Ellison has a long history of sordid association with anti-Semitism. He worked closely with and supported one of a handful of the most notorious and public anti-Semites in our country: The Reverend Louis Farrakhan. And he worked with Farrakhan at the very time this anti-Semite was publicly describing Judaism as a “gutter religion” and insisting that the Jews were a primary force in the African slave trade. Ellison has publicly stated that he was unaware of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. That is not a credible statement. Everyone was aware of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. Farrakhan did not try to hide it. Indeed he proclaimed it on every occasion. Ellison is either lying or he willfully blinded himself to what was obvious to everyone else. Neither of these qualities makes him suitable to be the next Chairman of the DNC.
Moreover, Ellison himself has made anti-Semitic statements. A prominent lawyer, with significant credibility, told me that while he was a law student, Ellison approached her and said he could not respect her, because she was a Jew and because she was a woman who should not be at a law school. This woman immediately disclosed that anti-Semitic and anti-feminist statement to her husband and friends, and I believe she is telling the truth.
Ellison’s anti-Semitism is confirmed by his support for another anti-Semite, Stokely Carmichael. When there were protests about Carmichael’s speaking at the University of Minnesota, Ellison responded that “Political Zionism is off-limits no matter what dubious circumstances Israel was founded under; no matter what the Zionists do to the Palestinians; and no matter what wicked regimes Israel allies itself with — like South Africa. This position is untenable.” At a fundraiser for his reelection in 2010, hosted by Esam Omeish who had told Palestinians that “Jihad way is the way to liberate your land,” he complained that Jews had too much influence in American politics.
With regard to Israel, Ellison was one of only a small number of Congress people who recently voted against funding the Iron Dome, a missile system used by Israel to protect its civilians against rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah. His voting record with regard to the nation state of the Jewish people is among the very worst in Congress.
Ellison is now on an apology tour, but his apologies and renunciations of his past association with anti-Semitism have been tactical and timed to his political aspirations.
He first claimed to realize that Farrakhan was an anti-Semite when he ran for office seeking Jewish support. His claim to be a supporter of Israel was timed to coincide with his run for the chairmanship of DNC. I do not trust him. I do not believe him. And neither should any centrist liberal supporters of Israel and opponents of anti-Semitism.That's just swell, Alan. But given that you twice voted for Barack H. Obama, a hard leftist ideologue who despised the Jewish state and did his utmost to undermine it (not the least by empowering Iran, whose deranged theocrats are bent on Israel's destruction via nuclear means), I see your potential defection as a case of far too little, absurdly too late.
Update: Keith Ellison has lost (to Tom Perez, who has the distinction, if that's what you want to call it, of having the shiniest pate in American politics.
Guess that means ol' Deshy's staying put.
In other news, Alan Dershowitz has regretfully concluded that Vladimir Lenin was probably a Communist.
ReplyDelete