The Rashida Tlaib story has been by now retold ad nauseam: the Israel-hating congresswoman wanted to come to Israel to grandstand and advocate for boycott of the country; the Israeli government (with a little push from President Trump) showed her and her fellow, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, that boycott can be a two-way street, and refused her entry. Since she planned to combine the business of Israel-bashing with a more personal matter — a visit to her 90-year-old grandmother who lives in a tidy, prosperous West Bank village — she decided to at least accomplish the latter.  To that end, she wrote to Israeli authorities asking for permission to visit her grandma and promising not to engage in anti-Israel political grandstanding while in the country. Israelis, who after all routinely treat in their hospitals sick Palestinians from the Palestinian-controlled Area A of the West Bank and from Gaza, immediately approved the...(Read Full Post)