“The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you all.” -@RepRashida

In one of its few bipartisan votes, the House of Representatives censured Rashida Talib, its only Palestinian member, a week or so ago, and I’m not sure why. I know that they said it was because she used the phrase “From the river to the sea.” which, defacto, proves she is an anti-semite, but… really? It upset me way more than I expected, and I want to talk about it.

I’m going to start by saying anti-Semitism exists, and a good case can be made that it is getting worse. Also, I would be willing to bet money that there are anti-Semites in Congress. Over my lifetime, however, anti-Semitism has changed. When I was younger, anti-semites were the so-called good people, the town elites, and now they are considered declasse. But, while being an anti-Semite may no longer considered fashionable, it is still threatening.

I also want to say that Jewish people, in the US, in Europe, and even in Israel, are not the same as the Israeli government, and criticism of the Israeli State’s treatment of Palestinians is not, necessarily anti-Semitism.

Every day, we swim in an almost infinite sea of opinions passed off as fact. All – maybe this should be prefaced with almost, but I don’t think so -news and information sources we get are biased, FOX and the New York Times are both biased. This sea of opinion influences who we are and what we think, it influences what we believe down to our bones.

One of these opinions that are often presented as fact is the definition of racism and, specifically, anti-sematism. When somebody does not like a specific Jewish person or a specific thing they did, that does not make them an anti-Semite. A lot of money and a lot of ink – pixels now, I guess – is spent every year to convince us that they are the same. A great majority of that money comes from AIPAC – which I believe stands for American Israeli Public Affairs Committee – and AIPAC is out to get Talib.

As an aside, AIPAC does not like any members of the Squad, according to The New Republic: Sources say AIPAC is gearing up to spend over *$100 MILLION* as part of a campaign to knock the Squad out of Congress in 2024. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, and Rashida Tlaib are all marked for high-dollar challenges. End Aside.

Lastly, but most importantly, Rashida Tlaib is not an anti-Semite, she is one of the good guys. Yes, she strongly disagrees with Israeli policy, but that does not make her an anti-Semite. On her Congressional website, Talib says, I have repeatedly denounced the horrific targeting and killing of civilians by Hamas and the Israeli government, and have mourned the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost. (https://tlaib.house.gov/).

There, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I feel much better.