Minnesota Jewish Leaders Attempted an Intervention With Ilhan Omar Last Year
The leaders emerged from the discussion “very troubled by the answers we received.”
As we all know, in her short time in Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has engulfed herself in anti-Semitic controversies.
It turns out that Minnesota Jewish leaders attempted an intervention last year when it became known that she’d be the Democrat nominee for her seat. They felt they needed to do something due to past anti-Semitic remarks.
State Sen. Ron Latz (D) told The Twin Cities Pioneer Press about the intervention:
Maybe Omar, who spent four years, from age 8 to 12, in a Kenyan camp for Somali refugees, just didn’t understand, Latz recalled some wondering at the time.
The apex (or nadir) of anti-Semitism — the Holocaust — would be a matter of European history for a then-36-year-old Muslim native of Somalia. Did she know it? The trappings of anti-Semitism in Minneapolis — restricted hospitals, country clubs and property covenants — were American manifestations that vanished decades before Omar came to America. And the subtleties of language — the code words used to marginalize Jews — did she understand the nuance?
“We wanted to reach out to her,” Latz recalled. “We were a bit troubled about several things she had said.”
Among their concerns was a 2012 tweet in which Omar wrote: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” The language evokes an anti-Semitic trope of Jews as practicers of some type of sorcery that allows them to control others. It wasn’t until last month that Omar apologized, when the tweet gained national attention after she had taken office in Congress, but many in the local Jewish community were aware of it well before. As of Tuesday morning, Omar had not deleted the tweet.
In local political discourse during the Democratic Party’s endorsement process, Omar’s phrasing as she spoke of Middle East policy troubled some. But Latz — who has defended Omar’s predecessor, Keith Ellison, against accusations of anti-Semitism — emphasized that the problem wasn’t in the policy dispute, but the diction and tone.
“I don’t mind a policy disagreement. That’s fine,” Latz, who said he has qualms with some Israeli policies, said in an interview. “I accept that she comes from a different place and has a different policy, but those can be expressed in a matter that does not express anti-Semitism with it. She grew up in a refugee camp, and her perspective is different, but I would also respect a very serious attempt to understand the history of the Jewish people and the way that they have been demonized and murdered for their faith.”
The leaders had a two-hour discussion with Omar, but Latz didn’t want to recall all the statements from everyone because he couldn’t remember what exactly everyone said.
Instead, Latz said (emphasis mine): “Over the course of about two hours, we shared with her our concerns for things, including language that has references and meanings beyond just the meanings of words. Tropes, dog whistles — call them what you will. We explained to her how hurtful, and factually inaccurate, they were.
Even though Latz could not remember the exact statements from Omar, he said that the leaders emerged from the discussion “very troubled by the answers we received.” He also remained unconvinced “she was going to give a balanced approach to policy in the Middle East.”
The latest anti-Semitic incident with Omar occurred a few days ago when she suggested that Republicans only support Israel and hate anti-Semitism due to the Israel lobby. She tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby!”
When someone asked her about it, she replied AIPAC (Americans Israel Public Affairs Committee), even though the group does not directly give to a candidate’s campaign.
Omar issued an “apology” that many brushed off as insincere.
Listening and learning, but standing strong ???????? pic.twitter.com/7TSroSf8h1
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 11, 2019
The local Jewish leaders did not accept the apology:
For Latz, it rings hollow. It’s the part where she says “just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity,” an apparent reference to Omar being trolled and insulted for being a Muslim — a real phenomenon she has encountered since being elected to the Minnesota House in 2016.
“Even in her tweet,” Latz said, “she cannot get away from saying that if other people criticize her, they run the risk of being labeled anti-Muslim. We have to call that out. At some point, it becomes a little tired to hear her say she’s being ‘educated.’ ”
Latz implied the latest incident might lead to a steady chorus of criticism from he and others.
“What can be done now is those of us who disagree sharply need to speak out publicly and forcefully. Some have been treating her a bit with kid gloves. No more.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
No, no, no. She shouldn’t be chastised for saying what’s in her heart. That is itself helpful to the rest of us. It’s revealing of her character and more broadly of the character of Islam and what Islam teaches its followers.
It’s apparent that she’s one of these types who just can’t help themselves, continuing to reveal, reveal, reveal the major tenets of Islam.
America will eventually learn all about Islam. The outstanding question is this: Will that happen after the Muslims have made sufficient inroads into American culture and institutions to cause irreversible rot, or beforehand.
Jewish leaders met with a known religious bigot and ethnic chauvinist and left that same meeting knowing full well that the presumed candidate of their party is a Jew hating oven-shoveler. And not a F’n one of those supposed leaders spoke out about it before the election because the Jewish leadership was more concerned with a democrat party victory than with a oven-shoveling Muslim Marxist walking amonst them.
Who really is at fault here? Moral and ethical perfidy on the part of Jewish leadership should not be swept under the rug to be forgotten.
Before the election was too late. There was no possibility whatsoever that she could lose the election. The information was needed before the primary, but the Star Tribune and the other local news sources sat on it.
She is a dangerously ill-informed person who believes that somehow she is “speaking truth to power” with her persistent hateful rhetoric. Beyond her hatred for Israel look at her tweet about the Covington Catholic boys that was posted 3 days after the event and more than 48 hours after the initial reports had been completely debunked yet she felt it was ok to state this:
“The boys were protesting a woman’s right to choose & yelled ‘it’s not rape if you enjoy it’ … They were taunting 5 Black men before they surrounded Phillips and led racist chants … Sandmann’s family hired a right wing PR firm to write his non-apology.”
There is not one factually correct element this post yet she had no problem throwing it out there for the world to see.
Woke Islam….toxic mix.
She is neither ill-informed, nor misinformed. She is informed by her religion (sociopolitical religious system if you prefer, I do but religion is shorter).
It would be more accurate to characterize Islam as a cult which would like to forcibly convert everyone, and kill those who are not willing to submit.
How is it more accurate to call it a cult? Regardless, I agree with the rest of your comment. Jihad is forced conversion and the sacred duty of muslims. Far from a religion of peace, they are a religion of strife, war, and death.
I agree, I wouldn’t use “cult” because that implies a small splinter group based on some much more acceptable religious faith, but operating outside of it.
But here – this is Islam. This is the real deal, this is what it is. No “cultish” beliefs about it, wanting to exterminate the Jews is as mainstream Moslem as you get.
Justice Delivered: absolutely correct. People really need to look up the meaning of the world “cult;” it describes Islam to a T. Allah is NOT GOD!!!!! Allah is some vicious, vengeful pagan deity of sorts, but NOT God. Does God take life? Yes, but rarely, and only as a last resort. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus loves as and wants us to love Him. Ever notice how the Muslims also have a specific hate-on for the Catholics? It’s because they know that the Catholics are the Jews'(and Israel’s) strongest ally, and to them that is intolerable. The Islamic cult needs to be put down before they get a serious foothold in this, else it will be too late. Omar should resign now! BTW, I’m not exactly sure who said this, but any Jew that is a Democrat is self-hating. Jewish people: the Dems are anti-Semitic down to the last one! You are affiliated with the wrong party!
I am hoping that the facts will now come out about the claims of her marrying her brother and committing immigration fraud. How did that get overlooked/suppressed during her election? Finally, at least one news outlet is shining light on it- OAN (I imagine others did prior but got no traction)).
That she pretended to marry her brother is clear; she, of course, denies it, but the evidence is strong. That the marriage only ever existed on paper is also clear; throughout its existence she was living with her real husband and their children. But that the purpose of this sham marriage was immigration fraud is pure speculation, without any foundation at all, let alone a shred of evidence. Nobody but them knows why they did it, and they’re not telling.
First she was brainwashed by her religion, then in the refugee camps and further, but most especially, in American schools through university.
All of that continues to play out in enclaves in the US. The Mid-West is becoming the new Middle East.
It is interesting that most people practicing the cult are at least one standard deviation below Americas’ average intelligence. It is notable that Muslims produce almost no advancements which benefit humanity, and equally notable that their archenemy, Jews are about two standard deviation smarter and a staggeringly disportortent percentage of the things which do benefit humanity.
Sadly many (though not all) Jews in the US are willing to “go the extra mile(s)” to accommodate Socialist-Democrat politicians. In this case they knew what she was, yet couldn’t bring themselves to mention the interaction with, much less attack, a Socialist-Democrat politician prior to it becoming an issue within the Socialist-Democrat Party, much less before the election.
And thank you Republicans and Socialist-Democrats, Bush 43 and His Imperial Executiveness, Emperor Barak the Nonpareil for the almost 100,000 Somalis in the US. I wonder how many of those were actually, and provably, under personal threat of harm by any side in the Somali disaster. Our refugee statute and regulations are stupendously stupid, as this and the current issue on the border show that general criminality in a country is ample reason for the US to at least give consideration to a claim of refugee status.
Wasn’t the Samali disaster evolution in action? Is it smart to interfere with evolution?
Somalis reproductive rate falls between 6-7, so one would expect that 50,000 1980s couples became about 300,000 by 2000 and may well be pushing two million today.
Published estimates for individual states are not in line with the two million number, I don’t know if that is because their reproductive rate has been lower, or if it is like the 11 million number that was tossed around for many decades for Hispanic illegals.
And yet these jewish Democrats said nothing and voted for her and are shocked — shocked — that her anti-semitism is still the same.
This is a today’s Jewish liberal — being antisemitic is ok as long as you’re for abortion, gay marriage, and transgender bathrooms.
I prefer to give people respect that acknowledges their agency and honors their freedom to speak things that I would never say and do not agree with. I understand one current line of support for Omar is, “The ultimate goal is to silence her and boot her out of Congress for her courageous positions on foreign policy issues including her support of the BDS movement.”
Perish the thought. Let us have that debate. Let her “courage” be a nightly news item, seen under the bright light of public scrutiny. The bloggers at Power Line Blog have been seeking sunlight for Omar for years now. The last thing I want is for Omar to be allowed to slink away and claim heroic victimhood forevermore. Let her stand for her beliefs in the public square. Let her courage resonate with every American concerned about Israel’s survival.
It has long been known that politicians are of dubious repute, who would have dreamed that we would have politicians as bad as these.
She is better than Obama because she is honest in what she believes.
The’re is no better than oboz0, just a different bottom of the barrel of SH&T barrel. BOTH are slugs in the EXTREME an STUPIDITY comes to the front, because these people voted for them!
Jewish Leaders, when will you finally figure out the Democrats are not your friends?
Omar is Omar, she has surprised no one. The real issue is if Minnesota’s regressive virtue signalers will learn of and understand their foolish votes.
Isn’t her constituency majority Somali? If so, they enthusiastically agree with her. She’s set for life!
Speaking of virtue signaling, we saw a commercial last night for Nestle Crunch which started out showing an American flag then focused on a Muslim woman in her hijab eating a Nestle Crunch bar.
The ever expanding new demographic in the US will continually intersect itself in negative ways but will always remain unified in purpose – to destroy and get rid of joe blow whitey.
Omar is not the problem. Minnesota voters are the problem. She did not get to D.C. on her own. Get rid of her, and a hundred other Omars will be ready to step forward.
If her MN constituents like how they are being represented to the world by her, enjoy the consequences. If not, primary the sow.
Omar is not educable. She cannot be educated or sensitized, only quarantined and then removed from office, likely by the Democratic party that runs an strong candidate against her in the 2020 primary. Talleyrand’s observation about the Bourbons–that they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing–does not apply to Omar because she knows nothing. Nothing, that is, except for immigration fraud, which she knows as a facilitator, perpetrator and conspirator.
Let her speak and keep speaking. She’s really only scratched the surface of who she (probably) is. I want to know more. I want to see how deep the bigoted rabbit hole goes.
Might as well hold an intervention with a scorpion. Maybe you can get it to give up stinging, but don’t bet on it.
The reason Democrats have come out so strongly against her is because they know she is a hardcore, died-in-the-wool classical anti-Semite. Most Muslims are raised to hate Jews.
Did you see her reading the questions her handler had for her at the committee hearing? A real useful idiot that one.
https://twitter.com/DavidRutz/status/1095750942958456832/video/1
In other news, Jewish “Leaders” had a meeting with Adolph. They assure us we can work with this man; go ahead and turn in your guns and cooperate.
Let me make a wild guess–Ilhan Omar’s district is predominantly black. I know that is the case for her fellow congressional WOGette from, Michigan. For a long time now, blacks hAve been the largest single source of anti-Semitism of the United States. And the situation has been worsened by the increasingly Muslimization of the community. As for the Democratic House leadership, who named her to the Foreign Relations Committee? These are dangenerous times for Jews and for democracy in America –but most Jews have had their brains so rotted by liberal ideology that they are blind to the threat. German Jews were similarly blinded—but even they did not go so as to vote for the Nazi party.
Latz and his associates are fools, Jabotinsky said it best in 1923: “It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are, they shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life, that, you must not “meet halfway” those who do not want to meet you”. It was true then and even more so now.