Ilhan Omar Says It's Congress' Job To Watch Over Palestinians
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota claimed that Israel kept her and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan from doing their “job” last week by denying them access to the Jewish state.
Last I checked, the job of members of Congress is to represent the constituents from their respective districts in Washington, D.C.
Neither Omar nor Tlaib appears to see it that way.
“Let’s be clear: the goal of our trip was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders —our job as Members of Congress,” Omar tweeted.
Let’s be clear: the goal of our trip was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders —our job as Members of Congress.
But since we were unable to fulfill our role as legislators, I am sharing what we would have seen. (THREAD)
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019
The congresswoman also argued that since the U.S. gives Israel more than $3 billion in military and other aid each year, we “should be leveraging that aid to stop the settlements and ensure full rights for Palestinians.”
At a news conference on Monday, Omar reiterated the point, singling out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for supposedly suppressing “our ability to do our jobs as elected officials.”
“This is the policy of his government when it comes to anyone who holds views that threaten the occupation,” she said.
Similar to Omar, Tlaib thinks part of her job is to represent Palestinians in Congress.
Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me. It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in–fighting against racism, oppression & injustice. https://t.co/z5t5j3qk4H
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 16, 2019
“When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions,” she tweeted in explaining her decision not to travel to Israel. “I can’t allow the State of Israel to take away that light by humiliating me & use my love for my sity (grandmother) to bow down to their oppressive & racist policies.”
Tlaib added in a subsequent tweet, “Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me. It would kill a piece of me.”
The representative showed her true colors when Israel granted her access to visit her grandmother on humanitarian grounds (after she requested the visa), but added the stipulation that she could not advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement while she was in the country.
The BDS movement seeks to destroy the Jewish state by isolating it from the world’s economy.
The co-founder of the BDS movement — Omar Barghouti — has compared Israel to the Nazis.
Omar and Tlaib suggested the same comparison just last month.
In July, Omar introduced a BDS resolution, co-sponsored by Tlaib, upholding the right to boycott nations (but Israel was the intended target).
The resolution likened Americans taking such action to boycotting Nazi Germany.
To be clear, Omar and Tlaib could have traveled with a bipartisan delegation from Congress, some 70 members strong, to Israel earlier this month. The group went to areas governed by the Palestinian Authority, as well.
Omar and Tlaib could have used the opportunity to discuss the grievances they believe the Palestinians have by talking to government leaders and the media, but they did not.
Instead, they scheduled a separate visit for just the two of them, with a very defined agenda: undermine Israel.
As a slap in the face to their would-be hosts, they listed “Palestine,” as their destination on their itinerary and not Israel.
As noted by National Review’s David French, Omar and Tlaib’s trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank was planned by Mitfah, an anti-Semitic group known for supporting Palestinian terrorist activities against the Jewish people.
The Federalist reported that Miftah has also trafficked in the anti-Semitic trope that Omar alleged earlier this year: Jewish money is controlling the United States.
Liberal talk show host Bill Maher called foul on Friday against Omar, Tlaib, and other Democratic members of Congress who back the BDS movement, calling it “a bullsh– purity test by people who want to appear woke but actually slept through history class.”
“It’s predicated on this notion, I think — it’s very shallow thinking — that the Jews in Israel, mostly white, and the Palestinians are browner, so they must be innocent and correct, and the Jews must be wrong,” the “Real Time” host said.
“As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied.”
Maher said that view requires forgetting about the Intifadas, the suicide bombers and the rockets being launched into Israel from Palestinian-controlled areas.
Israel declared its independence in May 1948 and five Arab nations — Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon — responded by launching a war against the Jewish state. Israel won.
Israel prevailed again in June 1967 during the Six Days War, which resulted in the capture of the so-called West Bank from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. The Sinai was later returned to Egypt as part of the 1978 Camp David Accords.
As a result of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel granted self-government to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and portions of the West Bank.
President Donald Trump’s administration, as ones before it, has made it a priority to find a peaceful resolution to the current conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews.
Members of Congress — including Omar and Tlaib — are certainly free to voice their opinions on the subject, but it is not their “job” to go to Israel to push for the demise of the Jewish state.
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