Rashida Tlaib is a new Palestinian-American congresswoman from the Detroit area.
She’s also an Israel hater and supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which is a modern version of the anti-Jewish boycotts dating back at least to the 1920s in the then British Mandate for Palestine. (See my lecture, The Real History of the BDS Movement.)
Tlaib made headlines when she pledged, right after being sworn in, ‘We’re Going to Impeach the Motherf***er!’.
As much controversy as that m-f-er pledge generated, Tlaib has generated even more controversy by accusing supporters of Israel in Congress of being disloyal to the U.S.
The accusation came in a tweet about pending legislation which would update federal anti-boycott laws that have been on the books since the 1970s. Those anti-boycott laws, which prohibit U.S. companies from complying with foreign government-sponsored boycotts of Israel, were a response to the Arab League boycott which took on great strength during the early 1970s oil crisis. The U.S. anti-boycott laws played a crucial role in weakening Arab League attempts to coerce U.S. companies to comply.
The U.S. anti-boycott laws now are somewhat out-of-date because while the Arab League boycott still exists, it is toothless. The economic jihad against Israel now comes from United Nations agencies, particularly the biased UN Human Rights Council, and from the BDS movement and its governmental supporters in Europe and elsewhere. There is a bill pending in the U.S. Senate that would update those laws.
There is a propaganda campaign against the bill falsely claiming it would punish individuals who personally want to boycott Israel. That’s not the case, as Ben Shapiro writes:
On Monday, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) threatened to cut off security assistance to Israel under Senate Bill 1 unless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell begins to push the budget bills necessary for a government re-opening. The bill itself allows state and local governments to stop doing business with companies that boycott Israel, in much the same way state and local governments have authority to stop doing business with companies that engage in racial discrimination. While some have expressed free speech concerns with the bill, suggesting that companies that boycott Israel are merely expressing their First Amendment rights, the bill itself raises few First Amendment concerns – or at least, it raises concerns only insofar as government anti-discrimination policies with regard to contractors raise First Amendment concerns more generally.
Tlaib wasn’t satisfied just arguing the alleged First Amendment claims. Instead, as BDS supporters and anti-Israel activists often do, she accused the Israel supporters who want a vote on the bill of being loyal to Israel not to Americans, in this tweet:
The accusation of disloyalty (or dual loyalty) is a standard anti-Semitic canard. It is irrelevant, as David Schraub correctly pointed out, that the people allegedly serving this foreign Jewish master are not themselves Jewish:The reaction has been swift and severe, particularly from Marco Rubio, one of the sponsors of the legislation:
None of this surprises those of us who have followed the BDS movement and anti-Israel activists. They peddle terms like the “Israel Lobby” to suggest a nefarious foreign Jewish influence that corrupts American politics.
But in fact, as I have pointed out repeatedly, U.S. politicians support Israel because the American people overwhelmingly and at historical high levels support Israel over the Palestinians, Gallup: Americans’ support for Israel increases to historical high:
The only section of the American population where support for Israel has weakened is among the far-left, particularly younger far-leftists. That is a problem that needs to be addressed, particularly since many of them populate the ranks of journalists.
But the fact remains that Americans support Israel overwhelmingly. Politicians who support Israel are working the will of Americans. The “Israel Lobby” is the American people.
That’s a truth people like Rashida Tlaib cannot grasp, so instead they play the anti-Semitic dual loyalty and disloyalty cards.
[Featured Image: From tweeted photo by Hannah Allam]
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY
