Published in Israel National News.
Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 2,000 rabbis in matters of American public policy, today forcefully denounced a resolution introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) calling for recognition of “the Nakba (“catastrophe”),” a reference to to founding of the State of Israel. The rabbis called the resolution “openly antisemitic” and its introduction “an indelible stain on Congress.”
“Arab armies responded to Israel’s founding with a call for genocide,” said CJV Israel Regional Vice President Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, “and have continued with repeated wars and horrific acts of terrorism for the sole purpose of killing Jews and destroying the world’s only Jewish state. They proclaimed their intent in 1948 as a ‘momentous massacre,’ to kill all Jews in Israel as Hitler did in Germany, and what they call a ‘Nakba’ is that they fell 99% short of that obscene goal.”
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“Tlaib has a history of antisemitic remarks, beginning with referring to the only Middle Eastern country with a significant Jewish population as a “racist” country. Following hateful comments from her colleague (and co-sponsor of this resolution) Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the House was unable to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism, but instead approved a resolution that submerged antisemitism in the middle of a long list of forms of hatred, watering it down so completely that Omar was able to portray its passage as a victory,” the CJV said.
Over three years ago, CJV warned House Speaker Pelosi that to maintain Omar’s assignment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee was “tantamount to saying that antisemitism is acceptable to the United States House of Representatives. It is to that committee that this resolution was submitted.
“Every Member of Congress, especially those who are Jewish, has a moral obligation to repudiate this hateful resolution,” concluded CJV President Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, “and the real catastrophe is that we have reached the point that this was introduced. This indelible stain on Congress is a direct result of the failure of its leaders to act against antisemitism as it festered over the past three years, and it is long overdue for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to not merely issue platitudes about antisemitism, but to lead the House in censuring those who voice it.”