Like many Americans, I am glad Congress saw fit to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her Committee responsibilities for her odious words and deeds including expressions of anti-Semitism. As a newly minted resident of Georgia, Greene is at best an embarrassment to the state and to the country and at worst a menace to both representative democracy and to civil society.
Yet I am troubled when Democrats call out anti-Semitism among Republicans while refusing to hold their own to the same standards. Some Democrats don't think standards should apply at all. Case in point would be Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
Soifer wrote an op-ed in The Forward after some Republican lawmakers wanted Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar stripped of her committee assignments due to her anti-Semitic views:
These two things are not the same and should not be equated. No Democratic member of Congress has ever normalized, justified or threatened violence. In 2019, Omar joined with all House Democrats in denouncing antisemitism and other forms of hate, and apologized for her tweet. There is simply no intellectually honest parallel to be made between any Democrat and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
By this standard, no Democrat could ever be criticized for expressing anti-Semitic views. This is, of course, a cop out. Just because Democrats opposed the attempted siege of the U.S. Capitol does not exempt them from being held accountable for their words and deeds. Anti-Semitism can and must be called out regardless of one's political affiliation. To only call out the anti-Semitism of your political opponents while refusing to put your own house in order demonstrates one doesn't really care about stamping out the world's oldest hatred.
As it stands, Soifer's defense of Omar is a curious one. She praises Omar for supporting a House resolution denouncing anti-Semitism. Well, of course, Omar supported this resolution. After Omar accused Americans Jews of “dual loyalty”, the House attempted to pass a resolution condemning Omar for her anti-Semitic statement. Instead, the House passed a watered down version condemning all forms of hate and made no mention of Omar's wicked words that prompted the resolution in the first place
Equally curious is Soifer's praise of Omar apologizing for her infamous “It's All About The Benjamins” tweet. Omar did not learn her lesson because less than a month later, Omar would question the loyalty of American Jews for which she received no condemnation from the House.
It is clear that Omar has one standard for Israel and another standard for the rest of the world. She opposes boycotts against the Erdogan regime in Turkey because “sanctions rarely achieve their desired goals.” Yet when it comes to boycotting Israel, Omar has no such qualms or reservations. Only months before condemning sanctions against Turkey, Omar rationalized her support for BDS in the language of the First Amendment and free speech.
If a member of Congress only supports boycotts against Israel then that member of Congress is an anti-Semite and Ilhan Omar is every bit the anti-Semite Marjorie Taylor Greene is. But Soifer wishes to pretend otherwise because Omar has a D in front of her name.
Indeed, by stating that no Democrat's behavior can be compared to Greene's, Soifer offers this protection to any Democrat. Recently, several prominent Democrats such as Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, newly elected New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York and former 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joaquin Castro have repeated the outrageous lie that Israel is refusing to vaccinate Palestinians.
In point of fact, Israel offered the Palestinian Authority vaccines and they refused. Indeed, last year, the Palestinian Authority refused medical aid for COVID-19 from the United Arab Emirates because the supplies had flown into Israel.
This lie is every bit as egregious as any made by Marjorie Taylor Greene claiming that Donald Trump won the election. It is also easily refutable. Yet why do some Democrats to make imaginary claims about Israel's vaccination program? Because anti-Semites will always find a way to willfully promote hatred of Jews. Democrats who harbor anti-Semitic sentiments also do so because they know they will not be held to account by the Halie Soifers of the world. This makes Halie Soifer part of the problem. The consequence of which is that anti-Semitism in America is only going to get worse.
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