Stanley Holditch
So Bibi went all Bibi on Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and banned them from the country. So how pissed should you be?
For Conservatives: Now here’s a pickle: hating these two is the patriotic equivalent of riding a Sea-Doo with an American Flag while chugging Budweiser and burning styrofoam. But they’re attacking Jews…but because of how bad the Jews treat the Muslims…but they’re Democrats…even though we all know the Democrats are financed by the Jews. The safe bet here is to just be pissed as hell that they exist and delight in anything done to them that they don’t like, but be vague as to where to stand in this mess of interlacing bigotry.
For Liberals: The struggle is even more real: anything stated against Israel is automatically anti-semitic because … and anything anti-Muslim is bad (M’kay) … and anything Trump wants is bad … and silencing viewpoints is always bad, unless they are viewpoints that can in any way be deemed anti-semitic, racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, homophobic, etc, in which case it’s fine. So you have two strong female Muslim representatives (YAY!!) taking concrete steps against Israel (boo?) and saying bad things about how they treat Palestinians (yay?) and as a result the Prime Minister of Israel follows Trump’s advice (BOO!!) and stands up against their anti-semitic rhetoric (Yay???) by banning them from the country. Soooo, Nancy?
So is this like a praise-shame? She covers love for Israel (because Judaism) but defends the reps she has publicly shamed for their comments. After all she started the pile-on from her own party by characterizing Omar’s criticisms as “use of anti-Semitic tropes” calling them “deeply offensive.” Her statements says the President’s comments are “a sign of ignorance and disrespect” which makes her earlier comments what exactly?
So how pissed should liberals be? I’d say more pissed at Nancy for leading the charge of anti-semitism against them and handing the Republicans a 2020 talking point than pissed at Bibi or Trump, but that would require the gift of introspection, sooo….
For Everyone Else: This is a big, fat meh for people who still think for themselves. Omar and Tlaib are critical of Israel, for perfectly legitimate reasons. Israel practices Apartheid, regularly over-responds, kills civilians on purpose, and does a bunch of other terrible shit, just like we do. I would hope the United States wouldn’t ban a prominent critic of allowing our police to be executioners, of running concentration camps, of having separate justice systems for the rich and the poor, and now, icing prisoners in jail to silence them, but given that we now act completely like a banana republic, I wouldn’t put it past us. So let’s get off the soap box and STFU.
