About Ilhan Omar’s Antisemitic, Pro-BDS Resolution

Rep. Ilhan Omar has just introduced a new pro-BDS resolution in Congress, with fellow antisemite Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. John Lewis.

Although the BDS movement is not mentioned explicitly in the text of the resolution, it was introduced with this specifically in mind

and was clearly the response to House Resolution 246, which opposes “efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel.”

But Omar continues to lie, pretending it isn’t.

Note how Omar compares the BDS movement to other boycott movements “leading back to the Boston Tea Party.” That’s not the only wild comparison she makes. In the resolution itself, she mentions the efficacy of boycotts in history, listing, inter alia, those

• attempting to slow Japanese aggression in the Pacific in 1937 and 1938
• against Nazi Germany from March 1933 to October 1941
• in opposition to apartheid in South Africa

By doing so, Omar is making offensive analogies between Israel and Imperialist Japan, Nazi Germany, and Apartheid South Africa.

But she’s smart.

While effectively comparing Israel to Nazi Germany (a comparison that falls foul of the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism), she specifically mentions those boycotts were ‘in response to the dehumanization of the Jewish people in the lead-up to the Holocaust.’ In other words, the resolution has an in-built defense to allegations of the very antisemitism it propagates.

This is the equivalent of “some of my best friends are Jewish.”

Also, note the timing of this resolution. I’ll allow Rep. Lee Zeldin explain what I am getting at.

I do not recall the “peace-loving” Omar condemning Fathi Hammad’s call to slaughter the Jews.

Then again, she doesn’t seem to think Hamas et al. are violent.

Of course, Omar has a real rocky relationship with the truth. Before being elected to Congress, she had voiced her opposition to BDS at a forum at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

The Jews must have “hypnotized” her at the time.

Omar clearly feels untouchable at the moment.

https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1151684131056754688

She must be laughing at how she can get away with the saying things she has been saying.

Thanks to Michael Elgort and Stop Antisemitism for contributing ideas to this post.