Rashida Tlaib Won’t Visit West Bank
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
We ran the numbers:
There are 1051 news articles covering this topic. 39% (410) are left leaning, 42% (440) center, 19% (201) right leaning.
After banning Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from visiting on Thursday, Israel has relented slightly and agreed to allow Tlaib to visit her grandmother, who lives in the West Bank. However, Tlaib has decided that she will not make the visit under what she described as “oppressive conditions.” “Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me,” she wrote on Twitter, referring to her grandmother. “It would kill a piece of me.” Trump tweeted on Friday that Israel had been respectful in allowing Tlaib to visit her grandmother and she had grandstanded in response.
A left-leaning article from the New York Times notes that some Israelis worry that barring members of Congress from the country would jeopardize Israel’s bipartisan support in Washington. The article argues, “by having appeared to knuckle under to Mr. Trump’s pressure, including a tweet saying that allowing the congresswomen into Israel would “show great weakness,” Mr. Netanyahu suddenly looked, in American terms, more like a red-state candidate who might have to swallow an embarrassment or two for the sake of a coveted Trump endorsement.” They also report that Tlaib had asked for permission to visit her grandmother and said that she would not participate in any boycotts against Israel, before changing her mind and deciding not to go.
A centrist analysis from Time magazine gives a history of the partisan split in US attitudes toward Israel, noting that Democrats have regularly questioned the United States’ “historically generous” support of Israel. The article concludes, “It is difficult to see this ending well, for either nation.” Coverage from the center varied, but most center on Tlaib’s decision to not visit the West Bank due to Israel’s restrictions.
A Fox News opinion writer argues in a right-leaning article that Israel was right to ban Tlaib and Omar from visiting the country. The writer, Andrew McCarthy, argues that “Israel’s exclusion of Omar and Tlaib makes eminent sense. Since when must a country, particularly one that daily confronts a terrorism challenge the likes of which we have never experienced, roll out the red carpet for aliens who mean it harm and encourage its enemies?” Several right-leaning headlines refer to Tlaib and Omar as anti-Semitic, with one headline from the Spectator calling them “Jew-Haters.”