I’ve now watched two national news programs, with both reporting on Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s decision not to visit her aged grandmother in Israel after all.
You probably know the details. Originally Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were going to visit Israel (“Palestine,” they called it, in the usual let’s-get-rid-of-Israel way), and Israel said okay. After a tweet from Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew the invitation. Tlaib and Omar became martyrs to the Woke, and many (including me) said that Israel’s withdrawal of the invitation was a mistake.
But then Israel agreed to let Tlaib visit her grandmother on the West Bank, so long as she abided by Israel’s law that visitors must not promote the BDS program. Tlaib agreed to that in writing. So the visit was on. (Omar was still banned.)
But then Tlaib got a bunch of criticism from Palestinians and critics of Israel, all saying that she had caved in to Israel’s unreasonable demands—demands she had agreed to in writing. And so, more concerned about demonizing Israel than visiting her grandmother (“perhaps for the last time”, she said), she decided not to go after all.
That’s all well and good. The problem is that, at least in the two national news shows I’ve heard, her withdrawal was characterized as “Tlaib refuses to meet Israel’s onerous demands.” The same distortion was evident (of course) in HuffPost’s reporting of the incident:
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said Friday that she will not visit her grandmother in the West Bank, after the Israeli government reversed a prior decision barring her from the country.
In a statement, she accused officials of “racist treatment” and of seeking to “silence” her voice. She said she won’t go to Israel “under these oppressive conditions.”
. . .Tlaib, whose family is from Palestine, later wrote to Israel’s interior minister, Aryeh Deri, to say she’d like to visit her grandmother, who is in her 90s.
“This could be my last opportunity to see her,” Tlaib wrote in the letter.
Early Friday, Deri announced that Tlaib would be allowed to visit on humanitarian grounds, provided that she would “accept all the demands of Israel to respect the restrictions imposed on her in the visit, and she also promised not to advance boycotts against Israel during her visit.”
In response to her cancellation, Deri accused Tlaib of making “a provocative request.”
Here’s the sick part: nowhere does HuffPost (or the news stations) report that Tlaib AGREED to the Israeli conditions, and canceled her trip only after she got criticized by her pro-Palestinian allies. This is grossly distorted reporting designed to make Tlaib look good and Israel look bad.
Look at the HuffPost headline:
At least the New York Times got it right. These distortions—always to the detriment of Israel—are pervasive in even the mainstream liberal media, and they add up not to objective reporting but to an ideological agenda.
Tlaib agreed, and then changed her mind. The cancelation of her trip is due not to Israel’s onerous demands, but to Tlaib’s realization that she had screwed up and angered her allies.
As Tlaib said of her gran, “this could be my last opportunity to see her.” How sad that, as Israel’s interior minister tweeted:
I approved her request as a gesture of goodwill on a humanitarian basis, but it was just a provocative request, aimed at bashing the State of Israel. Apparently her hate for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother.@realDonaldTrump @RashidaTlaib
— אריה מכלוף דרעי (@ariyederi) August 16, 2019
And that is absolutely true.
My wife and I were talking about this at lunch-time and we wondered whether these two individuals ever give any thought to being representatives of their respective districts. So far all we have heard about is their personal political agendas. Apparently no thought is given to being re-elected for doing such a great job in Washington, let alone being representatives. I couldn’t help but notice that AOC has stayed off the front page of the Times for a week.
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I must also say I’ve heard the pundits on MSNBC and in similar media sources say that the only reason for all of this isn’t these Congresswomens’ antisemitism and agenda for the destruction of the country they wish to visit, but that it’s about “silencing Muslim women of color.” I have heard a few passing mentions of Omar’s old tweets (with immediate recitations of the line “which she apologized for,” though her “apology” was exactly the kind we would all call a “nonpology” if it came from Trump), but nothing about her actual clear past antisemitic behavior. The narrative being constructed here is that these women did nothing wrong and white people want to silence them because they’re not white and they’re women.
After awhile, this argument stops working on everyone but the Woke, and I think we’re past that point. The liberal portions of the media continuing to use it every time they can just makes it easier for the Right to say the Left is always playing the race/sex/religion/whatever card.
Because they live in a bubble, the woke think these arguments (and shaming) works on everyone. And then they are stunned when elections don’t go their way.
Well, so much for the “Zionist controlled media”.
That accusation will no doubt be recycled when it suits the antisemitic agenda. Consistency is not a requirement for these people.
No, this is what’s so brilliantly insidious about the Zionist-controlled media! They pretend to hate Israel so we don’t know they control the media. It’s a genius plan: destroy your own homeland’s reputation just so you can keep your little media conspiracy. Nobody would ever suspect it, which is what makes it so brilliant!
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FYI, Tlaib & Omar planned their trip with an anti-semite org with ties to neo-nazis:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-partnered-with-vicious-anti-semites-to-plan-their-trip-to-israel/
Haha I just sent that one to Jerry. I hope enough people see it. They had a chance to go on a bipartisan trip to Israel, but wanted to plan one with a Palestinian organization that publishes American neo-Nazi propaganda and blood libel instead.
What is the source for your information on the true reason?
(other than the NYT?)
If they would have just shut up and backed off after Israel refused their admittance, they would have embarrassed Trump and Bibi. But NO, Tlaib had to push back. She obviously didn’t think it through, because she should have foreseen the reaction of her pro-Palestinian allies. But, as usual, the “woke” don’t see this.
I have to wonder where is the compassion of the critics of Israel for Tlaib’s grandmother.