In February we ripped apart an opinion piece in the Minnesota Star Tribune where Ahmed Tharwat took his defense of controversial US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar into some astonishing and disturbing territory.
This included denying antisemitism, claiming that it does not exist in the Arab and Muslim world, and portraying Arabs as “indirect victims of the Holocaust.”
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Our Watchdog of the Week is HR subscriber Richard Wilkins of Syracuse, NY, a retired computer professional, whose pro-Israel advocacy writings have widely appeared. He has also held leadership roles in several Syracuse Jewish community organizations.
He noted that today’s media have become a metaphorical battlefield, where complementing the IDF and Israel’s diplomatic corps, the Jewish state’s struggles are daily fought with pens and iPads by the few against the many. Richard expressed to us that on its front lines, HonestReporting holds a highly honored salient.
Richard’s was one of two letters published in the Minnesota Star Tribune taking issue with Tharwat’s offensive nonsense. Here’s his letter in full:
Ahmed Tharwat (“In apologizing, Omar caved in to intimidation,” Feb. 14) is entitled to his defense of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s indefensible anti-Semitic tweets, but not his fanciful facts. Odd that if the “average Muslim” in his native Egypt “spoke fondly of Jewish people,” there now remain only about a dozen native Jews living there, when once there were tens of thousands. Even more ludicrous is his assessment that “anti-Semitism does not now thrive” in the Arab lands from which hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled following Israel’s emergence. That represented not the “beheading of the [nonexistent] nation of Palestine,” but the return to Jewish sovereignty in their historic homeland.
Accusations of anti-Semitism are not thrown around lightly. Mere criticism of Israel never makes the cut. Its supporters would welcome serious, informed discussion of its policies and practices, which are more than defensible, but not arguments as to whether or not Israel should exist. Obsessively singling out the world’s one Jewish majority state for constant caustic criticism, or pillorying its supporters with classic anti-Semitic tropes, certainly does merit such opprobrium. Quoting the reprehensible Illan Pappé is particularly pathetic.
Voters in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District deserve much better than Omar’s current bigoted lashing out at Israel and its supporters. That’s why the founders provided the most effective remedy: two-year terms in the House.
For his efforts, Richard will be receiving an exclusive HonestReporting backpack.
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