MUELLER: BARR DELIVERS FOR TRUMP AS PROMISED

As matters stand at the moment the President has been vindicated. Emboldened by Attorney General Barr’s whitewashing summary of the Special Counsel's report, Trump is now tweeting that he has been completely exonerated. What is missing from his short tweet diatribes is that his newest best friend is yesterday's enemy number one, Robert Mueller. Trump will weaponize Barr's spin in an attempt to blur anything else that might follow. 

However, there are many unanswered questions which may or may not be answered by the release of the full Mueller report, Congress’s ongoing investigations and the ongoing litigation of Trump and his empire. 

MUELLER WHERE YOU LISTENING?

All of which begs the question why did the President do everything in his power to stop this investigation which he so explicitly labelled, “The Russia thing”, if there was “no collusion”?

 Why did he and his “campaign team" meet on 102 occasions with the Russians holding at least 28 meetings - two of them explicitly to cooperate with them about the campaign. And why did several of them lie to the FBI about their meetings if they were not “colluding”? 

Why to this day does Trump believe Putin rather than his own intelligence agencies that the Russians intervened in the 2016 election on his behalf and why has he met Putin again and again on his own?

Why did campaign advisor Roger Stone contact Wikileaks and publicly brag about the forthcoming dumps of e mails? 

Why did Trump lie during his campaign about the ongoing negotiations Cohen and Felix Sater were having about the construction of Trump Tower Moscow and then lie that he told everyone about them?  

Why was the POTUS so angry with his Attorney General Jeff Sessions for “not protecting him” from the Russian investigation if there was “no collusion” to protect him from?

Why did The Donald eventually fire Sessions and why was his replacement William Barr?   AND ON AND ON

WHY BARR IS DE MAN

In Attorney General, (AG), Bill Barr’s four paged sanitized summary of the Mueller report he echoed the conclusion of his unsolicited 19 page opinion that he delivered on June 18, 2018 to the Trump administration. In that uncommisioned missive he lambasted the Special Counsel appointment. Furthermore Barr claimed that the President could not obstruct justice in the performance of his duties. 

Following upon Barr’s gratuitous advice Trump fired his AG Sessions and nominated Barr for the job which nomination the supine Republican Senate dutifully confirmed. Barr’s appointment was made in the context that Trump complained and attacked Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Mueller investigation. 

Trump stated again and again that had Sessions told him that he would recuse himself he would have not appointed him to the position. Apparently he had no such doubts with Bill Barr. Needless to say there is no confidence in Barr deciding how much of the report can be released. This even more so when the WhiteHouse Career Ethics Personnel ruled that the newly appointed AG needed to recuse himself from involvement in the Russia investigation. As Trump some how knew there was no way that his nominee would be hands off from the probe that he was so terrified of.

The promise that Barr’s memorandum to the Justice Department less than a year ago offered has been fulfilled . 

BARR’S RUSH TO SPIN THE MUELLER REPORT

Barr’s message following the Mueller submission was twofold: “No collusion” and that he had decided that there were no grounds for charging the President with Obstruction of Justice. His rapid conclusion of Mueller’s and the FBI’s almost three year investigation was remarkably similar to that of his June 18 memo. 

What at kindest is bizarre is the conclusion that Barr came as to the basis of Mueller decision not to indict Trump on Obstruction of Justice. Mueller’s reasons were because of “Difficult issues of law and fact”. According to Eric Holder, a previous AG, he never ever received a report from prosecutors without a recommendation whether or not to prosecute. 

So it is therefore obvious that Mueller was intimating that he was following Department of Justice policy not to indict a sitting president. What precedent there is in these matters is the Special Prosecutor legislation which was replaced by the Special Counsel Act under which Mueller operated. Under the previous Act the Special Prosecutor submitted his report to Congress to decide on impeachment proceedings. That is the precedent of Watergate. Implicit in Mueller’s phraseology is that what he intended. That is how Eric Holder, former Attorney General interpreted Mueller's lack of recommendation. Put another way why would Mueller go through this whole 2 year production for Barr, a political appointee, to decide the issue in a weekend?

  There is very little doubt that there is plenty more than is already known already of “collusion with Russia” which in Mueller’s opinion didn’t rise to a watertight criminal case of conspiracy or treason. This does not mean that Trump did not act in a manner that was impeachable as a President in his unprecedent behavior relating to "The Russia thing".

Barr’s glib dismissal of the Mueller probe that issued 550 warrants, interviewed 500 witnesses and 2,800 subpoenas is monumental.  There were 13 requests to foreign governments for information. It is interesting to note that he did not quote one fill sentence from the actual report. Nor did he share the length of the report. 

BARR’S ORIGINAL UNSOLICITED MEMORANDUM TO THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION  IN JUNE 2018

On June 18, 2018 Barr wrote to the Justice Department as a “a former Justice Department Official deeply concerned with the institutions of the Department of Justice and The Presidency”. He added that although he was “in the dark” about the facts he argued that “Mueller’s obstruction theory was fatally misconceived”. It appears that Barr’s memo might well have had some impact because Barr maintained that Mueller had no right to demand an interview with the President. (Mueller subsequently and inexplicably did “give up” on getting a one on one meeting, accepting the POTUS'S written answers to his queries). 

Barr went on for another eighteen pages arguing, with tautologous logic, that the President was in effect above the law. He limited the President’s potential liability when obstructing justice to “sabotaging a truth finding function by destroying evidence, persuading witnesses to lie" for example. He argued that Clinton lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky and telling her to deny the affair represented a President obstructing justice. This as opposed to attempting to halt a “truth finding function” by telling the head of the FBI to halt his investigation into his National Security Officer who lied about his contacts with the Russians during the campaign, then firing that FBI head for the very reason that he hadn’t listened to him - “The Russian Thing”. All this when the Intelligence Agencies had incontrovertible proof that the self same Russians had intervened in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf. (That man Barr has chutzpah and he sat there in his confirmation hearings with a straight face).

The evidence of Trump’s attempts to “sabotage (Mueller’s) truth finding mission” is legion and is the very reason for Barr's appointment when the POTUS finally axed the previous AG who refused to “protect" him from Mueller’s “truth finding function”. 

REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY

What is particularly nauseating in this whole sorry saga is the hypocrisy of the Republicans who claim that there is no need for any further investigation of the President. These are the same Republicans who are still pursuing Hillary Clinton after four years fruitless persecution. They claim further that documents cannot be obtained from the Department of Justice in connection with the Special Counsel’s activities when they demanded and received 800,000 background pages into the doings of Hillary Clinton. Then as for their glossing over Trump’s lies and Obstruction of Justice they impeached Bill Clinton for exactly those transgressions over his lies about a consensual affair. 

But all of this fits into the pattern that they have colluded in the take over the GOP by a populist who according to a leader of the Conservative Lawyers group is a malignant narcissist or a sociopath. The only good news is that 87 percent of the electorate and a unanimous bipartisan House of Representatives wants the whole Mueller report released. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The fat lady may have sung but it ain’t over yet. There are so many questions many of which might be answered by the full report, by Congress and in the litigation Trump Inc faces. Jay H. Ell has a few questions for Mueller as well including why he didn’t ultimately insist on interviewing Trump and why he didn’t bother to subpoena Donald Jnr. and Jared Kushner. 

One conclusion for certain is that Mueller had no desire to carry the can in being the ultimate arbiter of Trump’s legitimacy - it appears he wanted Congress to decide. AG Barr had no such inhibitions. 

Meanwhile steal yourself for a rain of victory tweets and the sanctimonious Barr arguing that his prior bias had nothing to do with his sanitization of the Mueller report and any rationale he may offer for not submitting the whole report to Congress as the American society demands. 

The question democracy, at the very least, needs to answer is whether it is appropriate for a Presidential candidate to welcome a foreign country’s illegal assistance in subverting the intent of its electorate’s wishes. And then what is he doing about prevent it from happening again. 

The Democrats have to be very careful how they proceed. No talk of impeachment. Listen to Nancy Pelosi. Get the full report. It is going to be ugly. The fact that Mueller could not or would not find criminal conspiracy is one matter. The fact that is what is out there already is disgusting on its own. Mueller over two years could not have improved the story of Trump, his alleged obstruction, his campaign and "The Russia thing". 

Trump has finally got his own Attorney General "to protect him like Jack Kennedy who had Bobby". Barr will be around in the aftermath as it all hits the fan. How far will he go to "protect" the President? How much of the report will he release? 

Barr is under the spotlight to an extent he could never have imagined. As matters stand he has become the story line of the Mueller report. He will be investigated under the ying yang including why he, out of the blue, sent in a resume to become Trump's Attorney General when he knew Trump was publicly looking for a "protector". 

IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET - NO PLACE TO ESCAPE EVIL

The world was shattered when sleepy pastoral tranquil New Zealand, where the murder of one individual is front page news, was struck by the wholesale methodical slaughter of 50 innocent Muslim worshippers. The obscene massacre was broadcast live on the internet by the sociopathic assailant who simultaneously published a 74 page manifesto on the world wide web, which was a racist diatribe against the "foreign invaders". The potent mixture of evil, unlimited access to weapons and the new means of instant communication, the internet, has changed the world forever. The time has come for to initiate a comprehensive ambitious agenda to combat this violence which is casting a dark shadow over the planet. 

In order to battle this evil there are four variables that need to be addressed. First and foremost, the internet, which is the means of propagandizing, communication and thereby empowerment of this malicious minority, has to be regulated. It is bizarre and outrageous that the control of this global mayhem is left to the tender mercies of the likes of 34 year old Mark Zuckerberg rather than being controlled legislatively. 

The terrorist organizations who identify themselves by their ideology, which is for the most part either religious fundamentalism or right wing white nationalist extremism, has to be monitored and attempts made to somehow ameliorate their evil. The laissez affair attitude to the availability of guns of all sorts has too to be addressed and controls put in place. 

Finally, there has to be an attempt to identify those who act on their own and perpetrate this evil. The latter objective is the most difficult to achieve and would have been almost impossible in the New Zealand tragedy as, for the most part, the thug flew under the radar until he made his grotesque move into prime time. For the moment the only way to put the brake on these perpetrators is to stop them obtaining weapons of death.

THE REVOLUTIONARY IMPACT OF THE NEW MEANS OF COMMUNICATION - THE INTERNET

The advent of the internet has been the largest ally of those who wish to terrorize. Much as the invention of the printing press heralded hundreds of years of religious wars in Europe, culminating in the Thirty Years War, ending in 1648, which saw the death of a third of the population in Germany, the internet has facilitated an era of fear and slaughter. The epidemic of random homicidal acts on innocent bystanders has paralyzed the world and as the New Zealand horror has illustrated there is no place to hide. 

 The evil minority have become a new powerful interconnected force, that like international corporations, know no national boundaries, They have become Terror Incorporated. The introduction of the internet and social streaming have allowed isolated monstrous events to take on global revolutionary significance. Tiny groups of extremists are able to connect and propagandize within seconds. Otherwise lone perpetrators have become members of a world wide army of unadulteratedly evil participants who feed and nourish one another. Factions such as ISIS have a visual forum where they can advertise their surrealistic evil which they use as a recruiting tool.

THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE EVIL OF TERRORISM

There have always been evil butchers.Terrorist evil has existed since time immemorial but up until the twentieth century it was confined and uniquely directed against political targets. For example, there were the anarchist attacks against the Tzar and most notoriously the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand triggering off the First World War. The post second war period saw the beginnings of terror against indiscriminate civilian targets being utilized as political propaganda. Notably the Irish Republican Army took their centuries old struggle to the British mainland and Yasser Arafat launched the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s fighting arm Fatah into international terror.

Arafat and related groups elevated the violation of everyday life to a new level with international plane hijackings and the Black September murder of eleven Israeli athletes in Munich Germany. The PLO leader announced in 1984 that he had abandoned assaulting the innocent but the war to this day against Israel is being lead by internationally declared terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Much of the random religious and right wing slaughter in the world to this day is directed against Jews or against the existence of the State of Israel.

The twentieth century saw the emergence and prominence on the international stage of fundamentalist Islamist El Queda and subsequently ISIS. Simultaneously, the prevalence of murderous incidents perpetrated by individuals or small groups increased exponentially. These were in the main either religiously motivated, the behavior of right wing white nationalist extremists and in some instances the mentally unhinged who had no agenda other than hatred and evil. Overall seventy percent of the attacks were motivated by Islamist religious extremism whereas in the United States of America the bulk of the transgressors were on the right wing white racist fringe of society. 

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

The current administration under Trump seems paralyzed into doing anything lest it annoy its backers - the National Rifle Association and the right wing crazies. Trump, whose public position is that the right wing white nationalists are not a real threat, “They are just a few”, did ban bump stocks that turn semi automatic weapons into automatic pieces. The latter was a sequel to the carnage in Las Vegas where 59 lay dead while attending a music festival. 

There is currently a permanent emergency on school campuses who are fortunate enough just to be participating in regular lock down drills rather than being subjected to real terror.

Trump has suggested that schools and places of worship beef up security. A further Trumpian contribution to the crisis is that teachers should carry weapons. In a similar vein he believed that the Pittsburgh Synagogue bloodbath was evidence of a security deficit.  For the moment he cannot be counted upon to assist in corrective action which involves a process that might take decades to show results. However with or without the help of the current American administration expansive objectives need to be defined and strived for. 

The Social Media Platform of Terrorism has to be removed.

The number one item on the agenda is to remove the platform for these individuals, groups and organizations. This cannot be left to the amateur efforts of the social media companies. (Only recently did YouTube and FaceBook shut down Alex Jones who has inter alia claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary School butchery, where 20 First Graders and 6 adults were slain, was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by “gun grabbers”). 

It wIll require a concerted international effort to put an end to material that seeks to allow this type of terrorism to flourish. The United Nations should put together a group with the ultimate aim of obtaining consensus for legislation that nation states will enact. 

Gun Control 

There is no argument that there is any societal need for weapons that can wipe out scores of individuals in seconds. The New Zealand Premier is moving to have these banned immediately. In fact every weapon in society needs to be licensed and registered. Anyone who owns one needs to have background checks, regular training on their usage and to provide evidence as to how to safely store them. There are 30,000 deaths from suicides and unintentional shootings a year in America seriously putting into doubt that there is the remotest attempt to check the mental state of gun owners.   

Terrorist Organizations 

With regard to the two major groups that affect carnage in the name of ideology or religion very little is done to damp down on the white right wing groups who dominate the American terrorist scene. With regard to the random murder for religious reasons, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks coined the term, “altruistic evil” in his award winning book, “Not in God’s name: Confronting Religious Violence”. Sack’s definition of the phenomenon was that it was violence that was perpetrated in a sacred cause in the name of high ideals. He labelled it as the biggest threat of “our time”. The solution involves leadership of each of the Abrahamic religions working together, seeing the good  and the commonality of their value systems and to respect their differences. Sacks recognizes that he is not going to convert any terrorists and this is a long term process. What needs to be emphasized is that the process of inculcating hate begins in childhood where the ground is laid to obtain recruits in the mission of altruistic evil. 

The sponsoring countries of terrorism have a responsibility to fight and provide resources to eradicate the monster they have created. Specifically the Saudis financed Madrases throughout the world that were the progenitors of Wahabi - Salafist fundamentalist terrorism. 

Individuals who become terrorists and/or are recruited to terrorism

There is little doubt that the ruthless sociopathic killers, even those who claim to have a cause, have no empathy with their victims. The percentage of amoral sociopaths in society is estimated to be four percent. They have no conscience nor do they learn from the tragedies they perpetrate. So little is known and written about the sociopath personality.  Scott Peck’s book - “The People of the Lie” goes through case studies of individuals who manifest the traits of the sociopath. Often these are only uncovered because of the repetition of their destructive behavior, resulting finally in their exposure. Mercifully those that are unintelligent are constantly in legal trouble and are locked up. But the real danger are the highly intelligent sociopaths who are superficially charming and often charismatic individuals. They gravitate to leadership positions in many disciplines, being particularly dangerous if they reach high political or leadership positions, such as Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler. They are at a distinct advantage in decision making as their actions are not hampered by the niceties of what is right or wrong. There is little doubt that the New Zealand incendiary was a sociopath.

Simon Baron - Cohen in his work, “The Science of Evil: On  Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty” is a lot more helpful as he isolates the key personality characteristic that these people are missing - empathy. He claims that the etiology of this condition involves biological, social and environmental factors such as parental neglect, abuse and the experience of profound distrust. 

While it is fair to say that this area of research has a long way to go and runs the risk of crackpot theories and solutions, there is little doubt that lack of empathy is common to the genre of terrorists.  Carl Rogers, the founder of Person Centered Therapy, defined it as the ability to put oneself into another’s shoes and see the world as they do. In addition what was central to his theory of communication and understanding had to be unconditional regard for the other and their world view. Implicit in such behavior is a conscience and knowing right from wrong. Rogers was a firm believer that displaying these attitudes would help defuse conflict and would be most useful in solving political divisions. Consciously or unconsciously a great exponent of these behaviors was Nelson Mandela. Why not expand them to all individuals in society?

The thought Jay H. Ell has, is why aren’t these values not a crucial and an ongoing subject of school education? The objective is to make scholars aware of valuing “the other” and understanding each other’s world. This is a vast undertaking and idealistic suggestion but not beyond the imagination. Why shouldn’t education focus on values and attitudes in addition to knowledge and problem solving.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Combating the modern day evil of terrorism is a top priority and there are several components to the problem. The invention of the printing press resulted in  liberalization of communication, the printing press, facilitating centuries years of war. The latest means of sharing knowledge and objectives, the internet, has the potential to destroy the sanctity of day to day life as it is currently experienced. Solutions will require societal and political resolve and even if agreed upon, have a long time line associated for their enactment. However there is an urgency to attack this scourge as, illustrated by the New Zealand tragedy, no community or society is exempt. All it takes is one agent to wreak havoc and change the status quo forever. 

ILHAN OMAR: ANTI SEMITISM IN PLAIN SIGHT

Jay H. Ell detailed in his last blog, JEWS, ISRAEL AND ANTI SEMITISM, the widespread prevalence, manifestations and possible causes of the dramatic modern day upsurge of anti semitism. He reported the warning by political scientist and commentator, Fareed Zakaria, in his celebrated weekly CNN program, GPS, as to the dangers of flirting with racial bias. His message had been directed specifically to the newly elected Muslims to Congress, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tiaib. At the time of the CNN host’s first warning, Ms Omar had already become the center of controversy with a blatantly anti semitic tweet.  

For the benefit of those that had believed that he was wildly exaggerating the problem of anti semitism the acclaimed CNN analyst repeated his cautioning a week later citing additional troubling events. 

The unfolding of the saga of Congresswoman Omar and the havoc she has wreaked in the Democratic Party, arising out of their denial that Ms Omar’s history and outpourings were not anti semitic, illustrated that Mr. Zakaria’s warnings were well founded. 

CONGRESSWOMAN OMAR’S TWEETS

Congresswoman Omar abjectly apologized for her first tweet only to once again send off another tendentious one a week later. This time, she stuck to her guns and went onto a defiant offensive. Her posture resulted in a whole host of Democrats backing her in one way or another by either, supporting her First Amendment Rights, denying that what she said was racist, claiming the Republicans were worse, stating that AIPAC, (The American Israeli Political Action Committee) were too powerful, attacking the Israeli Government or stating that Muslims were also being harassed - all of which diverted attention from the issue at hand - Ms. Omar’s anti - semitic remarks. Ms Omar’s previous racist tweets were dug up and published. Those supporting her, including Presidential wannabes, who were not addressing the issue that she occasioned - namely anti semitism, allowed critics to claim that the Democrats tolerated bigoted remarks.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi lamely offered that Ms Omar did not fully understand what the weight of her words meant and that she didn’t realize her remarks could be construed as anti semitic. This when in spite of the fact that she obviously did know what she was talking about by making statements such as, “Our nation is having a difficult conversation and I believe this is progress”.

The whole episode had been successfully transformed by Ms Omar and her backers as a left wing right wing issue and there was a frantic rush, particularly among Presidential candidates, not to be outflanked from the left by anyone - behavior more at home on a University campus than the most consequential political arena in the world.

Anti semitism gains respectability when it becomes acceptable as part of the legitimate policy discourse, especially when mouthed by elected government representatives. A fact that is polluting British politics and one which American society has always swept under the table.

AMERICAN DENIAL OF REALITY OF ANTISEMITISM IN THE PAST

America lives in a kind of isolationism. The Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans have separated them from reality since the beginning of time. This denial of what is going on in the rest of the world and therefore the significance of what is happening in plain sight in front of them has precedent. As Jews tried to flee anti semitism and death in Europe, America, to its retrospective shame, denied them safe haven. This policy was epitomized by the turning away of the 900 refugees in 1939 on the liner SS St. Louis, which lingered in the New York harbor, to be sent back to the tender mercies of the Nazis. Two hundred and fifty of those aboard were known to have been murdered by the Nazis. 

Charles Lindbergh, an American icon, who in a 1927 in an airplane, ironically named the Spirit of St. Louis and was the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, was the leader of the movement of not to go to war against Hitler.  Lindbergh was a charismatic leader of the “America First” Committee who addressed packed stadiums railed against America fighting the Nazis. He was labelled a Nazi by President Franklin Roosevelt. 

Like all anti semites Lindbergh claimed he had nothing against Jews. He was just against the Jews in America that were agitating, against American interests, for intervention in the war against the Nazis. Implicit and explicit in his argument was the dual loyalty of the jews.

Like in the 1930’s the tide of vicious antisemitism has emerged in Europe. Likewise it has evidenced in America. Like in the 1930’s both in Europe and America no one that attacks Jews admit to being anti semitic rather they look to characteristics that they attribute to Jews that they demonize. These attributes include that Jews have extraordinary powers in that they can control America or that they have loyalty to another nation.  Another is how they use their money power to dominate the world. Those were the underlying messages of Ms Omar’s tweets.

 ILHAN OMAR - THE REAL DEAL

Ilhan Omar is by her own design the polarizing figure around which the anti - semitic debate in the Democratic Party is being defined. She indeed has a compelling tale to tell having come to America as a refugee at the age of fourteen, then 23 years later to become the first person elevated to Congress that was born in Africa and one of the first two Muslim women. She was elected to the Minnesota 5th District which has a strong concentration of the 800,000 Somali immigrants and is the most Democratic constituency in the State. Hillary Clinton won it by 26 points. 

Eyebrows were raised when this rookie Congresswoman was given a prestigious and much sort after position on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Of all the potential issues and countries Ms Omar could have brought to the table she immediately kicked off by attacking Israel and smearing its American supporters. Her stick doesn’t even bother to differentiate between the Jews of Israel and those in America. In her description of Israel she alludes to the superhuman powers Jews have to outmaneuver the world, “Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil the Israel is doing” - shades of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

With regard to American foreign policy she confided, “It is all about the Benjamins baby”. The allusion being to the hundred dollar bill which had Benjamin Franklin on its front. This bribery, she argued gave AIPAC the power to control American foreign policy. David Duke former Grand Master of the Klu Klux Klan repeatedly came out in support of Omar. He tweeted “It took a Muslim Congresswoman to actually tell the truth that we all know”. 

It was irrelevant that AIPAC didn’t back candidates per se and that the other major PAC with Israeli interest was JSTREETPAC that had dished out $4 million backing candidates supportive of a two state solution and was highly critical of current Israeli politics. The leader of JSTREET while disagreeing with nearly everything that she said nevertheless “supported” her, presumably in the hope that she wasn’t really anti semitic.

Omar added to her resume attacks on President Obama calling him “a pretty face that got away with murder…because he was polished”. She claimed that he wasn’t much better than Trump with his drones and cages. 

With all the support she has received she feels empowered to take over the whole Democratic Party who have only themselves to blame for pandering. Ms. Omar is already claiming that she and three others are the Tea Party of the Democrats

 Next month Congresswoman Omar will be the keynote speaker in Los Angeles at the Council for Islamic - American Relations.  The organization has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and allegedly does not believe that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations. The Minnesota legislator has addressed this body before but what she has to say now should come under scrutiny. 

THE ESCALATING IMPACT OF THE OMAR EPISODE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Following the bohaai of the tweets the Democratic Party leadership announced that were going to put a motion on the House floor condemning anti semitism. The question was whether or not Ms. Omar’s outbursts would or would not be part of the text. As a result of Ms. Omar’s newly found defiance, The Black Caucus and the Progressive Committees of the Democratic House Legislature revolted and said they would not support the motion. The upshot was a Bill condemning discrimination against anybody and everybody. It is ironic because when the African American cause of Black Lives Matter was morphed into All Lives Matter they appropriately objected because the issue at hand was the disproportionate number of black lives lost in police action. In addition three Presidential candidates jumped on the bandwagon giving legitimacy to Ms Omar who suddenly has become the face of the Democratic Party to the glee of the Republicans. Ironically she has formed an unholy alliance with the right wing skinheads who have the same opinion on the Jews and their alleged influence. Whichever way this matter ends a can of worms has been opened. 

Four Congresswoman out of 235 Democratic Congress members, who won in Democratic constituencies which went to Hillary Clinton by between 26% and 55%, are now dictating the agenda. Unless the narrative changes every Democratic candidate in 2020 will be asked whether or not they agree with Ms Omar et al. The Black Caucus and The Progressive Caucus are, for the moment, committed to the narrative. The election which should rather be a referendum around Trump, unless the trajectory is changed, will also be about the “Socialist, anti semitic agenda” of the four.

 Democrat House Majority Whip, the number three Democrat in the House, defended Congresswoman Omar’s statements claiming that her experience is “more personal” than children of those who survived the holocaust. Needless to say there was outrage at this bizarre comparison.

Alexandria Occasio - Cortez has alleged that as a result of this controversy “AIPAC is coming after her, Congresswomen Omar and Tlaib", which allegation has no basis in any fact. She is raising money on the strength of this alleged action. Trump has screamed that the Democrats are anti Jewish and anti Israel which Chuck Schumer, Democratic Minority Leader in the Senate has labelled the “ultimate chutzpah”. As Billy Joel would sing “…..and so it goes and so it goes…….”.

What the Democrats don’t seem to understand is that the Republican hypocrisy on this issue is irrelevant. They claim to know better. Kevin McCarthy the Republican leader’s hypocrisy, having tweeted in 2018, “We don’t need Soros, Steyer and Bloomberg to BUY this election. Go out and vote Republican on November 6”, doesn’t help them with their current dilemma. 

Nor does the fact that Trump doesn’t really give a hoot about anti semitism or Israel. The reason for his support of Israel is that the biggest unconditional backers of Israel in America are not the Jews but the largest section of his base, the Evangelicals. They believe that without Israel the Messiah cannot return. As Trump has shown he would rather not condemn anti semitism than risk losing another big section of his base - the right wing fringe. This explains his refusal to condemn anti semitic hooliganism after the Charlottesville demonstrations. That Trump is a bigot is an accepted narrative. That the Democratic Party is ambivalent on prejudice has not been to date.

The Democratic Party as a result of their inane “political correctness” have now a way to go to distance themselves from this self inflicted wound. Their modus operandi, to date, is to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. It better change fast.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Nobody can argue that Fareed Zakaria didn’t see this coming. Even so the denial that anti semitism is an issue in America continues. 

Ms. Omar should listen to those at home in Minnesota where her behavior has evoked bewilderment. There has always been a close relationship between the Jews and the Somalis in that constituency. Somali community activist Omar Jamal has been in touch with local Jewish leaders to reaffirm their solidarity in this “moment of crisis”. "Ms Omar’s comments were wrong, period", he added. This community relationship between Jews and Muslims has been evident throughout the country following the murderous attacks that each religious group has suffered - the most recent being the overwhelming Muslim support for the Jewish community in the Pittsburgh massacre. 

There are so many Muslim philosophers, academics and theologians involved in peaceful interpretations of the Koran that Congresswoman Omar and friends could refer to. Let Jay. H. Ell offer a few suggestions, Ed Husain, a former Islamist radical whose insightful book, The House of islam - A Global Perspective, is a must for anyone to begin to understand modern day Islam, Prince El Hassan bin Talal of the Jordanian Royal Family and Professor Akbar Ahmed of the American University, to name but a few.

Just imagine the outcry if a freshman Democratic Congressperson, a Jew, was elected to the House Foreign Affairs Council and her first order of business was to claim that there was a Wahabi - Salafist conspiracy to plant terrorists in America that was backed by the Benjamins of the internationally linked Council for Islamic - American Relations. (Furthermore she had a history of being anti Muslim). She then proceeded to attack President Obama as “getting away with murder” and that the only characteristic differentiating him from President Trump was “a pretty face”….. Jay H. Ell has no doubt that this would occasion censure and a rash of anti - semitism. 

AND THEN THERE WAS AIPAC

Finally, a word on AIPAC, the most influential Jewish lobby. A central reason for the antipathy towards that body is that it has been recognized as the apologist in chief for Bibi Netanyahu and by extension his intrusion into partisan American politics.

 The politics of Israel today are not the same as that were in 1951 when the organization was founded. There had been differences between the Political Parties for the first 60 years since Israel's founding but never a question of its basic tenets - equality of its citizenry and an equitable two state solution. 

The last decade, under Netanyahu has seen a steady erosion of values as the current Prime Minister has hit rock bottom in every respect. In a desperate effort to cling to power he has formed a coalition with terrorists. He does not argue about his corruption and venality he claims he is entitled to the booty which he believes comes to him by right.

AIPAC holds it's annual meeting at the end of March. It needs to join Israel's President Rivlin in condemning the flagrant violations perpetrated by the current Prime Minister and his disgusting campaign rhetoric which rapes every shred of decency that the State was founded on.