On Monday, outrage erupted over the tweets by freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Rep. Omar is the hijab-wearing democrat from Minnesota that, along with her fellow newcomers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is igniting a new firestorm nearly every week.
Omar, fresh off a friendly depiction on Saturday Night Live, took to twitter over the weekend, taking indirect shots at the pro-Israel lobby:
AIPAC! https://t.co/UdzaFUEfrh
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 11, 2019
It's all about the Benjamins baby 🎶 https://t.co/KatcXJnZLV
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 10, 2019
For those tweets, cries of Anti-Semitism echoed across the political spectrum, despite Omar’s earlier — and much stronger — anti-Semitic tweets going ignored by the political and media establishments.
Ironically, investigative journalist Laura Loomer was permanently banned from twitter last November for criticizing Ilhan Omar as anti-Semitic.
Omar previously referred to Israel as “evil” and even admonished Muslims who celebrate Christmas.
It wasn’t until Omar criticized the money flowing from the pro-Israel lobby to politicians that her fellow members lost their bearing and quickly jumped to label her speech as anti-Semitic.
Omar’s tweets from Monday are indeed accurate. AIPAC (not a political action committee as the name implies) is a powerful lobbying organization that does not donate directly to politicians, however, they are well known for influencing a massive amount of dollars for the Pro-Israel lobby.
And that lobby is a wealthy one. According to Open Secrets, the Pro-Israel lobby pushed out around $7 million to Washington politicians in the 2018 election cycle. And that’s not including the giving from Jewish Megadonor Sheldon Adelson who donated an astounding $123 million in the 2018 cycle.
Adelson was the top individual donor in 2018, with 100% of his contributions going to Republicans.
Contributions coming directly from the Pro-Israel lobby were much more diversified – in keeping with traditional lobbying efforts that “spread the love” across political parties, but skewed to benefit Democrats to offset the “Adelson effect.”
Bob Menendez and Ted Cruz topped the lists of beneficiaries of the Pro-Israel lobby.
Unlike other lobbies, the Pro-Israel lobby combines the power of racism with the traditional influence obtained by groups like the NRA. They also have the loyal support of the Defense Industry as every billion dollars of aid to Israel supports over 60,000 jobs in the US defense industry.
That makes the Pro-Israel lobby an incredibly powerful force in Washington — as long as you don’t talk about their influence or money.
And Ilham Omar quickly learned that lesson, issuing an apology by Monday afternoon:
Listening and learning, but standing strong 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/7TSroSf8h1
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 11, 2019
Rep. Omar learned two important rules on Monday. Rule One: she cannot criticize or even address the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in politics. Rule Two: she can continue to be vocally anti-Semitic as long as she doesn’t violate Rule One.
Basically, she learned to not rock the money boat for her congressional colleagues.
While few on the right agree with Ilhan Omar’s stances on likely 99% of issues, being able to speak freely about influence in politics is something that everyone should support . . . especially the “Basket of Deplorables” who are labeled racists simply because they refuse to support the long-standing political establishments.
If Democrats truly cared about anti-Semitic statements by the freshman legislator, they would have stepped up in November of 2018 when Laura Loomer provided proof of Ilhan Omar’s disdain for Israel along with her support for ISIS.
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