President Obama elects pro-Israel hardliner to top post

During the US election campaign, racists and pro-Israel hardliners tried to make an issue of President-elect Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein. Those people may take comfort in another middle name, Rahm Israel Emanuel, which President Obama chose for his White House chief of staff.

Mr. Emanuel is President Obama’s first high-level appointment, likely to disappoint those who expected the president-elect to break with the pro-Israel policies of the George W. Bush administration. The White House chief of staff is often considered the most powerful position in the executive branch after the president. Democratic sources cited by Reuters and other media outlets said President Obama offered Emanuel the position. New York Times. Mr Emanuel is expected to accept the post, but it had not been confirmed by Wednesday evening, the day after the election.

Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1959, the son of Benjamin Emanuel, a pediatrician who helped smuggle arms to former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s Zionist militia Irgun in the 1940s. The Irgun carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Palestinian civilians, including the bombing of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel in 1946.

Emanuel continued his father’s tradition of actively supporting Israel. During the 1991 Gulf War, when southern Lebanon was still occupied by Israeli forces, he volunteered to help maintain Israeli military vehicles near the Lebanese border.

As White House political director in the first Clinton administration, Emanuel led the signing ceremony of the famous Declaration of Principles between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993. Emanuel was elected to Congress in 2002, representing the North Chicago area, and is credited with playing a key role in winning the Democratic majority in the 2006 midterm elections. He is a prominent supporter of neoliberal economic policies regarding free trade and welfare reform.

Emanuel, one of the party’s most influential politicians and fundraisers, accompanied President Obama to the meeting. AIPACBoard meeting shortly after the Illinois senator spoke at a pro-Israel lobby conference last June.

In Congress, Mr. Emanuel has consistently been a vocal pro-Israel hardliner, sometimes even more so than President Bush. For example, in June 2003, he signed a letter criticizing President Bush’s lack of support for Israel. “We were deeply disappointed to hear your criticism of Israel in its fight against terrorism,” Mr. Emanuel, along with 33 other Democrats, wrote to Mr. Bush. The letter stated that Israel’s policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders is “clearly justified as an application of Israel’s right of self-defense” (“Pelosi supports Israeli attack on Hamas group”) San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 2003).

In July 2006, Emanuel was one of several MPs to visit Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and ask him to cancel his speech in parliament because al-Maliki had criticized Israel’s bombing of Lebanon. was. In a July 19, 2006 speech endorsing a House resolution supporting Israeli bombings in both countries that killed thousands of civilians, Emanuel called Lebanon and the Palestinian government “militias and terrorists a threat to democracy.” “A totalitarian organization that plays a role.”

Although Emanuel sometimes pretended to protect Palestinian lives, he never protected them from the constant Israeli violence that caused the majority of casualties. On June 14, 2007, he wrote: we “On behalf of the students whose futures are threatened by the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blamed the fighting on “the violence and militancy of our elders.” In fact, fighting between Hamas and Fatah members claimed dozens of lives, but the plan failed. we-Supported militias to violently overthrow the elected Hamas-led National Accord Government. Emanuel’s letter asks Rice to “work with regional allies such as Egypt and Jordan to find a safe haven for these students in Gaza or move them to a neighboring country where they can study and take their exams in peace.” I urged him to be transferred.” ” Palestinians often see such proposals as an excuse to permanently “deport” them from their country, as many Israeli leaders have threatened. Mr. Emanuel has never spoken in support of the millions of Palestinian children whose education is disrupted by Israeli occupation, closures, and blockades.

Emanuel has also used his position to clearly advance Israel’s interests in normalizing relations with Arab states and isolating Hamas. In 2006, he began writing to President Bush against the United Arab Emirates (United Arab Emirates)-based Dubai Ports World attempts to acquire the management businesses of six companies. we Port. The letter, signed by dozens of other MPs, said: United Arab Emirates It has pledged to provide financial support to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government and has openly joined the Arab League’s boycott of Israel. He argued that allowing the agreement to take effect “will not only ensure people’s safety and security.” we Ports are at risk, but their capacity will increase. United Arab Emirates “Intensifying the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and violence against Israel” (“Democrats Connect with Israel”) forwardMarch 10, 2006).

Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, told Fox News that Emanuel’s selection “represents President Obama somehow appointing the wrong person and the wrong people’s views on Jewish democratic issues.” “It’s just another manifestation of that, even though it’s trying to imply that we’re going to listen to it.” we-Israel relations…that was never true. ”

During the campaign, Mr. Obama publicly distanced himself from friends and advisers suspected or accused of harboring “pro-Palestinian” sympathies. There are no early signs that it will be a more balanced course.

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).