Their Tempestuous Teapot

"There is a perception, right or wrong, true or untrue, that the Netanyahu administration and the Trump administration are working hand in glove."
"In our hyperpartisan world, the friend of my enemy is my enemy, and to the extent that Democrats look at Trump as the enemy, if they see Israel and the Netanyahu administration as operating hand in glove, that gives them real pause."
Mark Mellman, president, Democratic Majority for Israel

"What is the one mantra of the pro-Israel organizations for 30, 40 years?"
"It's congressional support. Presidents have their own views, but Congress is the core."
"So, to pick a fight with members of Congress, which is going to force half of Congress to rally to their defence is really foolish."
William Kristol, conservative Trump critic

"We respect all members of Congress. Our directive is to facilitate, on a regular and automatic basis, the entry of all members of Congress, Democratic and Republican. Just one week ago, I met with dozens of Democratic members of Congress."
"Ambassador Dermer enunciated this precise policy. There is only one exception and it is the BDS law that obligates us to evaluate the entry of people who support BDS."
"When Ambassador Dermer spoke, there was no specific request regarding these visits; neither was there an itinerary or a specific travel plan. As soon as these arrived, we checked it and reached the decision that we did. This was a principled, not a partisan, decision."
"We respect all political parties in the US equally; however, we also respect ourselves. Whoever comes to impose boycotts on us and to deny the legitimacy of the State of Israel, we will not allow them entry." 
"Several days ago, we received [Omar and Tlaib’s] trip itinerary which clarified that they planned a visit whose sole purpose was to support boycotts and deny Israel’s legitimacy. For example, they called their destination ‘Palestine’ and not ‘Israel,’ and unlike all Democratic and Republican members of Congress before them, they did not seek any meeting with any Israeli official, whether government or opposition."
"The itinerary of the two congresswomen reveals that their sole purpose is to harm Israel and increase incitement against it. In addition, the organization that is funding their trip is Miftah, which is an avid supporter of BDS, and among whose members are those who have expressed support for terrorism against Israel."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Reps. Rashida Tlaib, left, and Ilhan Omar, right. (AP/Andrew Harnik, File, Susan Walsh)

Many countries other than Israel make decisions not to permit entry to those whom they consider unwelcome. Most frequently guest speakers invited to address university audiences are refused entry to a country because of their right-wing or perceived racist views. Any country reserves the right to welcome or deny entry to those whose political agenda is questionable on its merits posing as proponents of ideologies contrary to a nation's values and laws. The two U.S. Congresswomen whose statements and positions with respect to Israel's legitimacy they frequently slander a case in point.

Which brings us to the question, why is it that Israel alone seems to attract condemnation for its decision-making to a degree never otherwise seen addressed to other nations? A country that the two Congresswomen describe as Apartheid despite having a 20 percent Arab citizenry, as opposed to all its neighbouring Arab countries where historically Jews lived and laboured but were expelled at the creation of the State of Israel. And certainly in stark contrast to the Palestinian Territories where a deadly prohibition against any Jewish presence is formalized.

Reps.Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota had one agenda only with their intention of travelling to the Middle East, and that was to bolster their credentials as virulent anti-Semites. Now, as matters tumbled from one exchange to another with the sanctimonious accusations of Apartheid and insults to the United States Congress because two notorious partisan helpmeets of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and associates of groups linked to terrorism claim themselves to have been victimized, it has become instantly fashionable to criticize Israel.

It was, in fact, Tlaib who, spurred on by her Palestinian family in Bei Ur Al-Fauqa, West Bank where they have been resident since 1974, declined the 'humanitarian' based exception to the 2017 Israeli law excluding entry to Israel by BDS supporters, although she had appealed for just such an exception, writing to the Israeli Interior Minister directly: "This would be my last opportunity to see her [grandmother]. I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit", only to slam the very invitation she had requested as "insulting" to her values.

Back to the victimhood drawing board, and why not, since it works so spectacularly well; the first, middle and last resort of the sanctimonious hypocrites that love to rewrite history in their favour irrespective of how absurd their historical claims tend to be, revealing the pathological state of their intransigent hatred for the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East; a humiliating wrench for Islamist sensibilities when land 'consecrated' by divine right of conquest to Islam is returned to its rightful inheritance.