Texas Leading Again, This Time Against Anti-Semitism

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks during a press conference preceding a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on July 10, 2019 in Washington, DC.(Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

First, Texas led the way by putting an end to teaching "Critical Race Theory" to all levels of school children, seeing that such teaching could even cause anti-Semitism, and now is leading the way by adopting the bill to adopt the IHRA definition of what anti-Semitism amounts to.

It seems to be triggered by  Rashida Tlaib's highly anti-Semitic comments about Israel lately that were completely false, amounting to a great deal of anti-Semitic thinking which shocked other Senators who were far more knowlegable on the subject.   Jews in attendance must have been irate hearing about  her tweets.  "The eldest of 14 children, Rashida Harbi was born on July 24, 1976, to working-class Palestinian immigrants in Detroit."

                                                                    

              Here's a plot going on planning some ethnic cleansing-doing away with Jews.  This is Haj Amin al-Husseini, Sherif of Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti, appointed by the British during their 30 year holding the contract to administer Palestine.  He was the big-shot who wanted to be the king or ruler or what-have you.  Too bad for him that the Ottoman Empire lost the battle of WWI.  He and Hitler had a change of plans.  

She had her tweet ready and tweeted.   Tlaib’s tweet came in response to Israel launching airstrikes against Hamas targets in response to incendiary balloons fired from the Gaza Strip. This is what has been happening daily since the 11 day attack of Gaza against Israel; incendiary balloons causing fires in all of ISRAEL'S wheat fields, produce, etc.  She accused Israel in her tweet of ethnic cleansing.   If anyone could be accused of that, more likely it was the Palestinians against the Jews.  Every act of Israel has been that of defense, certainly not offense.  

"After racist and violent ‘death to Arabs’ marches earlier today in Jerusalem, children in Gaza are being woken by bombs in the middle of the night,” Tlaib tweeted, referencing a flag march earlier in the day. “Israel’s government doesn’t value Palestinian lives. It has managed a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S.”  

Anti-Defamation League (ADL(CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted in response on June 16, “We can and should have policy debates. But pushing a narrative libelously accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing or not seeing Palestinians as human – or focusing only on Israeli airstrikes without recognizing those are responses to attacks by terrorists – is wrong and dangerous.”   and that Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” is “dangerous.”

Texas passed the bill to define anti-Semitism.  The Working Definition of Antisemitism (also called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism or IHRA definition) is a 38-word statement on what antisemitism is. The statement reads:

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

Accompanying the definition are eleven illustrative examples, of which seven relate to Israel.

Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.
 
Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

• Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.(ISIS)
• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
• Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation. (This has gone on constantly in UN) 
• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

Antisemitic acts are criminal when they are so defined by law (for example, denial of the Holocaust or distribution of antisemitic materials in some countries).
 
Criminal acts are antisemitic when the targets of attacks, whether they are people or property – such as buildings, schools, places of worship and cemeteries – are selected because they are, or are perceived to be, Jewish or linked to Jews.
 
Antisemitic discrimination is the denial to Jews of opportunities or services available to others and is illegal in many countries.

In 2016, the working definition and its list of examples was adopted by a plenary meeting of the 31 countries in the IHRA.  In 2020, Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) published a definition of antisemitism which states that: "antisemitism is not an exceptional form of bigotry. People who hate, discriminate and/or attack Jews, will also hate, discriminate and/or attack other protected groups—including racialized people, Muslims, LGBTQ2+, women, Indigenous peoples." 

Following its adoption by the IHRA, the working definition has been adopted for internal use by a number of government and political institutions: as at June 2021, the definition has been adopted or recognized by 36 countries, as well as the European Parliament and other national and international bodies.

Objections to the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism motivated the creation of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, released in March 2021. This document, signed by some 200 international scholars, is intended to be used instead of the IHRA definition, or as a supplement to guide interpretation of the IHRA definition for groups that have already adopted it.

In the same month, a group of scholars and leaders affiliated with the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California called the "Nexus Task Force" published a definition undertaking to understand antisemitism "at its nexus with Israel and Zionism" and asserting that most criticism of Zionism and of Israel is not antisemitic. This definition was endorsed by "more than 100 prominent Jewish leaders in a September letter to President Joe Biden".  Nexus actually means a connection.  (connection, link the nexus between teachers and students also : a causal link the nexus between poverty and crime. 2 : a connected group or series a nexus of theories a nexus of relationships.) 

The accepted take on this is that it's okay to criticize Israel as one would criticize any other country, but when it comes to more than that-it is plain old anti-Semitism.  

Let's face it.  Israel is the only Jewish country in the world, created out of dire necessity.  Another fact to face:  Anti-Semitism started in the 300s.  It's never ended.  Even in the good old USA, it has prevailed.  Anti-Semitism balances between feelings, acts, bad and even violent causing deaths throughout the ages.  It's getting worse today, mirror imaging the acts done to Israel.  There wasn't needed an Israel to copy before 1948.  We did have the Holocaust where Nazis tried to exterminate every single one of us ending in 1945.  There's always been reasons, imagined, where Jews have been the scapegoat of the world, and now the scapegoat is Israel and we in the diaspora are also goats.  You cannot leave out Israel in any judgement of whether something is an anti-Semitic act or not.  Jews and Israel are in a relationship whether they like it or not.  We always have been.

International human rights lawyer, Arsen Ostrovksy, similarly tweeted that Tlaib was promulgating “more lies.” “The chants were vile and also condemned. Meantime, no mention by you what led to strikes on Gaza, [which] was Hamas firing dozens of incendiary devices on southern Israel, scorching countless amount on land. Stop shilling for Hamas and inciting racial hatred!”

These are the committees Tlaib serves on:  These are the Oversight and Reform subcommittees Congresswoman Tlaib also serves on:

House Committee on Financial Services : The Committee oversees all components of the nation's housing and financial services sectors including banking, insurance, real estate, public and assisted housing, and securities.

• Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy
• Subcommittee on the Environment- Vice Chair

In addition, Rep. Tlaib has joined the following caucuses:

• Auto Caucus
• Black Maternal Healthcare Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Democratic Women's Caucus
• Free Syria Caucus
• Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Legislative Caucus
• Historically Black Colleges & Universities Caucus
• House Manufacturing Caucus
• LGBT Equality Caucus
• Medicare for All Caucus
• Pro-Choice Caucus
• Small Brewers Caucus

Update: 6/18/21 7:30am  Tlaib, born and raised in Detroit, is the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress. She supports the one-state solution and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Due to their support of the BDS movement, Israel barred Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering the country in 2019 shortly after their elections.  American Jewish leaders say tweets by the two Democrats stoke anti-Semitic tensions and create an environment that normalizes Jews-hatred. 

(https://unitedwithisrael.org/us-congresswoman-tlaib-blasted-for-dangerous-anti-semitic-accusation/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage)

Resource;

https://jewishjournal.com/news/337805/adl-ceo-tlaib-tweet-accusing-israel-of-ethnic-cleansing-is-dangerous/

JBS News, TV, out of New York

https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism

https://tlaib.house.gov/about/committees-and-caucuses

https://freesyria.org/syria-caucus/??I find no mention of what it's being freed from;  USA?  Russians?  Iran?  Syrians?  This is supposed to be a learning about Syria group.