IGNORING THE FEAR
CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR’S COMMENTS ABOUT DOUBLE LOYALTY WITH RELATION TO ISRAEL AND THE PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY’S POWER OVER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE CREATED A STRUGGLE IN THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is an innocent refugee from Somalia who fully comprehends the negative impacts of powerful lobbyists on US policies and refuses to believe they cannot be tackled. Omar is innocent because she has not imbibed the fear of being accused of anti-semitism ired at anyone who criticises Israel or its supporters. Omar is not anti-semitic but critical of Israel and of US policy-makers of all faiths who loyally follow the Israeli diktat as it is the line of least resistance.
Omar launched a major controversy when she accused pro-israeli politicians of supporting that country because pro-israeli lobby groups funded election campaigns. The word she used was “benjamins,” meaning $100 bills with the image of Ben Franklin on them. She might have done her homework a bit more thoroughly. Pro-israeli billionaires donate millions to key campaigns of politicians favoured by Israeli lobby groups. The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spends its money on lobbying. It inances trips to Israel, in exchange for backing. The “benjamins” are donated by other lobby and pressure groups and individuals who also provide expensive media exposure. Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch is a prime example in the media ield.
Omar followed up by speaking of US citizens with allegiances to foreign countries — “dual loyalties” — without citing Israel although this was implied. Her comment was in response to the assumption by members of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that she must be pro-israel or uncritical of Israel to serve on that committee. It is chaired by Eliot Engel, a staunch supporter of Israel who, to his credit, has not asked her to submit or resign.
Writing in The Washington
Post, Paul Waldman, who was nurtured in a Zionist Jewish family, makes the very valid point that Jews are not the only
US citizens who are expected by AIPAC to exhibit “dual loyalty” with Israel being the beneiciary of this affection. He observes that such a person is more likely to be an Evangelical Christian than a Jew. Therefore, Omar’s comment is not anti-semitic (antijewish) but anti-israel. Waldman contends, “Dual loyalty is precisely what AIPAC demands, and what it gets..it makes this demand not of Jews, but of every member of Congress, and even of politicians on the state level whom you wouldn’t think would be conducting foreign policy. And it is working.”
Thirty years ago, AIPAC mobilised activists to replace Illinois House member Paul Findley who had met with Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Yasser Arafat and Senator Charles Percy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who favoured selling surveillance aircraft to Saudi Arabia. The Findley and Percy examples have ever since hovered in the backs of minds of Congressmen and Congresswomen who want to keep their jobs.
Since then AIPAC — which was originally loyal to Israel
— has shifted rightwards and became a tool of the Likud.