It used to be that she landed on magazine covers despite her anti-Israel views. Now she’s landing on them because of them.
I figure we’re a year away from a cover feature somewhere, “Jews and Dual Loyalty: Maybe She Has a Point.”
At least this one is newsy, unlike that Rolling Stone glamour shot with Pelosi and AOC.
NEW COVER STORY: How @IlhanMN Is changing the conversation about Israel—and upending the 2020 campaign https://t.co/kgfcYvoUZ8 pic.twitter.com/a0Q0UYX4ns
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 9, 2019
“Changing the conversation about Israel” is an … interesting way to present someone who, within her first two months in Congress, proclaimed that AIPAC money was driving U.S. policy and then questioned the loyalty of Americans who support the world’s only Jewish state. The description’s not technically untrue. But then, a weirdly neutral headline about Steve King “changing the conversation about white nationalism” wouldn’t technically be untrue either.
I say this only half-jokingly: If we’re going to celebrate Jew-baiters for “changing the conversation” on Israel, why not put Farrakhan on the cover instead? He’s influenced far more people than Omar has.
Here’s Newsweek’s story, which dutifully notes that Omar is guilty of “using language easily regarded as anti-Semitic” but otherwise reserves judgment about whether her introduction into the debate over Israel is good or bad. In fairness, it’s arguable whether stories in this vein about the left’s turn against Israel should or shouldn’t showcase Omar. Putting her on the cover as the figure who’s driving a legitimate conversation about foreign policy risks mainstreaming her anti-semitic blather. But whose photo should they use to illustrate this subject instead? Far less well-known anti-Israel Democrats like Betty McCollum? That would be misleading. It’s not McCollum who forced a clash between left and right recently in the House over Israel.
Plus, look at it this way: If you support the Jewish state and want progressive opposition to it marginalized, having Ilhan Omar and her dual-loyalty views as the public face of that contingent isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Here’s a new clip making the rounds today. She’s changing the conversation about 9/11 too, apparently.
https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1115454942536327168
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