Outgoing White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who is leaving her post for a job at MSNBC, will be replaced by Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House said Thursday.
Jean-Pierre’s appointment as press secretary is historic, as she will be the first black person in that role. But it’s historic for another, more disturbing, reason as well: she will be the first openly anti-Israel White House press secretary in history.
The selection of Jean-Pierre, who is married to a CNN correspondent, raises serious ethical questions because of her relationship with a member of the media, who will be retaining their position at CNN despite the obvious conflict of interest.
But the anti-Israel past of Jean-Pierre is even more concerning. In the past, the new press secretary served as senior adviser and national spokeswoman for MoveOn.org, a notorious leftist anti-Israel group that supports and promotes boycotts of Israel.
Jean-Pierre herself has been open about her hostility towards Israel. She’s accused the Jewish State of war crimes and has publicly supported efforts to boycott the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – the largest pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S.
In 2019, she applauded Democrats who boycotted the annual AIPAC conference, saying they “boldly” chose “to prioritize diplomacy and human rights over the power of a lobbying organization.”
She has accused the group of being at least partially responsible for former President Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, and has claimed that AIPAC “supported the group that’s credited with inspiring President Trump to enact the Muslim Ban and has been known to spread anti-Muslim racism,” and engaged in “severely racist, Islamophobic rhetoric.”
“Joe Biden’s promotion of Jean-Pierre signals to all would-be Israel haters that their efforts will be rewarded with White House appointments and promotions,” said Ellie Cohanim, who served as the State Department’s Deputy Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism under President Trump.
“As a child of Holocaust survivors and as an American Jew, I am both appalled and frightened that Biden has chosen as his principal deputy press secretary, Ms. Jean-Pierre, who has shown essentially antisemitic hostility toward Israel and is willing to lie and vilify Israel and Jews to promote her ugly Israelphobic agenda,” said Zionist Organization of American CEO Mort Klein in a statement.
“Americans should be deeply concerned that this outrageous, incomprehensible anti-Israel, pro-terrorist and pro-Iran appointment indicates the dangerous direction the Biden administration is going to take against America’s greatest ally Israel and U.S.-Israel relations.”
Source: (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)