Tlaib lends hand to IfNotNow fundraising drive

In the letter, Tlaib said “IfNotNow has my back.” The group has supported her congressional campaigns.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

”You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,’ as the saying goes. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) put her name to a fundraising letter sent Monday to potential supporters of IfNotNow, the far-left American Jewish group that seeks to, in its words, “end Israel’s occupation.”

The Jewish Press reports that the letter solicits for small donations and is titled, “IfNotNow has my back.”

Tlaib is likely paying back IfNotNow for supporting her politically. In August, when she won her Democratic primary campaign, (she easily won reelection in November) Tlaib thanked IfNotNow on Facebook for “tirelessly supporting our grassroots campaign. Jewish leaders from IfNotNow spent 100 hours on phone calls with #13th District residents over the course of six phonebanks.”

IfNotNow is a radical group on the fringes of American Jewish life. Formed in 2014, its disruptive tactics borrow a page from CodePink – protests and sit-ins in front of mainstream Jewish organizations being its bread and butter.

Unlike the vast majority of U.S. Jews, members of IfNotNow have sided completely with the Palestinians in the Arab-Israel conflict. It ignores Jewish rights to the Land of Israel and the terror and incitement coming from the Palestinian Authority.

IfNotNow seems unwilling to debate the issue with those who disagree with its positions. NGO Monitor says, “IfNotNow has been widely criticized for refusing to engage in dialogue with those it criticizes in the Jewish community, indicating that publicity, not influencing the community, is the main goal.”

It’s not surprising that the group has found a fellow traveler in Tlaib, a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement. Tlaib was one of only a handful of House members who did not sign on to a House resolution condemning BDS in July 2019. It passed 398-17.

Tlaib, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, recently took part in an anti-Semitism panel. Addressing Jews, she said, “Tell everybody, I don’t hate you. I absolutely love you.”

However, the panel was rejected by pro-Israel supporters who dismissed it as an attempt by anti-Zionists to dodge the anti-Semitism label.

Bari Weiss, former New York Times editor, tweeted, “So ‘dismantling antisemitism’ is actually about dismantling *accusations* of antisemitism.”