Numerous Democrats Turn Against Rashida Tlaib After She Pushes Her Anti-Israel Extremism Too Far
Some of her fellow Democrats are finally raising their voices against Rashida Tlaib.
The Michigan representative, the product of Palestinian immigrants living in Detroit, has been known as a radical since before she won a seat in Congress in the 2018 midterms.
But even in the middle of a Mideast war sparked by Palestinian terrorism, it took Tlaib’s call for genocide to get some leftists to start paying attention.
On Friday, as NBC News reported, the congresswoman posted a video to social media combining footage from pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the United States with a warning to President Joe Biden.
“Mr. President, the American people are not with you on this one,” Tlaib said in appearances interspersed with scenes of demonstrations and statements by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warning of civilian casualties from the ongoing war in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanking Biden for his support.
“We will remember,” Tlaib said.
The video ends with stark text: “Joe Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
WARNING: The following video contains graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing.
From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 3, 2023
As usual with leftists, the truth is exactly the opposite.
Posting images of ignorant American demonstrators showing support for terrorists is one thing. But it was the slogan Tlaib’s video highlighted that got her in trouble.
“From the river to the sea,” the mobs chanted, the first half of the mission statement that ends with “Palestine must be free.”
The meaning behind the chant is unquestionable: “From the river to the sea” refers to the Jordan River and the Meditteranean Sea — the eastern and western borders of Israel.
“Palestine must be free” implies the end of Israel as a sovereign nation and the demise of the world’s only Jewish state. Considering the carnage of the Oct. 7 mass murder in southern Israel, it implies the end of Israel’s Jews as well.
Of course, Tlaib didn’t describe the slogan that way.
“From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” she wrote. “My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.”
It’s entirely possible that Tlaib believes that. It’s even possible the mobs in Michigan believe it. There’s no way to know the actual heart of another.
But the reality is that the slogan is not an “aspirational call for freedom” in the blood-soaked minds of the men behind the Oct. 7 massacre. It’s not a demand for “peaceful coexistence” from the murderous mullahs of Tehran, who are busy funneling money to the Hamas terrorists.
It’s a call for the destruction of Israel — the United States’ strongest ally in the Middle East and the only democracy in the region worthy of the name.
And even for Democrats, it goes too far.
“This is not how Jews view the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,'” Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss wrote in a social media response Saturday. “This is not how Hamas views the phrase ‘from the river to the sea.’
“Hamas uses it as a rallying cry. And they don’t simply want to displace Jews in Israel. They want Jews dead.”
This is not how Jews view the phrase “from the river to the sea.” This is not how Hamas views the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
Hamas uses it as a rallying cry. And they don’t simply want to displace Jews in Israel. They want Jews dead. https://t.co/pRh8cU55if
— Senator Jeremy Moss (@JeremyAllenMoss) November 4, 2023
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a woman whose politics have led her to disgrace both herself and her office, published a social media post begging Tlaib to back down.
“I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place,” she wrote. “But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark.”
.@RashidaTlaib, I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place.
But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark. https://t.co/HBCf8jRgYo
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel) November 4, 2023
Even some of Tlaib’s fellow members of Congress have spoken up.
“This phrase means eradicating Israel and Jews. Period,” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, wrote on social media. “Dressing it up in a new PR ploy won’t change that.”
This phrase means eradicating Israel and Jews. Period. Dressing it up in a new PR ploy won’t change that. Only a return of hostages, eliminating Hamas and liberating Gaza from oppressive terror will save civilian lives and secure the peace, justice and dignity you seek. https://t.co/pPcjpMYRkS
— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) November 5, 2023
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, another Michigan Democrat, also called out Tlaib.
If I knew that a phrase I’d used had hurt any of my constituents, I would apologize & retract it, no matter its origin. I’d ask the same from you. (3/3)
— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) November 5, 2023
Michigan Rep. Noah Arbiter went even further. In a social media post, he cited what he wrote were Jewish areas of Tlaib’s congressional district and called her comments “disturbing and enraging.”
It is disturbing and enraging that Jewish communities in Southfield, Franklin, Bingham Farms, Beverly Hills and beyond are represented by someone who adopts wholesale the call for the State of Israel to be wiped from the map, necessitating the elimination of 8 million Jews. https://t.co/0EL3MYR9Pm
— Rep. Noah Arbit (@NoahArbit) November 4, 2023
It’s worth noting here that all five officials objecting to Tlaib are Jewish. Two of them, Nessel and Moss, are also gay.
Anyone who’s been following the news for the past couple of decades might know that fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas have precious little use for either Jews or homosexuals.
But it doesn’t require Jewish blood to be infuriated by what happened on Oct. 7. Conservatives — Christian, Jew or otherwise — have long and consistently condemned Islamist terrorists and their war on the West while liberals tend to lose interest as soon as the political benefits of getting tough start to fade.
The difference now is that the Hamas attack on Israel, and the war that has followed, has forced some on the progressive end of the political spectrum to see through the mask of liberal piety that covers the actual violence at the heart of leftist movements, in the U.S. and around the world.
In the United States, even the mass burning of American cities, a score of deaths and more than $1 billion in property damage failed to force liberals and the establishment media to acknowledge the “mostly peaceful” protests of 2020 were anything but.
But the shocking scenes of the Oct. 7 attack have been different. Images of the bodies of murdered Israelis have made it clear even to some Democrats now just how deadly a threat Hamas is — and how threatening it is that some members of Congress have no shame about parroting the terrorist movement’s implicit call for genocide.
When even Democrats are raising their voices, Rashida Tlaib should be paying attention.
So should the rest of the country.
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