Why Omar’s views are dangerous

Over the course of the past few months, newly minted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has come under fire for a number of anti-Semitic comments. She’s said everything from Israel “hypmotizing the world” to implying politicians are bought off by Jewish interests and “all about the Benjamins.”

For her most recent series of anti-Semitic slurs on Twitter, Omar was condemned by Democratic House leadership.

{mosads}“We are and will always be strong supporters of Israel in Congress because we understand that our support is based on shared values and strategic interests. Legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies is protected by the values of free speech and democratic debate that the United States and Israel share,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Caucus Vice Chair Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) released in a joint statement. “But Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive. We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments.”

“As Democrats and as Americans, the entire Congress must be fully engaged in denouncing and rejecting all forms of hatred, racism, prejudice and discrimination wherever they are encountered,” they continued.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Obama, Dan Shapiro, piled on and called on his party to roundly condemn her remarks.

“@IlhanMN’s outrageous comments equating politicians’ support for Israel with being bought off by American Jewish money are a vile anti-Semitic trope. They need to be condemned by all in our party,” Shapiro tweeted.

After wide spread condemnation, Omar apologized for her remarks, which marked the second major about-face on the issue since coming to Washington.

Interestingly, Omar still hasn’t explained why she told Minnesota voters she was against the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, only to embrace the cause once she was comfortably in office on Capitol Hill.

But while Omar’s views toward the Jewish people and Israel are alarming, so is her support for controversial people and organizations.

In March, Omar will participate in a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR. She’s done a number of events with the group in the past, which celebrated her election in November.

CAIR was named, along with 250 other groups, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation investigation and the FBI found millions of dollars were sent to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization based in Gaza and the West Bank.

Adding to the controversy, Omar was scheduled as a keynote speaker for an upcoming Islamic Relief USA dinner in Florida. Also on the agenda and appearing on a flyer with Omar was Yousef Abdullah. Abdullah believes and publicly states “martyrs” who provide weapons to kill Jews are “beautiful.” Omar’s press team denies they were scheduled to be at the same event, despite a published flyer from the organization stating they would both speak.

“Islamic Relief has been found to have connections to funding terrorism and Islamic extremists. A Swedish government report named the organization as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood,” The Jerusalem Post reports. “The Tunisian government has reportedly investigated allegations that the group funded jihadists on the Libyan border, and members of Congress have launched an inquiry into FBI and IRS investigations of Islamic Relief’s activities.”

In 2016, Omar asked a federal judge for leniency against a Minnesota man who had pledged allegiance to ISIS. In the letter to the judge, she called efforts to put the man in prison for life “punitive” and blamed Americans for breeding extremism.

“As you undoubtedly deliberate with great caution the sentencing of nine recently convicted Somali-American men, I bring to your attention the ramifications of sentencing young men who made a consequential mistake to decades in federal prison. Incarcerating 20-year-old men for 30 or 40 years is essentially a life sentence. Society will have no expectations of the to be 50 or 60-year-old released prisoners; it will view them with distrust and revulsion,” Omar wrote to a judge as a Minnesota state lawmaker. “Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment: ‘Americans do not accept you and continue to trivialize your value. Instead of being a nobody, be a martyr.’”

Despite having clear and direct conflicts with U.S. interests, the interests of U.S. allies and the ongoing fight against Islamic terrorism, Omar currently sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Despite her long record of sympathizing with terrorists, Pelosi has no plans to remove her.

Pavlich is the editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.