God bless you, Speaker McCarthy, for canceling Rashida Tlaib’s hateful, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic event in the US Capitol
Rep. Tlaib says she has “celebrated” the Holocaust and calls for Israel to be wiped out in favor of a “one state solution.”
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Fresh back to Washington after bringing a bipartisan Congressional delegation here to Israel last week for our 75th modern anniversary, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has moved quickly and decisively to cancel a vile and hateful anti-Israel event that was scheduled to be held in the U.S. Capitol Building today.
What’s more, the speaker tweeted that he would host a bipartisan pro-Israel event in the Capitol, instead, to celebrate Israel’s independence and the enduring strength and importance of the U.S.-Israel strategic alliance.
McCarthy rebuked U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan Democrat, for planning to hold a rally in the U.S. Capitol Visitor's Center called “Nakba 75 & the Palestinian People,” in cooperation with several pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel NGOs.
“It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel,” McCarthy told the Washington Free Beacon newspaper. “As long as I’m Speaker, we are going to support Israel’s right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and in a bipartisan fashion.”
God bless you, Mr. Speaker, for taking a courageous and principled stand and not giving into the hateful voices who seek the destruction of the State of Israel.
“Nabka” is an Arabic word that means “catastrophe.”
Tlaib – a Muslim-American of Palestinian descent – does not view the rebirth of Israel in 1948 as a miracle, a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, an act of self-determination and justice for the Jewish people who were forcibly expelled from the Holy Land by the Roman empire, various Arab regimes, the Ottoman Turks, and other Muslim radicals over the past 2,000 years.
Rather, she sees the existence of Israel as a catastrophic injustice that must be destroyed.
“The invitation for Wednesday’s event accuses ‘Zionist militias’ of violently expelling Palestinians from the region when Israel was created in 1948,” reported the Beacon.
The invitation makes no mention of the fact that the United Nations “Partition Plan” passed in November 1947 offered a sovereign state to both Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
Let’s recall that the Jewish people said “yes” and “thank you” to the Partition Plan and rightfully declared Israel’s independence under international law on May 14, 1948.
By contrast, the Arab world unanimously said “no” to the UN plan.
Rather than engage in a peaceful negotiation about the future of the Holy Land, the Arab world – including Palestinians – chose instead to invade Israel to try to kill and destroy the 600,000 Jews living in the new state.
Tlaib has a long history of making hateful and anti-Semitic remarks, as well as routinely attacking Israel’s right to exist.
During a podcast in May 2019, for example, she publicly stated that “there’s kind of a calming feeling” that she gets “when I think about the Holocaust.”
On that same podcast, Tlaib said that two weeks earlier she had “celebrated” the Holocaust.
Her allies and enablers have tried to defend those remarks or explain them away, but the record is clear.
As a U.S. member of Congress, Tlaib really did publicly state that she has “celebrated” the Holocaust and gets a “calming feeling” when she thinks about the Nazi systematically murdering six million Jews during World War II.
Has she apologized for such statements?
Hardly – instead, she stands by them.
If that weren’t enough, Tlaib has claimed that Palestinians tried to create a “safe haven” for Jews during the 1930s and 1940s.
Seriously?
The facts here are crystal clear, as well, showing that many Palestinians were attacking and trying to kill the Jews who were returning to their ancient homeland of Israel from which they had been expelled.
Historian Benny Morris notes that beginning in 1933 when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, “Palestine’s Arabs—led by the cleric Muhammad Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem—mounted a strident campaign to pressure the British, who governed Palestine, to bar all Jews from entering the country. To press home their demand, in 1936 they launched an anti-British and anti-Zionist rebellion that lasted three years. Apart from throwing out the British, the rebellion’s aim was to coerce London into halting all Jewish entry into Palestine. Moreover, the anti-Jewish violence, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Jews and wounded many more, itself served to deter would-be emigrants from seeking to move to Palestine. British entry certificates for Jews to Palestine declined to 30,000 in 1936, 10,000 in 1937, and 15,000 in 1938. Those who couldn’t get in were left stranded in Germany, Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere. Almost all died in the Holocaust, which the Germans unleashed in 1941.”
Tlaib does not call for a Palestinian state living in peace and harmony next door to the State of Israel.
Rather, she advocates for Israel to be wiped out in favor of a “one-state solution” in which there is only a Palestinian state in the Holy Land.
“One state,” Tlaib said in response to a question during her 2018 Congressional campaign about whether she supports a one- or two-state solution. “It has to be one state.”
These are just a few reasons why Tlaib has been rebuked over the years by Democrats and Republicans alike for her anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements and positions.
Tlaib immediately reacted to Speaker McCarthy’s decision by unleashing a hateful, bitter rant on Twitter.
“Speaker McCarthy wants to rewrite history but the apartheid state of Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” she wrote.
Once again, Tlaib has it completely wrong.
Israel is not an “apartheid state.”
Twenty percent of Israel’s population are Arab Muslims and they have full rights to vote, create their own political parties, serve in the parliament, serve in the army and police forces, practice their faith, open mosques, read and distribute the Qur’an, open and run their own businesses, even major Israeli companies.
Indeed, Israeli Arabs not only have the right to do such things, they actually do such things.
That’s not the case in the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, nor in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Not even Palestinians have full human, civil and religious freedoms in either place.
What’s more, not a single Jew is allowed to live in the West Bank or Gaza and be citizens there – they have all been driven out, 100%.
Nor do Palestinian leaders like PA President Mahmoud Abbas want any Jews living in the “State of Palestine” if a two-state solution ever would be implemented.
So, who exactly is engaged in apartheid?
Who exactly is engaged in violent ethnic cleansing?
The cruel and hateful lies that regularly spew forth from Rep. Rashida Tlaib are repugnant and unconscionable.
I pray that God will change her heart and lead her to the saving and transforming faith of Jesus Christ.
Until then, I’m grateful for Democrats and Republicans – including Speaker McCarthy – who refuse to enable or turn a blind eye to such hatred.
May their tribe increase.
Speaker McCarthy wants to rewrite history but the apartheid state of Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) May 1, 2023
75 years later, the Nakba continues to this day. https://t.co/s5P35dgqv0
God bless you, Speaker McCarthy, for your courage and conviction.
The rebirth of Israel on May 14, 1948 wasn’t a ‘catastrophe,’ it was a miracle and fulfillment of prophecy.
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
