Called to task for defending her 2012 comment that “Israel has hypnotized the world” and blinded others to its “evil doings,” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar apologized—and promptly received offers of “dialogue” from Jewish leaders. A few weeks later, she again blamed U.S. support for Israel on nefarious Jewish influence. Edward Luttwak, taking inspiration from French and British responses to political anti-Semitism in the 1930s, argues that the only proper response is not dialogue but firm and united Jewish opposition:
British Jews [in the 1930s] were divided on Zionism but not on anti-Semitism. Nobody suggested any form of dialogue that would have legitimized their enemies, as any dialogue must. There was instead a very determined effort to support the friends of the Jews in British politics, starting with the Manchester-centered Liberal establishment. . . . Winston Churchill, then still the enfant terrible of British politics, had a serious drinking problem, an equally serious money problem, and no prospect of ever being a minister again. But he too was supported. The Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch (who made a point of telling Jewish stories to Churchill) pitched in with timely stock-picking advice. Even Leslie Hore-Belisha, then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s secretary of state for war, but also a Jew, unabashedly supported Churchill. . . .
[L]ong before Churchill became prime minister in 1940—because of the German victory in Norway, not because of the Jews—the struggle had been won. . . .
In the United States, [the equivalent strategy would today involve] supporting the Republican candidate in a race if the Democrat is anti-Israel. Those who favor “dialogue” with the likes of Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar appear to be driven by the delusion that our enemies would not be so if only they knew us better, or if we stood in solidarity with them on issues of mutual concern. I have no doubt that one or both [politicians] even received Jewish money for their election campaigns. Ilhan Omar was bizarrely featured as a fitting heroine for young American children in a brochure paid for and distributed by the Anti-Defamation League.
The good news is that we live in a democracy, and there is another election coming up soon enough. Let the opponents [of anti-Semitic politicians] receive all proper encouragement and support, both local and national. When it comes to those who proclaim anti-Jewish hate, the American Jewish community needs to follow the examples set by British and French Jews when confronted with even greater threats: stop dialoguing and start winning.
Read more on Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/281174/tlaib-omar-no-more-mr-nice-jew