We Can Defend Ilhan Omar AND Still Criticize Some of The Things She’s Said
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ARIEL SOBEL’s written a nuanced op-ed over at Buzzfeed News arguing that we can both defend Rep. Ilhan Omar from the xenophobic attacks from the president and still critique her very public missteps including her anti-Semitic remarks about Jewish Americans and Israel.
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Sobel says that she believes Ilhan Omar didn’t know that the things she said could be deeply offensive. She also believes her misguided rhetoric can normalize violent anti-Semitism.
“I don’t know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish Americans,” Ilhan Omar said in January, when asked about an old tweet of hers that said Israel had “hypnotized the world.” I believed her then, and I still do today.
But that’s the thing about anti-Semitic tropes: When you’re not familiar with them, talking about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is like walking into Chernobyl with no protective gear.
It’s not just that I believe that Omar didn’t know how the things she said could be so deeply offensive. I also believe that her misguided rhetoric can normalize violent anti-Semitism. Intentions aside, when a progressive leader uses the same tropes as an anti-Jewish bigot, it makes the ground fertile for ideas from the extreme right to sow themselves into other movements.
Progressives need to reckon with this as they defend Omar from the vile attacks she is receiving from the far right.
They won’t be alone in that reckoning, because, of all the people who’ve acknowledged that Omar’s rhetoric around Israel has been anti-Semitic, the most important one has been the lawmaker herself. On multiple occasions she has admitted that she has used anti-Semitic language — and apologized for it.
