In case you’re wondering where progressive House Democrats stand, they have decided to make it quite clear: Israel is a terrorist apartheid state, but hey, don’t be too tough on genocidal China. Criticism of Xi Jinping and the regime that millions of Chinese Americans fled could cause racist attacks against Asian Americans!
In pushing for a softer U.S. posture toward China, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said, “We need to distinguish between justified criticisms of the Chinese government’s human rights record and a Cold War mentality that uses China as a scapegoat for our own domestic problems and demonizes Chinese Americans.”
This, from the same person who has indulged in antisemitic tropes, stating that Israel has hypnotized the world and that Jews who support Israel are guilty of dual-loyalty.
Omar is not alone. Compare the position of New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman. “I strongly reject any anti-China rhetoric associated with this bill,” Bowman said, adding that we can’t address climate change without a relationship with China. On Israel’s government prioritizing vaccination of its own citizens, Bowman said, “this cruelty is another reminder of why the occupation must end.” Israel’s occupation of Gaza ended a decade and a half ago.
Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, the former chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, is at least consistent in his naivete. On China, Pocan says more military spending is not the answer, and “we need to prioritize diplomacy in our foreign policy.” Surely, just chatting with China’s genocidal and expansionist regime will do the trick. He also wants to strip money from Israel on the grounds that they strike back at the terrorists who are launching hundreds of missiles at them.
But Omar’s stances are the most egregious. On China, the biggest concern is U.S. rhetoric. On Turkey, recognizing the Armenian Genocide is a “political fight.” In foreign policy generally, sanctions are “economic warfare,” and on Venezuela and Iran specifically, sanctions are a “humanitarian and geopolitical disaster.” But Israel gets ludicrous accusations of apartheid. Sanctions? Well, against Israel, it’s simply “very different.”
Note that the U.S. government’s definition of antisemitism applies to forms of anti-Zionism that hold Israel to a unique and different standard than any other nation in the world. We don’t need additional proof that Omar is an antisemite, but there it is.
Between genocide, forced abortions, global pandemic, and the specter of military expansion currently looming over Taiwan, it is completely unacceptable to urge a softer touch on China because of “rhetoric” that is supposedly unacceptable. It is even more egregious to pretend that the recent attacks on Asian Americans are due to criticism of Xi Jinping rather than its far more likely causes — the very sort of resentment that the Left tacitly encourages toward people and groups who appear to be succeeding economically.
