Reason Two:“There’s always kind of a calming feeling I 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, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said just after the 28 minute mark. “And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them.”This was extremely problematic for two reasons.One, it’s completely false. The Palestinians were massacring Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader at the time, allied with Hitler and tried to carry out his own genocide, which includes numerous mass killings. There’s also the fact that Palestinians and their Arab allies tried to, you know, destroy Israel the same year it gained statehood in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The idea that there was ever an effort, voluntarily or even involuntarily, by Palestinians to provide a safe haven for Jews is objectively nonsense.To assert such is like a German saying they are extremely proud that their ancestors provided free housing for Jews in the 1940s. It’s not only an extreme, out of context misreading of history, it’s morally gross to claim.
Second, Tlaib’s comments are not a new creation. What she said is typical anti-Semitic propaganda which seeks to paint the Jews as new arrivals after the Holocaust. In reality, Jews far predated Arabs in the region, were a majority before the Holocaust, had legally begun buying land to resettle in Israel before World War 2, and the agreed plan for a Jewish state predated the conflict by decades. And that’s just me glossing over the matter. The complete history of Jews in Israel is vast and would take hours to recount here.
What is being done by Tlaib is an attempt to paint Israel as some random entity that popped up to facilitate European Jews after the Holocaust, which frames them as foreigners with no right to be there.Tlaib tries to turn the tables and assume the victim mantle:
Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work. All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably. I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda. The truth will always win.
Sorry, toots, you said what you said.
Tiana Lowe at the Washington Examiner says that this is right-down-the-line true to the leftist formula for this kind of thing:
Various tactics that ought to be used against Democrats as the 2020 election cycle gains momentum will come into sharper relief, but one that can be employed right away is to hammer home the truth that theirs is the party of Jew-hatred and infanticide.First, say something outrageous or outright anti-Semitic.Second: Conservatives pounce!Third: Claim victimhood.Tlaib could have simply said that while her framing of her remarks was irresponsible, her intentions were pure. But she's not even trying to hide the ball here anymore. She won't clarify the content of what she said, because she believes exactly what she said. She endorses a revisionist history of the Palestinian leadership's active efforts to collaborate with Adolf Hitler and prevent Jews from returning to their historic homeland.Bear in mind that she wasn't even asked about the Holocaust. She brought it up herself to advocate for the abolition of Israel with a one-state solution.
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