It’s striking how rapidly things have changed since January 2019.
Back then, congressional Democrats still felt empowered to stigmatize leftist extremism, including open antisemitism. That month saw Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, so repulsed by the Women’s March leadership’s overt antisemitism that she penned an op-ed about why she wouldn’t march with them (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did). Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, publicly called out antisemitism from then-new Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, in February 2019 and urged the House of Representatives to “singularly condemn antisemitism” in March. In August 2019, Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, criticized Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, by name for sharing a political cartoon by Carlos Latuff, the runner-up in Iran’s 2006 International Holocaust Cartoon Contest.
House Democratic centrists are more muted now.
They’ve seen the House’s failure to condemn Omar by name for repeated antisemitism, Omar’s winning reelection with antisemitic smears, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s endorsing and donating to that reelection bid. Those concerned about leftist extremism are essentially on their own. So, when Deutch and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, recently criticized their leftist colleagues for endangering Jews with inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric, they did it without naming names.
In that context, it’s notable that 12 of the House’s 25 Jewish Democrats signed a mild statement, requesting that Omar “clarify” her “offensive” and “misguided” comments. Their statement came after Omar compared the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban — earning Hamas’s denunciation. The other 13 Democrats either don’t mind a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s blurring the line between democracies and designated terrorist groups, or very likely, they’re terrified of publicly criticizing her.
Those opposing Omar’s latest provocation should have been more numerous. Omar’s was conduct unbecoming for a member of Congress. One also needn’t be Jewish to find it offensive. Where was the rest of the Democratic caucus? And why did the Democratic leadership subsequently issue a statement pretending yet again that Omar didn’t mean exactly what she said? As Pelosi made crystal clear, Democrats won’t be censuring Omar or stripping her committee assignments, even though Omar deserves both.
Too many Democrats prefer ignoring Omar’s egregious remarks to confrontation, lest they harm their reelection prospects or attract harassment.
Twitter mobs have a way of forming in support of Omar. Her friends on the Hill are consistently vocal in the media and on social media. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that those 12 Democrats are endangering Omar. Tlaib said her “colleagues (both D+R)” are “demonizing” Omar. Rep. Cori Bush accused critics of “anti-Blackness and Islamophobia.” And Omar herself charged that the group statement used Islamophobic tropes — but identified none.
Public attacks and a lack of support from House colleagues, including Democratic leadership, raise the stakes. They also help explain why Rep. Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat who led the group statement, told Jewish Insider, “I am pleased Rep. Ilhan Omar heard our concerns about her tweet, issued a clarification, and agrees with our point,” and Rep. Lois Frankel, a Florida Democrat, said, “I am pleased that Rep. Omar has clarified her remarks. I look forward to talking to her in person next week.” Of course, nobody clear-eyed believes Omar agreed with any raised points or clarified anything beyond her hostility toward the 12 signatories. That Schneider and Frankel felt compelled to race past this scandal is instructive.
If Omar were a Corbynist caucus of one or were effectively marginalized by more centrist Democrats, her extremism might be considered eccentric. The reality, though, is that congressional leftists wield greater power than their numbers imply because more mainstream Democrats avoid necessary confrontations. Omar and her ideological allies are the tail-wagging Democratic dog.
The 12 Jewish Democrats who very gently disagreed with Omar’s radical comparison were serving the nation and their party. Their cowardly colleagues won’t thank them, and Omar won’t reciprocate the collegiality. In fact, Omar’s already fundraising off the incident. But if more congressional Democrats don’t start speaking up, and forcefully, for fear of losing power, they’ll likely regret it. American Corbynists will take that failure as fuel and act more ardently to replace them.
Melissa Langsam Braunstein (@slowhoneybee) is a former State Department speechwriter and an independent writer in Washington, D.C.
