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> On Feb 12, 2019, at 11:57 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism > <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/ilhan-omar-israel-tweet-antisemitism-bds > <https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/ilhan-omar-israel-tweet-antisemitism-bds> It’s good to see Jacobin and others defending Omar, but the UK Guardian has published a piece highlighting what her defenders have generally missed: “Since her election last year, Omar has opened the door to a different, taboo argument. Her interventions over Venezuela and the southern border broke from the Democratic script and caused controversy by hinting that the aims and not only the means pursued by the American state frustrate the achievement of human freedom. The likes of James Baldwin and Malcolm X knew this all too well, and it has long been intuitive to many millions beyond America’s shores too. By endorsing the global Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, Omar moved well beyond those Americans who criticize Benjamin Netanyahu’s excesses confident that Israel, their old ally, remains a noble endeavor now in need of wise and moderating counsel from Washington. She flew a different flag, supporting Palestinians as a people dispossessed by the facts of might and conquest familiar to victims of colonization everywhere. “This is why Omar’s recent tweet was disappointing, blaming American support for Israel on lobbyists’ cash. The ultimately conservative, reassuring effect of concentrating on the Israel lobby is this: it suggests that American interests are fundamentally good, but that they are corrupted and distorted by some small clique. Antisemites take their cue from this supposition. “The deeper, tougher truth is that America supports Israel because at some level America is Israel; these are two settler colonies born in violence, condemned by their original sins and by their later crimes to paranoias about the revenge of the wronged. America needs no monied lobby to see its common cause with Israel. Omar should be better placed than most Democrats to see this, given that she seems less enamored of American greatness than they are. The distressing thing about her tweet was its inconsistency, its failure to live up to the promise she has tentatively begun to sketch.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/12/ilhan-omar-us-israel-policy-lobbying _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
