigorated commitment to human rights and respect for basic human dignity, partner with that rising tide of progressives in the U.S. and around the world to build a better future for themselves, leaving their state's current animalistic course on the ash-heap of history where it belongs.
