Once again, one of Congress’s first two Muslim female representatives is facing accusations of anti-Semitism following comments she made about Israel in a podcast released on Friday. Rashida Tlaib was asked by the presenter about her view that the political situation in Israel makes a two-state solution impossible.
In the interview, Tlaib notes that it was recently Holocaust Memorial Day, and says: “There’s a kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways has been wiped out, was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews post-the Holocaust and post the tragedy and horrific persecution of Jews across the world.”
Her comments provoked an immediate backlash. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the US, tweeted at Tlaib saying “your words are both grossly #antiSemitic and ignorant. You should take some time to learn the history before trying to rewrite it.” On Twitter, accounts posted things like “Arabs of Palestine bear MASSIVE responsibility for scale of Holocaust.”
Sharing a link to a story in the right-wing Washington Examiner – and following its headline – Liz Cheney, the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney currently serving in Congress as chair of the House Republican Conference, said: “This must cross the line, even for [the Democrats]. Rashida Tlaib says thinking of the Holocaust provides her a ‘calming feeling’.”
Steve Scalise, the House minority whip, put out a statement saying “More than six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust; there is nothing ‘calming’ about that fact.” Scalise has himself peddled anti-Semitic tropes – particularly in using George Soros as a political bogeyman, a common theme for Republicans – so could perhaps simmer down in his outrage.
When I see something I believe to be anti-Semitic, whether it is on the right or on the left, I am comfortable calling it out. But I find it hard to swallow when people like Liz Cheney and Steve Scalise jump on everything Tlaib or Omar say. They’re transparently not doing so in good faith, but because it is politically expedient. They are playing to the pro-Israel Fox News gallery while supporting a president who, after neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville in 2017 carrying tiki-torches and chanting “Jews shall not replace us,” openly defended them as “very fine people.”
As if the irony needed underscoring, Trump himself joined the fray on Monday. He tweeted that Tlaib “obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people” and added, preposterously: “Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?”
It’s easy to dispense with the line of attack suggesting Tlaib meant she found the idea of the Holocaust “calming,” because it is obvious to any honest listener that is not what she meant. Her history is on shakier ground, though; framing the foundation of the state of Israel as Palestinians “trying to create a safe haven” for Jews isn’t correct.
But she goes on to clarify that she was speaking metaphorically. In the interview, Tlaib continues: “And I love the fact that it was my ancestors who provided that, right? In many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right? And it was forced on them. And so when I think about one-state, I think about the fact that, why can’t we do it in a better way?”
“And I don’t want people to do it in the name of Judaism, just like I don’t want people to use Islam in that way, it has to be done in a way of values around equality, and around the fact that you shouldn’t oppress others so that you can feel free and safe. Why can’t we all feel free and safe together?”
It is clear from the context that Tlaib is attempting to appeal to common humanity here in describing what she sees as the political situation in Israel. She is not mounting an anti-Semitic attack on Jews. Specifically, Tlaib’s point is that she doesn’t believe a two-state solution is possible under the government of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Her ire – the despondence is clear in her voice – is aimed at Netanyahu’s government for enacting specific policies, such as settlements, that are designed make a two-state solution an on-the-ground impossibility. This does not strike me as an unmerited critique.
As I have written before, anti-Semitism is a complicated topic. Legitimate criticism of Israel is often difficult to unpick from criticism that edges towards anti-Semitic tropes or ideas. Where the two meet is a grey area. But denying Tlaib, whose family is Palestinian-American, the ability to make a political critique of Israel’s political leadership is just plain wrong.
There is plenty to disagree with about Tlaib’s approach from a political perspective, but – as I find I have to say time and again – to assume that any criticism of Israel is de facto anti-Semitic is, itself, an anti-Semitic assumption. In fact, there are many Jews worldwide – myself among them – who feel something similar to Tlaib’s frustration with the violence and intransigent ethno-nationalism of the Netanyahu administration.
It is no accident that, once again, the target of this right-wing campaign is one of Congress’s first two female Muslim representatives. Tlaib, as well as Ilhan Omar, who were both elected in last November’s midterm elections, have both faced a campaign to smear them with accusations of anti-Semitism.
Let’s not forget that we live in an age where real anti-Semitism is on the rise. Just this April, during Passover, there was another shooting at a synagogue, this time in California, following last October’s deadly attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Both attackers were white supremacists, a group that Republicans and their Fox News media outriders court and encourage even as they ritualistically claim to be friends of Israel and Jews.
Republicans seem to think that kind of performative support for the state of Israel is some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for anti-Semitism more generally. But they don’t win points just for their rote support of Israel and its right-wing government. Credibility is earned, and while Republicans continue to entertain views that can lead directly to real anti-Semitic violence, their party has none. In the meantime, they can spare me their transparent pretences of solidarity.
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