CNN panelist Peter Beinart vigorously defended Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib after the lawmakers chose to partner with a group that has promoted terrorism.
Beinart, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, appeared on CNN’s The Lead on Monday with National Review editor Rich Lowry to discuss the ongoing saga over Omar and Tlaib’s now-canceled trip to Israel.
CNN anchor John Berman, filling in for Jake Tapper, set up a heated exchange between his guests by asking Beinart and Lowry about Miftah, the nonprofit Palestinian advocacy group that sponsored the lawmakers’ trip. Miftah has published anti-Semitic and white nationalist propaganda and has touted memorials for terrorists.
“Palestinians don’t have to be saints in order to deserve the basic rights that all of us take for granted,” Beinart began after Berman asked about Miftah’s past. “Miftah has said things I disagree with. They made an anti-Semitic statement that they apologized for.”
“Do I agree with Miftah? Of course not. I had a close friend who was killed in a suicide bombing,” Beinart said after detailing abuses suffered by Palestinians living under the Israeli government. “What Ilhan Omar said is the most important point. People need to go and see for themselves. I’ve never seen anyone who has gone and seen for themselves and not been transformed by the experience.”
Lowry took issue with Beinart’s attempt to cover for Omar and Tlaib’s decision to partner with Miftah.
“We wouldn’t afford a white nationalist organization the leeway that Peter is giving this organization, ‘Oh, they’re not saints,'” Lowry said. “This is an anti-Semitic group that supported terrorism, that supports blowing up innocent civilians and children. No matter what you think of the dispute between Palestinians and Israel, that is an illegitimate tactic that no one should associate with advocates of.”
Beinart disavowed the violence celebrated by Miftah and then accused Lowry and critics of Miftah of ignoring the real issue: “an absolutely indefensible denial of basic human rights” by the Israeli government.
Lowry continued to assert that supporting terrorism is “beyond the pale” and that disavowing organizations that support terrorism should be something that “we all agree on.”
