Rep. Ilhan Omar has resorted to lying in a desperate attempt to explain how she could support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel while expressing deep opposition to sanctions on Iran.
As Kaylee McGhee detailed earlier, Omar lashed out at President Trump’s policy of applying “maximum pressure” on Iran through tightened sanctions. “Sanctions are economic warfare,” she fumed.
Yet the statement was particularly incredible coming from Omar, who has been one of the most prominent supporters of the BDS movement. She clearly has no problem sanctioning an American ally, yet she has major qualms about sanctioning the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Asked about the double standard by Townhall on Thursday, Omar said, “The BDS movement is a movement that is driven by the people. The sanctions on Iran are sanctions that are being placed to create maximum pressure by a government. That’s very different.”
While it’s true that the “B” aspect of the BDS movement involves private boycotts of Israel, the “S” refers to the ultimate goal of the movement: getting governments to slap sanctions on Israel.
You don’t have to take this from me. Just check out the website of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, which is the coalition of Palestinian organizations that leads BDS efforts.
“One of the main reasons that Israel is able to violate international law and commit crimes against Palestinians is because governments fail to meet their legal obligations to hold it to account and provide Israel with political and material support,” the committee explains. “Sanctions were the final blow to the apartheid regime in South Africa and the BDS movement calls for sanctions against Israel. The BDS movement also calls for governments to meet their legal obligations not to be complicit in Israeli crimes and not to provide aid or assistance that help Israel maintain its regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.”
It’s impossible to believe that Omar doesn’t understand that government-driven sanctions are the ultimate goal of the BDS movement. The only way the situations are “very different” is that Israel is a Jewish state and Iran has threatened to wipe the Jewish state off the map. And, for an anti-Semite like Omar, that’s the distinction that matters.
