CLOSET MUSLIM, SERVANT TO MUSLIM DICTATORS Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s back door, however, was unique to him. Before prosecutors send some of the dimmer Hollywood stars to the slammer for their dimness, they might want to ask just how much influence a Saudi billionaire peddled to get Obama into Harvard. JACK CASHILL
Ben Rhodes, a former national security aide to President Barack Obama, told the New York Times this week that the “donor class” had prevented Obama from taking more anti-Israel steps than the administration had wanted to take.
Rhodes spoke to author Nathan Thrall for a feature article titled, “How the Battle Over Israel and Anti-Semitism Is Fracturing American Politics.” The headline describes “politics,” but Thrall focused on policy debates within the Democratic Party, which has seen the rise of an assertive anti-Israel constituency in recent years. That constituency has included overtly and unabashedly antisemitic critics, largely but not exclusively from the Muslim community.
Thrall writes about the “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as apartheid South Africa was once isolated — a comparison that BDS critics find not only factually wrong, but also offensive.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whose recent antisemitic remarks sparked turmoil within the House Democratic caucus, supports BDS (though Omar suggested otherwise to voters in her Minnesota’ district during the 2018 election).
One of Omar’s most notorious remarks was, “It’s all about the Benjamins,” followed by a claim that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) bribes members of Congress to support Israel. (AIPAC does not endorse or donate to candidates.) Thrall notes that Jewish donors do figure disproportionately among the Democratic Party’s largest donors — though he allows that few of them “prioritize pro-Israel policies above all other issues.”
Enter Rhodes — one of the architects of the Iran nuclear deal, which was vehemently opposed by Israel and by pro-Israel Americans. He blamed Jewish donors for the Obama administration’s supposed restraint towards Israel:
According to Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser and one of Obama’s closest confidants, several members of the Obama administration wanted to adopt a more assertive policy toward Israel but felt that their hands were tied. “The Washington view of Israel-Palestine is still shaped by the donor class,” Rhodes, who does not support B.D.S., told me, when I met with him at the Obama Foundation in October. “The donor class is profoundly to the right of where the activists are, and frankly, where the majority of the Jewish community is.”
Rhodes’s claims were echoed by “[a]nother former member of the Obama White House,” who told Thrall that the Obama administration had prevailed upon the United Nations Security Council to delay a vote against Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) to after the 2016 election. (The resolution also declared Israel’s presence in eastern Jerusalem — including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, inhabited by Jews for millennia — to be illegal.)
But these claims are contradicted by the fact that after the Obama administration abstained, allowing such an anti-Israel resolution to pass for the first time, Jewish donors (and voters) hardly bolted from the Democratic Party.
Thrall noted: “The fear of losing Jewish donors as the party moves left on Israel may well be overstated.” He also observed that many Jewish donors to the Democratic Party have left-wing views on Israel. Yet the antisemitic canard that Jews use money to control U.S. foreign policy persists within the Democratic Party at the highest levels, and is used by insiders like Rhodes as an excuse — a scapegoat — to deflect criticism of insufficiently radical policy stances.
Notably, Rhodes was appointed by President Obama to the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in the closing days of his administration. It was a controversial appointment, given Rhodes’s role as the “Iran deal salesman,” and Iran’s leading role in promoting Holocaust denial worldwide as an official ideology.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Rashida Tlaib on Obama Meeting: He Told Me ‘I’m Proud of You’
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) revealed Thursday that former President Barack Obama said he was “proud” of her during a meeting this week with House Democrat freshmen in Washington, D.C.
“President Obama met with us new members of Congress and it was a thoughtful discussion. The best part was when he looked straight at me and said, “I’m proud of you,” Tlaib wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of her posing with the former president.
The Michigan Democrat, who is first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress, has quickly established herself as one of the most divisive lawmakers in Washington. Hours after being sworn in, Tlaib spoke before a reception held by the progressive MoveOn.org in which she vowed to “impeach the motherfucker,” a reference to President Trump. She has also pushed several antisemitic tropes, accusing pro-Israel lawmakers of forgetting which “country they represent.”
They forgot what country they represent. This is the U.S. where boycotting is a right & part of our historical fight for freedom & equality. Maybe a refresher on our U.S. Constitution is in order, then get back to opening up our government instead of taking our rights away.
Tlaib has a history of associating with anti-Jewish radicals, including Abbas Hamideh, an anti-Israel extremist and staunch supporter of the Hezbollah terror group, who she posed for a photo with at a swearing-in ceremony. She is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, a global campaign promoting various forms of boycotts against the Jewish state.
According to several reports, Obama met with Democrats to discuss how to advance legislation in an ever-polarized Congress. He also warned that bills or proposals attracting too much media attention before ample support is secured could hurt its prospects of being turned into law.
One source told the Washington Post that the former president also told the House Democrat freshman they “shouldn’t be afraid of big, bold ideas—but also need to think in the nitty-gritty about how those big, bold ideas will work and how you pay for them.”
While Obama did not single out a specific policy, some inside the room believe Obama was referring to the Green New Deal, the far-left proposal to pursue 100 percent non-combustible energy by 2030. The proposal, unveiled earlier this year by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), was voted down in the Senate this week 57-0, with 42 Democrats voting “present.”
Obama on Tuesday posted to social media about the formal meet-and-greet with Democrats, tweeting: “Last night I had the chance to meet with first-term Democrats in Congress – it’s a young, diverse class, stocked with a bunch of my campaign and administration alums who’ve taken the torch. This group is going to be driving progress for a long time to come.”
Last night I had the chance to meet with first-term Democrats in Congress—it's a young, diverse class, stocked with a bunch of my campaign and administration alums who’ve taken the torch. This group is going to be driving progress for a long time to come.
