Mr. Insensitive

The Wall Street Journal reports: “AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, raises more than $100 million a year, which it spends on lobbying politicians for U.S. aid and sending members of Congress to Israel”.

Anyone offended? Not yet? Only if facts are offensive to the hypersensitive. I’m OK with that. I suppose that might make me insensitive.

Look! Over there! It’s a Black Muslim woman speaking her mind!  "Pro-Israel" lobbyists and donors use their considerable financial resources to influence US policy - Politicians frequently profess ‘allegiance’ to Israel and expect others to do the same”.

Alert!  Shocking! Offensive! Now is the time for legislative action in the name of morality! 

Even in America, and in the House of Representatives, Black Muslim women must learn their place.

I mean, an unabashed white supremacist like Steve King can be excused. After all, he’s a white male Republican and con-servative. He proved to be politically correct enough to get reelected multiple times.  Never mind him.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. called for “action” against Rep. Ilhan Omar and her fellow Muslim congresswoman, Rep. Rashida Tlaib for criticizing Israeli policies.

On February 10^th, Glenn Greenwald, a journalist and Jew, shared an article about McCarthy, adding the comment, “It’s stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans.”

But, look! It’s that Black Muslim woman again on twitter!  Ilhan Omar re-tweeted Greenwald: “It's all about the Benjamins baby”.

Oh, oh. Horrors! Alert! Make that “Terror Alert!!” That’s the last straw!

But wait.

Glenn Greenwald also tweeted on February 10: “Sorry, but you're not going to turn the two first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress into overnight Jew-haters because of their criticisms of Israel. What's actually anti-Semitic is conflating the Government of Israel with Jews, so those of you doing that should stop.”

Greenwald explains: Title 4 of S 1, the very first bill in the new US Senate introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio  would give states a legal blessing to punish companies that choose not to do business with Israel or Israeli-owned enterprises, a key demand of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Twenty-six states have adopted laws that punish companies that choose to boycott Israel. Defenders of the law see them as necessary to protect an ally from hostile activists, while critics argue that the laws are unconstitutional infringements on free speech.

Two progressive senators were particularly outspoken in opposing the Rubio bill: Sens. Bernie Sanders and Dianne Feinstein. Neither of them has outright defended the BDS movement but instead attacked anti-BDS laws on free speech grounds.

“This Israel anti-boycott legislation would give states a free pass to restrict First Amendment protections for millions of Americans,” Feinstein wrote in a press release. “Despite my strong support for Israel, I oppose this legislation because it clearly violates the Constitution.”

It's become more "American" and politically correct to attack free speech than to link AIPAC with political donors and their money.

Now Omar is being smeared by every racist anti-Muslim bigot in the country for noting AIPAC's lobbying power and the Israeli far Right's influence on our government.

Not content to let the white nationalists have their orgy of racist attacks on a Muslim women of color, other corporatist guardians of morality and decency have joined their vitriolic chorus of condemnation.

This is something that the corporate media, the far Right, and the politically correct DC insiders all share. We see numerous Democrats and media elite seized in a pearl-clutching overreaction to a Black Muslim woman’s comments. Media and DC insiders allowed themselves to be aligned with the Right, as they savored their delight in expressing racism and anti-Muslim bigotry openly.

All because AIPAC and the Israeli government must not be questioned or criticized. And in conjunction, money can be invoked regarding any lobby, but one. Special dispensation for a special lobby.

This is a political correctness that allows a Muslim nothing to say about Israel or AIPAC. The same would be true of anyone deemed too critical of Israeli treatment of Palestinians, or in dissent of their abusive Right wing policies, or even interference in our politics and laws. That free speech is less tolerated than Steve King’s racism.

Many Jews, other than Greenwald, didn’t take Omar’s words as anti-Semitic.

Katie Halper writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker tweeted,  "Jews like me are tired of @AIPAC claiming to speak for all Jews & conflating Jewish identity w/ unquestioning support of Israel, which is an antiSemitic trope." Me, telling Fox that criticism of Israel isn't anti-semitism & that @IlhanMN's critics are antisemites & Islamophobes”

The FOX(R) crew didn’t get it, of course, and had to “white-splain” how she was wrong. They even invoked the Holocaust, before Katie explained she had lost family back then.

Katie was also challenged by a Jewish woman named Rebecca:

Rebecca: “Jews like me are tired of Jews like you trying to prove you don’t have “double loyalty” by appeasing antisemites, and playing the ‘I’m a good Jew’ card.”

KH: “I'm not trying to appease anti-semites. I actually believe Palestinians are human beings. You should try it some time.”

There’s the problem. American corporate media’s political correctness cannot quite recognize the humanity of Palestinians. That would be called anti-Semitic by the Right. 

This disturbing tendency of corporate media dancing to the tunes called by the Right is also seen in their ready acceptance of Trump's endorsement of an un-elected president, and complicity with the neocon threat of military intervention in Venezuela. This failure of journalism and appeasement to the Right is a sad repeat of their submission to Bush and Cheney's lies about WMD's, "nukular" aluminum tubes, and Saddam's ties to al-Qaeda.

Now "our oil" is in Venezuela. 

“It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”- John Bolton

“That’s the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil, and they’re right on our back door.” - Trump, according to McCabe.

Ring any bells?

Meanwhile, Katie wrote in an article for FAIR: 

“Debate Over Labeling Omar Obscures Vital Debate on Israel/Palestine”

If Congress were sincerely offended by antisemitism and antisemitic tropes, and not just hellbent on silencing a much-needed questioning of US support of Israel, they would have found a way to condemn Trump when he failed to mention Jews in his statement commemorating the Holocaust. They would have written a resolution condemning the use of antisemitic tropes when Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) singled out Jewish billionaires George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer as trying to “buy” the election—or when Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio) referred to Steyer as “$teyer,” and accused Jewish Rep. Jerry Nadler (D.-NY) of being funded by him.

But they didn’t. Because neither Trump, nor McCarthy nor Jordan ever talk about Palestinians. And it’s discussion about the treatment of Palestinians, not antisemitic tropes, that they want to silence.

Bernie Sanders had an equally sane comment as well.

"Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world. We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel. What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate. That’s wrong."

Israeli-American journalist Mairav Zonszein agrees:

“Read @IlhanMN tweet and honestly did not strike me as An antisemitic trope. Calling out AIPAC and Netanyahu is not calling out Jews, it’s calling out the actions of two entities who hold a lot of power and all those who serve that agenda”

I’ve had my hand slapped for simply wanting to discuss how we can criticize AIPAC and Right wing Israeli policies without being called anti-Semitic. My bad. I didn’t know the question itself was “anti-Semitic”. Again, I must be very insensitive.

At least Nancy Pelosi responded with some perspective to the Republicans demand that Omar be removed from committees. She un-clutched her pearls long enough to say, "No. A newcomer member of Congress has apologized for her remarks. It took them what, 13 years to notice Steve King?" 

Remember when Social Security was the “third rail” in politics? That’s history. George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security, right after he was re-elected by a nation numbed and blinded by a war based on lies. Soon enough it would all come off the wheels.

So can we even condemn a man Israel's attorney general plans to indict? Or is calling the corrupt Netanyahu a crook "anti-Semitic" too?

I’m sure it is, especially to the cult that believes questioning Trump, AIPAC, and the NRA is un-American, and boycotting Israel should be punished by law.

Now, how are the Redskins looking for next season?