Rashida Tlaib
His comments evoked immediate opposition from Jewish and pro-Israel groups; the Republican Jewish Coalition defended the president.
The president also questioned how Jewish voters could support the Democratic Party knowing the anti-Israel bias among certain members.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt: Reps. Tlaib and Omar shouldn’t have “lifted up” the work of a cartoonist who “mocks the Holocaust and traffics in #antiSemitic tropes.”
A fundraising email by left-wing political-action committee Democracy for America calls on people to “chip in whatever you can to stand with her and Ilhan as they continue to fight for justice for all.”
Said the usually liberal political commentator: “As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied. Forget about the intifadas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and how many wars.”
The cartoon by Brazilian-Lebanese artist Carlos Latuff depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu covering Tlaib’s mouth with his hand, while U.S. President Donald Trump does the same with Omar.
A group of Democrats say they no longer trust Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer or U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. One aide said “with Dermer, the issue is that there already was a severe lack of trust. But now there is a severe lack of confidence.”
Publications put out by the group Miftah use highly politicized language, accusing Israel of “massacres,” “apartheid,” “summary executions” of Palestinian youth and “Judaizing” Jerusalem, according to NGO Monitor.
After rejecting entry to Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) due to their support of the anti-Israel BDS movement, Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri approved a request by Tlaib to visit her grandmother in the West Bank on humanitarian grounds.
In a now deleted tweet, Lieu said: “Dear @USAmbIsrael: You are an American. Your allegiance should be to America, not to a foreign power.”
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer said the two congresswomen planned to meet with BDS groups, including one with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman stated that Israel “has every right to protect its borders against those activists in the same manner as it would bar entrants with more conventional weapons.”
