Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing” — ADL does not press for congressional action against her
On May 1, anti-Jewish bigot Rashida Tlaib tweeted that the “apartheid state of Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. [¶] 75 years later, the Nakba continues to this day.”
As the Democratic Party becomes infested with anti-Semitism, the ADL sits on its hands. This is intolerable. American Jews must demand of the ADL, the Federations, the JCRCs, the AJC, and our rabbis: What is your strategy to deal with Jew-hatred coming from the left, from “people of color,” and from Muslim Americans?
Meanwhile: Hats off to the Coalition for Jewish Values which issued a brief but stern statement condemning Tlaib’s screed:
The violence at Israel’s formation was the “War of Extermination” declared by the Secretary-General of the Arab League, promising to do to the Jews in the Holy Land what Hitler had done in Europe. And the ethnic cleansing was of Jews from Arab states, over 850,000 driven from their homes, the majority of whom found refuge in Israel. By contrast, the Arab population of Israel has grown more than tenfold since 1948.
It is beyond vile to falsely accuse the victims of ethnic cleansing of being its perpetrators. But it is not unprecedented: in Nazi Germany, Julius Streicher described Jews as bacteria feeding upon others. It should not need to be said, but rhetoric from Nazi Germany does not belong in Congress.
Anti-Semitism is getting out of control. The hard truth is that without a Jewish establishment possessed of a determined strategy to fight Jew-hatred stemming from these “inconvenient” sources, our situation will only deteriorate.
The Jewish establishment, especially the ADL, is trapped and cornered by its alliance with “progressives” who claim Zionism makes Jews disloyal to progressive values. Last year, Tlaib issued a broad attack on pro-Israel leftists, like the ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, in exactly these terms:
I want you all to know that among progressives it has become clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values yet back Israel’s apartheid government, and we will continue to push back and not accept this idea that you are progressive except for Falastin any longer.
As long as the ADL allows the fight against anti-Semitism to be defined as a partisan issue, our situation will deteriorate.