Why we should all stand by Ilhan Omar: Her Victory is America’s Victory

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lhan Omar, the congresswoman from Minnesota, a 37-year American, once a Somali refugee, was elected for her charisma and devotion to the cause of protecting the true interests and welfare of the common Americans, preserving America’s values and founding principles, and reviving the spirit of the American Constitution, that provides all a gift to all freedom loving people. All her past works and sincerity indicates that she is truly a public servant. She had to prove her leadership and vision every step of the way to get to where she is today.

The situation now she faces is utterly unacceptable in a democratic society. She is being penalized for bringing up a truth, the truth that everyone in Washington knows:: that the pro-Israeli lobby such as AIPAC has a stranglehold on Congress. Even if that is her opinion as to an organization such as AIPAC, or agenda such as a bill with punitive damages for supporting the movement BDS – Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction –geared towards achieving human rights and civil rights for the Palestinians, these are rights that the US Constitution ensures a citizen.  Denying that right to anyone is to subvert democracy and freedom. That is exactly what powerful pro-Israeli groups have long been doing to the conscientious people in Ameria, taking full advantage of this despicable state Israel has gone extremely reckless and cruel in its oppression against the Palestinian people for the last seven decades. America’s core values trampled and the spirit of the Constitution violated repeatedly to serve Israeli interests.

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he charge of anti-Semitism is a scare tactic against anyone critical of Israel for its heinous crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine. When anyone with a drop of conscience left in him/her rightfully criticize Israel for perpetrating extreme forms of repression and apartheid policies against a people whose lands Israel occupies, the pro-Israeli groups immediately jumped at that person labeling him/her as an anti-Semite. She definitely is not contributing to anti-Semitism by criticizing the predatory grip of AIPAC on both the houses of Congress.  However, a major contributor to anti-Semitism worldwide, perhaps, is Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people, year in and year out for the last 70 years. That is the unfortunate truth behind the rise of the tide of ani-Semitism globally. Many people are thinking that if Jews come to power and could do this kind of injustices to other people, they need to be fought back and hushed up. Not so, there are a majority of the Jews who do not condone the apartheid system in Palestine that Israel enforces, as a result, the Palestinians suffer enormously and the humiliation and indignation corrode the soul of the nation. Anti-Semitism soared worldwide each time Israel invade Gaza and kills thousands of defenseless people including the children and the old ones. Just as an example of Israeli atrocities, during the 51-day invasion of Gaza in 2014,  Israel killed more than 2000 people, 600 of whom were children. Israel dropped 20 thousand tons of explosives on Gaza, a tiny place the size of Philadelphia where 2 million people live. Thousands of buildings were leveled to the ground, destroying schools and all hospitals. There was worldwide outrage and condemnation against Israel. Unfortunately, the unwanted consequences of such inhuman cruelty fuels anti-Semitism. The lesson indeed has not been learned from history.

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hese rightful criticisms of Israel are heard all over the world almost every day, however, when these are done in America these are an anti-Semitic slur. This double standard from the pro-Israeli groups violates all rules of democratic conducts.  The anti-Semitism charge has so far been an effective smokescreen to hide Israel’s reprehensible agenda in the Middle East, that on a daily basis, violate all codes of moral conduct: killing innocent people, making Gaza the biggest ‘concentration camp’ (as per Norman Finkelstein, an American Jewish scholar) with two million people crammed in a tiny place about the size of the city of Detroit, or bombing and killing 2000 people including 600 children at will, perpetrating a ‘slow incremental genocide’ (as per Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian) and now cutting food and medicine to the same people Israel has rendered them utterly destitute and poverty-stricken. This is the extent of crimes against humanity and inhuman cruelty Israel has been perpetrating against the Palestinians that the pro-Israeli groups and lobbies want to hide behind the notion of anti-Semitism. If this flagrant oppression is ever mentioned or opposed in America there is a ludicrous uproar of “anti-Semitism.” Perhaps, never in history, such a “cry wolf” ploy had been used with so much success to bluff and degrade an entire nation as it is being done to mislead the American people regarding Israel.  When one cannot ‘call an oppressor an oppressor’ without being labeled as an anti-Semite, it is simply a smokescreen.

The truth of the matter is that there is simply no other defense for Israel, therefore, the pro-Israeli groups use scare tactics such as political blackmailing or offensive tactics of ‘anti-Semitism’ as their facade behind which they try to hide their injustice and betrayal. That is the only tool they have and that is what they use. With the enormous amount of pro-Israeli money in Washington with which many American representatives are bought to serve Israel and not America is an extreme form of betrayal of the nation that has given unconditional support for the Jewish cause. America’s standing in the world and its leadership destroyed supporting Israel’s heinous crimes against humanity. Neither Israel nor its agents in America – the pro-Israeli groups — care about this loss America incurred that has caused much bloodshed and turmoil in the world draining tens of trillions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money.

The parasitic effects have been taking a toll on the nation and it is going to create a serious backlash. That is what Israel and pro-Israelis are all paranoid about: their past wrongdoings getting exposed to the American public.

The new generation of American politicians and leaders are getting out of that stagnant, degrading, disgraceful, un-American modus operandi. They are dedicated and determined to reclaim America from this long dark tunnel the country has been stuck since the 1967 Middle East War. The pro-Israel lobby has all the reasons for getting panicked and behaving irrationally.

Neither AIPAC nor Israel or Zionists represent all Jews in the world. There are many Jews that oppose Zionism and oppose the state of Israel; there are Jews who vehemently reject what Israel has been perpetrating in their name. In fact, Ilan Pappe in his book, “Ten Myths About Israel” has exposed that a clear majority of Jews do not subscribe to Zionism and the state of Israel, not to speak about the oppression Israel perpetrates to protect its Zionist interest.

There are many Jewish scholars and activists who believe Israel has done a tremendous disservice to Judaism, to the Jewish cause, and to America, the country that has given unconditional support to Israel. Among these are Ilan Pappe, Gideon Levy, Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, just to name a few.

Alfred Lilienthal, an American Jewish lawyer laid down all these Israeli wrongdoings in his famous book: “What Price Israel?” and again in the book “The Zionist Connection.”  The former congressman Paul Findley wrote in this book “They Dare to Speak Out” that if the American policymakers would have listened to Lilienthal the entire Middle East would have been democratic, peaceful, avoiding all the wars, bloodsheds, deaths and destructions over the years. As a result America would retain its moral integrity and leadership before the world.

At the core, it is not Ilhan that Israel and the pro-Israeli groups are threatened with. The real threat comes from their own wrongdoings: what Israel has been doing and how the pro-Israeli Americans have been betraying America since its inception in 1948.

The specter of Israeli wrongdoings is now coming to haunt Israel and all its cronies and supporters. They are on the wrong side of history. Pro-Israeli groups should come to their senses and come out of this self-defeating delusional state.  If they listen to honest and outspoken leaders like Ilhan Omar, there still is hope for a better future.

Ilhan Omar is sending a signal to all those corrupt politicians in Washington that they have all failed in their duty to the American public. Ilhan is sending a message to all those who have colluded with the pro-Israeli groups to help render their own government a servant of Israel at the cost of the American people. They all have failed in hiding the truth from the American public. They are all complicit in all the heinous crimes Israel perpetrates daily basis.

It is not a surprise revelation of a secret truth. Many people are fully aware of the stranglehold Israel has on the American government. Going back when Israel torpedoed an American ship stationed near Gaza, killing 38 American soldiers, the American government – the Johnson administration and the Congress – deliberately hid it from the American public. Ever since the American public has been kept blindfolded and misled by the American lobby.

Everybody in Washington knows this stomach-churning truth for a long time. This has been brought up by many scholars and writers before, among these is the international bestseller, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” as early as in 2007 by two dedicated Jewish professors who lost their tenures and faced difficulties for exposing this predatory force in America that lobbies Washington to endorse Israel’s agenda of occupation of other people’s lands and conduct ‘incremental genocide’, as per an Israeli historian, domination of the Middle East, and become a world power via America. All the dedicated conscientious people standing in the way of this agenda are hushed up with the threat of severe reprisals. Ilhan Omar knows these horror stories but refused to compromise in her duty to the American public.

Therefore, the pro-Israeli groups, in possession of enormous wealth, power and network infiltrating every level and every dimension of the American society, attempt to destroy a person like Ilhan Omar, if they succeed they are on an intransigent trajectory to destroy all that America stands for.

There are many credible works that have been warning America about this state and its consequences. One of these is a documentary film made by Western filmmakers and artists called “The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States.” The film depicts the horrendous extent of injustice perpetrated by Israel and equally horrendous is the level of unawareness of the American public about it. The film also gives precise reasons for this state of ignorance deliberately reinforced continuously.

As long as the American public is misinformed and misled, Israel can get away hijacking the American government to serve Israeli interests at the cost of America.

The pro-Israeli groups are powerful, extremely well-organized, and wealthy to attract other ‘power elites’ – such as the top leaders of big businesses, financial institutions, military-industrial-complex and corrupt politicians in Washington – to collude with them to form, mutually beneficial and immensely powerful, alliance.  In 1956 a famous sociologist, C. Wright Mills, warned America that unless the people are also organized and determined to fight back democracy cannot be salvaged, it would become an oligarchy or worse. Under the fierce and concerted agendas of Israel lobby, America has been reduced to that state: the media is choked, activists are threatened, politicians are blackmailed, scholars and writers are chastised, journalists are harassed, the list goes on. To emancipate this great nation from the Israeli grip, the Americans now need to fight back in support of people like Ilhan Omar.

For more please see the article: A Letter to America, https://www.letter-to-america.org

About author

Ruby Amatulla

writer, business woman, activist, political analyst, the Executive Director of 'Women for Good Governance'. Dhaka and Minneapolis, USA

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