January 26, 2012, - 4:08 pm
Gingrich Critic Elliot Abrams Was Bush Pro-Palestinian Point Man; Anti-Semitic Attacks on Newt Donor
I haven’t yet decided for whom I will vote in the Michigan Primary because I hate all of the choices, including Newt Gingrich. That said, I will probably plug my nose extra-tight and vote for him (even though his illegal alien positions and tight friendship with Al Sharpton make me sick). One of the things pushing me in that direction is my rebellion against the barrage of BS attacks by Ann Coulter’s gay best friend, Matt Drudge, and Elliot Abrams in National Review, the bastion of Jihad Grover Norquist. I’m also disgusted by the repeat derisive articles about billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Newt Gingrich’s biggest financial backer and a man who happens to be Jewish and pro-Israel. Some of them have a very thin veneer covering a “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”-esque screed. (Full disclosure: I know Mr. Adelson and he maxed out in donating to my campaign for the Michigan House. But I cannot be bought for $500, which was the max in Michigan when I ran. My little brother, a Wall Street analyst, years later, had discussions with Adelson about casinos because he was analyzing the future of gaming, among other industries.)
It’s well known that Coulter is selling everyone snake oil that Mitt Romney is somehow a conservative, despite a record in elected office of being a lib, and Drudge does her bidding whenever he can–making his site an official Romney 527. Thus, the rows and rows of Drudge’s anti-Gingrich headlines, some of them from articles and columns dating decades ago. And, then, there is Elliot Abrams. What most people don’t realize is that he was the man in the Bush Administration behind Bush’s push for a Palestinian State.
Toward the beginning of the Bush Administration, but after 9/11, President George W. Bush rewarded the 19 Muslim hijackers and their cheering fellow co-religionists around the world by being the very first American President to call for a Palestinian State. Yes, Bush, NOT Clinton. And Bush appointed Elliot Abrams to be the point man to support it and secure a ton of funding for the Palestinians and the Abbas government, including a $500 million mortgage bailout fund just for Palestinians, while Americans were hurting on their mortgages. It’s a fund they set up in 2008, just before they were on their way out of the White House and could get away with it. Abrams could have turned Bush down. But he took the job and pursued it with zeal. He had the gall and indecency to call for a Palestinian State in a speech to a major pro-Israel rally on the Capitol Mall just after many of the homicide bombing attacks on Israel. Abrams was roundly and deservedly booed. In fact, his speech sounded more appropriate for the Muslim rally that had just taken place and which was organized by Grover Norquist. Moreover, Abrams attended dinners for the American Task Force on Palestine, an openly pro-HAMAS/Hezbollah organization (see the photo above). Not exactly the kinda guy I’d trust on anything, let alone Newt Gingrich expertise.
Abrams took his job supporting a Palestinian State in the midst of the Passover Massacre, the Sbarro Bombing, the Mike’s Bar Bombing, etc., very seriously. He was involved in the U.S. funding of the Palestinian elections and the Abbas Fatah party, which resulted in a sweeping HAMAS victory, something that he and Condi Clueless were shocked–shocked!–by, despite the fact that anyone with even a modicum of knowledge of Palestinian politics knew this would be the outcome. He pushed the IMF and the international community to send gazillions to Abbas and the Palestinians. And when Newt Gingrich called the Palestinians, “an invented people,” the first one to rush to condemn Gingrich’s comments was Elliot Abrams. I was not surprised, given that his job under eight years of Bush was to break pita and consume hummus with Muslim Jew-haters and opponents of Israel. You should take any criticism he now makes against Gingrich with that in mind.
Elliot Abrams and I were briefly acquainted because he was a man I once admired, when he worked extra-hard to secure aid to the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters, the Contras, during the Reagan Administration. And he faced federal criminal charges because of it. He was a man of principle. Was. When I was a student at the University of Michigan, I interviewed him for a thesis paper I wrote on “The Jews and the Conservative Movement in American Politics.” It was something I submitted to his father-in-law, then-Commentary Magazine editor Norman Podhoretz for publication. Podhoretz rejected it, and then stole everything I wrote for his recent book on the exact same topic. Yes, this ain’t a family that plays honestly or by the rules. Not even close. So, it’s funny to now read Elliot Abrams’ faux-outrage about Newt Gingrich and his claims that Gingrich was “anti-Reagan.” I call BS.
Then, there are the seemingly-orchestrated, simultaneous attacks on Sheldon Adelson. Yes, he is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel. But he is a hard-working, decent American patriot who has created more American jobs than all of his critics combined. He’s a mensch and cares about the future of America, and the attacks on him seem to me to be subrosa anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. I’ve seen no campaign of attacks against any of the gentile multi-millionaires and billionaires backing Mitt Romney and exposes of their alleged motivations.
I’ve seen no campaign of attacks against Haim Saban, the far-left billionaire former Israeli who bankrolled Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. An ABC News headline about Adelson and Gingrich calls them “pals” and not in a positive way. It’s meant to make us see a Jewish businessman who pays off politicians–with pals, meaning cronies–in some sort of evil conspiracy. I’ve never seen a major news outlet talk about Barack Obama’s “pal” George Soros, that way. And maybe that’s because in the eyes of the liberal-left media and anti-Gingrich crowd, Soros and Saban are the “kosher” Jewish billionaires because they are devout supporters of a Palestinian State and the leftist foreign policy that will destroy Israel.
The campaign to vilify Adelson and his relationship against Gingrich is not just unseemly. It’s a rehearsal of the worst anti-Semitic canard: that “Zionists”–you know, evil Joooos–control the world and, in particular, American politics.
So, the next time you see a headline about Newt Gingrich from Elliot Abrams or a story about Gingrich’s relationship with Sheldon Adelson, it’s as if it’s coming from the heart of HAMAS Gaza.
And don’t be surprised if it actually is. The mindset is the same.
Tags: American Task Force on Palestine, Anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, Elliot Abrams, Israel, Newt Gingrich, Norman Podhoretz, Palestinians, pro-Palestinian, Sheldon Adelson
Elliot Abrams’ transformation from a principled Commentary magazine supporter of Israel to a Hamas booster is nothing short of remarkable. How exactly does one explain this? “Opportunism” only can go so far. Newt Gingrich is as much a political opportunist as Abrams ever will be, yet wouldn’t dream of going this route — and, unlike Abrams, he’s not even Jewish.
All of this is beyond bizarre. Is it blackmail? I can’t even fathom a guess at this point. Maybe father-in-law Norman Podhoretz might have some insights.
Seek on January 26, 2012 at 4:18 pm