Friday, March 8, 2019

Pelosi: Ilhan Omar Never, "Understood the full weight of her words.”



We have stressed on this blog that there has been a significant change in the political landscape in the United States and that the era of the domination of the two capitalist parties, Democrats ad Republicans, over US political life is over.

We have been witnessing this process over time as tens of millions of people in the US have opted out of the process altogether. The trade union hierarchy continues to encourage members to continue voting for a party that they abandoned long ago. A stalwart Democratic Party voter, if they’re honest, will tell you that they hold their nose and go vote while in the 2016 election, when the undemocratic Electoral College put the sexual predator Donald Trump in the White House, some 100 million people stayed home.  

After the mid-terms last November, the Democratic Party right wing were elated with their success and their ability to place some restraints on the Predator in Chief.  Pelosi was championed as the most powerful woman in the US (and by that account the world) as she reminded an idealistic young fella questioning her on socialist policies that "We're capitalists, and that's just the way it is" Confidence was definitely high.

Some of the new Congresspersons, notably Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib have been presenting a few problems for the party power with Ocasio-Cortez, while making waves, also softening her approach a little. But Ilhan Omar with her defense of Palestinians and her calling out the war criminal Eliot Abrams has opened up a hornet’s nest. Prior to nailing Abrams, Omar criticized the Zionist regime for its brutality and also Israel’s lobbying arm AIPAC.  She was accused of Anti-Semitism for her remarks and unfortunately, with pressure from the Democratic Party led by Pelosi and co. she apologized.

After the Eliot Abrams affair and Omar’s comment that, "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says that it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." with regard to members of Congress and support for Israel, there was an uproar over Anti-Semitism again. This accusation has been used in European history (and here as well) to discredit Jews as legitimate citizens. Omar responded to criticism for those remarks  tweeting, “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress.” 

The fact is that you sort of do if you don’t want a heavily financed campaign to dislodge you next election cycle. And it is not just Jewish politicians, and most of them are Zionists to a certain extent, but the Christian Zionists, they are far more numerous and more rabid in their defense of Israel especially as support for Israel among young Jews is not as strong as it was. The Evangelical Christian movement which strongly supports Israel, far outnumbers Jewish Americans.

Ilhan Omar should refrain apologizing again. She has simply spoken the truth about the US relationship with Israel. I put a video on our You Tube Channel yesterday and in it explained that the Democrats were introducing a resolution condemning Anti-Semitism in the wake of Omar’s remarks and there had been at that time a lot of pressure to actually name her.

In an indication of the changing state of US politics, within 24 hours, not only is any resolution that is introduced not going to name Ilhan Omar, the resolution is going to condemn Islamaphobia, Homophobia, White Supremacy and so on. The Democratic Party right wing led by Pelosi, Schumer etc, is having to back off a little bit. This is important and reflects the mood in US society which is not as conservative as people think, and the disdain that millions of people have for the two parties and their entrenched leaderships.

This outcome is of some concern not only in the the Democratic Party but also Republicans. Newt Gingrich waded in claiming Pelosi is losing control of her party: "She's clearly losing -- look, she is losing control of the House. They may be forced in a desperation move to change the House rules, to block Republicans from offering anything which would, I think, lead to chaos. But she can't get her party to stay together” The US ruling class is clearly in a bit of a panic over the state of its political parties.

Listen to Pelosi’s pathetic backsliding in the video. She says she doesn’t believe that Ilhan Omar’s comments had any Anti-Semitic intent but puts the blame squarely on Omar’s shoulders, saying she “…doesn’t believe that (Omar) understood the full weight of her words.”  Omar needs to come back in on this conversation and make it clear she understood exactly what she was saying and so does Pelosi. Pelosi is avoiding the issue, the real content of Ilhan Omar’s remarks and that is the US/Israeli relationship and the US support for this vicious Apartheid regime. I share my views on why the US/Israel relationship is so tight despite Israel’s brutality in the video linked above.

This is a small victory for the new Democratic members of Congress, in particular Ilhan  Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib and they and others need to take advantage of it. No more apologies for telling the truth. They need to confront Pelosi on her statements basically claiming Omar wasn’t aware of what she was saying.

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated the Democratic machine candidate in her election wedescribed this as a positive result. While we do not support the Democratic Party as a party that can represent the interests of working class people, we believed that her victory and the others would increase the likelihood of a left split.

I think this is inevitable at some point but it’s hard to say when and around whom. It would be best for all of us if Bernie would just go home after his announcement of his loyalty to this party that was evident with his endorsement of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and his recent confirmation of it.

I think the caliber of some of these new elements is somewhat higher. One can’t be absolutely sure because there will be a lot of temptations and treasures coming their way. Ilhan Omar has been approached and supported by Chelsea Clinton and I bet we will see the likes of Anne Hathaway and other petit bourgeois feminists reaching out to them as well as some of the left bureaucracy in the unions. None of these new forces are as yet recognizing that there is no future in the Democratic Party and remaining in it will prevent them from fighting for a better life for working class people.  The Schumer, Pelosi right wing in the party is having a hard time of it though that’s for sure.

One final note. On the question of dual loyalty, a criticism aimed at Jews throughout European history, and the Zionist experiment, the German Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt had this to say:

[T]he Zionists, if they continue to ignore the Mediterranean people and watch out only for the big faraway powers, will appear only as their tools, the agents of foreign and hostile interests. Jews who know their own history should be aware that such a state of affairs will inevitably lead to a new wave of Jew-hatred; the antisemitism of tomorrow will assert that Jews not only profiteered from the presence of foreign big powers in that region but had actually plotted it and hence are guilty of the consequences…
[T]he Zionists ended by making the Jewish national emancipation entirely dependent upon the material interests of another nation.
The actual result was a return of the new movement to the traditional methods of shtadlonus [court Jews], which the Zionists once had so bitterly despised and violently denounced. Now Zionists too knew no better place politically than the lobbies of the powerful, and no sounder basis for agreements than their good services as agents of foreign interests…
[O]nly folly could dictate a policy which trusts a distant imperial power for protection, while alienating the goodwill of neighbors.

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