The Washington Post is out Monday with something that looks like good news. Three board members at the national Women's March who were involved in a series of anti-Semitic incidents are out. A diverse group of 16 people, including three Jews, will replace them.
But some of those new board members raise additional questions about the March, and seem to reinforce the previous concern that it is not a welcoming place for women who support the state of Israel.
For example, Zahra Billoo is one of the new March leaders. The Post quoted her talking about the challenge the March faces "being able to harness our biggest strength and turn that energy into action" before the 2020 election.
But Billoo, who runs the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) San Francisco office, matches – perhaps even surpasses – outgoing board member Linda Sarsour's hatred for Israel and those who support it. Billoo at least is candid enough to admit she doesn't think the Jewish state should exist (she has not mentioned other countries she wishes would disappear). She repeatedly has compared Israeli soldiers to ISIS terrorists. Being pro-Israel, she has written, is tantamount to being "pro-terror, pro-violence, pro-land theft, and pro-apartheid."
Criticizing Israeli leaders, or government policies, is not anti-Semitic. But rejecting even the idea of the state's existence, is. It's a view shared by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and at least 25 other nations.
Much of the Women's March troubles stemmed from the inability of outgoing leaders Sarsour, Tamika Mallory and Bob Bland to condemn the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan. As a result, the movement lost key donors and sponsors prior to January's national march.
Over the years, Billoo has touted Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. She featured an Nation of Islam video on her blog in 2010. Seven months earlier, she felt compelled to share with her Twitter followers that she was "watching [Nation of Islam leader Louis] Farrakhan church speech, while at the gym."
Touting Billoo's appointment to the board while Sarsour leaves would be like a company saying, "Harvey Weinstein has left our board. Here's our new member, Jeffrey Epstein."