Ilhan Omar apologizes after Pelosi denounces tweet as anti-Semitic

[hedda_foil]

4. It's not just Israel supporting Jews who are upset. I don't support AIPAC or Bibi at all.

In fact, I resent both that repulsive lobbying group and the right wing Israeli government, and have for many years. However, I also know how antisemitism spreads. Israel and American Jews are intermixed in most Americans' minds (not all!) and Jewish greed is an antisemitic trope that goes back farther than Shakespeare. Mixing all of these portrayals together creates a powerful image that reinforces negative stereotypes of Jewish people and encourages indiscriminate tarring of a diverse group of people as a whole.

Was this Rep. Omar's intention? Actually, I doubt it. She almost certainly views the behavior of AIPAC and the Israeli government in terms of the horrendous treatment of the Palestinian people -- a situation bound to be made even more intolerable with Trumps "peace plan" ready to go. But by expressing her distress in the way she did, she reinforced the portrayal of Jews as greedy, evildoers.

I appreciate her apology.