This thread is for discussing the recent antisemitic Tweet of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, for which she has now apologized.

I'm not going to bat for Ilhan Omar right now.



even if the primary context of this tweet is the influence of AIPAC and the pro-israel lobby in Congress, it sure looks like standard anti-semitic dog-whistling. Is the ambiguity intentional? This debate is age-old and we can easily go in circles here without generating much light.


However, there's this data point spawning from the discussion of her benjamin's tweet:



she later retracted this retweet.

The point of her tweet was obviously about the fact that politicians love that AIPAC money (like any PAC money). No need to read an anti-Semitic trope in that.

In fact, the only anti-Semitism to actually arise from this whole tweet storm is to suggest that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic because all Jews must think the same way and blindly support all of Israel's actions, no matter what.

This thread nails it:

https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/s...96905522057216

Nah, bashing AIPAC about money is antisemitic. AIPAC's lobbying expenditures in 2018 were $3.5M. Chamber of Commerce lobbying expenditures were $94.8M. National Association of Realtors spent $72.8M. Quite a bit more time is spent talking about the Benjamins from AIPAC than the National Association of Realtors.

I don't think Ilhan is antisemitic. I legit thing she, like a lot of you, are just wrong about this.

And her point wasn't *just* that it's PAC money. People talk about AIPAC money all the time, and way out of proportion.

AIPAC is like a distant 6th among reasons the US supports Isreal.

The motivation for republicans and democrats to "support Israel" comes from the military industrial complex which accounts for a huge portion of our tax dollars and the crazy christian theories about Jerusulem and how Palastine was given to the Jews and guess who votes for Republicans? Evangelists.

Is Chelsea Clinton et all actually suggesting Republicans in congress give a flying **** about Israel as a people or country?

The Israel lobby is like the gun lobby. Neither needs money, there are enough true believers in the US to generate political power.

I sorta agree with both of these, but at the same time, that nexus of true believers is still responsible for, or at least influential on, a bunch of money, even if it isn't coming from AIPAC per se. And that's not to say that I think it's Jews responsible for that money, or that I think they're the true believers. I think it's fundamentalist and evangelical conservative Christians who control that money.

People confuse political influence and identity for money in the political system of their opponents as well. The NRA is imagined as a giant money rich organization because they have so much clout. During that gun control town hall Hogg tried to tell Marco Rubio that he could raise just as much from the gun control people as the NRA and Rubio tired to explain he takes their money and he agrees with them. Hogg was thinking it was purely transactional when it's a bit of both.

Yeah. And I think there are other reasons too and OMG's point was right too and it's a very big one. Israel aligns with the US foreign policy and military industrial complex and there's quite a bit of co-mingling of defense contractors and contracts going both ways. Israel is part of the US's cold war strategy and our aid to Israel started with Nixon, after the 6 day war, in response to Soviet aid to Egypt. And add the evangelicals and add lots of civilian trade and business. And American Jews are part of it too. Even a small number of people can be influential if they are focused on an issue and it's not like Jews lobbying for Israel don't do anything, it's just like I said, something like a distant 6th. And Americans like to blow stuff up and Israel blows stuff up good. They make for good Military Channel programming.

I think a big factor is there is a large enough group of voters in either party who absolutely 100% will abandon a candidate if they are anti-Israel and while there are a lot of people who vote for Democrats who feel that Israel's government is ****ty and are cool with harsh critics, there aren't that many of those voters for whom it's a litmus test.

It's all very different than payday lenders donating millions and then politicians doing something that virtually no Americans want and hoping no one notices.

Yeah, I agree with all of this, and I think it undermine's the argument that Omar's tweet is anti-Semitic. I was negligent in my own post in blaming evangelicals, who are important, but not also the military industrial complex, which is also really ****ing important. Both groups are gatekeepers of Benjamins for congresscritters.

You might as well always say everything is about the Benjamins then. But, Israel is less about the Benjamins than a lot of other issues. McCarthy will lose votes if he doesn't support Israel, not just money. And perhaps he even agrees with neocon foreign policy.

Like I said though, I don't think Ilhan is antisemetic.

And the punishing of people who speak out against Israel is straight up fascism whether it's Kevin McCarthy doing it or Ted Lieu or Adam Schiff or Bill Nelson or Richard Blumenthal or Maria Cantwell or Chuck Schumer or Ron Wyden or Cory Booker.

While I could be convinced by good citations, my argument is that, analogous to the NRA, where, you may only get a fairly modest amount of money by being pro-NRA but miss out on a lot of money from not the NRA but from NRA-adjacent groups by being anti-NRA, it is similar for Israel, where Israel isn't referring necessarily Jewish people in general but the particulars of the nation state of Israel and its adversarial nature towards nearby Muslim nations and its own internal Palestinian population. Non-AIPAC but conservative-aligned groups expect you to "support Israel" even if it means really that supporting Israel is a proxy for what they really care about: hating Muslims in any and all forms, or maybe bringing about the apocalypse.

Ilhan Omar is prone to left wing conspiracy theories a proportion of which happen to be anti-Semitic. She's also maybe not particularly smart (but still could be smarter than the average MOC). Claiming AIPAC $ as a main explanatory factory for Congressional support for Israel is ignorant and perhaps anti-Semitic (it's borderline). I don't think she hates Jews and lots of the insinuations she does (especially the pitchworks re. the one dodgy tweet from years ago) are racist/Islamophobic.

What are you basing this statement on?

Her promotion of left wing conspiracy theories like "Guaidó is far right". *Very* possible she's smart but believes some dumb **** - she's achieved a lot despite not having traditional advantages which argues in favour or that theory.

This thread is spot on

+1.

For a), look no further than the house minority leader himself, whose tweet started the recent Benjamins flap (below left, which was quote tweeted by greenwald, which was then quote tweeted by Omar.)

Republicans can say whatever the hell they want all day and night long, for example GLOBALISTS but the moment AOC/Ilhan makes the slightest exaggeration or misstep they are writing CNN headlines to correct them. Just absolute hypocrisy.

Omar and other Dems need to leave the spicy tweets to AOC.

Btw, isn't Sheldon Adelson one of the biggest donors in the country?

Isn't he the crazy pro-Israel sociopath who wants to drop nukes in the dessert to warn Iran?