Israel Bars Democrats Omar, Tlaib From Country After Trump Says ‘They Hate All Jews’

Update:

Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Thursday the country would bar Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from visiting, as they had planned.

Earlier:

Last week, Axios reported that Donald Trump is disappointed with Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer.

Why? Well, simple. Dermer decided to take the high road when faced with the thorny question of whether to use Israel’s anti-BDS travel ban to block Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country on a planned trip this month.

Read more: Trump Said Israel Should Ban Ilhan Omar And Rashida Tlaib

Benjamin Netanyahu was initially dissuaded from blocking entry for Omar and Tlaib by the prospect of top Democrats rallying around their “sisters” (as Nancy Pelosi called “The Squad”, after finally deciding to support the dynamic AOC-led foursome in their war of words with the White House) and canceling a planned, AIPAC-sponsored Israel trip.

“Out of respect for the US Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America, we would not deny entry to any member of Congress into Israel”, Dermer said last month, in response to Omar’s announcement that she and Tlaib were planning a visit.

Now, it appears as though Netanyahu might change his mind.

“Caught between the opposing views of President Trump and Democratic leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now considering barring Omar and Tlaib from visiting Israel during a scheduled trip to start on Sunday”, the Washington Post said Thursday, noting that “the potential move threatens to open up a new battle between Netanyahu and Democrats, who have privately warned that such a decision would be unprecedented and inconsistent with Israel’s claims of tolerance and openness”.

The controversy stems from the two women’s antagonist stance towards the Israeli state, not to a deep-seated hatred of the Jewish people, as Trump would have you believe.

(Part and parcel of Trump’s criticism of Omar and Tlaib is a false narrative painting the two as anti-Semites. In a wild July 15 press conference, the president told reporters that Omar “hates Jews and loves al-Qaeda“, a contention so absurd and so inappropriate that the media found itself at a loss for words when it came to conveying the sheer, blatant audacity of Trump’s remarks.)

Well, on Thursday, the president took to Twitter to effectively instruct Netanyahu to ban entry to Omar and Tlaib.

“It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit”, Trump said, before unleashing this heinous assessment:

They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!

There’s a “disgrace” here, but it’s not Omar and Tlaib. Rather, it’s the president, who is once again stoking racial tensions with outright lies about two Muslim women who he has made a habit of disparaging over the past several months.

To be clear, Trump’s attacks on Omar and Tlaib are overtly Islamophobic and Fox News has dedicated segment after vile segment to painting Ilhan as an al-Qaeda sympathizer and a terrorist based on wholly ridiculous spin jobs centered around out-of-context soundbites.

Trump has learned absolutely nothing from recent violence across the country and Thursday’s tweet is still more evidence to support the contention that the proximate cause of the racial hatred bubbling up across America is the president’s Twitter feed.

Full statement from Rep. Omar