While criticism of Ilhan Omar‘s rhetoric when it comes to Israel may have been warranted, there’s a segment of her critics who have zero credibility when it comes to calling out bigotry, and Jeanine Pirro of Fox News is one of them.
At the outset of her show this Saturday, Pirro jumped on the backlash surrounding past comments from Omar, where she suggested that American politicians who support Israel are pledging “allegiance” to a foreign country for financial reasons. Pirro directed her rant towards House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and slammed her “watered-down, dumb, disappointing resolution that neither condemns Omar nor mentions her name.”
“[Omar] then goes on to accuse respected members of Congress who support Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East, of dual loyalty,” Pirro continued, adding that Omar is “starting a movement to shut down pro-Israel speech, making it politically incorrect.
Then there’s this:
“Think about this,” Pirro said. “[Omar] is not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party. So if it’s not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran, 33:59, tells women to cover so they won’t molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?”
So in the very same segment where she castigates Omar for pushing the “dual loyalty” trope when it comes to Israel, Pirro takes that same smear and turns back around on Muslims who choose to wear a hijab as an expression of their faith. Yes, she named Omar, but the general implication is clear — a hijab suggests loyalty to Islam, not America.
https://twitter.com/arielsobelle/status/1104808577565253632
In a post to Twitter this Sunday, writer and filmmaker Ariel Sobel pointed out another glaring hypocrisy in Pirro’s rant.
“You do know that Jews wear head coverings too, right?” Sobel tweeted. “Does a kippa or sheitel mean we have dual loyalties too? Don’t you realize you’re highlighting the traditions and oppression we have in common?”
Whether she did it consciously or not, Omar regurgitated some well known antisemitic tropes when it comes to Jews and Israel. But predictably, the backlash against her words did nothing to elevate the debate around antisemitism and only gave people like Pirro more boldness when it comes to promoting Islamophobic stereotypes on national TV.
Watch Pirro’s segment in the video below, via Fox News:
Featured image via screen grab
