Lewis Carroll so famously said in “Alice in Wonderland”: “(A word) means just what I choose it to mean.” Anyone listening to President Trump’s comments about Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib could easily understand that he was referring to Jews who vote, despite all evidence to the contrary, against their own interests (“Jews Who Vote Democratic Are Disloyal: Trump,” Aug. 23).
However, given the deep antagonism to Trump on all matters, these comments were twisted into meaning something entirely different — that Jews are disloyal to their countries of residence, in this case the United States.
We expect African-American politicians to be sensitive to issues affecting their communities. We anticipate Muslim Americans to support causes dear to their co-religionists. However, too many Jewish politicians feel that unless they support those antagonistic to their communities’ needs, they are not living up to the ideals of humanitarianism, regardless of how often these forces turn around and attack us.
Listening to the Omar-Tlaib news conference last week, you would think that Trump was trying to drive a wedge between Jewish and Muslim communities in the United States, instead of our new Muslim congresswomen coming [into Congress] with their anti-Israel and clearly anti-Semitic comments and agenda. Omar’s district is not majority Somali, but it is heavily Jewish and she received the liberal Jewish vote. Regardless of her future in Congress, she is now creating a public persona similar to Al Sharpton, who managed to emerge from the Tawana Brawley disaster into an icon with entrée to the Obama White House.
