Ilhan Omar, circa 2019 (Bryan Snyder/Reuters via Israel National News)
Ilhan Omar, *swoon*, is the first Somali American in the US Congress and the first congresswoman ever to wear a Muslim headscarf (hijab). Omar represents Minnesota’s 5th district, which takes in super-blue Minneapolis and some of its suburbs. It is Keith Ellison’s old seat.
Generation gap: Omar is part of the younger, more left-leaning, “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party, which tends to see Israel less in terms of the Holocaust, like older Democrats, and more in terms of its violation of Palestinian human rights and international law. On top of that, Omar, like many Palestinians, is herself a Muslim, a refugee, and a person of colour. She arrived in the US in 1995 when she was 13, her family fleeing the civil war in Somalia.
In January 2019 she took office.
In February she said of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee):
“It’s all about the Benjamins baby”
In March she said of Israel:
“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!”
Both Republicans and Democrats swiftly condemned her as anti-Semitic.
Meghan McCain wept, on television coast to coast, saying that Omar’s words were “very scary”.
Meghan McCain as drawn by cartoonist Eli Valley (via @elivalley), March 8th 2019. McCain condemned this too as anti-Semitic.
Anti-Semitism, according to the Oxford dictionary, means “hostility to or prejudice against Jews.” That is what it seems to mean in most of the English-speaking world. But in Congress it appears to have a special, technical meaning: Standing up to AIPAC.
AIPAC spends $100 million a year on Congress to push policies that favour the racist government of Israel. That comes to an average of $186,000 for each person in Congress. Just to compare, the average salary in Congress is $174,000 a year.
When Omar quoted Puff Daddy, saying “It’s all about the Benjamins baby”, this is what she was talking about. (Benjamin Franklin appears on the $100 banknote.)
AIPAC sees speaking out against them or the government of Israel as “anti-Semitic”. That would be like saying anyone who opposes President Trump or his policies is “anti-American”.
Omar is a Black woman who is conspicuously Muslim.
What if a White Christian man had said the same thing?
Enter Chuck Hagel:
In 2006 he said:
“The political reality is … that the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.”
In 2008 he said:
“I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States senator.”
The same points.
He did get some pushback, but nothing compared to Omar. He was a Republican senator of Nebraska from 1997 to 2009 and President Obama’s Defence Secretary from 2013 to 2015. Elliott Abrams did call him anti-Semitic and AIPAC did think about opposing his nomination as Defence Secretary but thought they would lose and that it was better not to alienate him further.
The Omar case is more like that of other Black public figures who have spoken out against Israel: Marc Lamont Hill (fired from CNN), Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
Angela Davis stands with Ilhan Omar, February 13th 2019 (via @jvplive)
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Ilhan Omar
- Muslim Americans
- Somalia
- Iman
- Yasmin Warsame
- anti-Semitism
- The Holocaust
- Trump and rising anti-Semitism, part I
- Charlottesville riot
- Robert Bowers – carried out the worst anti-Semitic massacre in US history. That was just last year, 2018.
- Israel
- AIPAC
- Zionism
- Palestine
- Marc Lamont Hill on Palestine
- Angela Davis on Palestine
- Michelle Alexander on Palestine
- Cynthia McKinney on Palestine
- Chuck Hagel on Palestine
- corporate and progressive Democrats
- hijab
- Meghan McCain
- White women’s tears
- John McCain – her father
- Cindy McCain – her mother
- Elliott Abrams
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Abagond 
“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!”
What was wrong with that statement, Explain so every one can read what the statement was. What has been reported is she had said something against the Jewish People
Repeat her word over and over. She was correct!
See our Pledge: Also see the pledge she swore when she became a member of congress which follows after the Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.
In its original form it read:
In 1923, the words, “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. At this time it read:
In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy’s daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads:
Section 4 of the Flag Code states:
The original Bellamy salute, first described in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, who authored the original Pledge, began with a military salute, and after reciting the words “to the flag,” the arm was extended toward the flag.
Shortly thereafter, the pledge was begun with the right hand over the heart, and after reciting “to the Flag,” the arm was extended toward the Flag, palm-down.
In World War II, the salute too much resembled the Nazi salute, so it was changed to keep the right hand over the heart throughout.
Please repeat Ilhan Omar’s exact words over and over until every human understands exactly what she said and meant.
The noise was an attack on her because she is a Muslim and also black. She was not speaking against any religion, she was against people in this nation who support Israel.
There is no relationship between the government of Israel and any religion. None of there activities can be supported by their “book”!
******* The Oath
. The oath used today has not changed since 1966 and is prescribed in Title 5, Section 3331 of the United States Code. It reads:
“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
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Ilhan Omar > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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[…] https://abagond.wordpress.com/2019/03/08/ilhan-omar-on-palestine/ […]
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when they start pulling out little cartoon pictures or books, run!!!
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Call Isreal an apartheid state and people loose their minds.
The world has turned a blind eye to Isreali war crimes against the Palastinians.
I wish her the best of luck.
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oh lord here we go again
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Isn’t semitism relating to those of Arabic heritage?
What did she say that was anti-semitic?
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This is a tad infuriating.
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@ Heru Sankofa
She did not say anything anti-Semitic. That is just the standard smear AIPAC and their minions use when someone stands up to them. It is a silencing technique that has worked all too well.
But supposedly:
Her statement about the benjamins was the anti-Semitic trope of Jews as secretly controlling the world through money.
Her statement about allegiance was the anti-Semitic trope that Jews have dual loyalties.
They were just finding excuses to condemn her. Some of her attackers have said things that are far more clearly anti-Semitic, yet because they do not oppose AIPAC or the Israeli government it is not a big deal – even it leads to some nut shooting up a synagogue. Or chants of “Jews will not replace us!”
The whole thing was so fake. You could tell because it led to Congress passing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and xenophobia. Since when in the hell did most of Congress ever care about that stuff? And why is it that Omar sends them into such a moral panic but not Trump?
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@ Heru Sankofa
Arabic is a Semitic language, but the word “anti-Semitism” is almost always just about Jews, probably thanks to Hitler.
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How self-centered and wilfully obtuse does a Christian woman have to be to call a cartoon by a Jewish artist criticizing her “one of the most anti-Semitic things I’ve ever seen”?
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lol i mean yeah all about the netenyahu[s]? or something? sorry i didnt want to say it that was kinda funny actually
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ah jesus! i’ve been sayin that all day today for some reason
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@ abagond…“Ilhan Omar, swoon“…
No sh*t, Brother! She is, thanks to the hijab, an unencumbered-by-Western-standards-of beauty, a clearly, BE-YUTIFUL woman color!! I swoon every time I see her too, but more important than that beauty — it is what she has to say about that which she believes, which blows my damned mind!
Like I feel about my Lil Sis, Mary Burrell — I feel so f*ckin’ hopeful for the future of my granddaughters when I see her speaking truth to power, all the while knowing there are legions that would try to silence her!
I’ve not written on my own blog since November of last year due to just being overwhelmed by personal sh*t, as well as the state of this “dis-union” in these supposedly, United States of America. Baby, I am now inspired!!!
Like my Sister Angela, with whom I grew up — I STAND WITH ILHAN!!! Can I borrow that picture above (with attribution of course!) for the post I’m now working on?
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“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!”
And this made politicians on both sides crap their pants. Wow!
I too stand with Ilhan. Whether right or left, Republican or Democrat, America fears a black woman speaking out that doesn’t suit either of their interests.
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@ Deb
Right, it is not just her physical beauty but even more her moral courage.
The source for the three pictures:
Ilhan Omar:
(http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/259914)
Meghan McCain:
(https://twitter.com/elivalley/status/1104023152651313152)
Angela Davis:
(https://twitter.com/jvplive/status/1095817813988728832)
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This popped up on my Twitter feed today so I’d share it.
https://ghionjournal.com/open-letter-ilhan-omar/
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@ Deb
The image credit of the Ilhan Omar photo is Bryan Snyder/Reuters.
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@abagond Is it possible for you to find out how it came about that Omar responded the way she did?
Was she asked to sign some pledge to some organization that represented Israel.
Could you or anyone find out if that is a fact and could you include the total conversation.
Do we have a group of members of congress that swear allegiance to Israel?
We have loud voices condeming her for being anti Israel or anti Jewish but it all is based on her use of the words “foreign nation”!
If there is such a group serving our nation in congress they should be brought to the attention of the citizens of this nation.
Who are the people crying out against her?
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https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5403626,00.html
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Seems to me that the antisemitic card is played ten times more than the so-called race card, though to date no one has had the temerity to even use the term “antisemitic card.”
Someone states a fact about black America, such as our disproportionate crime rate, and it’s (yawn!) just a statistic. And even should they draw an unjust and insulting conclusion from said statistic, it’s merely cause for debate. But let someone like Colin Powell clinically state an obvious fact like Jews have power disproportionate to their numbers in the U.S., and he is pilloried by all quarters and forced to apologize.
As an American, it seems absurd to me that I can criticize the policy of any country in the world, including my own, except that of Israel. That I can criticize any lobby except AIPAC. That I can abjure influence of money in politics… except AIPAC’s money. It’s absurd that the levers of power in Congress would ignore the first amendment rights of its own citizens to pass anti-BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) legislation to placate Israel while in the same breath claiming that that country does not have undue influence on ours.
And then there’s the racial angle.
For a millennium Europe has oppressed Jews, culminating in the Holocaust. The guilt is unbearable. This is especially true in the U.S., where the borders were closed to most Jews fleeing the Nazis. True to form, given this country’s racist history, white America has projected its own antisemitism on black America, downplaying its own contempt for Jews while searching under the bed for ours. Manufacturing it out of thin air if necessary, comparing the dumb rantings of Farrakhan with actions of the KKK and neo-Nazis, pointing fingers. As Abagond has pointed out, the media has a penchant for finding “antisemitic” tropes among non-whites while a pass to the more blatant words and deeds of whites.
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Ilhan Omar is a strikingly beautiful young Muslim woman in a hijab along who is not afraid to speak out and this alone ruffles a lot of feathers.
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@Michael Barker: The info? you provided in your reference is a wonderful support piece for this article; however it takes forever to read and will get very few readers who will understand the real problem.
Using words like “trope” when communicating blows the minds of people. Yes it is true 6 to 10 millions Jewish people were killed by the Germans during the time of Hitler and the world continues to mourns the atrocities.
Now look at the world since 1900. Millions and millions of individuals were killed, starved and displaced by the Russians, The history of China and its cruelties should shock any thinking person. No one keeps count or speaks of the millions and millions of other people who have been killed, maimed and displaced in the past 119 years.
1900 has been an equal opportunity of mass slaughter, starvation and displacement. Hardly any place or people on earth has been exempt from such terror.
Having said the above the following is submitted:
I believe it is a simple matter. “Money drives politics”!
While no one will say it out loud, it appears as thought there is some possibility that in order to receive any donation from some major organization (possibly AIPAC) one must sign a pledge of some sort (?).
Vast sums of money are involved!
If this is true, what is the pledge, which nation is supported, and how many members of congress who have received funds from such an organization have signed this pledge of loyalty and “act accordingly”?
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@Allen
I’m glad you took the time to read Mr. Fikre’s piece. I understand him perfectly.
I am puzzled at what you think the “real problems” are.
Some of his writing cover the history of Ethiopia, his coming to America as a child, his father working three jobs to support their family after leaving their middle class life in Ethiopia because of war.
What I find powerful is his identity as an Ethiopian that he can trace back nine generations and how he is able to maintain that as an “American”.
That is something missing in the West that has been replaced with the “founding fathers” and the anthroprocentric reflection of Empire in whiteness.
Identify has been deliberately destroyed by the West in it’s onslaught to bring “civilization” to the far reaches of the Earth in its quest for the resources to make itself rich at the expense of large swaths of humanity.
So Mr. Fikre’s open letter was to point to the similarities of their experience and culture and to hope that Ms. Omar would remain true to her identity.
In regards to the latter half of your writings:
I haven’t forgotten about the 100’s of millions that have died from various totalitarian States but the difference might be those dead don’t have a lobby that pays off Politicians here in the U.S. and abroad.
Isreal uses the holocaust as a deflection away from their own nefarious actions.
So the West is a corporatacracy of governments, corporations, banks and media, where revolving doors open corridors between these institutions, where money buys access and chooses winners and losers.
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@Michael Barker: I have problem communicating so please forgive me.
When I referred to the real problem I was speaking about the subject of this conversation Omar’s statement.
I had no further thought on Mr. Fikre’s comments. If I wanted to reply to that reference I would have done it on that site.
It appears that some type of obligation is accepted when politician receive funds from certain supporters. I mentions (possibly AIPAC). I am not willing to say what I do not know.
I do not want to broaden my comments or ask for comments to or about the West or any other group, except those that donate and require a loyalty oath in the US Congress that their way is demanded.
I do not want to get caught in the weeds of multiple subject matters.
Omar need our support!
Pledges that votes will support specific foreign governments should be banned.
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Would the Israelis constitute as being Semitic, though? Their origins are dubious at best. Or can I ask that considering all the controversy?
Wait…. Israel practices Islam!?
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I read the part about AIPAC spending $100 million a year on lobbying and thought that was a huge amount of money. If that’s true, then it’s insane and warrants closer scrutiny. I checked on Open Secrets and it looks like they spent $3.5 million on lobbying in 2017 and 2018 each. They’ve spent about $45 million on lobbying in the past 20 years. Where do you get the $100 million a year from?
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000046963&cycle=A
https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000046963&year=2018
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AIPAC raises 100 million a year.
But interesting to see a break down on how those funds are spent.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pro-israel-group-lobbies-for-u-s-aid-funds-congressional-trips-11550174834
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It’s probably not the first time Abagond has posted the Israeli or Israeli vs Palestine debate. There’s a big wave of ambiguouity to this debate of those share religion but then again a good resistance coming from those enlightened of the situation. At the end of the day Israel is an an ally provided a large US military reasearch facility and base and that is an insurmountable offering that cannot be given up.
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@Heru Sankufa
I wonder what Omar has to say concerning the less than ethical yet tyrannicals such as the Saudis. It’s like a form of hypocrisy she has nothing to say about. Lol
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It’s really easy to comment on who is good and who is bad when you aren’t at ground zero and see the pov at first hand. I was fortunate enough to speak and game with Israelis on Steam and learn a little something about their living situation. I a can tell you that their was a bombing that destroyed a apartment complex of this of one of these people and he had to pick relocate several times between 2009 and 2014. It is not easy on both sides of the conflict.
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@allenshaw don’t be so dismissive, i respect your comments, and appreciate them
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“Saudi Arabia is consistently ranked among the worst human rights abusers in the world and is responsible for famine/cholera outbreak in Yemen. Yet it is the top buyer of U.S.-made weapons. Why is Donald Trump siding with weapons manufacturers over human rights activists?”
Ms. Omar
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@v8driver: What did I say that was dismissive?
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@allen shaw that you dont communicate well? hell, apparently i misinterpreteted a major part of this post ie ‘benjamins’… (so clever, no?) and for everyone, the pro-israeli state as religion is called zionism.. it’s nteresting how arab-israeli peace talks, the proffered one state solution, and relocating the israeli capitol have taken a backseat (according to ‘the view’) to steve jobs being called mr. apple by trump?
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@v8driver: gotcha!
My way of thinking is the misunderstanding of Israel. They are struggling inside Israel about how they are going to run the nation. Unless a person is actually paying attention you would not realize that the struggle is occurring. It is far beyond my knowledge to explain the difference.
See Mondoweiss!
Strategically the US needs Israel as a friend in the Middle East!
In the US it appears as though a source of funds that is available to allow individuals to run for office requires an oath to a foreign nation.
For some reason no one will repeat what Omar said! Only that she is anti Jewish or anti Israeli. I believe everyone wants this to go away! Thus we have the anti hate bill!
Years ago I had a habit of saying politically incorrect things, and my bosses had to protect me! I was a hard worker and produces a result that was of value to them. Today some people believe that is not a correct way to conduct yourself. One should not be a “hard worker”!
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