Susan Silverman is the sister of comedian Sarah Silverman and a Reform rabbi who lives in Israel. She has 5 children, two of which are Ethiopian. Susan spoke today to Marco Werman on PRI’s The World about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments. Susan began by very reasonably arguing that she didn’t want to get stuck on semantics and that she agrees with Rep. Omar on almost everything she believes but that Omar must not play into racist tropes about Jews. Who can argue with that?
https://www.pri.org/programs/pris-world/what-constitutes-anti-semitism
Susan then said that she wants to be Omar’s ally and that she wants so much to feel joy about her election but that Omar's comments left her feeling abandoned and scared. Then after some mild pushback from Marco on her apparent agreement with the need to be able to criticize the Netanhayu government, Susan seemed to become more defensive and started talking about her son in Israel who’s in the military. She seemed to become more and more emotional and less guarded. Susan then said she felt betrayed by the left because when Republicans say "these things" (yes, false equivalence) it doesn’t hurt as much, but when liberals say them she feels alone because liberals are “her people." Eventually, Susan said this: “They’re (the left) abandoning me… [Rep Omar] uniquely identifying us as evil in the world is simply anti-semitic… when you say that the Jewish state is essentially simply evil, that is anti-semitism... I feel like there’s absolute glee on the left and it’s killing me.”
Wow. I understand the fear, but this is simply not even close to reality.
It seems like she started off trying to sound reasonable and then it became so emotional that she lost control and some of her more private thoughts and fears came out. Maybe it was a little bit of guilt too about how Israel is perceived or believe that it’s perceived (as “evil”) given the things that are done to Palestinians by conservatives. When Marco pushed back and asked where Omar said that Israel was "uniquely evil,” Susan obviously couldn’t point to it. Marco said that this seems unfair and then Susan said that Omar’s comments are part of something bigger. Very quickly the interview was ended and Susan seemed glad to let it go.
Houston, we have a problem. This is exactly why Democrats must be more careful about condemning Muslims like Ilhan Omar. Even the most liberal and good hearted Jewish people are feeling very scared and very vulnerable right now (for good reason: the "Trump effect") and the amount of vilification of Muslims that this can lead to is very dangerous.
The idea that Rep. Omar would say that Israel is “evil” is ridiculous and spreading those lies could result in her getting hurt, or worse. The reality that even Sarah Silverman’s liberal sister could say something like that about Rep. Omar is a lesson for all of us. The best thing for everyone would be to follow the lead of Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris and quickly shut this all down before Republicans like Steve Scalise dog pile on it even more and use it as a platform to put Rep. Omar in even more physical danger than she’s already in. Steve Scalise especially knows exactly what he’s doing.
Democrats will always fight like hell to protect Jewish people worldwide from the racism that always targets them first. We’ll fight like hell to protect Jewish people from the danger that conservatives put them in, both here and in Israel. But we must never cave in to the dangerous lies and propaganda that have worked their way into the minds of even the most liberal among us (Jewish and non-Jewish) regarding Muslims like Rep. Omar. If we cave into that fear mongering we will never break out of this cycle of lies and violence that keep the Jewish people living in such fear.
