WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s naming of Steve Bannon as White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor, Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
“We are deeply disturbed by the announcement from President-elect Trump that he will appoint Steve Bannon to be the White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor. The President is entitled to choose advisors who he believes will help him implement his agenda. However, both in his roles as editor of the Breitbart website and as a strategist in the Trump campaign, Mr. Bannon was responsible for the advancement of ideologies antithetical to our nation, including anti-Semitism, misogyny, racism and Islamophobia. There should be no place for such views in the White House.
“President-elect Trump has said he wants to be president for all the people. We urge him in this spirit to assemble a leadership team that reflects that aspiration.”
Meanwhile, Bend the Arc Jewish Action CEO Stosh Cotler released the following statement:
“President-elect Trump’s selection of Stephen Bannon, a professional purveyor of white nationalist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, as his top adviser is as horrifying as it is unsurprising. Those of us who were alarmed by Trump’s campaign when it began over a year ago are starting to see the things we feared come to pass, and this is one of them – the elevation of an avowed bigot to a position of incredible official power. On Election Day, a majority of voters rejected the hatred central to the Trump campaign. We know many of them would join us in condemning this attempt by the President-elect to normalize and legitimize white supremacy, and we call on leaders across the political spectrum to denounce it as well.”
The American Jewish Committee issued this statement: “Of utmost concern is ensuring that policies proposed and put into place make good on President-elect Trump’s Election Night promise, for the benefit of all citizens of our too-divided country, and address the central concerns of the American people and our allies around the world. Presidents get to choose their teams and we do not expect to comment on the appointment of every key advisor,” said Jason Isaacson, AJC Assistant Executive Director for Policy.
JNS.org reported the following reaction from the Anti-Defamation League:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sharply rebuked President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to choose Stephen Bannon, the former head of the Breitbart News website, as his chief strategist and senior counselor, calling the decision “a sad day” for those who support pluralism and tolerance.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt’s statement first praises Trump’s choice of Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff, nothing his “long career in politics and public life.”
“At the same time, the ADL strongly opposes the appointment of Steve Bannon as senior adviser and chief strategist in the White House,” Greenblatt said. “It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the ‘alt-right’—a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists—is slated to be a senior staff member in the ‘people’s house.’”
While Breitbart has been criticized for appealing to white nationalists and anti-Semites, the website also employs Jewish staff members and has largely been pro-Israel in its coverage of the Jewish state.
“I don’t know where [the criticism is] coming from, that’s not the Steve Bannon that I know,” Priebus said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday.
– Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (Rockland/Westchester), the Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Committee, released the following statement:
“This is a tenuous time in our country following a historic election that split the popular vote from the electoral college. If President-elect Trump wants to fulfill his promise of being a leader for all Americans, he must refrain from dividing us any further. That is why I am profoundly concerned that one of the President-elect’s first appointments is Steve Bannon, a well-known supporter of alt-right, extremist ideology including white nationalism and anti-Semitism.
“In the last week, we’ve already seen reports of rising vandalism and intimidation across the country including swastikas graffitied on schools and sidewalks – even in my own district on the Bronx River bike path. Not only is such behavior unacceptable, it must be universally denounced and stopped. It is my sincere hope that the President-elect will recognize that words matter and do everything in his power to combat anti-Semitism, intolerance, and bigotry, including by replacing Bannon with a qualified candidate.”
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Preceding compiled from SDJW news sources.
I am pleased to see that you, the editor, did not let a possibly groundless accusation and possibly a malicious political attack go unchallenged. No one wants anti 4Semites in high government positions, or any other kind of racist either, but politically motivated and unsubstantiated accusations have no place in society either.
Jerome C Liner, Cincinnati
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
It is painful to see Anti-Defamation League (ADL) president Jonathan Greenblatt engaging in character assassination against President-elect Trump’s appointee Stephen Bannon and Mr. Bannon’s company, Breitbart media. ADL/Greenblatt essentially accused Mr. Bannon and his media company of “anti-Semitism” and Israel hatred, when Jonathan Greenblatt/ADL tweeted that Bannon “presided over the premier website of the ‘alt right’ – a loose-knit group of white nationalists and anti-Semites.”
In fact, as pro-Israel writer (and orthodox Jew) Joel B. Pollak wrote, Mr. Bannon is “an American patriot who defends Israel & has deep empathy for the Jewish people.”
ZOA’s own experience and analysis of Breitbart articles confirms Mr. Bannon’s and Breitbart’s friendship and fair-mindedness towards Israel and the Jewish people. To accuse Mr. Bannon and Breitbart of anti-Semitism is Orwellian. In fact, Breitbart bravely fights against anti-Semitism. Here are a few of the many examples:
Stephen Bannon joined ZOA in fighting the anti-Semitic rallies at CUNY by requiring his Breitbart reporters to call CUNY officials and Gov. Cuomo aides urging them to do something about it.
Breitbart courageously publishes articles reporting that the Palestinian Authority defames Israel with blatant falsehoods. On November 13, 2016, Breitbart reported that:
Stephen Bannon joined ZOA in fighting the anti-Semitic rallies at CUNY by requiring his Breitbart reporters to call CUNY officials and Gov. Cuomo aides urging them to do something about it.
“The Palestinian Authority’s official TV network has been airing a video several times a day baselessly accusing Israel of poisoning former PA President Yasser Arafat and further claiming that Israel is targeting current President Mahmoud Abbas next. Arafat died at the age of 75 on November 11, 2004, just outside of Paris. A French forensic team examined his remains and concluded that there were no traces of poison in his body. Nevertheless, every year around the anniversary of his death, the PA disseminates the libel that Israel murdered him.” (Emphasis in original.)
On November 14, 2016 Breitbart reported the human cost and pain to a Jewish student at the New School of finding a swastika scrawled on her dorm room door.
Breitbart bravely publicizes Iran’s violations of the Iran deal – which pose an existential threat to Israel. On November 13, 2016, Breitbart reported that “Despite a finding published by the UN’s atomic energy agency this week that Iran has — for the second time — stockpiled more heavy water than permitted under the terms of the nuclear agreement it reached with six world powers last year, the US State Department is declining to acknowledge this as a violation of the deal.”
Breitbart also sympathetically reports on the scourge of anti-Semitic anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). On November 2, 2016, Breitbart reported that: “Reports of anti-Semitic incidents on US college campuses have increased, much of it attributed to the rise of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a new report has found.”
ZOA President Morton Klein stated: “The ZOA welcomes the appointment of Stephen Bannon as chief strategist to the incoming Trump/Pence administration. We wish Mr. Bannon every success in his new position. We urge Jonathan Greenblatt/ADL to withdraw and apologize for their inappropriate character assassination of Mr. Bannon and Breitbart Media.”
Would Trump’s extraordinary pro-Israel advisors such as Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, Sheldon Adelson, and Orthodox Jews Jared Kushner, David Friedman, and Jason Greenblatt ever allow an anti-Semite/Israel-hater to work with them? Would Trump’s Orthodox Jewish daughter Ivanka, whose children go to an Orthodox day school, ever allow an anti-Semite to work with her father? And, remember Donald Trump’s platform on Israel was the strongest pro-Israel platform ever. I’m also forced to ask – why didn’t ADL and other Bannon bashers complain that Hilary’s advisers included some very anti-Israel people starting with major donor to Hillary, the Israel-hating, George Soros? Where were ADL’s complaints then?