OpEd: Crude Language and Political Stunts Mar Both Sides of Middle East Debate

By Bruce S. Ticker

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Crude language and deplorable political acts have emerged on both sides of the Middle East debate. A Republican in central Florida appeared to threaten Democratic members of Congress, one of whom tried to single out Israel in congressional legislation. In a separate episode, an Arab leader in Australia distorted Israel’s role in its current conflict with Hamas.

Many supporters of Israel may be tempted to tweet the hashtag “#BombsAway” to the likes of U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, but that may be unnecessary as well as counterproductive. Florida state Sen. Randy Fine, 50, did just that shortly after announcing his campaign for a U.S. House seat that covers the Atlantic coast linking St. Augustine to Daytona Beach, according to The Forward website.

Fine, the only Jewish Republican in the Florida legislature, was assailed by Muslim-rights groups and the Anti-Defamation League for threatening Tlaib and Omar, but he denied intending this as a threat.

Tlaib and Omar have spent more than six years attacking Israel, usually unfairly, but the most effective way of confronting their arguments is on the merits. Cheap tricks give them excuses to condemn their critics.

The Forward catalogues some of Fine’s past comments, such as referring to a Jewish commentator as a “Judenrat” after he promoted an event for Israeli-Palestinian peace; the term “Judenrat” historically refers to Jewish administrative bodies appointed by the Nazis.

Just last week, Fine was chairing a committee hearing when he told a speaker wearing a keffiyeh to “enjoy your terrorist rag.”

Fine, who can recall growing up amid jarring experiences with antisemitism, called his Democratic opponent “Jihad Josh Weil” and suggested that Weil “supports Muslim terror,” according to The Forward.

Weil, 40, a convert to Islam, has urged ending American military aid to Israel.  He has mounted an unusually strong campaign in a deep-red district. Weil and Fine are competing in a special election today for the seat vacated by Michael Waltz, who is now national security advisor in President Trump’s administration.

Weil also got tied into less than classy conduct on a recent podcast interview when the hosts called Fine a “hardcore Zionist” and an “unabashedly psycho pro-Israel” politician. Peter Hager, a co-host of the JENerational Change podcast, said, “If you are to pull it off, I mean the greatest thing that would come from it is a direct shot across the bow against Zionism.” In response, Weil nodded his head in agreement, according to The Forward.

This exchange could mean that Weil opposes Israel’s very existence. Zionism calls for support of Israel as a sovereign state on land that is the Jewish homeland. It sounds as if Weil has a problem with that.

Northward to Washington, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit tried to lump Israel in with this rogue’s gallery – Iran, Russia, China and North Korea – by proposing an amendment to pro-Israel legislation that would refer to Israel as a “foreign country of concern,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. A reporting requirement for all gifts and contracts apply to those countries.

The initial legislation, known as the DETERRENT Act, reduces the threshold for universities to report gifts from most foreign countries from $250,000 to $50,000. Jewish organizations are concerned that funds from Qatar, Iran and other countries are used to finance anti-Israel messaging at colleges.

The Republican Jewish Coalition wrote in a news release, “It’s unacceptable that Qatar’s regime – the same one that offers shelter and protection to top Hamas terrorists – has been able to pour billions into places like Yale, Georgetown and Cornell – much of it undisclosed.”

Tlaib’s other amendment would have mandated schools to reveal any investments made in Israel.

Tlaib said she added one amendment so the bill would include “countries whose leaders have active arrest warrants issued against them by the International Criminal Court” and “countries actively on trial with the  International Court of Justice for violating the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions.”

The Algemeiner recounted that the ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes in Gaza. American and Israeli leaders have called the warrants and the ICJ case as baseless and suggestive of anti-Israel bias at both institutions. Israel has been accused of war crimes for its bombing of Gaza as part of its military response to Hamas’ murder of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

Both amendments were quashed and the main legislation was passed 241-169.

In reference to a controversy that has enveloped the Australian parliament, Arab leader Nasser Mashni claimed that Israeli correspondence to an Australian official discloses the “true intentions of the Israeli government, which has never been interested in the Palestinian people achieving self-determination or liberation,” according to the Algemeiner news site.

Mashni, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, added, “It confirms what we’ve always known, and what Israel’s genocide in Gaza underscores – the two-state solution has always been a hollow promise, designed to enable Israel to maintain its apartheid and occupation while the rest of the world ignores Palestinian justice.”

So many lies, so little space.

Mashni conveniently ignores a consistent sequence dating back to November 1947, that Israel has sought compromise with the Arab world to share the land. During a Camp David summit in July 2000, Israel proposed an independent Palestinian state that included Gaza, part of Jerusalem and 93 percent of the West Bank, and the Palestinians responded with a war.

He was referring to a letter that eight conservatives in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, sent to an Australian official asking that Australians oppose creation of a Palestinian state. It is misleading to claim that the letter “confirms what we’ve always known…(that) the two-state solution has always been a hollow promise.” A letter from eight Knesset members hardly reflects the attitudes of the entire body, which is composed of 120 members.

To cherry-pick among his accusations, Mashni should feel relieved that “the world ignores Palestinian justice.” Justice such as honor killings against their own women? Murder of Palestinians because they are gay? Forcing civilians in Gaza to serve as human shields?

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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.