Ilhan Omar Singles Out Her Opponent’s Jewish Donors with Anti-Semitic Campaign Mailer
Washington Examiner—There’s nothing more on-brand for freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota than finding herself at the center of a controversy over anti-Semitism. Lo and behold, that’s exactly where she finds herself once again.
On Thursday, Vice reported that Omar’s campaign had sent mailers to constituents asking, “Can We Trust Antone Melton-Meaux’s Money?” They also allege that primary challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, who has been seriously out-raising Omar, is “in the pocket of the GOP,” “in the pocket of Wall Street,” and “in the pocket of the medical industry.” To top it all off, the only three donors the mailer cites by name are Jewish. They are joined by mention of the shadowy “Michael, a donor from Scarsdale, New York,” who may or may not be Jewish but apparently lives in a New York suburb with many Jewish residents.
Attacking big money is standard fare among Democrats. However, lacing those attacks with Jewish references has historically not been. It’s especially eyebrow-raising in Omar’s case given her planning to visit Israel with Miftah, a group that promotes blood libel, introducing legislation to boycott Israel that compares the world’s only Jewish state to Nazi Germany, and making anti-Semitic remarks related to voters and elected officials.
Recall Omar’s three anti-Semitic controversies during the early months of 2019. The first involved attention to a 2012 tweet accusing Israel of having supernatural powers. Omar tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” The second was a tweet alleging that congressional support for Israel was driven by dollars. The third was a comment alleging dual-loyalty among Americans who support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, when Omar told an audience, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” Omar made the latter two remarks while serving in Congress and never apologized for the third. She does not appear to be sorry.
Omar’s campaign has declined to comment about whether she was involved with approving the mailer, but the answer doesn’t even really matter. Whether Omar or a senior aide, like her campaign manager, approved the mailer, voters can reasonably assume it reflects the candidate’s thinking for three reasons. First, even if a high-level aide approved the message, that person was hired specifically to execute Omar’s campaign vision. Second, this message matches Omar’s established pattern of embracing centuries-old antisemitic conspiracies linking Jews, money, and power. Third, Omar has not distanced herself from the message.
As for whether the message was intentional, even that doesn’t much matter. It’s quite possible it was because no leader has given Omar a reason to temper her provocations. Even after Omar’s three anti-Semitic controversies last year, the Democratic House didn’t condemn Omar by name, nor could they repudiate anti-Semitism without listing numerous other hatreds unrelated to that historical moment (and if there’s one lesson Democrats should take from British Labour, it’s that if anti-Semitism is not consistently stigmatized, it multiplies). Notably, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has chosen to embrace Omar publicly, endorsing the freshman earlier this month.
As a thought experiment, let’s say the mailer’s anti-Semitism wasn’t intentional. That would mean Omar’s orbit includes people so steeped in anti-Jewish animus that they don’t even notice it when it stares squarely at them. If it didn’t occur to campaign staff to scrutinize this mailed attack ad for hints of anti-Semitism, given Omar’s history, that speaks volumes.
Another campaign might also have recalled some of the many times when Democrats have accused Republicans of anti-Semitism in recent years, some of which Vice noted. One of those was candidate Donald Trump’s telling political donors, some of whom Trump knew personally, at a 2015 Republican Jewish Coalition event that he didn’t want their money. Others relate to attacks on George Soros (widely known for funding leftist causes), Michael Bloomberg (famous for supporting gun control), and Tom Steyer (who focuses on climate change and happens to be Episcopalian). That is to say, it makes sense to be wary of Jews being singled out, but context matters, and these three names are not the slam dunk proof of right-wing anti-Semitism that some left-wingers think they are.
A better comparison, in this case, might be the 2016 Trump campaign’s tweeting a picture of Hillary Clinton and cash with a six-pointed star that labeled Clinton the “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” The campaign was widely blasted for that image and mocked for claiming the star represented a sheriff’s star.
At this point, Omar and her campaign deserve similar condemnation. Omar may be many things, but a friend of the Jews she is not.
