Steve Kramer – Dana Milbank’s “Quintessentially American” (Not)
Just a week after writing critically about an article by a well known journalist in an influential publication, I again feel the necessity to respond to the utter nonsense that these prominent “experts” espouse to their large readerships. Both Dana Milbank and Peter Beinart are Jewish. What “liberal” attitudes cause them to support Israel’s (and Jews’) enemies? More personally, why are they supporting their enemies? So, are you more upset that Jewish liberals write these articles or that Jewish readers go along with it?
Ilhan Omar, the congresswoman President Trump’s chanting mob would deport to Africa, sat onstage Tuesday with fellow Muslims, before an audience of Muslims, taking questions from Muslims. And what she said was quintessentially American. So wrote Yale graduate (c. 1990) Dana Timothy Milbank, a Jewish American author and columnist for The Washington Post. (7/23/19)
Quintessentially American? Milbank is writing about the neophyte Congresswoman from Minnesota who has made a name for herself as one of the “squad,” four new Representatives “of color,” members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who rail against contemporary life in the US and especially about their antagonists, President Trump and Jews.
“Quintessential” means representing the most typical or perfect example of a particular quality or class. It’s quite a stretch to use that adjective to describe Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim immigrant. Omar was brought to the US from Somalia at a young age and brought with her radicalism and hatred for Jews. Making a terrible trait even worse, she is very free with her insults. Omar sometimes makes mealy-mouthed apologies about her statements, successfully attracting naive Jewish liberals to support her. Below is a comment from last year, in an interview with Al Jazeera:
bizpacreview.com: “I would say our country should be more fearful of white men [than of Muslim terrorists] across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country. And so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep America safe — Americans safe inside of this country — we should be profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.
See more examples in the Appendix.
What prompted Dana Milbank to write the following describing Omar as quintessentially American?
The head of a group called Muslims for Progressive Values asked her to speak out against the practice of female genital mutilation [a fairly common practice in Muslim and Arab communities]. Omar silenced the room by calling the question “appalling.” Noting that she already “put out statements upon statements” on the topic, she said she’s “quite disgusted, to be honest, that as Muslim legislators we are constantly being asked to waste our time speaking to issues that other people are not asked to speak to.” She mockingly asked whether she needs “to be on repeat every five minutes… She said the questions imply that, because she’s Muslim, she might support things “so abhorrent, so offensive, so evil, so vile.”
Her all-American outrage vented, Omar concluded: “I would like , not just for you, but for everyone to know that if you want us to speak as politicians, American politicians, then you treat us as such.” The audience broke into cheers and applause. I felt like joining in.
Milbank wrote that Omar remains ill-defined beyond the monstrous caricature President Trump has made of her with his racist slander. I and many others say that Omar demonstrates that she is a racist by her own words and actions.
Milbank lauded Omar for representing American values far better than the President. “She spoke of Muslims as part of America’s expanding democracy, united not by race or religion but love of country and reverence for its Constitution.” Nonsense! Omar would like nothing better than to have (Islamic) Sharia law replace the Constitution. (See Geller Report quote in appendix.)
Could there be a more American creed?” asks Dana Milbank. There certainly is, or God help the USA. It’s regrettable that publications like the Washington Post regularly print drivel like this article from Milbank, a well educated naif. Yes, both Dana Milbank and Peter Beinart are Jewish liberals. But unfortunately, that label has lost its former meaning of tolerant objectivity.
Appendix (4 more Omar quotes)
Jewish News Syndicate: “Pro-Israel groups denounced U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for comparing the anti-Israel BDS movement to previous boycotts of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. On Thursday, Omar announced a resolution supporting the right to boycott Israel. Her resolution seeks to push back against U.S. laws that ban the boycott of Israel, while affirming the right of Americans to organize boycotts of foreign countries.
“Americans of conscience have a proud history of participating in boycotts to advocate for human rights abroad including … boycotting Nazi Germany from March 1933 to October 1941 in response to the dehumanization of the Jewish people in the lead-up to the Holocaust,” said Omar in the pro-BDS resolution, co-sponsored by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.), introduced this week.” (7/18/19)
newsweek.com: Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota retweeted a post Sunday implying that she believed the Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was paying American politicians to hold pro-Israel positions.
Omar had retweeted the journalist Glenn Greenwald earlier Sunday, who had retweeted a news story about California GOP representative Kevin McCarthy promising action against Omar and the Democratic representative for Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, for alleged anti-Semitism. Omar had captioned Greenwald’s tweet with the comment: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.” (2/22/19)
NYPost.com: Omar, 37, was responding to a tweet from New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey when she made the alleged anti-Semitic comments Sunday.
“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee,” Omar tweeted. (3/3/19)
This was a veiled insult of dual loyalty against Rep. Nita Lowey, who is Jewish, and against American Jews in general.
GellerReport.com: “The underlying impetus for Omar’s claims [anti-Semitic and disparaging remarks about Jews and Israel] appears to be rooted in Shari’a law—which means submission to the law of the Qur’an. Because Omar self-identifies as a Muslim, and by the very definition of Islam, it appears that her allegiance to the Qur’an outweighs any [other] allegiance she may have claimed to make to the U.S. Constitution.” (2/19/19)
