National Review Institute Fellow Victor Davis Hanson told Fox News on Wednesday he believes freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., knows “exactly what she is doing” with comments that've been judged by many to be anti-Semitic.
Hanson said the Democratic Party delayed a vote to condemn anti-Semitism because new progressive members would “walk” over their hatred of Israel.
“They have a problem because the Democratic Party leadership ... they have to have a blanket, generic, meaningless statement because if they were actually going to be exact and focus and really oppose anti-Semitism, about a third of this new Democratic progressive party would walk,” Hanson said on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” “because they really do not like Israel and they are very resentful of this Jewish state.”
Hanson pointed out that Omar’s primary focus has been Israel, while she has avoided focusing on other humanitarian crises spanning the globe.
“Why is it always just Israel and the Jews? And then she resents when people push back,” Hanson said. “We understand why you’re doing it, it represents your constituents, it represents the new wing of the Democratic Party. There’s benefits to be accrued. Go to it!”
“But then don’t get angry when people say, ‘Don’t try to fool us, we’re not stupid.’ Israel and the Jewish state have certain implications and we know what is going on and it’s anti-Semitic,” Hanson added.
Accusations of anti-Semitism have marred Omar’s three-month stint in Congress, and she’s been condemned by members of both parties.
She initially apologized but changed her tone recently.
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Fellow freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has continued to defend Omar, calling out other controversial utterances from other members of Congress.
“One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx+ other communities,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Tuesday.
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Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, sees it differently, saying the “far-left” elements in the Democratic Party believe exactly what Omar is being accused of implying.
“There is a far-left wing of their party that ... is in true disagreement with them. They truly do not like Israel. They truly believe all the things that Omar has been saying,” Crenshaw told MacCallum. “She believes it. That should really be clear to everybody by now. She’s been trying to tell us for a long time and it’s been explained away multiple times now. There’s been apologies made for her.”
Fox News' Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.
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