PHILADELPHIA — Congressional candidate Summer Lee warned Pittsburgh Jews that they cannot trust her if she is elected next November to represent the city and some of its suburbs.
Lee did not issue her warning in stark terms, but she sent citizens at least two telling signals. She gave herself away during an hourlong exchange live-streamed on Facebook last Monday night which was intended to clarify her views on a number of Middle East issues.
Lee clarified matters, all right. One significant clue was her assertion that as a Black woman she identified with the Palestinian struggle, offering a comparison between the puzzling shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida and a confrontation at a mosque in Israel. More on that later.
Far more chilling was her advocacy of “safe havens” for Jews worldwide. Sound familiar?
“I also understand and really truly believe the need that we have for Jewish folks globally to have a safe haven,” Lee declared.
Does that jog anyone’s memory? One month ago, Paul O’Brien of Amnesty International employed similar language when he told the Women’s National Democratic Club in Washington: “We are opposed to the idea — and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate — that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people.
“I believe my gut tells me that what Jewish people in this country want is to know that there’s a sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish people can call home,” he added.
Most Jews would likely be surprised to hear that. Under a one-state solution, Jews in Israel might be lucky to be treated as second-class citizens, if they are not all driven into the sea. As this writer stated before, if Jews cannot control the government, the probability is that the Arabs in power will never permit Israel to provide Jews with a sanctuary.
Would you trust her now?
It was existing distrust that dominated her interview Monday with Laura Cherner, who directs the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council because her social media comments on Israel have drawn scrutiny, Jewish Insider reported. Jewish attorney Steve Irwin, her chief rival in the Democratic primary in the 12th congressional district, claimed in a Jewish Insider interview that her previous comments “do not indicate a strong conviction that Israel has a right to exist.”
Irwin’s description of Lee’s view roughly comports with O’Brien’s opposition to Israel “as a state for the Jewish people.”
Lee, a state representative, told Cherner that she “absolutely” believes in Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.
Another sign of her disingenuous attitude: As many pro-Arab advocates have done, Lee linked racism in America to the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Of all examples, she picked Trayvon Martin’s death when George Zimmerman fatally shot the teenager a decade ago. What happened remains unclear, but Zimmerman took it upon himself to search out Martin before shooting him. Martin was Black and Zimmerman is white.
“It’s important that we talk about…what we were seeing and what I was seeing as a Black woman, somebody who has also experienced oppression,” said Lee, as quoted by Jewish Insider. “During Ramadan” a year ago, she recalled “where we saw a mosque being raided…Those are folks who are in their most vulnerable point, and they’re holding on, praying and breaking fast,” she said of Muslim worshippers there.
“That was an internationally recognized event that happened that was an escalation unlike what we had seen,” she continued.
She did not identify the mosque in question, but if she was referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israeli police said officers were responding to a riot by hundreds of young Palestinians that included the throwing of stones at police forces, according to CNN. Hamas quickly reacted by firing missiles from Gaza into Israel, and Israel responded in kind.
Referring to one of her previous tweets, Lee said, “I saw American politicians rushing to use the phrase ‘Israel has a right to defend itself.’ But the question was, what were they defending themselves against at that moment.
“When we are saying that a powerful entity has the right to defend itself when no one had done anything needing defense, that was a parallel that was drawn between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.”
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Bruce Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist. He may be contacted via bruce.ticker@sdjewishworld.com
Don: No offense, but we are talking about the Democratic primary, and Jewish critic Steve Irwin appears to be her top rival. Since Irwin is both pro-Israel and will likely vote for Democratic domestic policies, why would Jews there vote for Lee?
I am absolutely sure that over half of the Jews will still vote for her… After all, they will want everyone to see how they fully understand the other side, as well as the fact that she is a black woman, which necessitates voting for her in their minds. American Jews would probably cote for Hitler if he were a democrat.