Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was the opening speaker at the August 1 online convention of the Democratic Socialists of America and used the kind of anti-Semitic tropes one would expect from the Nazi party. She couldn’t be clearer as to which group she was targeting, seeing as she referred to the people “behind the curtain” who make money on the suffering of blacks in America and Palestinians in Israel. This was a Jew-baiting dog-whistling.
Here’s what she said (bunched together):
We also need to recognize — and this is for me as a Palestinian American — we also need to recognize as I think about my family and Palestine that continue to live under military occupation and how that really interacts with this beautiful Black city that I grew up in. You know, I always tell people cutting people off from water is violence from Gaza to Detroit. And it’s a way to control people, to oppress people. And it’s those structures that we continue to fight against.
I know that you all understand the structure that we’ve been living under right now is designed by those that exploit the rest of us for their own profit. I don’t care if it’s the issue around global human rights and our fight to free Palestine or to pushing back against those that don’t believe in the minimum wage or those that believe that people have a right to health care and so much more.
And I tell people those same people that if you open the curtain and look behind the curtain, it’s the same people that make money and, yes they do, off of racism, off of these broken policies. There is someone there making money and you saw it!
How many classical anti-Semitic points did she hit? Jews cut off the water in Gaza – reminds you of Jews poison the wells of the good, old Medieval pogroms? Jews exploit the workers. Jews are international warmongers. Jews make money on the suffering of good people everywhere. Nothing has changed since the Pharaoh accused his Hebrews of conspiring with Egypt’s enemies and decided to retaliate by drowning their male babies. It’s a direct line from 2400 BCE Egypt through the Crusades, the pogroms, Adolf Hitler, to Rashida Tlaib. You think I’m exaggerating? Pack a suitcase and leave it by the front door just in case I’m not.
Take a listen:
The ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted in response: “Stunning to hear Rashida Tlaib claim ‘behind the curtain,’ those who prevent a ‘free Palestine’ are the ‘same people’ who exploit ‘regular Americans.’ We’ve heard this kind of ugly anti-Semitic dog-whistling before, but it’s appalling when it comes from a member of Congress.”
Greenblatt correctly noted the Nazi-inspired quotes in Tlaib’s speech about the Jewish cabal that makes a profit on the suffering of oppressed gentiles everywhere. But he missed the truly frightening part about her zoom speech: her audience.
According to Philly Magazine, the DSA is the largest socialist organization in the United States. Based on the DSA’s own statement, as of July 2021, membership in the organization was more than 94,000, in 239 local chapters. The DSA is credited with the rise of millennial socialism – as of December 2017, the median age of DSA members was 33, compared to 68 in 2013. This is the part that should scare Jonathan Greenblatt and all the other Israelites living in America.
And, as David Harsanyi put it on Tuesday: “Tlaib knows exactly what she’s saying. She also knows that no one in her party — not the cowardly Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi or anyone else — is likely to call her out on any of it.”
Fox News pointed out on Wednesday that the White House has so far remained silent on Tlaib’s anti-Semitic diatribe.
But I’m not concerned about President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, or even Senator Schumer. They’re political animals, they have their constraints. I am alarmed by the way a mainstream Jewish news outlet like JTA handled the Tlaib story: they didn’t report it. Tell me if I’m wrong, I plugged “Rashida Tlaib” in the JTA search for the latest mention and the search spewed back these stories involving the Congresswoman from Michigan (please correct me if I’m wrong):
- Muslim and Jewish Democrats in Congress call for creation of Islamophobia monitor (July 21).
- Survey: A quarter of US Jews agree that Israel ‘is an apartheid state’ (July 13).
- 73 congressional Democrats to Biden: Reverse more of Trump’s Israel policies and call settlements illegal (June 24).
- Sarah Silverman wishes Ilhan Omar’s ‘Squad’ of lawmakers included a ‘progressive Jewess’ (June 17).
The Greeks had a saying: Those the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
Nuff said.