Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wisely decided to permit Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to visit Israel. Now Israel must make the most of this trip, which the two Congresswomen plan to use to further their anti-Israel agenda. The Israelis should suggest, in the most respectful possible way, that while Rashida and Ilhan will be giving most of their attention to the “Palestinians,” “we would be pleased to show certain places of significance in Jewish and Israeli history.” If the Congresswomen accept, those sites will tell a tale, not just to them, but through the members of the media accompanying them on their visit, to the American public. And if they refuse to visit these sites, they will be put in a bad light, seen as unwilling to consider the visible evidence of the Jewish connection to the land.
At the airport in Tel Aviv, the Israeli officials welcoming them should include Jews from Arab lands, as well as Indian Jews, Yemeni Jews, and Ethiopian Jews (far darker than Ilhan Omar or Rashida), reminding the world that Israel’s Jews come from all over, and that Israel is not a “colonial-settler project” of “racist” white European Jews imposed on the Middle East. Many of those journalists covering the brief airport ceremony, and their cameramen, will note this multiracial aspect of the welcoming committee.
Then the Israelis should take Rashida and Ilhan on their excellent adventure to “places that we hope you will want to learn about, places that provide you with more than 2000 years of Jewish history.” What can Rashida and Ilhan say? “Sorry, no. We came here to visit only the Palestinians, who get so little attention,” a palpably absurd remark about the most-reported-on minority in the world. And were they to reply “We are not here for a history lesson,” that wouldn’t go over well; what are they afraid of learning? So I’m betting they would have to agree to see at least some of the things the Israelis wish to show them.
What places would one wish to show them? Here are ten suggestions:
1. The Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum, a visible reminder that Jews were already living in the Land of Israel in 150 B.C., when the first scrolls were written. What better evidence of the Jewish presence, 800 years before any Muslim Arabs arrived?
2. Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where Jews — survivors of the Jewish Revolt against the Romans — held out against far larger Roman forces that besieged them, until the last fighters, with their families, decided to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Romans in 73 A.D. Again, a reminder of the early Jewish presence, and Jewish tenacity, early on.
The tour guide might also explain to Rashida and Ilhan, and their media entourage, that it was the Roman king Hadrian who, in the Second Century A.D., determined to wipe out the Jewish identity of Israel-Judah-Judea, imposed the name “Palastina” or “Palestine.” At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. Another important history lesson, one which explains the use of the toponym “Palestine” to deny the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
3. The Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, built about 20 B.C., is part of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount. Their visit should include the briefest of commentaries, in which they — and the reporters accompanying them — are reminded that Jews had always been allowed to pray at the Western Wall, except from 1949 to 1967, when the Jordanians held the Old City.
4. A walk through the Old City. The visitors — and accompanying cameras — will see for themselves that the Jewish Quarter looks quite different from the Muslim, Christian, and Armenian Quarters. Their buildings are all old stone, while — the guide explains — “the Jewish Quarter, as you can see, looks positively brand new. And that’s because it is. So much of it was destroyed by the Jordanians, including 58 synagogues that were demolished, that it had to be largely rebuilt after 1967. That’s why it looks so new.” What can Ilhan and Rashida respond?
5. The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives. This is the oldest and most important Jewish cemetery in Israel. Burial on the Mount of Olives started some 3,000 years ago in the days of the First Temple, and continues to this day. The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 150,000 tombs. Here Rashida and Ilhan should be shown the oldest of tombstones, testifying to the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel dating back to 1000 B.C. They should also be shown the places where 38,000 tombstones had once been, but were uprooted by Arabs during the Jordanian occupation of the Old City, with some of the tombstones used to line the floors of Jordanian army latrines, and others crushed into gravel and used at building sites.
6. Yad Vashem. The well-known photograph that shows the meeting of Haj Amin Al Husseini, the leader of the Palestinian Arabs from the 1920s to the late 1940s, with Adolf Hitler, properly enlarged, should be put up on a wall at Yad Vashem where the visitors cannot avoid seeing it. The guides at Yad Vashem can explain in a few sentences who Al Husseini was and what he did during the war years from 1940 to 1945, when he lived contentedly in Nazi Berlin. Al-Husseini urged Hitler not to let any Jews escape to Palestine; he helped raise three brigades of S.S. troops from among Bosnian Muslims; he became friends with Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann, in whose company he may have visited Auschwitz. During this time his popularity rose among the Arabs in Palestine; after the war he resumed his role as leader of the Palestine Arabs, with no Arabs objecting to his Nazi connection. It was only after the Arab defeat in the 1948-49 war, for which some Arabs blamed him, that Al-Husseini lost his position as leader of the Palestine Arabs, and went into exile in Cairo.
7. The Knesset. A quick visit to Israel’s parliament, where Ilhan and Rashida — and the reporters accompanying them — will see this raucous institution at work. Among the members of the Knesset are twelve Arab MKs, some of them routinely denouncing Israel, while other Arab MKs — this might surprise Ilhan and Rashida — are members of the Zionist Union and Likud parties. Jewish and Arab MKs can thus be seen on camera expressing themselves to their heart’s content, in the Middle East’s only democracy.
8. Hadassah Hospital, where Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses work side by side, and the patients — again, both Jewish and Arab — receive the highest standard of care in the Middle East. Let Tlaib and Omar meet the Palestinian doctors on staff who have received their medical training in Israel, and Arab patients who are being treated, often for free, thanks to the Peres Center and other charities, in Israeli hospitals. It might make them reconsider their views about those “oppressive” Israelis.
9. The Technion or the Weizmann Institute of Science. Either will do, for both provide a view of Israel as the original start-up nation. Rashida and Ilhan will no doubt be surprised at the astonishing list of Israeli inventions and innovations. In the field of medicine alone, they could learn about Israeli advances in the last few years, including: new ways of treating multiple sclerosis and pancreatic cancer; new aids to coping with loss of limbs (ReWalk), new diagnostic techniques (the Sniffphone), new medical devices (the PillCam, the Flexible Stent). Even if they refuse to be impressed, the members of the media will still have conveyed the information about these Israeli achievements to the American public.
10. Finally, they might briefly visit a startup Israeli company where innovations are brought to market, and where the workforce consists of Jews and Arabs. This ruins the narrative that Tlaib and Omar have been feeding the American public, about cruel Israelis and miserably treated Palestinians.
Summary: The Congresswomen, and the American public, will be given rapid but indelible lessons about the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. They will have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls (150 B.C.), the Western Wall (20 B.C.), Masada (73 A.D.), the venerable and vandalized Mt. of Olives Cemetery (the oldest tombs date from 1000 B.C.), each offering a very different kind of mute testimony to the Jews in their land. At Yad Vashem, they — and the American public — will learn about the connection of the man who was leader of the Palestinian Arabs for nearly 30 years, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, to the Nazis and the Holocaust. They will glimpse Israel’s rambunctious democracy at work in the Knesset, a sharp contrast to the authoritarian rule in the Palestine Authority, where the colossally corrupt Mahmoud Abbas, with his 400-million-dollar family fortune, was last “elected” to a four-year-term in 2005, and hasn’t felt the need to hold an election since. Then they will see Israel at work: Jewish and Arab medical personnel together treating Jewish and Arab patients with equal solicitousness; Jews and Arabs working side by side in research, development, and manufacturing, in all sorts of companies, but especially in high tech. One example of such collaboration the Israelis might want to mention is the tech company Mellanox, recently sold to the American company NVIDIA. The Arab engineers at Mellanox are set to share a $3.5 million payout. Not exactly the “oppression” that Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib insist is the real story of Israel.
Let their excellent adventure in the Land of Israel be turned into a teaching moment. Not for them, but for the American and world public, who will be kept informed by the reporters and cameramen who accompany them. It’s not what they wanted or expected, but they weren’t what many of us wanted or expected. So let’s just call it even.
J D S says
Doubtful that any of this, if it should happen, will in any way change the minds of these two so called congress women…SO CALLED because their interest is not in the interest of the United States!
Dennis says
I agree with your comment. People like these two are mentally poisoned by the belief system that they represent. They are unable to see anything positive about anything and everything associated with the Jewish people. I expect that they will come back even more anti-Semitic than before. They will never conclude that it is in the best interests of the Arab world to emulate the Jews, as that would be the best way for the despotic/impoverished world of Islam to prosper.
Lenore Cooper says
I totally agree with you Dennis. Well Said
Peter Hirsch says
Check her fraudulent entry to the US, her real name and marriage to her brother and another man all at the same time all to defraud immigration
gordon miller (@dagmiller) says
I wonder what the intent of those two women (obviously Jew-haters) is in wanting to visit Israel.
AnneCrockett says
Gosh, Hugh- Can I sign up for this tour? It sounds amazing, and I fear it would be wasted on those two Congresswomen and their journalist lap dogs.
CRUSADER says
Visit Israel!
Upon leaving Israel, you are asked to be an ambassador of good will in your own right, and to tell your fellow citizens what you experienced….
Every counterjihad-er who is paying attention should try their darnedest to visit Israel.
Shalom. Shalom.
This is where The Bible really comes alive and jumps out of the pages onto the places!
What the Israelis have done with developing a desert oasis is magnificent. In so many ways, it is a beacon of hope in a sea of morass. Such history! Such technology!
The Israelis show dear love for children. They keep standards of decency to a strong extent. There is freedom of expression, of course, but they restrain too much obvious sinfulness in their society — restricting racy billboards, limiting easy access to alcohol, designating where gambling can take place, keeping pollution and litter and homelessness at bay — while making sure their roads are good, and schools are safe. Food is always tasty. The museums and galleries and cultural spots are generally guarded by young IDF soldiers of both genders. It is their mandate to consistently learn about, be exposed to, and guard what they are called upon to fight for and defend. (This is something youth in the West should be required to do!) And to see young gals in uniforms — who otherwise would be coeds at colleges or shopping at malls — with their hair up, makeup on, and painted nails holding long black rifles…it’s just so invigorating! Bookstores are many. The waves at Joppa are great to surf. Fox News channel is normally available at many hotels. Mostly a friendly experience all around the nation. And safe as well! The skies are full of wonderful cloud formations which soar over ever blooming vegetation which grows more and more upon each visit to Israel.
The only questionable areas are where one drives by or through Arab populations — their bedouin culture shows visually: trash is everywhere or in heaps near houses and streets, hardly any trees due to the Arab misuse and carelessness toward natural environments, many homes are in constant construction due to multiple generations living with each other, and sad, anxious, angered faces as consistent expressions, as if they can never quite muster the joy needed to make the most of their lives. That’s what Islam does — it oppresses the mindset. (So tragic that they are the making of their own problems, and the undoing of their own souls.)
Robert Spencer’s book “Palestinian Delusion” will be a welcomed work to read when it is made available!
In Jerusalem, be sure to see the FOZ museum — Friends of Zion.
https://www.fozmuseum.com
Think of how the Third Temple could be built upon Temple Mount.
Think of how Jerusalem looked with Crusader buildings and archways.
Also inspiring is to see the 1960s movie, “Exodus” about the founding of modern Israel. A very moving film which will make you feel you too are a patriot of the Israeli cause.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so-JQOEgDe8
CRUSADER says
Odd tech thing occurred on this post!
You know something strange?
(MARC if you are reading this — as a tech thing!)
This video above showing the final scenes from “Exocus” the movie
was briefly REPLACED by a video on youtube showing the following:
— a humorous video of entering Israeli passport control !
(funny video, but not the one I posted; now the original is in place again…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNYm2yRXRU
James says
I think the two Congresswomen will not be impressed by anything in Israel. They will only see how oppressive and unfair the Israelis are and how much the Palestinians have suffered under occupartheid. If they were open-minded they would not think and talk like they do. This article is preaching to the choir, providing people who belief in Israel facts they may not know to defend the country. But that is also something.
Emilie Green says
“And on this very spot, which today you can plainly see is a desolate, barren piece of land, stood, in September 2005, all those greenhouses, built by the Jews living in Gaza for growing products sent all across the world. Your fellow Muslims destroyed what had been here.”
Diane Harvey says
Some 200 dunams of greenhouse space in the Gaza Strip were ransacked recently by dozens of armed Palestinians and residents of Khan Yunis [the people all being Muslims].
International donors had purchased the greenhouses from evacuated Gush Katif settlers for the benefit of the Palestinians.
According to Palestinian and international sources involved in running the greenhouses, the armed [Muslim] robbers belonged to two militias, the Assistance Committees and the Popular Army, affiliated with former Palestinian ruling party Fatah. These militias had been hired by the Palestinian Authority to guard both the ruins of the former settlements and the greenhouses, which were all under cultivation. But instead of guarding the greenhouses, the guards decided to rob them.
from, Palestinian Militants Ransack Former Gush Katif Greenhouses,
https://www.haaretz.com/1.4891545
CRUSADER says
In Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey the dunam is 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq ft)
1 dunam = 0.25 acre
Angemon says
Yes – a cautionary tale.
Jake Jacobs says
Will their passports depict their stay in the State of Israel? Will they, thereafter, be visiting Islamic countries using the same passports? When they arrive at Passport Control, will their apprehension be captured on video?
Let us remember, if there is a cash demand for these heroine’s release: America refuses to pay ransom!!
DBM echo says
Passport control,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNYm2yRXRU
Quazgaa says
Too funny
lebel says
“At the airport in Tel Aviv, the Israeli officials welcoming them should include Jews from Arab lands, as well as Indian Jews, Yemeni Jews, and Ethiopian Jews (far darker than Ilhan Omar or Rashida), reminding the world that Israel’s Jews come from all over, and that Israel is not a “colonial-settler project” of “racist” white European Jews imposed on the Middle East.”
Right, now back to the real world:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/vivian-bercovici-riots-leave-israelis-asking-themselves-hard-questions-about-racism
“Violent riots erupted in towns and cities throughout Israel recently, peaking on July 2. Cars were set alight, property vandalized, scores of police officers were injured and demonstrators arrested. Hundreds of thousands of motorists were stranded for hours on gridlocked highways and secondary roads, in the heat, without water or warning.
The protesters, predominantly members of the Ethiopian Israeli community and supporters, took to the streets to express their rage at what they condemn as systemic police brutality targeting their community. (…) Racism is a problem for all of Israeli society.””
Mark Swan says
Yes Lebel,
Racism—demanding preferential treatment based on so-called race is very wrong,
indeed—since we all belong to the Same Race—the HUMAN RACE.
lebel says
Very true indeed
gravenimage says
Israel rescued the Ethiopian Jews from genocide, at great expense. I’m sure lebel considers this “racist” as well.
Antiislamicman says
Someone show me what’s good about Islam. These 2 women are embracing a misogynistic ideology because they fail to see the truth or just refuse to listen
Peter Buckley says
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14588/palestinians-assault-saudi-blogger
RichardL says
When I worked in an islamic country, I had many students like this: happy Jew-haters. Nothing changes their visceral hatred of Jews. They think it is good and natural and the rest of us are just idiots.
Mark Swan says
Somehow a smile, on either of those two faces, in that photo,
really reflects their sinister intentions.
Guy Forester says
Great ideas, Hugh. Unfortunately, even if all was done as you urge, I suspect that upon their return here, all that the MSM will cover is how they describe their torment for being forced to see such “propaganda.”
As far as Lebel’s post above, I would recommend that someone follow the money and find out who organized such protests. It sounds strangely similar to protests we get here from people with free food, free or low cost rent, free phones, free education, and no jobs. The real working poor are too damned busy working to pay the bills to go and waste time throwing rocks and bottles at the police.
James Lincoln says
I predict that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, after their visit to Israel, will not be able to acknowledge anything positive about Jews or Israel.
As devout Muslim activists, acknowledging anything positive would create unbearable cognitive dissonance. In order to recognize something positive, they would have to leave Islam and become apostates.
I don’t believe that there is any middle ground.
PRCS says
The hosts should provide ‘Welcome to Israel’ maps to the dingbat duo: maps with no reference to Palestine.
PRCS says
Re: Hugh’s list.
#6, for sure.
jeffrey C ulrich says
Why in God’s name are the jews not up in arms? These parasites are nothing more than wanna be terrorists. Their God is jihad.
Walter Sieruk says
In all fairness, those two Muslim politicians Rashida Tlaib and Ilan Omar do make a match. .They truly deserve each other .
For they both have and same Islamic goals. Likewise both have the same Muslim mindset
For even when looking into the Bible it reveals why they both get along,so well, together .For Amos 3:3 does ask the rhetorical question “Can two walk together ,expect they be agreed.” [K.J.V.]
In addition both Tlaib and Omar with their striving together withe their Islam agenda which in they have obviously joined with their political /religious power This Islamic power scheming by their joining forces will only backfire on them in the end. For it is written , in the Bible ,in Proverbs 11:21 “Though hand join in hand .the wicked shall not be unpunished.”
CRUSADER says
This is scary stuff presented by Jay Smith!
The lecture mentions why modern politicized Islamism
of the Muslim Brotherhood became so dangerous for society
in the 20th century, and how Sayyid Qutb paved the way for
contemporary Jihad:
“In the Shade of the Koran” and “Milestones” written by Qutb
applied the Koran’s passages to become the foundation for
radicalized Islam….
(minute marker 17:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsM9w8IJMrw
Walter Sieruk says
This video is very good and information. As for the words keyboarded above this video the term that was used is “politicized Islamism.”
First, of those two words of that term ,it should be made clear that the term used by many in the West in current times is “political Islam” That term is, in reality redundant. This is because Islam is in essence, a religious /political Sharia law based system. As so well explained in brief way, by the Muslim tyrant who and ruled Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini when he stated that “All Islam is politics.” [1]
Second, as the word “Islamism” is a fake word that used that was made up after September 11, 2001 in order offend or upset non-violent Muslims. The real, actual, word is just “Islam.”
It should also be added that the world “Islamist” is also a bogus word that was made up after 9/11 in order not to offend or upset peaceful Muslims. To keep with reality, terms should better be used as “Islamic terrorist” or “Muslim terrorist” . Let’s call people and things as they really are.
[1] THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISM by Ibn Warraq , page 332.
Walter Sieruk says
The Christian speaker in the above video did made mention of the construction of the many mosques in England This not only means that more and more Muslims are entering those two continents and likewise more and more people in the United Kingdom are now being proselytized to Islam. This may be disturbing enough. In addition, this mass construction of mosques in Britain have still a further meaning which has been explained by a former Muslim who is now a Christian, Dr. Daniel Shayesteh, in his book ISLAM THE HOUSE I LEFT BEHIND for in page 99 it informs the reader that “The mosque is vital for establishing Muslims as sovereign over non-Muslims in a non-Islamic society or country. Building a mosque in a non-Islamic society or country symbolizes Islam’s claim over that society or country, even with a non-Muslim majority.”
Abu Sara says
As far as I am concerned they don’t deny the existence of Israel including all the Arabs what they and us condemn is the brutal and harsh treatment indulged to the Palestinians
Gaza commonly agreed upon by almost everyone is the largest prison in the world
Sue says
NOT ME ABU, yòu may fool the useful idiots…….not I!
gravenimage says
What tripe. The Israelis are not occupying Gaza, and Gaza shares a border with Egypt, a Muslim country. If Gaza is a prison, it is because Hamas has made it so.
ninetyninepct says
With any luck, Hamas will whack these two with rocket attacks. Unfortunately Israelis will likely be killed.
gravenimage says
Rashida and Ilhan’s Excellent Adventure
………………………..
I hope Israeli security keeps a close eye on these genocidal Muslimahs.
762x51FMJ says
After touring Israel they should be allowed to visit Gaza under the protection of the Palestinian Authority..