A New Anti-Semite in Our Government: Ilhan Omar

Nadene Goldfoot                                 

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar was just voted in as a Minnesotan Democrat as a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, from Somali.  She's very anti-Semitic, as if our government needed this.  She's the first elected Somali (belongs to the Majeerteen clan from Northeastern Somalia.) our government has ever had.  She was born October 4, 1981 in Mogadishu, the capital of Somali, Africa, making her 37 years old.  "She spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp before settling in the Twin Cities in the late 1990s.  Ilhan is a Somali American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district for 2 years prior to this. January 3, 2019 was the date she took office.
                                                       

Civil War 1991

  Her family had settled in Minnesota in 1997 after leaving Somalia during a Civil War when Ilhan was eight, in 1989. Bush was our president then.  Her naturalization process hasn't been found as yet.  "Her naturalization is said to have been done in 2000 at the age of 17? The immigration laws are certainly very confusing but I am not sure that someone under the age of 18 whose parent and grandparent are also naturalized before the end of the first five years of refugee status/naturalization can become a naturalized citizen at 17. Someone with far more understanding would have to comment on this."  

Ethnic Somalis first emigrated to the Twin Cities as voluntary migrants in the 1980s and earlier.  A large group came from 2004-2006 under George Walker Bush.  It picked up again from 2012-2014  under Obama's administration.  
"St. Paul-Minneapolis has the largest Somali diaspora in the world. "In early 2016, the Minnesota Demographers Office gave an estimate that there are between 40,200 and 52,400 Somalis in Minnesota. That includes people born in Somalia and of Somalia descent. Some from the Somali community put the number as high as 80,000 Somalis living in Minnesota."  After 9/11 the police took note of the burgeoning Somali community."  "FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined. And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS." "With by far the largest Somali American population in the United States - estimates of up to 100,000 - the insular ethnic community in Minnesota offers a rich recruiting ground." "Of the 97,046 Somali refugees admitted to the U.S. since the fall of 2001, 99.6 percent were Muslim, and 28,836 (29.7 percent) were males between the ages of 14 and 50."
                                                    

This is what is going on in Mogadishu, Somalia, training for al Shabab terrorism  
which is a jihadist fundamentalist group based in East Africa. In 2012, it pledged allegiance to the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda
                                                
She was married to  Ahmed Nur Said Elmi but divorced in 2017 and has 3 children.  Ilhan has 7 siblings all older than she, whose mother died when she was 2 years old.  Her father was a teacher trainer.    "The United States House of Representatives has had 153 elected African-American members, of whom 147 have been Representatives from U.S. states and 6 have been Delegates from U.S. territories and the District of Columbia."

It all happened on November 6, 2018 when she was elected to the US Congress, being the first naturalized citizen from Africa to ever be elected as well as the first from Somali Africa.  She's a Muslim and again, is a first woman of color to ever serve from Minnesota, known for their Swedish population more than any other nationality.   Rashida Tlaib, another woman of color and also a Muslim, was also elected, so she's not alone.  
                                                     

Somalia, country of about 15 million

Calling herself a Democratic Socialist, "however, unlike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, who were also elected to Congress in 2018, Omar was neither a member of nor endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.  It was only a few years ago that most Americans saw Socialism as only a step away from Communism, something our country has gone to great lengths to combat.  Perhaps our first step into Socialism is our Social Security program, but that is created by each worker who had some of their income deducted every month that went into their account for their old age.  It was invested money.  We figured the government could do it better than we could individually.  Since then, we know that our government has dipped into it to pay for other things, so expect it to remain in good standing for those of us still alive and using it.  That's not the Socialism Ilhan and the other two are working to have.  

She opposes President Trump in every way.  She wants student loan debt forgiveness, the protection of DACA, the abolition of ICE, and of course strongly opposes the immigration policies of the Trump administration, being against the travel ban.  She is listed as a progressive, but others see it as socialism, and she does, too.  She supports access to a living wage for all as well as affordable housing and healthcare.  Well, don't we all, but most of us except to get these things with the proceeds of their employment for which we find through our education and our talents.  

Getting into the nitty gritty of what she wants, She supports free tuition for college students whose family income is below $125,000 as well as greater accessibility to student loan forgiveness programs.  That's pretty much free college for all except the exception of people in a higher category. If college is free, is there a point in working hard in high school to gain admittance into college?   She wants a Medicare program for all people of all ages, not just those past 65.  She calls Trump's wall plans racist and sinful, of course and supports sanctuary cities.  

As for Israel, "During her time in the Minnesota legislature, Omar was critical of the Israeli government and opposed a law intended to restrict the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She compared the movement to people who "engaged in boycotts" of apartheid in South Africa. During her House campaign, she said she did not support the BDS movement, describing it as counterproductive to peace. However,  after the election, her position changed, as her campaign office told Muslim Girl that she supports the BDS movement despite "reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution."   Omar has voiced support for a two-state solution to resolve the decades-old Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She criticized Israel's settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank."  All these are ancient arguments that even I have proven to be incorrect historically.  Considering her background, I am not surprised she would find fault in every way with Israel.  

She has not hidden her anti-Semitic upbringing and feelings, either. 

Just last week, she tweeted:  "That is the none-too-subtle claim she made last Sunday evening in a series of tweets and retweets that has ignited a furor over antisemitism in the Democratic party.
                                                      

Omar began by responding to Glenn Greenwald, a widely-known critic of Israel who lamented that members of Congress defended Israel. She tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” suggesting the influence of money.

"In 2018, Omar came under criticism for statements she made about Israel before she was in the Minnesota legislature, which the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported had "earned her notoriety in the pro-Israel community." In a 2012 tweet, she wrote, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. The comment, particularly the notion that Israelis had "hypnotized the world," was criticized as drawing on anti-semitic tropes. New York Times columnist Bari Weiss wrote that Omar's statement tied into a millennia-old "conspiracy theory of the Jew as the hypnotic conspirator". When asked in an interview how she would respond to American Jews who found the remark offensive, Omar replied, "I don’t know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish Americans. My comments precisely are addressing what was happening during the Gaza War and I’m clearly speaking about the way the Israeli regime was conducting itself in that war." Later, after reading Weiss's commentary, Omar apologized for not "disavowing the anti-Semitic trope I unknowingly used".  

In February 2019, Omar was criticized for tweets that appeared to imply that money spent by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was the primary motivation for American politicians' support of Israel. These comments were criticized by Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, with the Democratic House leadership releasing a statement that called Omar's tweets antisemitic and "deeply offensive." The Jewish Democratic Council of America also denounced her statements. Omar issued an apology the next day, stating, "My intention is never to offend constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole", but adding, "I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry.  

                                                    

The Muslim Minnesotans rioted, attacking the police 

In 2016 a terror attacked by a Somali refugee occurred.  "The man who carried out a terror attack at a mall in central Minnesota on Saturday night was identified by family as Dahir Adan, a 22-year-old Somali-American college student whose father said was born in Africa and came to the U.S. 15 years ago, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The attacker stabbed nine people at the Crossroads Center in St. Cloud, a city of 67,000 about 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis, before an off-duty police officer shot and killed him."

"Somali-American community leaders condemned the attack, which Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) claimed was carried out by “a soldier of the Islamic state.”

Later, "nine young men from the community were arrested on suspicion of plotting to join ISIS in Syria. Six pleaded guilty, while the other three were convicted  in June 2016 of plotting to join the group and commit murder abroadl"

Ilhan, the anti-Semitic Socialist, hasn't been in office very long and already is making money with a book deal.  "Omar stands to gain a nice profit with her January 2019 book deal according to Forbes. She has sold her debut memoir This Is What America Looks Like to Dey Street Books chronicling her life from Somalia to congresswoman. The deal was listed as a “good deal,” meaning ranging from $100,000 – $250,000. Will she set it in trust?  

There have been some Jews who once tried to live in Somalia.    Jewish survival in a hostile Somali environment under constant threat of attack by Al Shabaab and the clan warlords was pretty unbearable", told to the Jerusalem Post .  "The Yibir are a tribe that lives in Somalia, eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti, and northern Kenya. Though they have been Muslim for centuries, some of them assert they are descendants of Hebrews who arrived in the Horn of Africa long before the arrival of Somali nomads. These individuals assert that Yibir means "Hebrew" in their language.

Outside the Yibir, there is essentially no known current or historic Jewish community in Somalia."

                                                

 "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaches out to Africa, made manifest by Somalia’s President Hassan Sheik Mohammed unofficially visiting Israel in 2016.   

                                                                

Two Muslim women ran for president in Somalia in 2016.  

Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda

According to US Army General Carter Ham, al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda in Islamic 

Maghreb (AQIM), and the Nigeria-based Boko Haram (BH) were as of June 2012 attempting to synchronize and coordinate their activities in terms of sharing funds, training, and explosives.Ham added that he believed that the collaboration presented a threat to both U.S. homeland security and the local authorities. However, according to counter-terrorism specialist Rick Nelson with the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies, there was little evidence that the three groups were targeting U.S. areas, as each was primarily interested in establishing fundamentalist administrations in their respective regions. In May 2014, Senior Al-Shabab member Fuad Shongole stated that al-Shabab fighters would carry out jihad, or holy war, in Kenya and Uganda "and afterward, with God's will, to America.

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilhan_Omar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSP6hTDsKqA the decline of Somalia on you tube. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_United_States_Representatives
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/What-There-were-Jews-in-Somalia-540076
https://www.foxnews.com/us/how-rep-ilhan-omars-minnesota-district-became-the-terrorist-recruitment-capital-of-the-us-officials-highly-concerned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Somalis_in_Minneapolis%E2%80%93Saint_Paul
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/almost-100000-somali-refugees-admitted-us-911
https://www.city-journal.org/html/curious-case-ilhan-omar-14724.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group)
Update: 3/4/19:  https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/03/01/controversial-congresswoman-ilhan-omar-slammed-for-latest-israel-remarks/...she keeps up the comments about Jews backing Israel...to her you can't do that...so anti-Semitic
Update: https://www.bizpacreview.com/2019/03/03/america-needs-to-wake-up-to-islamification-of-us-uk-activist-warns-what-comes-after-elections-are-won-citing-omar-as-example-729250?utm_campaign=bizpac&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Get+Response&utm_term=EMAIL
Update: 3/13/19 : https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/03/10/ilhan-omar-and-the-axis-of-antisemitism/
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