https://themilitant.com/2019/03/16/democrats-fractures-widen-in-cover-up-of-anti-semitic-remarks/
Democrats’ fractures widen in cover-up of anti-Semitic remarks
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 12
March 25, 2019
Overflow crowd at Pittsburgh vigil Oct. 27, 2018, after murder of 11
Jews at synagogue there. Inset, Rabbi Alexander Davis speaks at rally at
Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center, Bloomington, Minnesota, Aug. 8, 2017,
following bombing of mosque. Many Somali workers in that area say they
recall the support they got from Jews there and oppose Rep. Ilhan Omar’s
recent anti-Semitic slanders.
Above, Militant/Lorraine Starsky
Overflow crowd at Pittsburgh vigil Oct. 27, 2018, after murder of 11
Jews at synagogue there. Inset, Rabbi Alexander Davis speaks at rally at
Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center, Bloomington, Minnesota, Aug. 8, 2017,
following bombing of mosque. Many Somali workers in that area say they
recall the support they got from Jews there and oppose Rep. Ilhan Omar’s
recent anti-Semitic slanders.
A series of anti-Semitic remarks made by new Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
have widened rifts in the Democratic Party and among liberals. Some have
criticized her; others made excuses for her, saying she didn’t
understand what she was saying; and some, especially in the middle-class
left, have defended her comments.
The controversy began in mid-February after Omar — the first
Somali-American in Congress — tweeted that support for Israel in
Congress was “all about the Benjamins.” When asked who she “thinks is
paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” the Minnesota
congresswoman replied: “AIPAC,” that is, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, a lobbying group.
When she came under a firestorm of criticism, Omar “unequivocally”
apologized. But then in early March she repeated her anti-Jewish
slander, railing about “the political influence in this country that
says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” Her clear
message is that those who support the U.S.-Israel alliance are traitors,
bought out by rich Jews.
To say that a pro-Israel lobby group or the Israeli government — i.e.
“Jews” — controls U.S. foreign policy is not only false, it is
dangerous, because it feeds Jew-hatred. The U.S. capitalist class is the
most powerful ruling class in the world. U.S. gross domestic product is
nearly $20 trillion — that’s some 57 times greater than Israel’s. The
U.S. rulers support the government of Israel — like they do other
capitalist governments — because it’s in the interest of U.S.
imperialism to do so.
Democratic Party frays
Some of Omar’s supporters were convinced they had to distance themselves
from her comments. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg complained
that “at a moment when activists have finally pried open space in
American politics to question our relationship with Israel, it’s
particularly incumbent on Israel’s legitimate critics to avoid anything
that smacks of anti-Jewish bigotry. And the idea of Jews as global
puppet masters, using their financial savvy to make the gentiles do
their bidding, clearly does.”
But Goldberg, like other liberals and leftists, defends Omar saying that
“she’s the victim of a double standard.” The real reason she is under
attack, Goldberg claims, is because Omar is a “black Muslim woman” and
she questions the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Under pressure, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed presenting a motion to
the House to rebuke Omar for her anti-Semitic remarks. But the
Democratic left rebelled and Pelosi buckled, presenting instead a
toothless condemnation of a multitude of racist, anti-gay, anti-Islamic
and anti-Semitic actions by “white supremacists.”
Trying to keep together the fraying factions of Democrats, Pelosi said
that Omar didn’t understand “the full weight of her words.”
Some prominent Democratic Party candidates for president didn’t feel any
need to take their distance from Omar. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish,
said that what is going on is “an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as
a way of stifling” the debate on U.S.-Israel relations.
Sanders conveniently leaves out that it wasn’t Omar’s criticism of
policies or actions of the Israeli government that got her in hot water,
but her anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Jew-hatred has a long history in the class struggle. “I don’t think
anyone has been slandered more than the Jews,” Fidel Castro said in a
2010 interview with The Atlantic magazine. “They have been slandered
much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for
everything.” Castro added that “over 2,000 years they were subjected to
terrible persecution and then to the pogroms.”
When the crisis of capitalism gets so deep that the capitalist class can
no longer rule by the old means and the working-class has the chance to
take political power, the capitalist rulers will finance and back
fascist thugs and promote the most vile centuries-old anti-Jewish
slanders and conspiracy theories. They use this to try to convince the
working and middle classes that the problem isn’t capitalism — it’s
Jewish capitalists and, ultimately, “evil Jews.”
We saw where that ended in Nazi Germany with the slaughter of more than
6 million Jews.
That’s not what is happening today. There is no rise in fascist groups
or anti-Semitism in general.
And no one is arguing that Omar or her liberal and “socialist” allies
like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are for massacring Jews. But Omar and her
backers’ promotion of anti-Jewish slanders disorients anyone who falls
for them.
The New York Times interviewed some residents of Omar’s congressional
district, including some in the Somali-American community. Many Somalis
said they remember the support they received from Jewish leaders in
Minnesota after a nearby mosque was bombed by white supremacists in 2017
and in the face of profiling after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“When religion is under attack, they stand by us, because they’ve been
there,” Zahra Ali, told the Times. Ali does not plan to vote for Omar
again. “For her to go out there and target, on a daily basis, Jews, is
very sad.”
Related Articles
Are ‘hate crimes’ and racism on the rise in the US?
There are growing cries from Democrats, the liberal media and the
middle-class left that “hate crimes” are soaring in the U.S. This charge
— which isn’t true — is grounded in their conviction that the working
class is becoming more…
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Erie UE strike ends, Wabtec bosses agree to
negotiations
•Nat’l blackout deepens crisis in Venezuela - US hands off!
•‘Workers need to organize our own party to take power’
•Protests continue in fight against police killing of Stephon Clark
•Democrats’ fractures widen in cover-up of anti-Semitic remarks
•Supreme Court puts limits on cops seizing property, a gain for workers
Feature Articles •Sign up for International May Day Cuba Brigade
Also In This Issue •Celebrate the political life of veteran communist in UK
•‘Militant’ continues to receive readers’ contributions. Thanks!
•Capitalism at fault in Alabama tornado catastrophe
•Are ‘hate crimes’ and racism on the rise in the US?
Editorials •Join the May Day brigade to Cuba!
On the Picket Line •Indiana teachers rally for higher pay, better
working conditions
•Weeklong strike in Oakland ends as teachers’ struggle continues
Books of the Month •‘In a deepgoing revolution, women want to take part’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Corrections
© Copyright 2019 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxx
--
---
Carl Sagan
“ The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be
counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be
consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not
determine what's true. ”
― Carl Sagan
