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Opinion| Earlier this month, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a hijab-wearing Muslim adherent came under heavy criticism for the anti-Israel rhetoric she was spewing.

This is especially troubling rhetoric for a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee that is committed to exchanging critical military secrets with Israel, our primary Middle East ally.

Democrat leadership tried to admonish Rep. Omar, and mollify its Jewish constituents, by offering a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi found that impossible to do without exposing the rampant anti-Semitism among her rank and file.

The resolution would have passed with the support of only a modest number of Democrats because of unanimous Republican support.  Pelosi pulled it instead rather than risk losing the support of the party’s important Jewish backers.

Pelosi settled for a watered-down resolution condemning bigotry in all forms.  Omar was allowed to retain her seat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, as well.

Remember, Pelosi had already changed the long standing House rules against head coverings to accommodate Omar.

Because of Pelosi’s weakness, Omar appears to have been emboldened.  And every anti-Israel organization, too.

It’s clear that the party has continued the direction it took under former President Obama and is severing its allegiance to the Jewish State.

On Wednesday, far-left Moveon.org called on Democratic presidential candidates to skip this year’s AIPAC policy conference.  As of this writing eight Democrat candidates have agreed to comply.

Those boycotting include Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and as ex-Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

Understand the significance of the statement these candidates are making.  AIPAC draws 18,000 delegates, many are large donors to the Democratic Party.  They are not likely to have another opportunity to speak to another audience even half that size.

And, almost certainly not one as “generous” as are the attendees to AIPAC are.

The move underscores Democrats willingness (desire?) to abandon Israel, and its staunchest supporters, in the aftermath of Rep. Omar’s unpunished anti-Semitic remarks.

As we discussed yesterday, it’s as though Democrats are deliberately telling Jews that, they’re out!

President Trump, who has been the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House, called Democrats out yesterday:

“Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. They’ve become an anti-Jewish party.”

As for Rep. Omar, it appears she feels freed to do as she wishes.  That includes holding fundraisers for Islamic organizations with alleged ties to funding terror.

Here’s what we know thanks to the work of Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon:

[Omar] has been holding a series of secret fundraisers with groups that have been tied to the support of terrorism, appearances that have been closed to the press and hidden from public view.

The content of these speeches, given to predominantly Muslim audiences, remains unknown, prompting some of Omar’s critics to express concern about the type of rhetoric she is using before these paying audiences, particularly in light of the lawmaker’s repeated use of anti-Semitic tropes in public.

Omar recently spoke in Florida at a private event hosted by Islamic Relief, a charity organization long said to have deep ties to groups that advocate terrorism against Israel. Over the weekend, she will appear at another private event in California that is hosted by CAIR-CA PAC, a political action committee affiliated with the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR a group that was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a massive terror-funding incident.

Islamic Relief has been accused of  providing assistance to terrorist groups including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.  As a result of these ties, the charity has been banned by the UAE.

It would appear that Omar is putting her thumb in President Trump’s foreign policy eye with her actions.

Other governments and financial institutions have taken steps to curtail the activities of Islamic Relief due to its history of terror funding, including:

  • The Swiss banking giant UBS, which blocked donations to the organization from its customers in 2012
  • The international banking giant HSBC, which blocked donations in 2016
  • Russia accused the organization of supporting terrorists in Chechnya in 2005

The U.S. government has also identified CAIR as a supporter of Hamas.

“CAIR’s anti-Israel agenda dates back to its founding by leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a Hamas affiliated anti-Semitic propaganda organization,” according to the ADL.

Sarah Stern, founder of president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a pro-Israel group told the Free Beacon that the private nature of these events before controversial Islamic groups is very concerning:

“I just wonder what is Rep. Omar saying to a group of Islamic supporters that she feels is so secretive that she cannot say it to the American people, as a whole?  What is so secretive that it has to be off the record and closed to reporters? Will she say the same things in public to her Jewish voters in Minnesota that she says to her Islamic friends? What does this tell us about her openness, her honesty and her integrity?”

What’s concerning is that no one in her party is asking her to stop.  No one is demanding to know the nature of Omar’s comments. Not a single Democrat has even dared to openly criticize Omar.

Omar has demonstrated that the only thing she learned during the dust-up that followed her anti-Semitic comments is that there’s no one in her party prepared to hold her accountable.

And that should scare anyone who worries about how she can leverage her position on the Foreign Relations Committee for the benefit of Islamic terrorists or the nations that support them.

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