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September 24, 2021

Virulent Israel-hatred erupts on the floor of Congress

By Andrea Widburg

The good news is that the House overwhelmingly voted to spend $1 billion — which is chump change in the federal budget — to fund Israel's Iron Dome protection system.  The bad news is that the far leftists in the House, the ones who are clogging the media airways, cowing Nancy Pelosi, and driving the Democrat party, were so virulent in their hatred for the only Jewish state in the world, and one that occupies an infinitesimal dot on the map of the Muslim Middle East, that what they said and did was indistinguishable from pure anti-Semitism.

Earlier this week, the Squad used the slim Democrat majority to force the House to remove all funding for Israel's Iron Dome from a stopgap spending bill.  On Thursday, however, the House overwhelmingly approved that $1 billion for Israel's Iron Dome.  Whatever the motives (keeping Jewish voters happy, human decency, or something else), it's a good thing, and as a strong supporter of Israel, I am grateful.  The ultimate vote was 420-9.

Here's the breakdown of votes against funding the Iron Dome:

Incidentally, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, originally voted "no," only to change her vote later to "present," so she doesn't even get a partial pass.

What made Thursday's vote so notable was the virulent Israel-hatred that the naysayers expressed, from Rashida Tlaib's openly anti-Semitic statements, which earned her an open condemnation from a fellow Democrat, to Ocasio-Cortez's bursting into tears because Israel was being given the means to defend itself.

Rashida Tlaib, who consistently makes it clear that she sits in Congress to represent Gaza and the West Bank, was the worst of the bunch:

When Tlaib announced her opposition to the supplemental, she characterized it as "enabl[ing] and support[ing] war crimes, human rights abuses, and violence."

"We can not only be talking about Israelis' need for safety at a time when Palestinians are living under a violent apartheid system and are dying from what Human Rights Watch said are war crimes. We should also be talking about Palestinian need for security from Israeli attacks. We must be consistent in our commitment to human life, period. Everyone deserves to be safe there. The bill claims to be quote 'replenishment' for weapons apartheid Israel used in a crisis it manufactured when it attacked worshipers at one of the most holy Islamic locations, the al-Aqsa mosque, committing, again, numerous, numerous war crimes," she continued. "The Israeli regime is an apartheid regime, not my words but from Human Rights Watch."

Everything Tlaib said is a lie:

  • The Iron Dome exists only to protect Israel from Iranian and Hezb'allah rockets that Hamas thugs fire indiscriminately into Israel.
  • Human Rights Watch is a virulently anti-Semitic organization.
  • There is no apartheid in Israel, which is the only nation in the region in which people of all faiths have full civil rights.  (Gaza and the West Bank, by contrast, are Jew-free, and almost all Christians have been driven from those places.)
  • Israel's incursions into Gaza have always been defensive, and Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to protect civilians — something made hard by the fact that Hamas deliberately embeds its weapons around civilians, especially children.
  • Israel is so respectful of the Al Aqsa mosque that Jews are prevented from praying at the Temple Mount, which is a Jewish holy place dating back to Abraham and Solomon, and one that predates by thousands of years both the gaudy al Aqsa mosque and Mohamed.

Tlaib's speech was so vicious that fellow Democrat Ted Deutch called her on it:

The Daily Mail quotes much of what he said:

During the debate before the vote, Foreign Affairs Chair Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, who opposed the $1 billion in funds' initial removal from an earlier bill, condemned Tlaib when it was his turn to speak during the debate. 

'I cannot — cannot allow one of my colleagues to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and label the Jewish Democratic state of Israel an apartheid state,' Deutch said Thursday. 'I reject it.'

'If you believe in human rights, if you believe in saving lives — Israeli and Palestinian lives — I say to my colleague who just besmirched our ally, then you will support this legislation,' the moderate Democrat directed at Tlaib.

[snip]

'When there is no place on the map for one Jewish state — that's anti-Semitism, and I reject that,' Deutch said.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican, also called out Tlaib:

Again, from the Daily Mail:

'They have a vocal minority in the majority party that is anti-Israel, that is anti-Semitic, and as Americans, we can never stand for that,' the GOP representative declared.

'As Americans, I beseech you, I reach out to the majority and I say condemn what we just heard on the House floor. Condemn terrorism.

'You just saw something on this floor I thought I would never see. Not only as a member of this House, but as an American — let's stand with Israel and condemn anti-Semitism.'

Meanwhile, Drama Queen AOC appeared to burst into tears as the horror of helping an ally defend itself against indiscriminate missile attacks against civilians overwhelmed her:

The Founders were philo-Semitic because they recognized that the Jewish Bible, by recognizing that individuals, by virtue of being created in God’s image, laid the foundation for the freedoms the Founders identified as inherent in all people.  They would be disgusted by the anti-Semitism and histrionics from today's young, profoundly ignorant, hate-filled leftists.

Image: Rep. Ted Deutch.  Twitter screen grab.

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