Comedian Sarah Silverman last week called out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her fellow “Squad” members over opposing U.S. funding for the Iron Dome, an air defense system in Israel that has saved countless lives from rockets fired into the Jewish state by Hamas and other terrorist groups.
While Silverman’s condemnation of The Squad when it comes to funding for the Iron Dome should be applauded, it’s worth noting her support does come with a lot of anti-Israel baggage that the American left tend to take as given facts.
The House of Representatives last week passed a bill that would give $1 billion to fund the Iron Dome. Ocasio-Cortez voted “present,” but later came out with a statement of apology and opposition to the bill, which came about shortly after progressive House Democrats stripped Iron Dome funding from a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the U.S. government and avoid a government shutdown.
“They need it,” said the comedian on The Sarah Silverman Podcast, referring to Israel and the Iron Dome. “None of them talk about Hamas. No one in The Squad is bringing up Hamas. I can’t, it’s so bizarre.”
So far, so good. But then Silverman took a wrong turn.
“Yes, the Occupation is not right. There cannot be justice in a place where there are people who have no freedom of movement,” she said. “But they elected Hamas.”
Silverman is correct in that Hamas was elected. In 2006
Calling out The Squad, Silverman asked, “Why do none of them even mention Hamas, a group that until just a few years had a mission statement that said kill all Jews?”
Hamas’s mission statement has not changed. Hamas has not stopped launching rockets from civilian areas, such as schools, in Gaza into Israel. Hamas still does not recognize Israel. A 2017 document that Silverman referred to is nothing short of window dressing and even Hamas has said that it does not replace its 1988 charter, which is essentially a second version of Mein Kampf, except that it not only targets Jews, but also the Jewish state, which was founded in the wake of the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
The part of Hamas’ 1988 charter that Silverman referred to stated, “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems
The 2017 document reads, “Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.”
Except waging war on Zionism is waging war on the Jewish state, and therefore Jews. Martin Luther King, Jr. is reported to have said, correctly: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”
Silverman mentioned that Hamas “congratulated the Taliban for taking over Afghanistan.” That was accurate.
But then, Silverman accepted another left-wing assumption, saying “Israel is not good for Palestine, but you are kidding yourselves if you think Hamas is good for Palestine.”
While Silverman correctly said that Hamas is not good for the Palestinians, Israel, which is the only true democracy in the Middle East, treats all of its citizens – Jews, Muslims, Christians, etc. – equally. Israel has a policy of allowing Palestinians to become Israeli citizens, but many, if not most, Palestinians have chosen not to. Granted, it is not easy for Palestinians to become Israeli citizens. Were the Palestinian Authority an ally,
“The whole thing’s just f***ing gross. But f***, it’s not simple,” said Silverman. “Please do not defund the Iron Dome.”
Yes, what The Squad and progressives did in stripping Iron Dome funding from the CR, in addition to most of The Squad and a handful of other far-left Democrats voting against the standalone bill to fund the defense system, was, to use Silverman’s words, “f***ing gross.” But, contrary to Silverman’s assertion, it’s simple: Voting against Iron Dome funding is a vote against America’s closest Mideast ally and for Israel’s adversaries including Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“But just talking to The Squad here, you know, my family lives there. It just seems to prove the point that I didn’t think existed, which is people only really like Jews if they’re suffering,” said Silverman. “Dead Jews get a lot of honor.”
Silverman is spot on. Anti-Semites love nothing more than decreased Jews.
Nonetheless, she expresses her “love” for Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow Squad members Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), calling them “cool” and “kickass” as she agrees with their domestic policies (which is a rebuttal article by itself).
However, she called the opposition of The Squad to Iron Dome funding as “really scary.”
“You make it hard,” continued Silverman. “Not having the Iron Dome is gonna kill people.”
Except
Silverman is right, ultimately, that without the Iron Dome, there would be a lot of dead innocent civilians in Israel.
Watch above, via The Sarah Silverman Podcast.