Dear Ilhan Omar: Don’t Sand All the Sharpness Away

My congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, seems to be getting a painful lesson in the value of nuance. I hope she doesn’t take it too seriously.

As of this morning (Wednesday) Ms. Omar has dodged the bullet … fired by her own Democratic colleagues … and will not be specifically cited in a lip service “condemnation of anti-Semitism.” The new, watered-down version now will include counter-balancing language also condemning “anti-Muslim” speech. Given another couple days and a few more committees the Democrats will be boldly condemning mean people, potholes and dogs barking after midnight.

Omar and other members of the Democratic freshman class — the wildly celebrated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez among them — should be commended for delivering the left-wing version of what the right-wing goobers claim they wanted with Donald Trump. Namely, someone who would go to DC and “shake things up.” (There’s a Newtonian unity at play here.)

The key difference being that the goobers and Trump have little to no foundation in historical reality and think spitting in the face of common sense and decency is revolutionary. With Omar, Cortez and the like, they clearly understand how powerful influences keep vital, full-spectrum discussions of important issues walled-off and neutered.

Omar is either very brave or very naive in disregarding the impact her image — dark-skinned woman in a hajib — has on America’s cultural battlefield. She’s an absolute godsend (a white, male, bearded god … send) to Gooberus Americanus, FoxNews and every uber patriot itching to take the fight to the towel heads once and for all. I suspect Mother Superior, Nancy Pelosi, has already had a chat with Omar about the fund-raising she’s doing for the Republican party.

But for those of us over here in the Reality Bubble, Omar, while problematically blunt and only mildly abashed is, like AOC, broaching some truly important issues. And she should continue doing so, with only minimal sanding of her sharpest edges.

There is simply no question that Congress’ resoundingly uncritical support of Ariel Sharon-Benjamin Netanyahu-style leadership, rancid with its supplication to the most intolerant conservative religious factions in Israel (and the US), needs to be regularly called out for “allegiance.” No intelligent person disputes the importance of supporting a (mostly) democratic government in Israel. Just as no intelligent person should dispute the obvious antagonism the likes of Sharon and Netanyahu — pandering to the interests of the most radically conservative forces — is constantly inciting among Palestinians and the profoundly cynical governments in Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc.

Amid all the attention Omar has received in the past couple weeks, precious little has been paid to equally blunt comments she’s made on American subservience to Saudi Arabia … which is not a Jewish state, in case you forgot.

In a series of Tweets over the Trump administration’s refusal to press the Saudis for the truth about the murder of (Amazon-owned and biased Washington Post) journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Omar said, “Once again, our President proves that you can’t buy a moral compass. And Saudi Arabia proves that you can, on the other hand, buy a President.”

Here’s a piece from never-that-close-a-pal-of-Jerusalem, Glenn Greenwald. Also good is this from Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight.

Not just at the heart of what Omar is saying, but right there on the face of it, is the argument that money (shocking!) has thoroughly distorted American objectives in a number of critical foreign relationships. In a sane world, Omar’s bluntness would provoke a healthy conversation about whether unequivocal loyalty to the likes of Benjamin Netanyahu is in the best interests of the U.S, the Middle East or even Israel. (Jared Kushner is probably finessing that one as we speak.)

All that said, there is roiling support for the essence of what Omar has been saying from American Jewish leaders uncomfortable with Netanyahu-style leadership and America’s lock-step “allegiance” to that kind of rigid and corrupt authoritarianism. It is also demonstrably true that here in ‘Murica, support for Israel-no-matter-what is at least as fervent among white, evangelical (know-nothing) Christians as among the average Jewish voter.

So, Dear Congresswoman Omar:  You’re on to something significant. My concern is that as .037% of the current Congress, you’re fully prepared to take far more heat and threats of violence than have ever been aimed at an actual bigot, like, oh say, male and very white Steve King.

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Dear Ilhan Omar: Don’t Sand All the Sharpness Away

    • Mr. Stephens is pushing it pretty hard with sweeping claims about progressives hating Israel and Omar being a flagrant bigot. I suspect there’s more than a little cultural animus in her attitude toward the Jewish state. I can’t imagine Israel is high on the popularity list of anyone in the Somali community. But is that “bigotry”? Stephens notes that he too has criticized Netanyahu. That’s where Omar needs to fine-tune her criticism. Her point at the moment is that Congress is in lock step fealty to Israel — no matter who is calling the shots over there. Let’s have that conversation front and center. It might do the average Israeli some good.

  1. As Mark Shields wrote in his Feb. 9 column about Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (“In Virginia, Democrats Form Their Circular Firing Squad”):

    “. . .a political party that is dedicated to hunting down and banishing from its ranks to the outer darkness any “heretics” who dare to deviate in the slightest from revealed dogma is guaranteeing for itself two results: ideological purity and electoral defeat.” This seems to be a pattern with these clowns.

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