At first, I thought it was the other one, but no, this time it was Rashida Tlaib who came up with the whopper that her very own Palestinian Arabs provided “a safe haven for Jews” fleeing the Holocaust. Does fiction like this sell? Not to Conservative/Republicans, including President Trump who nailed her for exhibiting “tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.” Then, like the other one, she plays the victim, and people like Juan Williams, a moment ago on Fox News , will rush to her defense. And now House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). When members of our government feel free and easy about openly ripping into the Jewish people, to separate us, to isolate us, it is time to worry. Forgive my being confused between the two of them, Tlaib and Omar, but they do take turns, don’t they, like a tag-team. If it’s Monday, it must be Omar, and for Friday, count on Tlaib. This must be planned and cannot be coincidence…when the business is to target the Jewish people bit by bit. This has the smell of a coordinated attack, and actually it is three of them, in case you think I forgot Ocasio Alexandria-Cortez and my response to her in the column , “Please stop playing with my Holocaust, Geraldo/Cortez.” That was about her equating illegal immigrants crashing our borders with Jews on the run from the Holocaust. I put it like this – “There is only one Holocaust, sweetheart. You might learn that when you grow up.” That column, if you ask me, is better than this one, because, I suppose, the routine is starting to get stale, and two weeks ago I was young and now I am old, or feel old, and so not as quick to get excited – especially over something entirely predictable. At this point, I know the act. Don’t we all? How many times can we laugh at the same joke, or worry ourselves sick each time we get scorched and scorned…and by the same trio? Each time they play a tune, must we dance? I notice that Tlaib’s doozy made all the news, and that she’s been properly denounced, and I wonder if this is exactly what she wants. My guess is that they are laughing at us, the three of them, for taking them so seriously. They can’t believe their luck, first that they got elected to Congress on such slim credentials, next that anyone cares about them, then the thrill of knowing that whatever the nonsense, they will be quoted and cause ripples. They’re got us hooked and there must be ways to kick the habit and ignore them, but I would not know where to begin if I were asked, but how? They are members of Congress. Frankly, this is terrifying, to think that people who hold such views, make our laws. True, there are only three of them who stand out at the moment, but what’s to come when, soon enough, the next election rolls around? Will there be fewer, or more from Somalia and roads leading to “Palestine” which isn’t and never was a country? Israel is the country, but they won’t leave it alone, will they, as if the Jewish State has got anything to do with the price of potatoes. When members of our government feel free and easy about openly ripping into the Jewish people, to separate us, to isolate us, it is time to worry. We can’t afford the luxury of ignoring them, tempting as it is to shrug them off as a glitch in the system. This too shall pass? I know differently. Somewhere, in one of my books, maybe this one, I mention (from real life in Europe) what happens when people stop whispering but go boldly with their anti-Semitism. Yes, it can happen here. Trust me. I know what I’m talking about. New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” His latest is the newsroom drama “News Anchor Sweetheart.” His Inside Journalism thriller , “The Bathsheba Deadline,” is being prepared for the movies. Contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com
