Stopping antisemitism

To the editor:

Ilhan Omar, one of two Muslim women elected to Congress, has gone over the line in suggesting that politicians are influenced by money they get from the Israel Lobby. It is OK to say that our leaders are paid off by Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Wall Street. But it is anti-semitic to imply that the Israel Lobby would do such things.

There should be a law making it illegal to reveal how much Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer get from the Israel Lobby. It is anti-semitic to report that the two of them met recently with multi-billionaires Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson and promised an extensive list of “pro-Israel lawmakers” be appointed to important committees.

Boycotts, although they have a long history of being used against slave owners, Nazis, Jim Crow racists, and homophobes, are simply anti-semitic when used against apartheid Israel and should be illegal. In fact, even mentioning the Palestinian people is an attempt to deny that Israel is a Jewish state. Talking about the occupation is antisemitic as well. Why not talk about human rights abuses in Darfur?

The effort to stop anti-semitism has to start with the First Amendment. How dare our Founding Fathers promise freedom of speech and press without some qualifiers! Sure, citizens should be able to criticize politicians and foreign countries, but not a country that claims to be a religion, like Israel. No U.S. citizen should ever have the right to say that Israel has enormous power over our government.

Fred Nagel

Rhinebeck