Twitter and terrorists, and it’s probably time for Ilhan Omar to take a look in the mirror

Ending Incitement on Twitter

A bipartisan group of lawmakers have repeatedly appealed to Twitter in recent weeks to remove accounts belonging to Hamas and Hezbollah, arguing they are terrorist groups that do not deserve access to social media. But the lawmakers received a baffling response from the San Francisco-based company, which claimed it was differentiating between the military arm of the organizations and their political wings, which do not violate Twitter’s terms of use.

But the lawmakers did not back down, insisting that the accounts be removed. On Sunday morning, Twitter announced that it had done that, delisting accounts linked to Hamas and Hezbollah. Let’s now hope that the suspension is permanent.

The Two Faces of Ilhan Omar

Just one Democratic congresswoman opposed imposing sanctions on Turkey following its incursion into Syria and its attacks on Kurdish troops: Rep. Ilhan Omar. She was also part of a very small group of lawmakers who refused to support another proposal recognizing the genocide of the Armenian people.

Omar offered a ridiculous excuse for her position. She said that putting economic pressure on regimes in order to change their behavior often achieves the opposite effect. This claim might be persuasive if Omar herself had not pushed a proposal in July that supported the BDS movement against Israel, which is a direct attempt to punish a country economically.

Even putting Israel aside for a moment, what possible reason is there to oppose a resolution recognizing the genocide of the Armenian people? Omar, a Somali refugee, presents herself as a progressive and has held others to the highest moral standards. It’s probably time for her to take a look in the mirror.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 784)