During the 2018 election cycle, it became clear the Democratic Party had a serious anti-Semitism problem. With Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Talib on the ticket, the patterns of anti-Semitism were there for everyone to see.
Unfortunately, the leadership of the Democratic Party has embraced the freshmen, even placing Omar on the prestigious and powerful Foreign Affairs committee. By doing so, party leaders have given Omar a bully pulpit to attack the state of Israel, allude that American Jews are guilty of dual loyalty and insinuate that Jews are responsible for ethnic cleansing.
Some will claim that Omar and her ilk are fringe members of the party. But no one can deny that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in Democratic leadership have placed these freshmen in key positions, and for some disturbing reason, are not willing to back off from their clear and unmistakable error.
Democratic Party leadership should be asking if the party can stand with Omar as she is scheduled to appear at a fundraising event with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that has been often linked to radical terrorist groups such as the anti-Israel terrorist organization Hamas.
Are the Democrats willing to stand by Omar when she is unwilling to distance herself from Louis Farrakhan as he cheers her on? “She started talking about the Benjamins and they are trying to make her apologize. Sweetheart, don’t do that,” Farrakhan said of Omar’s anti-Semitic comments.
Omar could have used her platform to end the hatred and to be an ambassador of peace. Instead she’s perpetuated the opposite since her first day in office.
It is not surprising that Jewish Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic Party when its leaders do not refute anti-Semitic statements. The fact that Omar has not been at the very least removed from her committees is shocking.
Given Pelosi’s inaction, we must wonder where her party is heading.
In 2016, the Democratic convention wanted to endorse the anti-Israel boycott. In 2019, the party’s leading presidential candidates refuse to condemn the boycott and refuse to condemn anti-Semite Omar for her anti-Semitic comments. Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to former president Barack Obama, very publicly backed the freshman representative, calling her “the change in Congress we have been waiting for” and has not qualified her effusive support.
One must ask if we are seeing the birth of an overtly anti-Israel Democratic Party akin to the United Kingdom’s Labor Party under Jeremy Corbyn. Are we seeing the Corbynization of the Democratic Party? I fear the answer is yes.
To paraphrase Menachem Begin, when someone says they hate Jews, believe them. When young freshman Representative Omar says she believes Israel is an apartheid state that has hypnotized the world and Jews have bought Congress, we should believe her too.
President Trump has condemned Omar’s anti-Semitic comments and called for her resignation. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy removed Steve King from committee assignments due to his unseemly rhetoric. New York Rep. Lee Zeldin sponsored H.R. 72, which rejected anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred in the U.S. and around the world. Republicans are making it clear that inappropriate behavior from elected officials will not be tolerated. Its time for the Democratic Party to get serious.
President Trump, the Republican Party and many lawmakers have said there is no place for anti-Semitism in America, in our politics or in Congress.
If the Democratic Party won’t take action against anti-Semitism in its own ranks, it does not have a place for Jews.
Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz (@YMosko) is a policy consultant on Middle Eastern affairs for several prominent think tanks and elected officials and is an active member of the Orthodox Jewish community.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.