Rashida Tlaib’s and Ilhan Omar’s Aborted Trip to Israel Was a Predictable Train Wreck

When Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar announced their plans to visit Israel, the government let it be known that it would not bar them from entry—despite a law preventing those who publicly promote boycotts of the Jewish state from receiving visas. But last week Jerusalem abruptly reversed course, perhaps in response to pressure from President Trump, perhaps because the trip was partially sponsored by the anti-Semitic organization Miftah and involved no meetings with Israeli officials. Tlaib then applied for permission to visit her grandmother, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, in a solely personal capacity. But once her application was approved, she declared that she would not go under the conditions to which she had agreed.