OPINION:
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, on the heels of creating a media stir over their denied entry to Israel — because of their support for the anti-Israeli, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, that is — just created a new media stir with a press conference designed to repeat the content of their first media stir.
Cry, cry, and the world will cry with you — is that their hope to gain?
Or perhaps it’s lie, lie, and the left will lie with you.
“I would encourage my colleagues to visit, meet with the people we were going to meet with, see the things we were going to see, hear the stories we were going to hear,” Omar said. “We cannot let Trump and Netanyahu succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us.”
Her remarks came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the congresswomen’s entry to Israel because of their open hostility against the Jewish nation, and their refusal to recant their pro-BDS movement views. Shortly after learning Tlaib wanted to visit her elderly grandmother, Israeli officials granted her a humanitarian visit. But then Tlaib changed her mind and decided she didn’t want to visit under those conditions.
The media circus goes on.
The cruel occupation to which Omar referred at her recent press conference with Tlaib is the supposed Jewish dwelling on Palestinian lands — which, in her mind, would make the Jewish people the cruel occupiers.
Which would make Omar’s remarks a common anti-Israel lie, furthered by those who don’t think Israel has a right to exist; who believe the nonexistent “Palestine” is the proper name for Israel lands; and who pretend support for a two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflicts — all the while harboring the desire to blot the Jewish people from the face of the earth.
The duo also slammed Israel for checkpoints at its borders, calling such security “dehumanizing” toward the Palestinian people, and likened the Jewish nation to South Africa’s apartheid — all the while calling for the destruction of Jewish “settlement expansion” homes in disputed areas, a la South African apartheid style.
Look, the fact is, America has had a long and warm and friendly relationship with Israel — minus a few glitches under the Obama administration, that is. Israel is not the enemy. Israel is not the “occupier.”
And neither Israel nor America should have to keep pointing out the obvious.
“Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have a well-documented history of anti-Semitic comments, anti-Semitic social media posts and anti-Semitic relationships,” said White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley in a statement reported by Newsmax. “Israel has the right to prevent people who want to destroy it from entering the country.”
Indeed.
Crying otherwise isn’t just nonsensical. It’s crocodile tears, and it’s aimed simply at drumming up media sympathy to advance a deceitful and even dangerous cause.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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