Dan Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, harshly criticized Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for saying that Jewish groups buy support for Congress to be pro-Israel, saying in a tweet that her comments are “a vile anti-Semitic trope [that] need to be condemned by all in our party.”
Shapiro continued on Twitter that “Some of us remained uncomfortably quiet after her BDS flip-flop & other offensive remarks because we were aware of efforts to work with her: by colleagues, party leaders, her local Jewish community.”
But the former ambassador concluded that these efforts have failed and stressed in a continuation of his tweet that “Her approach indicates she doesn't want to be a consensus builder or understand others' views. She wants to push her extreme view, embarrassing her Democratic colleagues who inevitably are asked to respond. She's made herself a lightning rod. It will isolate her. And it should.”
Shapiro stressed that “Criticism of Israel's actions is not, by definition, anti-Israel or anti-Semitic” and that “supporting Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for statehood & sympathy for their current hardships are mainstream & eminently reasonable,” but wrote that her approach means “she'll have much of DC, many in her own party, much of the Jewish community, & plenty of others turning against her. She did that. She chose that.”
He went on to emphasize in a further tweet that now she will have no influence in her party on the issue, but that it could have been different “Had she come to DC, shown sympathy and empathy for Israelis and Palestinians, learned to assign responsibility in appropriate measure to both sides, considered the totality of US interests in the region, maybe taken a trip to learn.”
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