An open letter to Rep. Ilhan Omar

By Bruce S. Ticker

PHILADELPHIA — Thanks, Ilhan Omar, for your most recent words: “This is endangering lives. It has to stop.”

I presume from this time forward you will close the book on your abrasive screeds that have caused me excessive discomfort because I am Jewish and support Israel. Oh, sure, it is evident that you have legitimate concerns about Israel and its supporters in America, but you compound your attitudes with insults and distortions.

You even lie, telling Jews in suburban St. Louis Park – before election day – that the BDS movement is counter-productive, and then after you are elected to Congress you are quoted saying that you are for BDS, the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions campaign to drain Israel economically.

As you have put it, “It has to stop.”

I have not received death threats as you have, and I have not feared being attacked. Certainly, one never knows when someone who is anti-Israel will assault me if they recognize that I am Jewish.

Mostly, I have contended with many disturbing chats – verbally and on social media – where people automatically treat me as if I speak for the Israeli government. Because I am Jewish, they assume I am rich and part of the white establishment that oppresses people of color and spends most of our tax dollars on foreign wars.

Never mind that I vote Democratic, as do roughly 67 to 80 percent of Jews, because of the party’s progressive domestic policies and attempts to relax tensions around the world.

Thanks, too, for your statement: “We are all Americans.” You consider me an American. At last. Oops. You were not talking about me. It’s all about you.

Your comments apply only to the rhetoric directed at you that you correctly fear could inflame passions – against you. It has already triggered death threats, as with the prosecution of an upstate New York man who was charged with sending you death threats, according to the Associated Press.

Donald J. Trump is now treating you as a campaign issue for dismissively stating that “some people did something” when hijacked commercial jets smashed into the World Trade Towers in lower Manhattan, killing almost 3,000 people.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the nation’s top Democratic office-holder, rightfully sought to ensure your safety on Capitol Hill, saying, “The President’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger. President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video.”

Pelosi was referring to a video in a Trump tweet depicting your four-word statement accompanied by news footage of the tragedy.

Then you add, “Violent crimes and other acts of hate by right-wing extremists and white nationalists are on the rise in this country and around the world. We can no longer ignore that they are being encouraged by the occupant of the highest office in the land.”

So, it is all about you. We can ignore that a progressive representative from Minneapolis and its inner suburbs is encouraging “violent crimes and other acts of hate” by left-wing extremists and Palestinian nationalists.

This is not only hypocrisy but behavior that is far worse. You take advantage, as you should, of your rights as an American citizen, yet when it suits you you leverage the vicious tactics of a backwards culture. While you demand civility when the spotlight shines on you, you do not mind making me – not to mention my fellow 6 million American Jews – feel distraught when you condemn Israel for its “evil doings” and infer Jews here would toss America under the Iron Dome for Israel’s sake.

I suspect that Pelosi resents you for personal and political reasons. She has backed Israel and befriended Jews since childhood, and she struggles to fend off Republican policies, hold onto Democratic control of the House and oust the GOP from the White House and the Senate majority in 2020.

Pelosi ordered an assessment of your security because it is her job to protect all members of Congress, even if they are Republicans or hypocritical Democrats who make her job harder. She respects America’s way enough to make certain that the rights and safety of us all are ensured.

Perhaps you and other representatives dubbed “progressive” are targeted by Trump and other Republicans because of gender, race or faith, in your case as an African Muslim woman from Somalia. However, you gave the GOP some compelling ammunition to pummel you. You set yourself up.

Despite bitter feelings, I hope you are safe because the same system benefits us all. Just do not expect me to feel sorry for you.
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Ticker is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia.