We've seen what looks like an explosion of antisemitism across the country, with people ripping down posters of hostages, including little children taken by Hamas, harassing students on college campuses, even preventing them from going to class, canceling Chanukah celebrations, vandalizing and threatening Jewish businesses.
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Congress even spoke to it this week and heard from students on college campuses about how bad it is. It was extremely concerning when college presidents from prestigious Ivy League colleges couldn't even say with clarity that calling for the genocide of Jews on campus constitutes bullying or harassment.
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But Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) spoke on Thursday outside the Capitol with a group called "Doctors Against Genocide" calling for a ceasefire now. She spoke about the people she seemed to cast as victims that she was concerned about -- people she said who were being "bullied" or "pushed aside." She railed against people "weaponizing antisemitism in a way to silence voices."
Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib accuses her critics of "weaponizing antisemitism in a way to silence voices" pic.twitter.com/fqDBb9RBqZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 7, 2023
"All of that needs to stop. You know, Americans have a right to speak up," Tlaib complained. "Americans have a right to the institutions they work at or the people that represent them to say, look, this is my opinion..."
" As we look at all these forms of hate, that it is not being weaponized in a way to silence voices like myself and...many of the voices that are here," she added.
Did she just complain about people calling out antisemitism? Because that's what it sounded like. Talk about a despicable take. So not only does she push antisemitic things, but she's mad that she and others like her are being called out on it. It sounds like she thinks they're the victims here. How dare those people call out antisemitism!
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) had a great take on this. I don't know if it was meant as a specific rebuttal, although the timing would be about right. But it certainly was a general rebuttal to the position that Tlaib was pushing.
The notion that the pro-Israel community is “weaponizing” antisemitism to silence criticism of the Israeli government is truly one of the most blatant lies in American politics.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 7, 2023
No one is more critical of the Israeli government than Israelis themselves.
It's an excuse to justify the antisemitism, this "I'm just criticizing the government." She tried that earlier and comedian Jon Lovitz busted her on it. No, "from the river to the sea" is saying you want to get rid of Israel and the Jews in it, and she put out a video with that in it.
So she can't try to spin that away now and pretend the fault is on the people calling out the hate and the harassment.
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