Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota congresswoman who somehow manages to publicly make offensive comments against Israel or Jews seemingly every other week, came across some difficulties in trying to describe her relationship with her Jewish constituents after being asked about it on MSNBC.
Omar has long been accused of being an anti-Semite, and her Wednesday night TV appearance didn’t help the argument that she isn’t.
“One axis of criticism that you’ve received is around things you’ve said about either Israeli police, the Israeli government – people have accused you of anti-Semitism in remarks that you’ve made or on Twitter about Benjamin Netanyahu,” MSNBC host Chrish Hayes told the congresswoman. “Obviously, you have a lot of Jewish folks in your district, you have a lot of synagogues, you have visited a very vibrant Jewish world in the Twin Cities. What have those relationships been like, what those conversations have been like?”
Omar’s response was as clear as pudding.
“Yeah, I think communities are not monolithic,” she responded. “You know, there’s different ideologies people have. There’s different perspectives in different places where people come from and there are different relationships people have with me that sore of inform a positive reaction to anything I say or a negative reaction to anything that I say. And I think my relationships in that community and every community is along those lines.”
She then tried getting out of the question, which was what her relationship with the Jews in her district is, by focusing on her story.
“I’m Somali and, you know, the Somali community in Minnesota, in my first two races, 95% of them didn’t vote for me,” Omar said. “And so I do know that the relationship that people have of you…”
Thanks for the clarification, Ilhan.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
6 Responses
It seems pretty clear to me. She’s claiming that there’s no such thing as “the Jews” because not all Jews agree with each other, so by the nature of things no matter what positions she takes she will have good relations with some Jews and bad relations with others.
Which is actually a perfectly true statement. It shouldn’t be, because you’d think that no matter what differences exist among Jews, we’d all be united in opposition to antisemitism, but it’s been clear for a long time that we’re not. The broader “Jewish community” includes such cancers as “Jewish Voice for Peace” and “If Not Now”, who are themselves antisemites and are eager to support other antisemites; they don’t really belong in the Jewish community, especially since many of their members are not even Jews, but the fact is that they are perceived by the whole world as being part of the community and there’s no way we can change that perception.
Why?? Didn’t the self hating Jews vote for Omar?
Besides, she hates America as much as the Jews and won’t be satisfied till our country resembles Somalia.
Liberal/leftist Jews helped put Omar in office.
what this woman thinks makes absolutely not one bit of difference and what she struggles with is equal if not greater than my first statement…may she rot in Gehinnon alongside Hitler and the rest of the inhuman garbage clothed in skin resides
too bad AIPAC’s days of creating a primary for real antiSemites are over.
“may she rot in Gehinnon alongside Hitler and the rest of the inhuman garbage clothed in skin resides”
What a great kiddush haShem. (YWN posting this article? Also a kiddush haShem, of course.)