Last week, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, freshly returned from a trip to Israel, used his authority to prevent his colleague Rashida Tlaib from holding an event lamenting the creation of Jewish state. Tlaib, however, was able to commemorate “Nakba Day” in the Senate side of the Capitol on Tuesday, thanks to the intervention of Bernie Sanders. Thus attendees could witness the spectacle of the congresswoman declaring, “No child should ever have to worry what will fall from the sky,” as—in the words of Lahav Harkov—“children across Israel’s south slept in safe rooms to protect themselves from rockets shot by Palestinian terrorists.” Noah Rothman comments:
Sanders can host whatever meetings he likes as chair of the Senate Labor Committee, and even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer couldn’t stop him. But he could have objected to the display if the avowed defender of Zionism found it objectionable. Schumer’s office has yet to issue any statement about this display, though a source close to the senator told the New York Post that he was caught off guard by the event. Indeed, among Senate Democrats, so far only the Nevada senator Jacky Rosen condemned the event, calling it “deeply offensive,” a distortion of the history around Israel’s founding, and a rejection of America’s support for Israel’s right to exist.
Even Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO who is congenitally loath to associate himself with a cause or position that might be confused with a conservative point of view, savaged Tlaib and her abettors. It is “disgraceful that Senator Sanders allowed this event by Rep. Rashida to be held in our nation’s Capitol,” Greenblatt said. He added that a conversation around “a path to peace” in the Middle East could not be had with people who “espouse anti-Semitism,” and he called on the U.S. Senate to condemn the event.
Greenblatt shouldn’t hold his breath. But the press should pull on the thread he has exposed. Will Democrats in Congress and the White House continue to have it both ways—professing their unwavering support for Israel’s right to self-defense while shrugging their shoulders over the commandeering of their property to broadcast [attacks] against Israel’s very existence? They will so long as political media is inclined to look the other way. Sadly, it’s likely that reporters will continue to avert their eyes rather than confront Senate Democrats with yet another grotesque embarrassment that Bernie Sanders and Rashida Tlaib have engineered for their party.
Read more on National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/rashida-tlaibs-nakba-event-a-catastrophe-in-the-senate/