Sunday, August 18, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
I initially thought that Rashida Tlaib only wrote her letter asking to visit her grandmother with the proviso of not promoting boycotting Israel with the expectation that Israel would refuse, thereby making her into a martyr of sorts.
But since then news articles indicate that Tlaib buckled under pressure from extremists who hated the idea of her visiting the West Bank without a political agenda.
The New York Times reported "A storm of Palestinian criticism on social media denounced Ms. Tlaib for selling out the cause in exchange for a glimpse of her grandmother, and a few hours after gaining Israeli approval, she announced that she would not come after all."
Outrageously, the story has since been changed and this section is no longer in the story (the original story is archived here.)
Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post also notes the initial negative reaction to Tlaib's decision to go, and her about-face:
Some Palestinians criticized Tlaib (D-Michigan) for writing a letter to Interior Minister Arye Deri requesting permission to visit her relatives in the village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah.
Tlaib’s letter drew criticism from several Palestinians, who took to social media to express their opposition to the congresswoman’s request to visit her relatives in accordance with Israeli preconditions.
Her critics did not like Tlaib’s pledge not to promote boycotts against Israel and called on her to reject Israeli preconditions. “Why didn’t she ask her grandmother for her opinion about the Israeli preconditions?” asked one Palestinian on Facebook. “Her grandmother would have surely said no.”
The uproar apparently prompted Tlaib to backtrack, saying she will not allow the Israeli government to humiliate her.
The Washington Post also noted the reactions of Palestinians to the news that Tlaib might quietly visit:
For many Palestinians, the fact that Tlaib accepted these terms was itself an affront, a humiliating compromise in which she was made to forgo her opinions to see her loved ones.
“Israel is the oppressor and its racist attitude towards Palestinians is established policy,” Nour Odeh, a Palestinian journalist, wrote on Twitter. “Rashida should have known better. She should have acted with more dignity & pride.”
NPR reports this as well.
It seems that Tlaib really did want to see her grandmother, but she did not have the conviction to stand up to her critics from even further left. She sacrificed visiting her "sitty" to avoid unpleasantness from a few Palestinian extremists.
Tlaib likes to present herself as a champion for leftist causes, as someone who stands up to pressure. But when the pressure comes from her own side, she is gutless. Her justification for her about-face is pure politics, and her own grandmother is paying the price for her cowardice.
This is a perfect example of how leftist politics works nowadays. Even far-left politicians cannot deal with criticism from their own left. They will conform to the desires of even a fringe on social media so as not to be outflanked. This is how the Democratic presidential candidate debates have turned into an exercise on who can appear the most "progressive" and even the most outrageous ideas are accepted by most candidates in fear of being criticized by the fringe.
Speaking truth to power means standing up not only to your political opponents but also to your political allies. That attribute is woefully rare in American politics nowadays, on both sides of the political spectrum.
