Yesterday, Donald Trump posted a horrifically evil tweet in which he insinuated that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar supported, or had something to do with 9/11. The disgusting irony, as was pointed out in our blog regarding this subject, is that Donald Trump bragged about having the tallest building in New York City, on the very fucking day of 9/11.
The response by Democratic leaders and those running for president has been disgraceful, and telling.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has not made a statement regarding Trump's racist tweet, but he'll go before an audience at AIPAC and talk shit about her. Which if your goal was to create peace in Israel-Palestine, you'd talk with Omar and give the audience a different message. One that would try to build a relationship between Muslims and Jews, not one that tries to divide them ever more.
Similarly to Schumer, Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris has said nothing, but I am not at all surprised by this. I will never criticize someone for supporting the existence of Israel, for I believe that Israel has the right to exist as well, but here is that but. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a racist, and the fact that Israel continues to support and vote for him is very troubling.
When Africans flee despotic regimes, poverty, hunger, and violence, one country they go to seek refuge is Israel. The reason is that they are looking to make it to a country in which democracy exists, and they believe that Israel is one such country. Unfortunately for these African refugees, Israel does not want them, and Netanyahu, among others, view these African refugees as "infiltrators."
“Today the cabinet will approve the plan for deporting the infiltrators from Israel," Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting. "We will step up enforcement and we will allocate budgets and personnel to implement the plan. I think that it is important that people understand that we are doing something here that is completely legal and completely essential."
Even if that was legal, it's not moral.
Although I have no illusions that there will ever be a two-state solution, it's especially apparent that it would be impossible when someone like Netanyahu is Israel's Prime Minister.
Netanyahu in a speech declared that it was Palestines Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, was to blame for the Holocaust.
"Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews," said Netanyahu to the Zionist Congress. "And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here [to Palestine].’" "What should I do with them?" Netanyahu claimed Hitler asked al-Husseini, and then said al-Husseini's response was, "Burn them."
"It's true that al-Husseini was a virulent, murderous anti-Semite who was in contact with Hitler," writes Zack Beauchamp for Vox. "But according to virtually all reputable historians, it is not true that he inspired the Holocaust."
But Netanyahu's racism and policies are not enough for Sen. Harris to take a picture with Netanyahu.
And as Foreign Policy in Focus has noted about Harris, her first foreign policy vote was to side "with President Trump in criticizing the outgoing President Obama’s refusal to veto an otherwise-unanimous, very modest, and largely symbolic UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements."
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar deserves more from Senator Harris, but my guess is that Harris does not like Omar due to Omar's willingness (and sometimes bad rhetoric) to criticize Israel, and Harris' pro-Israeli beliefs.
Harris, a colleague of yours is receiving death threats.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand came to the defense of Rep. Omar in probably the most underhand way possible.
"As a Senator who represents 9/11 victims, I can't accept any minimizing of that pain," tweeted Gillibrand. "But Trump's dangerous rhetoric against (Ilhan Omar) is disgusting. It's a false choice to suggest we can't fight terrorism and reject Islamaphobic hate at once - a president should do both."
Sorry Senator, but your tweet actually tries to legitimize Trump's tweet. Rep. Omar didn't try to minimize 9/11, but your tweet gives Trump and other Islamaphobes ammunition to paint Omar's comments as so...
The only context in which one should be criticizing Trump for his tweet is for his racism, his hypocrisy (bragging on that very day about now having the tallest building), and the danger his tweet poses on Rep. Omar. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi's remarks were just as disingenuous as Sen. Gillibrand's.
You can say her fucking name Pelosi. Her name is Ilhan Omar.
Furthermore, Pelosi has helped "fan the flames" of hate towards Rep. Omar by using your platform to attack Rep. Omar, but just like in this tweet, you didn't have the courage to say her name. Your flames haven't been anything close to Trump's, but this cliche-jargon ridden tweet is essentially worthless.
Thankfully my two favorite presidential candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, understand what this is truly about. They understand this isn't about 9/11. They understand this is about racism areligious bigotry, and a president who inciting violence towards Rep. Omar, and by extension, endangers the lives of Muslims across this country.
Fellow freshman Congresswoman to Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex thanked Bernie Sanders for coming to Omar's defense:
Freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib pointed out that the GOP itself does not care that Donald Trump is putting Rep. Omar's life at risk:
Unfortunately, Democratic leaders have not listened to Rep. Tlaib, but one who did what Rashida Tlaib called for Democrats to do was Congressman Ro Khanna:
The responses and nonresponse's by various Democrats represent the divide of the Democratic Party.
Gillibrand, Harris, Schumer, and Pelosi represent the party who takes corporate endorsements, will fight to prevent Medicare for All, and more or less represent the Clinton-Obama era politics.
Warren, Sanders, AOC, Khanna, and Tlaib, are the politicians popular with those on the left who want Medicare for All and to deal with issues such as climate change.
In short, the dying breed of the Democratic Party, that's fighting to maintain its power responded one way, and the future of the party responded another way to a colleague having her life put at risk by the tweet of an orange faced fascist.
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