Senior Democratic members of Congress have reportedly been in discussion about ways to condemn Israel’s envoy to Washington, Ron Dermer, and the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, over their support for the Israeli government’s decision to deny entry to Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
Unmentioned in the report is any talk of condemning Omar and Tlaib for their support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which seeks to destroy Israel and was the very reason for the ban of the two lawmakers in the first place.
This is the same Democratic Party that shamefully abandoned plans to pass a House resolution last March specifically condemning antisemitism even though the resolution was in direct response to Omar’s repeated use of antisemitic tropes.
Eventually, in a move described by the Associated Press as an “embarrassing misstep for Democratic leaders,” House Democrats last March passed a watered-down resolution generally condemning “hateful expressions of intolerance” instead of a strong statement against antisemitism. The Republican-controlled Senate responded to the Democrat’s inexcusable failure by immediately unanimously passing a resolution explicitly condemning antisemitism.
Now the Democrats are back at it, according to a report in McClatchy. The news outlet cited “two sources familiar with the discussions” as saying that “about a dozen lawmakers, including senior Jewish members, began discussions on Friday morning over ways to communicate a ‘deep lack of confidence and trust’” in Dermer and Friedman.
Their alleged crimes?
Friedman expressed support for Israel’s decision to ban the two extremist Congressional leaders from a trip clearly designed to be an anti-Israel propaganda tour aimed at promoting BDS, which wages economic warfare against Israel’s economy and is allied with terrorist organizations.
Dermer, for his part, is reportedly being singled out because a few weeks prior to Israel’s decision to reject Omar and Tlaib’s trip the Israeli ambassador had assured House Majority Leader Hoyer that “out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America, we would not deny entry to any Member of Congress into Israel.”
Never mind that Dermer made those statements before Israel obtained the two antisemitic lawmakers’ itinerary showing Omar and Tlaib’s intention to use the trip to harm Israel’s reputation and support boycott Israel ideology.
The cancelled visit was partially organized and co-sponsored by Miftah, an anti-Israel organization that itself supports BDS. NGO Monitor, a watchdog on extremist nonprofits, notes that Miftah has accused Israel of committing “massacres,” “apartheid,” “summary executions” of Palestinian youth and “Judaizing” Jerusalem. It has also accused Israel of “ethnic-cleansing of Palestinian-Israeli Arabs.”
Meanwhile, ever since Israel’s decision to nix the hostile visit last week, Democrats have been outdoing themselves in defending Omar and Tlaib and criticizing Israel for a ban that is in keeping with a law that allows the country to deny passage to BDS leaders given that the movement acts to delegitimize the Jewish state. And make no mistake about it, Omar and Tlaib are the leaders of that movement in Congress. Only a few weeks ago, the duo introduced a Congressional resolution aimed at supporting the antisemitic BDS Movement.
Democrats may want to do some soul searching about what is driving them to align against the Mideast’s only democracy and instead side with antisemites who promote the boycott of Jews.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
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