Ilhan Omar Attack Is On Trump and AIPAC/ADL
Sid Shniad
Ilhan Omar Attack Is On Trump and AIPAC/ADL
Remember the way they incite endlessly against Mayor Mamdani
Jan 28, 2026
Thank God Ilhan Omar was not seriously hurt by the attacker in Minneapolis yesterday, that is assuming the liquid thrown on her was innocuous, which we don’t know.
But we do know that ever since Trump and AIPAC have demonized her, made her into the face of both Islamic terrorism against Israel and, later, of malignant “illegal” immigration, there has been a target on her back.
Her crime: she is an immigrant from Africa, she is a black woman, and—this above all—like Zohran Mamdani, she speaks out against Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
The attack on this good and decent Member of Congress doesn’t surprise me as much as it horrifies me.
A few days ago another good and decent Member of Congress, Maxwell Frost, black and Latino, was physically attacked in Park City, Utah. Although his views on Palestine are no different than Omar’s and Mamdani’s, he has not been an AIPAC target because, unlike them, he is not Muslim. And he has a safe seat.
I also blame the increase in antisemitic attacks on the hate lobby. Their endless efforts to paint the US Jewish community at large as (1) supportive of the Gaza genocide, and (2) one and the same as Israel, have painted a target on our backs too.
Their endless mindless defense of genocide and smear campaigns against Muslims (like Mamdani, whom they have been trying to destroy since day one) blows back on all Jews who—with the exception of the 4% who are Israel Firsters—constitute the most progressive predominantly white community in the United States. And have since they arrived here in the late 1800’s.
It is no accident that Bernie Sanders is a Jew!
I am not saying that the Israel lobby is entirely responsible for the ugly increase in antisemitism since October 2023. I do, however, blame it for most of it. You can’t endorse genocide and expect it not to be noticed. Nor can you viciously malign Mamdani and Ilhan because they refuse to support genocide, and for being Muslim and think there will be no repercussions, including terrible violence.
And don’t say “but the radical Muslims” do it too. Some do. But a radical fringe is quite different from rabbis preaching hate from the most prestigious pulpits in Manhattan. Or from the most powerful lobby in the United States, AIPAC, one whose #1 mission is destroying politicians who don’t buy the lies they have been putting out unchallenged until 2023.
This needs to stop. But it won’t, so long as AIPAC thinks that incitement is profitable. Right now, it still is—despite the fact that they have lost the base of the Democratic party and most Jews.
Read this about a primary on February 5th in New Jersey where they are trying to defeat Congressman Tom Malinowski for no particular reason except that he is not sufficiently enthusiastic about Gaza. What a sick bunch.
New York Times: Pro-Israel Group Targets a Former Ally in February 5th Congressional Race
A super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is running ads against Tom Malinowski, who is hoping to replace Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey in the House.
The attack ad began running just a few weeks before a rare February primary teeming with Democratic candidates hoping to replace New Jersey’s new governor, Mikie Sherrill, in Congress.
It was notable for both its sponsor, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its target, Tom Malinowski, a longtime supporter of Israel.
Mr. Malinowski, a former House member running for Ms. Sherrill’s seat, was being criticized for his vote in favor of legislation that had authorized funding for federal immigration enforcement and passed with broad bipartisan support. In the ad, a woman’s voice warns ominously that the vote funded “Trump’s deportation force,” suggesting that Mr. Malinowski, who emigrated from Communist Poland as a child and strongly opposes the president’s immigration policies, can’t be trusted.
But its sponsors have made clear that their objective has little to do with immigration. Their true aim is winning a pro-Israel majority in Congress and electing representatives who will not place conditions on U.S. aid to the Jewish state. “Tom Malinowski is talking about conditioning aid to Israel,” said Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for the super PAC, United Democracy Project. “That’s not a pro-Israel position.”
The super PAC’s investment in print mailers and television and digital ads already stands at more than $800,000 and is likely to represent a large portion of the total amount spent in the unusual Feb. 5 primary, which includes 11 candidates.
As a result, the ads have turned an under-the-radar special election in New Jersey into an early test of AIPAC’s tactics in 2026, as it targets a candidate once considered an ally.
The super PAC is relatively new. It was formed in early 2022 and began spending money for and against candidates ahead of the midterm races that year. In 2024, United Democracy invested roughly $35 million in House primaries, including $24 million to help oust two left-leaning members, Jamaal Bowman in New York and Cori Bush in Missouri, according to Ad Impact, a group that tracks political spending.
Yet in New Jersey, the negative advertising could serve to boost a candidate for Ms. Sherrill’s seat in the mold of Mr. Bowman and Ms. Bush — Analilia Mejia, a former director of the state’s Working Families alliance who is running from the left and has been endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“If their definition of pro-Israel now excludes mainstream Democrats like me, the number of pro-Israel people in America will become so small it will be nonexistent,” Mr. Malinowski said.
Mr. Dorton said the group’s goal was to “build the largest bipartisan pro-Israel majority in Congress,” and that there were “several candidates in the race far more supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship.” He declined to name them.
Many Jewish leaders have criticized the attack against Mr. Malinowski.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a liberal, pro-Israel advocacy group, wrote that the tactic could lead to backlash and anger “toward Israel, toward Israel’s friends and, more dangerously, toward the Jewish community broadly.” Daniel B. Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, called the attack “dishonest and wrong” in a video supportive of Mr. Malinowski.
Clifford Kulwin, a rabbi who for two decades led one of New Jersey’s oldest and most prominent temples, B’nai Abraham, said he feared AIPAC might be using the race to try to “make an example” of Mr. Malinowski, whom he supports.