The Anti-Semitism of AOC, Omar, and Tlaib

That fractious coven of freshman Democrats so beloved of the media — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib — have been patiently indulged by the leadership of their party. The obvious reason for putting up with the antics of these three involves the hope that they will help get out the millennial vote in 2020. But this trio of weird sisters is now stirring up such a bilious brew of dissension in their caucus and bad PR that prominent Democrats are starting to complain, particularly about the anti-Semitism of Omar and Tlaib.

The latest protests have come from Democrats who object to bigoted public remarks made last week at a “progressive” town hall. On Friday the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), called Rep. Omar to task after she made the following comment at the meeting: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” This is the second time Omar has been rebuked for anti-Semitism in less than a month, as Engel notes in his statement:

This episode is especially disappointing following so closely on another instance of Ms. Omar seeming to invoke an anti-Semitic stereotype. Her comments were outrageous and deeply hurtful, and I ask that she retract them, apologize, and commit to making her case on policy issues without resorting to attacks that have no place in the Foreign Affairs Committee or the House of Representatives.

Omar was joined by Tlaib at the town hall, whose moderator began the event by asking what “we as a community here can do to support you criticizing Israel for some of the war crimes that it has done so that it’s not seen as ‘you’re anti-Semitic’?” Tlaib, unrepentant after being criticized in January for tweeting her own version of the dual loyalty smear, glibly dismissed concerns about anti-Semitism: “This conversation and debate about human rights for everyone… is not centered around hate. It’s actually centered so much around love.”

That strange expression of “love” was again on display Sunday, when Omar doubled down on the “foreign allegiance” canard. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) echoed Engel’s call for Omar to retract her anti-Semitic remarks: “I urge her to retract this statement and engage in further dialogue with the Jewish community on why these comments are so hurtful.” Omar responded by lecturing Lowey — who has been a member of Congress since the Minnesota representative was 8-years-old — about how our form of government operates: