Ilhan Omar isn’t the first one to bring up the issue of “allegiance”
In early 2015, as the Obama administration was deep into negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who stridently opposed the deal, to address a joint session of Congress. The speech itself, which was intended to convince Congress to scuttle the agreement, turned out to be a dud. Instead of shaming Democrats into opposing the deal, Bibi seemed to unify them in support of it. But the public spectacle of a foreign leader attempting to undermine the American president on U.S. soil at the request of his political adversaries was symbolically striking. Later, polling would show that GOP voters generally felt more warmly about Netanyahu than their actual commander in chief. “Republicans haven’t just rejected Obama. They have adopted Netanyahu as their leader,” Slate’s Will Saletan wrote at the time.
“Does a majority of the Republican Party identify more with Israeli interests than with American interests?” he continued. “When Israel’s prime minister speaks on the floor of Congress, do Republicans feel more allegiance to him than to their president? If so, will the feeling subside once Obama leaves office? Or does it signify an enduring rift in the fabric of this country?”
It really does not matter: if they act as racists they are racists regardless of political reasons.
(Aside from the fact that we know a bunch of them are racists based on their past actions and statements. They can’t blame everything on being forced by their backwards constituents.)
Democratic house leadership, AIPAC and the Likud government all need to realize what just happened. For years the conservative Israeli government has been given a free pass to do anything it wants in the middle east. AIPAC has run interference for Likud at every turn. AIPAC has used “anti-Semitism” the same way the NRA has used “slippery slope.” If somebody dares question an Israeli policy they call the person making the criticism an anti-Semite and watch the offender cower and quiet right down.
This time it didn’t work. Omar’s criticism wasn’t really anti-Semitic. It sought to create a conversation about AIPAC’s kingsized influence. I am sure AIPAC and its supporters in the Democratic house leadership thought they were going to slap Omar down the same way they have done in the past, but there is a new bunch of Democrats in town.