In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, progressive House Democrats once again spent the weekend spouting antisemitism to left-wing activists.
At the Netroots Nation conference on Saturday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) compared Israel to authoritarian, expansionist Russia and declared that Palestinians “have now experienced occupation and displacement for 75 years.” Israel was founded in 1948, exactly 75 years ago, meaning that Omar views the entire country as illegitimate since its inception. In other words, she objects to the very existence of a Jewish state.
Antisemitic Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar: "We definitely need people [in Congress] who know what it's like to experience occupation — whether it is in Ukraine or Palestinian people who have now experienced occupation and displacement for 75 years." pic.twitter.com/ritCYN2ary
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 15, 2023
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None of this is a surprise, given Omar’s track record of antisemitism. Nor is it a surprise that she and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) are boycotting the speech of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Antisemitism has been a feature of the collection of progressive House Democrats who call themselves “the Squad.” Omar calling the entire state of Israel illegitimate and comparing its attempts to defend itself from Palestinian terrorists to Russia’s attempt to conquer Ukraine is just another Saturday.
More notable were the comments from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chairwoman of the House Progressive Caucus. As protesters disrupted a panel she was speaking on, Jayapal wanted to let them know that “we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state.” The claims from left-wing activists that Israel is some apartheid state are clearly false to anyone who even briefly examines the rights of Israeli Arabs.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the US Congressional Progressive Caucus, says she is fighting to “make it clear that Israel is a racist state” after she was disrupted by Palestinian protesters.
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) July 16, 2023
Someone should tell @RepJayapal that antisemitism ain't progressive. pic.twitter.com/eic925ffiG
But more importantly, this is never a charge that Jayapal would level at the Palestinian territories, which are run by antisemites who are teaching their children to become antisemites and glorify terrorism against civilians. Jayapal also claimed the Palestinians deserved the right to “self-determination,” which was intended as another criticism of Israel and not of the Palestinian Authority, which hasn’t held a presidential election since President Mahmoud Abbas was elected to a four-year term that he has been serving for 18 years.
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Jayapal issued a lengthy statement trying to claw back what she said, and House Democratic leadership once again issued a weak statement that is normally reserved for Omar’s antisemitic outbursts to respond to Jayapal’s. Evidently, House Democrats have given up pretending they care about Omar’s comments. They don’t really care about Jayapal’s either, as evidenced by the fact that Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the leadership team, was onstage with Jayapal and didn’t object to her comments.
This has been brewing for years, with Democrats watering down condemnations of Omar’s antisemitism while issuing the equivalent of strongly worded letters every time she or another “Squad” Democrat spouted off some antisemitism. Now the leader of the House Progressive Caucus let the mask slip while showing she holds Israel to a different standard than any other country. The antisemitism is only becoming more prevalent throughout the House Democratic Caucus, and another cookie-cutter statement isn’t going to stop the spread.