Monthly Archives: February 2019

Disgrace

Ilhan Omar’s behaviour in this clip (as with her many anti-Semitic tweets) is a disgrace. She is nasty, bullying and stupid, and displays an extraordinary lack of knowledge about history and American foreign affairs. And she is happily oblivious to her ignorance! In fact, she seems rather confident. (What is really sad about her sophomoric world view is how many relatives of mine share it, along with the same confidence – one reason I avoid numerous family events.) I think it is fair to ask of people who hate the West and Western values — like Omar and like said relatives of mine — “why on earth do you live here?”

Elliott Abrams here shows far more grace than Omar deserves.

The Anti-Semitism of the Left

And these days, so much of it is from the left. Bret Stephens, as usual, completely correct.

A few facts ought at least to stir the thinking of those who subscribe to the progressive narrative. Israel’s enemies were committed to its destruction long before it occupied a single inch of Gaza or the West Bank. In proportion to its size, Israel has voluntarily relinquished more territory taken in war than any state in the world. Israeli prime ministers offered a Palestinian state in 2000 and 2008; they were refused both times. The government of Ariel Sharon removed every Israeli settlement and soldier from the Gaza Strip in 2005. The result of Israel’s withdrawal allowed Hamas to seize power two years later and spark three wars, causing ordinary Israelis to think twice about the wisdom of duplicating the experience in the West Bank. Nearly 1,300 Israeli civilians have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in this century: That’s the proportional equivalent of about 16 Sept. 11’s in the United States.

Also: If the Jewish state is really so villainous, why doesn’t it behave more like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad or Russia’s Vladimir Putin — both of whom, curiously, continue to have prominent sympathizers and apologists on the anti-Israel left?

Read the whole column.