The Anti-Israel Mentor of Obama's Interim Chief of Staff

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

*The Anti-Israel Mentor of Obama's Interim Chief of Staff*
By Moshe Phillips

December 21, 2010

israelnationalnews.com

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9869

When Rahm Emmanuel resigned as President Obama’s first Chief of Staff
on October 1, 2010 an individual named Pete Rouse, a Washington
insider almost completely unknown to the general public, was chosen
to take Emmanuel’s place. Little has been reported about Rouse. When
the White House blog first mentioned him it explained "Rouse's
disinclination towards the limelight" in the first sentence (see
http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/goodbye-rahm).
Perhaps Rouse has wanted his 30 year relationship with Jim Abourezk,
the most anti-Israel Senator in American history, to go unexamined.

Rouse had been Tom Daschle’s Chief of Staff and worked for him as far
back as 1985. It has been reported that Daschle first met Rouse when
they both worked as legislative assistants for Democratic Senator Jim
Abourezk. The official White House website bio on Rouse leaves
Abourezk completely out of his personal history (see
www.whitehouse.gov/administration/staff/pete-rouse). Nothing of
Rouse’s formative, pre-1979 history in politics is mentioned at all.
Clearly Abourezk was a primary mentor of Rouse's and a pivotal figure
in his life.

There are deep ties between Obama, Rouse, Daschle, Abourezk and
George Mitchell. Even before November's Midterm elections, these men
have shown that they will work together to create new pressure
against Israel that will make the previous challenges in the U.S.-
Israel alliance look like a love fest. The JTA wire service reported
on November 2, 2010 that "President Obama's new chief of staff - Pete
Rouse - spoke Oct. 28 in a conference call with an array of Jewish
leaders." Nothing of the content of the call was reported. That this
call happened on the Thursday immediately before the Midterm
elections cannot be understated.

Robert Chandler in his September 2008 book "Shadow World: Resurgent
Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam" labeled Abourezk "a
senior advisor for presidential candidate Barack Obama".

James George Abourezk has never met an anti-Israel conspiracy theory
or an anti-Zionist conspiracy theory he didn’t like.

It is easy to conclude that Abourezk and the many other notorious
Israel-bashers that the Obama camp has included from the outset may
have had more to do with Obama’s infamous Cairo speech, the June 2010
$400 million dollar aid package for PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s
Palestinian Authority, the Administration’s overall confrontational
attitude towards Israel and more.

In 1977 "Congressional Quarterly" described Abourezk as "a former
bartender, rancher and used car salesman among other things."
(Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report , Volume 35, 1977)

Abourezk was the first elected U.S. senator of Arab descent. His
ethnic background is Lebanese Christian, the same as Helen Thomas and
George Mitchell. He served just one term from 1973 to 1979.

Former Senate Leader Tom Daschle joined DLA Piper as a Senior Policy
Advisor in November 2009. DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms
in the world and has offices in at least 30 foreign nations and is
made up of approximately 3,500 attorneys. Former U.S. Senator George
Mitchell is the firm's immediate past chairman. President Obama named
Mitchell as United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace just
two days after taking the oath of office.

Mitchell was no unbiased participant in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
His history included chairing President Clinton’s Middle East
fact-finding committee. The committee published a report on April 30,
2001 (Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee Report or Mitchell
Report) calling for Israel to cease building in Jewish Settlements.
This was something that Abourezk actively championed in the Senate in
the 1970s.

Abourezk's anti-Israel extremism has only intensified since he left the Senate.

Abourezk was a founder of the Council for the National Interest
(CNI). The Anti-Defamation League calls CNI "an anti-Israel
organization that opposes U.S. aid to Israel and disseminates
demonizing propaganda about Israel to academics, politicians, and
other audiences." (http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/cni.htm) Today
Abourezk still sits on CNI’s 11 person board of directors.

He serves on the twelve person Board of Advisors of the Free Gaza
Movement with Noam Chomsky and other hardcore anti-Israel extremists.
The Free Gaza Movement was in large part responsible for the Gaza
flotilla incident in May 2010.
(http://www.freegaza.org/en/about-us/who-we-are/1089-advisors)

In 1980 Abourezk founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee (ADC). A September 21, 2010 ADC press release declared:
(ADC) is proud to announce that it will be hosting a gala in honor of
the great *Helen Thomas*. The gala will take place Thursday, November
18, 2010, at the Washington Marriott Washington, DC 20008. ADC
invites members and friends to join in the celebration honoring
Helen’s dedicated service to our country as a journalism trailblazer,
and her legendary front row coverage of the White House for over
sixty years.
(http://www.adc.org/media/press-releases/2010/september-2010/helen-tho
mas-to-be-honored-on-november-

18-2010/)

In 2008 Abourezk keynoted a protest against AIPAC led by Chicagoans
Against Apartheid in Palestine.
(http://www.stopaipac.org/chicagoforum.htm)

Here are just some of Abourezk’s odious statements from the last several years:

*March 6, 2008:*
(I)n the face of outright slaughter of Palestinian civilians by
Israel. "The candidates for president -- with exceptions like Ralph
Nader and Cynthia McKinney -- bow and scrape to Israel and continue
to support its objectives. They unfortunately back the continued
funneling of billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money for Israel,
allowing it to continue its brutal attacks.
(http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1663)

*December 4, 2006:*
So I believe that divestment, and especially cutting off U.S. aid to
Israel would immediately result in Israel's giving up the West Bank
and leaving the Gaza to the Palestinians.
(http://www.bethlehemmedia.net/en/index2.php?option=com_content&...)

*Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2007, pages 23-25:*
Another part of the Zionist propaganda that lingers to this day is
the myth that the Jewish armed forces were able to defeat a superior
combined Arab army.

The monstrous tragedy of the European Holocaust during WWII became a
bonanza for the Zionist movement and its leaders.
(http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2007/0705023.html)
*
January 26, 2007, Christian Science Monitor*
(T)he Israel lobby twists US foreign policy into a dangerous double
standard regarding nuclear issues. The US rattles its sabers at Iran
for its nuclear energy ambitions – and alleged pursuit of nuclear
arms – while remaining
silent about Israel's nuclear-weapons arsenal.
(http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/freetrips.html)
*
April 17, 2006, counterpunch.org**:*
(T)he U.S. government designates resistance fighters – such as
Hizbollah and Hamas – in the Middle East as terrorists if Israel asks
us to do so (http://www.counterpunch.org/zeese04172006.html)

Just how close was Abourezk to the Obama campaign?

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published an editorial attributed to
Dateline D.C. on Sunday, February 10, 2008 that said "It is said that
the godfather of the Obama campaign is James George Abourezk" (See
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/date
linedc/s_551642.html).
Moreover the Tribune-Review article even revealed that "Obama readily
accepted Abourezk's naming as their mutual contact a former staff
member, Tom Daschle."

Did Abourezk introduce Rouse to the Obama team?

Why has the story of the Abourezk / Obama / Rouse relationship gone
unreported since 2008?

NOTE: This essay originally published by Family Security Matters at:
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8128/pub_detai...

*Moshe Phillips* is the president of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans
for a Safe Israel / AFSI. The chapter's website is at: www.phillyafsi.com.
Moshe's blog can be found at http://phillyafsi.blogtownhall.com and Moshe
tweets at http://twitter.com/MoshePhillips.

--

     Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house or an extra room in Israel than with a Muslim building a nuclear bomb in Iran

_________________________________________________

Thanks to Yitzchok D., for sharing the above post content.