Re: Democratic infighting

By Henry Fowler, Stevensville

I have to admit a feeling of schadenfreude about the infighting within the Democratic Party over the purported anti-Semitism of its two Muslim freshman congressional representatives, Ilhan Omar (a Somali-American from Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (a Palestinian-American from Michigan). The intraparty strife in the party of identity politics that we are witnessing is what one would expect from the most diverse Congress in American history.

Although the representatives’ purported anti-Semitism could be viewed as an attempt to start a long-overdue debate about American policy toward Israel, for many, however, they crossed the line of acceptable discourse. Omar suggested that some members of Congress have been paid by America’s main pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), to support Israel and that politicians are being pressured to pledge their “allegiance to a foreign country” (i.e., Israel). Tlaib, who first made national headlines with her comment that she will “impeach the motherf*****, in reference to President Trump, on the day she was sworn into Congress, has close ties to radical anti-Israel activists and criticized Senate Republicans for introducing a law banning boycotts of Israel, saying, “they forgot what country they represent.”

The Democratic Party, the party that never ceases to celebrate diversity – racial, ethnic, religious, cultural – as its own and as America’s “greatest strength,” is now in turmoil over one consequence of its own diversity, namely the questioning of the party’s traditional pro-Israel policy. On the one hand, there is the “Democratic old guard” on Capitol Hill, such as Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez and Representative Eliot Engel, who are ardent supporters of Israel. On the other hand, there are Omar, Tlaib, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York City, who speak for a rising progressive minority in the party that regards Israel as an apartheid state that oppresses Palestinians. These far-left progressives and their supporters want to force what were once fringe views into the mainstream and significantly change American policy toward Israel. They are also demanding that Democrats who are seeking the presidency debate the country’s stance toward Israel rather than treating it as a foregone conclusion.

One battleground of this Democratic infighting is the international protest movement targeting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza known as BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). When Republican Senators introduced the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019, which supports the punishment of any U.S. company or contractor who engages in BDS by refusing to work with Israel, it passed the Senate by a vote of 77 to 23, even though its constitutionality is questionable because it violates the freedom of political expression. However, Senators Cory Booker, Dianne Feinstein, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren all voted no. (Both Senators Daines and Tester voted yes.) A House version of the bill faces a more uncertain future because the majority Democrats appear so far to be less inclined to bring it to a vote. Omar and Tlaib are outspoken supporters of the BDS movement. An anti-BDS bill would certainly expose publicly the division in the Democratic ranks.

There is little doubt that Omar and Tlaib will continue to push the envelope of acceptable discourse on American policy toward Israel. Their constituents expect it. Tlaib’s congressional district in the Detroit area contains many Arab-Americans. She has close ties to anti-Israel activists who praised the terror group Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists, said Israel has no right to exist, and called for Israeli “Zionist terrorist” Jews to return to Europe at a private celebratory dinner that Tlaib hosted after her swearing-in ceremony. Minnesota has the largest Somali-American population in the United States – estimates of up to 100,000. Omar’s district, which includes the urban area of Minneapolis, has seen more men and boys attempt to join foreign terror organizations (either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS) over the last twelve years than any other district in the United States.

Anti-Semitism is moving into the mainstream left in the United States just like it has already in Europe (e.g., Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party) because of the objection to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and sympathy for the suffering Palestinians, who have been placed in the global hierarchy of oppressed victimhood by the theory of intersectionality. It also helps that Muslims far outnumber Jews in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.

Increasing divisiveness is the future of the American body politic because diversity creates divisiveness. The more diverse America becomes, the more divisive America will become. As the minorities of color in the Democratic coalition grow, they become more competitive and demanding. And the further they move left, the more they move outside the American mainstream. As a sign of the times, it is indicative that Omar was defended by both Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and David Duke.