New Muslim Congress members 'deceived' voters

Ilhan Omar

It's an old joke: How can you tell a politician is lying? His lips are moving.

It seems that may be the case for the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress. An analyst at the Gatestone Institute presented evidence that Ilhan Abdullahi Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Harbi Tlaib of Michigan lied to voters.

The charge comes from Soeren Kern, a senior fellow at the institute, who who wrote that most of the media coverage since their election Nov. 6 "has been effusive in praise of their Muslim identity and personal history."

"Less known is that both women deceived voters about their positions on Israel. Both women, at some point during their rise in electoral politics, led voters – especially Jewish voters – to believe that they held moderate views on Israel. After being elected, both women reversed their positions and now say they are committed to sanctioning the Jewish state."

Kern noted that both of the new Congress members support the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, movement.

"Both are also explicitly or implicitly opposed to continuing military aid to Israel, as well as to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – an outcome that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Instead, they favor a one-state solution – an outcome that many analysts believe would, due to demographics over time, replace the Jewish state with a unitary Palestinian state."

Kern explains Omar, who replaced the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, in Minnesota's 5th congressional district, made her claims after controversy arose during her campaign.

There was a "disturbing report" she had married her own brother in 2009 for fraudulent purposes, "as well as a tweet from May 2018 in which she refers to Israel as an 'apartheid regime,' and another tweet from November 2012, in which she stated: 'Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,'" he explained.

Faced with headwinds, she "met with members of her congressional district's large Jewish population to address concerns over her position on Israel, as reported by Minneapolis's Star Tribune," Kern said.

"During a Democratic Party candidates' forum at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park on August 6 – one week before Omar defeated four other candidates in the party's primary – Omar publicly criticized the anti-Israel BDS movement. In front of an audience of more than a thousand people, Omar said she supported a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and that the BDS movement aimed at pressuring Israel was not helpful in trying to achieve that goal."

But less than a week after winning, she "admitted that she supports the BDS movement," Kern pointed out.

In fact, a Muslim website stated Omar "believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people's right to support it isn't criminalized. She does however, have reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution."

Only weeks ago, she was a speaker at a fundraiser for Palestinians in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, a terrorist group, according to the State Department.

"Writing in the New York Post, political commentator David Harsanyi noted that Omar's rhetoric had anti-Semitic undertones: 'Now, it isn't inherently anti-Semitic to be critical of Israeli political leadership or policies. The Democratic Party antagonism toward the Jewish state has been well-established over the past decade. But Omar used a well-worn anti-Semitic trope about the preternatural ability of a nefarious Jewish cabal to deceive the world."

He continued: "To accuse the only democratic state in the Middle East, which grants more liberal rights to its Muslim citizens than any Arab nation, of being an 'apartheid regime' is, on an intellectual level, grossly disingenuous or incredibly ignorant. And when a politician singles out Jewish allies as 'evil,' but ignores every brutal theocratic regime in the area, it's certainly noteworthy."

Kern noted Tlaib's comment that her strength "comes from being Palestinian."

"Like Omar, Tlaib has changed her positions on key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During her race for the Democratic nomination in the state primary, Tlaib actively 'sought out the support and received the endorsement of J Street.' J Street is a left-leaning organization that is highly critical of the Israel government, and through 'JStreetPAC,' it also allocates financial support to those who back J Street's policies."

The group endorsed her and provided her financial support, "based on her support for two states." However, that endorsement was withdrawn when, after her primary win, she said her support is only for one state.

"It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work. ... This whole idea of a two-state solution, it doesn't work," she said.

She then said she opposes any U.S. aid to Israel and supports the BDS movement.

And she promised to try to cut aid to Israel.