Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said Tuesday that her experience as someone with “Midwest values” helped her bond with Jewish Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
“There are a lot of opportunities to focus on the things that unite us if you’re willing to see those opportunities,” Omar said in an interview on The Nation’s podcast “Next Left.” “I am someone who is always trying to find where the common ground with people and connect with people.”
“In the case of Jan and I, just mothers who you know, are from the Midwest who represent districts from the Midwest with Midwest values. Who both come from backgrounds of being religious minorities, understanding the struggle of having both of our faiths being attacked and people really being hunted down and killed because of it,” Omar said about Schakowsky.
The two wrote an op-ed together in the wake of the Poway synagogue shooting in California about the necessity of coming together to fight white nationalism.
“As a Muslim American and a Jewish American elected to the United States Congress, we can no longer sit silently as terror strikes our communities. We cannot allow those who seek to divide and intimidate us to succeed. Whatever our differences, our two communities, Muslim and Jewish, must come together to confront the twin evils of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence,” the congresswomen said in their op-ed.
While writing against anti-Semitism, Omar has her own history of anti-Semitic comments.
In February, Omar attacked the American-Israel Political Action Committee, saying they were paying off U.S. politicians to be pro-Israel. She apologized and said her comments were anti-Semitic.
Later that month, Omar said that people were pushing “for allegiance” to Israel in a comment that was criticized as an anti-Semitic dual-loyalty trope.
“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies?” Omar said at a progressive town hall.
“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee,” Omar said later on Twitter. “I am told everyday that I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel. I find that to be problematic and I am not alone. I just happen to be willing to speak up on it and open myself to attacks.”
Omar has refused to back down from her comments since her initial apology, claiming anti-Semitism is a right wing force and charges of anti-Semitism against her are meant to silence her.
[Also read: Tucker Carlson: Ilhan Omar is ‘a symbol of America’s failed immigration system’]
