I'm a proud Democrat. My party has an antisemitism problem
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
To me, it’s simple – if you cannot denounce terrorism in all its forms, there should be no place for you in the Democratic Party.
By that standard, several of my fellow Democrats lost their place in this party over the weekend after their horrific responses to the barbaric terrorist attacks Hamas unleashed on innocent Israelis Saturday morning.
In some ill-fated attempt to appease the completely nonexistent pro-terrorist Muslim community in suburban Detroit, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tweeted, "I have been in touch with communities impacted by what’s happening in the region. It is abhorrent. My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region."
This ham-fisted attempt to avoid saying Israel, Hamas and terrorism in a statement addressing those three topics reminded me of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s decontextualized 2019 remarks describing the 9/11 attacks as "some people did something."
Unlike Omar, Whitmer couldn’t claim to be taken out of context. That was the entirety of her tweet.
But Whitmer wasn’t the only Michigan Democrat to completely fumble their response to perhaps the worst terrorist attack around the globe since 2001.
Most notable was Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who, in a lengthy statement, called for"dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance." Later in the text, she said the United States must cut off Israel's aid.
This response is pure victim blaming. Most Democrats, especially young Democrats, agree that the Israeli government’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is unjust and cruel, especially toward children, who comprise nearly half of the Palestinian population.
But that injustice doesn’t give the pro-Palestinian Left license to explain away the mass killing, raping and kidnapping of Israeli citizens as justifiable "resistance" activities.
As journalist Julia Ioffe put it, "If you’re against the collective punishment of Palestinians, you should also be against the collective punishment of Israelis."
When the pro-Palestinian Left doesn’t voice total opposition to the massacre of Israeli citizens, even as they affirm the rights of Palestinians, they lose their moral standing and surrender the values of justice and human rights they claim are at the center of their movement.
One can point to the root causes of terrorism without condoning it. In Tlaib’s words, all "resistance" activities aren’t justified – the blood still on the streets of southern Israel bears witness to this reality.
Thankfully, Tlaib isn’t in charge of the Democratic Party, and Joe Biden is. His joint statement with five world leaders on Monday night made it clear that this government stands against Hamas’ terrorists and with the people of Israel:
"All of us recognize the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and support equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike. But make no mistake: Hamas does not represent those aspirations and offers nothing for the Palestinian people other than more terror and bloodshed."
President Biden shows the way. You can support Palestinian freedom, distrust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and denounce Hamas’ terrorism. In fact, if you don’t do the latter, you hurt the overall cause for freedom.
Some Democrats were willing to chide their party colleagues for their nonsense publicly. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres each denounced a pro-Hamas Democratic Socialist of Americas (DSA) rally in Times Square that featured a young man holding up and showing off a Nazi flag image on his phone.
The 35-year-old Torres' remarks were particularly poignant. He called the rally "an antisemitic stain on the soul of America’s largest city" and accused the DSA of glorifying the terrorism of Hamas as "resistance." He said that the lives of Israeli civilians and children murdered, wounded, abducted and terrorized by Hamas meant nothing to the DSA.
There's a fight for the future of the Democratic Party already underway. And to me, it's clear Torres' way is the only way to go because a Democratic Party led by figures like Rashida Tlaib is a party rightly without a future in the United States.
Tags
Who is online
548 visitors
We all know what the old anti-Semitism looked like. Today anti-Semitism comes from the left and it was born on American campuses. It was personified in Rashida Tlaib's most memorable tweet: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In other words: the extinction of Israel and its inhabitants or as Barack Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright called them: “Them Jews”.
It comes from everywhere and predates Herr 88 by millenia. All sides are guilty of some form of racism. Cherry-picking one side is far more often than not a feeble attempt to whitewash one's own side.
Yes and the inevitable pearl clutching begins with our friends on the left.
So predictable, so sad.
I've heard a lot about Democrats supposedly supporting Hamas, but havent actually seen many words from them that support Hamas.
It is possible to both condemn the massacre of the 7th, hope and expect that Hamas will lose power over it, and be destroyed, AND have sympathy for Palestinians. I know its possible because I do it myself and I am a Democrat.
Yes John, it is possible to be pro-Palestinian without being anti-Semitic.
Hamas must be wiped off the face of the earth.
I know this because I am a human being and not a fucking animal.
I noticed the seeder didnt come on any of the articles in which Israeli officials blasted Donald Trump for his remarks on the subject of Israel and its leadership.
Is the article still on the front page?
I am interested to see which Israeli officials.
Feel free to look it up yourself. And on that note, I noticed that you are the only person wondering what Israel has to say about a single private citizen.
Huh? It was all over the news.
And you are the only one concerned about it. If it were valid I'm sure somebody would have posted the article instead of whining about one not being posted.
As usual, you dont make any sense.
[deleted]
It is.
You'll figure it out.
Make no mistake, Tlaib doesn’t represent most Michiganders. She represent one small district of Michigan. Whitmer however is more disconcerting.
The Michiganders that elected her must be so proud …. She just crushed any hope she had to be effective on a national ticket.