Tell MSNBC to stop blaming Ilhan Omar’s antisemitic tropes on “right-wing hatemongers.” Accusations of antisemitism have followed Rep. Ilhan Omar since she first arrived on the political scene.
The Minnesota Democrat supports the BDS campaign, has labeled Israel an apartheid state, and features antisemitic rhetoric in her public statements.
In 2012, she tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
In 2018, she claimed that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins,” alluding to the image of Benjamin Franklin on $100 bills and song of that name. Omar has also insinuated that her Jewish Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill have dual loyalties.
Despite these troubling statements, MSNBC published an article on its website blaming Omar’s antisemitism scandal on “right-wing hatemongers” who have “sought to other-ize her” for being Muslim.
According to media watchdog HonestReporting, “It does not take a genius to identify the antisemitic trope that she was hinting at” when she made the “Benjamins” remark — “that Jews are a sinister force who influence others to do their nefarious bidding.”
Why is MSNBC making excuses for Omar’s antisemitism, which draws on millennia-old anti-Jewish themes?
As HonestReporting points out, it is clear that MSNBC’s argument that Omar has “earned criticism solely because” she’s a “Muslim [woman]” and “largely from extreme right-wingers” is simply “utterly fallacious.”