Chelsea Clinton Slams Democrat Ilhan Omar for Antisemitism

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton called out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Sunday evening for using an anti-Jewish stereotype when she alleged that members of Congress had been paid to support Israel.

Omar began by tweeting “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” in response to a comment by left-wing Israel critic Glenn Greenwald in which he lamented that Congress in general, and Republicans in particular, supported Israel.

Omar’s response triggered a torrent of criticism — including from left-wing pundits critical of Israel.

The first-term Minnesota Democrat — whom Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promoted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month — answered:

Omar’s reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) referred to a common theme in antisemitic commentary on the extreme left and right. AIPAC is a lobby group that does not donate to candidates.

Ungar-Sargon, among others, was not impressed:

In the ensuing Twitter melée, Omar retweeted a left-wing journalist who said of her comments: “She might as well call us hook-nosed.” She apparently only noticed the first part of his tweet, where he echoed her criticism of Israel.

Eventually, Chelsea Clinton weighed in:

That drew a response from others on the left, who continued to slam AIPAC.

AIPAC is not “aligned” with any particular Israeli government, but rather supports the U.S.-Israel alliance in general.

Others were even more abusive — and Clinton stood her ground against Omar’s “anti-Semitic language and tropes”:

Nevertheless, Chelsea Clinton responded by promising to “reach out” to Omar:

Omar replied to the overturn by suggesting her critics were attacking her for her Muslim faith:

At no point did Omar acknowledge that what she had said was in any way antisemitic or offensive.

Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.