Tlaib defends shameful Holocaust comments on Seth Meyers’ late show

Rashida Tlaib tells Late Night host Seth Meyers that her Holocaust remarks were taken out of context.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

As Democrats become Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s public relations representatives, defending her latest anti-Semitic rhetoric, the Congresswoman took to national television to defend herself on Monday night.

Rep. Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, said last week that Palestinians helped Jews during and after the Holocaust. The statement was widely panned as shameful and historically inaccurate. Ever since, Democrats have blamed Republicans, claiming that they purposefully misrepresenting her comments.

“There’s always kind of a calming feeling when I think of the tragedy of the Holocaust, that it was my ancestors—Palestinians—who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence, in many ways, has been wiped out,” she said in a podcast last week.

The Congresswoman took to Late Night with Seth Meyers on Monday evening, hours after she attacked her critics for “twisting” her words and trying to “silence” her.

Saying that she had made it clear on the podcast that “the Holocaust was a horrific persecution of Jewish people,” she charged on Monday afternoon. “It’s shameful that right-wing extremists and GOP leadership, including President Trump, have twisted and misconstrued my words to spread falsehoods rooted in hate.”

Rep. Tlaib told Mr. Meyers that her remarks were “taken out of context.”

“The reason Israel was created was to create a safe haven for Jews around the world,” she said. “There’s something beautiful — in many ways — that many of my ancestors had died or had to give up their livelihood or human dignity to provide a safe haven for Jews in our world. That was something I wanted to recognize and honor.”

However, Rep. Tlaib failed to mention that Palestinians turned to violence in order to stop the Jews from entering the Land of Israel nearly from the first moment Jews began immigrating in large numbers.

At one point, Rep. Tlaib appeared to step back from her previous comments, saying “I want all of us to feel safe … no matter our backgrounds.”

Moments later, she returned to blaming the Republicans for for not understanding her comments. She said that a friend texted her advising her next time “maybe talk like a fourth-grader because maybe the racist idiots will understand you better.”