Boo Hoo!! Israel Bars Tlaib and Omar

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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Excuse me while I get out a violin and play a melancholy song for Israel’s recent decision disallowing Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to enter their country.  Both were scheduled to visit Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and East Jerusalem in a trip co-sponsored by a Palestinian organization called Miftah (more on them in a second).  Israeli Prime Minister is simply enforcing a law that bars entry to anyone supportive of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement.

The Democrats are great at pointing out people with whom President Trump associated in his past, or take his statements out of context but seem blind when it comes to this gruesome twosome.  Since 2015, Tlaib has been heavily invested in the Palestinian “cause” when in that year a terrorist who was to be deported gained the support of Tlaib.  She has criticized other politicians for appearing in photos with Netanyahu, joined social media groups which laud Palestinian terrorists or claimed the Holocaust was exaggerated and asserted Israel has no right to exist.  She is very active in support of the BDS movement, even co-sponsoring legislation in its favor.  She has also appeared in photos with supporters of terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Omar is no better as her support for disreputable people and apparent support or sympathy for terrorist acts and organizations goes back further than Tlaib’s to 2012.  She has made statements supportive of Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and al-Shabbab.  She has characterized Israel as anything but a democracy and associated with activists and pundits who have referred to Israel as “the Jewish ISIS” and equated members of Hamas with victims of the Holocaust.  Besides the support of the BDS movement in Congress and while in Minnesota politics she was one of few votes against banning genital mutilation in that state.

The group that was co-sponsoring the trip- Miftah- is no different.  They refer to the creation of Israel in 1948 as “al-Nakba,” or “the catastrophe.”  They regularly characterize Palestinian terrorists as “freedom fighters” and “activists.”  In short, they are supporters of terrorism against Israel.

Many editorials criticizing the decision to bar their entry to Israel say it would better if they went so they can see first hand that their views of Israel and the treatment of Palestinians there is wrong or misguided.  No amount of exposure, convincing, or dialogue is going to change the minds of these people.  Their hatred of Israel is too deep.  The same people critical of Israel’s decision to ban their entry are the same people who support harassment of Trump and others with whom they disagree from public appearances, or even eating peacefully in a restaurant.

So was Netanyahu right to enforce the law against Tlaib and Omar?  Others have been denied entry based on their political views, particularly with respect to the BDS movement.  For example, Simone Zimmerman, founder of “anti-occupation” IfNotNow, BDS advocate Ariel Gold and journalist Peter Beinart.  Hence, Omar and Tlaib are not alone in being banned from travel in Israel.  What sets them apart is they are currently members of Congress.

Perhaps if they acted like members of Congress and did not giggle and dismiss the horror of 9/11, there would be more sympathy for them.  Perhaps if they did not refer to the President as “the motherf******” there may be more sympathy for them.  However, they seem more concerned with events with which they have absolutely no control over half a world away than they have concern for their own constituents.  They hide behind their titles of sitting members of Congress when they are, in fact, simply activists for Palestinians and, in Omar’s case, other Islamic terrorist groups.

Before they attempt to solve alleged problems in Israel, they should worry about and work towards solving problems domestically.  Netanyahu is not afraid of two inconsequential members of Congress witnessing the “truth of Palestinian oppression” at the hands of Israel.  He is correctly thwarting the possibility of fanning the flames of violence in a population prone to terrorist violence and incapable of governing themselves.  They, if allowed into Israel or the West Bank, are going to see what they want to see and hear because they are blinded by their hatred of Israel.  They were not going there as open-minded fact-finders.

Maybe they should go to Gaza instead and see for themselves what a Palestinian state looks like.  Given the history of these two boobs, they would likely call it Utopia.

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