JTA: Steny Hoyer comes to Rashida Tlaib’s defense on Holocaust comments

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Jewish Democratic Council of America slammed Trump and agreed with Hoyer that “Tlaib’s comments were taken out of context.”

“Trump’s response is the height of hypocrisy,” the group said in a statement. “It requires no imagination — as he’s suggesting — to envision his stoking the flames of anti-Semitism because he’s done just that over the past three years.”

It’s not clear from Tlaib’s remarks whether she means that Palestinians welcomed Jews seeking refuge from Nazi Europe, or that despite the injustices she says were done to the Palestinians, she takes comfort in the idea that Jews fleeing Nazis found refuge in Palestine.

The former interpretation is a historical inaccuracy of gargantuan proportions considering the collaboration that the then-Palestinian leadership offered the Nazis and the nonstop conflict between Jews and Arabs in British Mandate Palestine.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is seeking clarification from Tlaib’s office.

While agreeing that the congresswoman’s words were taken out of  context, the Jewish Democratic Council of America did call out Tlaib.

“Her comments represent revisionist history — unfortunately, the Palestinians were not as welcoming of Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust as she suggests,” its statement said.

Tlaib has clashed with Jewish Democrats in her party over the boycott Israel movement, which she backs, and for favoring a single binational solution as opposed to Israel remaining a Jewish state. Her remarks on the podcast were in response to a question about her support of a single state.