Rep Omar, Israel has right to exist in peace (Sunday Guardian)

By M D Nalapat

Ilhan Omar was among the principal backers of a resolution, sought to be passed by the US House of Representatives, that would treat Israel like an apartheid state.

NEW YORK: That friends often have the same effect as foes is best represented by US House of Representatives member Ilhan Omar from Minnesota. Both she and her colleague, the more modern Rashida Tlaib, are the first Muslims to get elected to the US Congress. Judging by the way Ms Omar has acted since her election, she at least is on the way to becoming a one-term Representative. When the Al Saud family, historically the biggest backer of the fanatic Wahhabi sect that seeks to take over first the Muslim “Ummah” and later the world, has itself shifted gears and begun a crackdown on such extreme elements and their medieval practices, it is unfortunate that Ms Omar appears to have substantially bought into the Wahhabi creed despite what it has done to Somalia, the country from where she escaped to the US. Ms Omar was among the principal backers of a resolution sought to be passed by the US House of Representatives that—in effect—would treat Israel the way in which much of the world did South Africa in the final decade of apartheid. Interestingly, although Israel was explicitly created in 1948 as a Jewish state, Muslims and Christians in that country have far more rights and freedoms than they do anywhere else in the Middle East. On 23 July, the US House of Representatives voted against the motion to boycott Israel by 398 votes to 7, with 5 other members not registering their views on the subject. Both Ms Omar as well as (to a lesser degree) Ms Tlaib have given a substantial boost to the electoral prospects of President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 polls by the stance they took during the discussion on the boycott motion. Clips from their speeches are certain to be widely disseminated across the US in order to persuade voters that the two—along with a third freshwoman Representative, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, represent the “new” Democratic Party, and that it is therefore wiser to vote for Trump rather than his Democratic Party opponent. The motion the three favoured was in favour of a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) that aimed to cripple the economy of Israel, thereby punishing all its citizens, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish. Such a move makes as little sense as the measures that President Trump has reinstated against Iran, which will have the effect of increasing support for the mullahs and generating hatred for the US that could result in some citizens of Iran adopting terror tactics against the US in the future. Sanctions that hurt the entire population of a country seldom have the effect of changing the regime in power, as was shown by the cruel sanctions imposed by Bill Clinton on Iraq, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children and to the descent into penury of much of the population of that country. Saddam Hussein and his family—the supposed targets of the Clinton sanctions regime—continued to rule Iraq and enjoy a luxurious lifestyle in the midst of the suffering of the population of a country unfortunate enough to have Saddam as its ruler. Rather than press for sanctions against Israel, Representatives Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez ought to have sponsored a motion to withdraw the self-defeating sanctions on Iran imposed by Trump.

Both in 1948 as well as in 1967, the Jewish population in Israel was content with the territory that they had been controlling at the time. In both 1948 as well as 1967, it was the attack on Israel by neighbouring states that led to the defeat of the attackers and an increase in the territory controlled by the Jewish population. This is a fact that is seldom remembered by those who call for either the complete elimination of the State of Israel or the shrinking of it to a size that would place it at the mercy of its neighbours. Nor do they remember the fact that the Sinai region was handed over back to Egypt in 1979 in exchange for a peace with that country, a peace that was later put at risk by the Hillary Clinton-backed Mohammad Morsi regime, but which has otherwise remained a constant in a region where flux is the norm. Given the serial persecution that the Jewish people have undergone across the centuries, including the murder of much of the followers of the faith by the Hitler regime during 1933-45, they have earned the right to a state of their own, a country where they feel safe from persecution in a context where anti-Jewish sentiment continues to flourish even in Germany, a country that ought to know better. It is a fact that Israel has been settled largely by those who have emigrated from Europe, but so has the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Indeed, those screaming “Send them back” at Ilhan Omar, Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib at Republican Party rallies ought to instead chant “Let’s ourselves go back!”, for they or their ancestors came to the US from Europe and went in for mass killing of the original American Indian inhabitants of the US. Those crying out “Send them back” slogans seem to be wholly ignorant of their own history, beyond of course lacking other requisites of a civilised mind, and they have damaged the global perception about Donald J. Trump in a manner that should not be lightly regarded by the 45th President of the US. It was a shock to Hillary Clinton to be beaten in 2016 by Trump, and with such political opponents as Ilhan Omar, Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, the chances are brightening for a second term in the White House for the New York billionaire.

https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/rep-omar-israel-right-exist-peace