By Mark D. Zimmerman
MELVILLE, New York — MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski found herself in the middle of a media controversy last week, as President Trump attacked her and her co-host (and fiancé) Joe Scarborough in a Twitter storm that has brought much criticism of Trump for his insulting and misogynistic words. What Jewish-related controversy has swirled around Mika Brzezinski in the past?
A. Mika Brzezinski’s father was Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor. The elder Brzezinski’s father, Tadeusz Brzeziński, was a Polish diplomat in Germany who collaborated with the Nazi regime during the rise of Adolf Hitler to power. Mika Brzezinski was criticized upon publication in 2010 of her autobiography, All Things at Once, for leaving out this information when she wrote about her grandfather. Mort Klein of the ZOA said that she was attempting to whitewash her family history in order not to hurt sales of her book within the Jewish community. Her response was that the book was about her life, not her grandfather’s, and just because she told some of her family background did not obligate her to delve into this unfortunate aspect of his life.
B. Brzezinski is the daughter of Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, whose own father Tadeusz was a Polish diplomat, stationed at various times in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Canada. The Brzezinski family were Catholics, but in 2005, a genealogist published an article claiming that Tadeusz Brzeziński’s mother was actually born Jewish. Her family, however, converted to Catholicism in reaction to pogroms in Poland in the early 20th century. When Mika Brzezinski was asked about this report, she replied, “I don’t believe it. I’m not Jewish. Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” referencing the famous line from the Seinfeld television show about being homosexual. After criticism from the Jewish community, Brzezinski apologized for trivializing the issue.
C. In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to address the United States Congress by then Speaker of the House John Boehner. The visit was controversial, as normal protocal called for the president to initiate such a visit, and the speech focused on the agreement being negotiated between Iran and the west over Iran’s nuclear program, an agreement that was opposed by Netanyahu and many in the American Jewish community. Brzezinski and her co-host Joe Scarborough got into a heated debate as he supported the visit and strongly criticized President Obama, while she opposed the visit and supported the proposed Iranian agreement. In their discussion, Scarborough said to Brzezinski, “The more this president shows his hand, umm, on what he thinks about Middle East politics, and the more chaos we have in the world, the more I think yes it was—that Benjamin Netanyahu, the people of Israel, and Jews across the globe, need to know that there’s at least one country, ONE COUNTRY, that understands what they are going through, the anti-Semitism they face every day…I know there are a lot of people out there who hate Jews. Go ahead, tweet me. . .I know you hate Jews. I know you’re anti-Semitic.” Brzezinski responded simply, “That’s just low-hanging fruit.”
D. When President Bill Clinton began work on what would become the 2000 Camp David Summit with Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Mika Brzezinski was working as a reporter for CBS News. She accompanied an administration delegation which travelled to Israel for preliminary talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. She angered American and Israeli Jewish leaders when she filed a report from Jerusalem, referencing the efforts to bring peace between Israel and Palestine. At that time, both news media and government officials would only refer to the “Palestinian territories,” or “Palestinians.” When questioned, Brzezinski initially stated that she used that terminology because there would only be peace when Israel recognized a state of Palestine. However, she later apologized after executives from CBS News made it clear that their guidelines required the use of the phrase “Palestinian territories,” not “Palestine,” until such time as the adversaries resolved this issue at the negotiating table.
E. Following a 2014 interview on the Morning Joe show with Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, Brzezinski led into a commercial break, reminding viewers to “Keep it right here on Morning Jew…, Joe.”
http://rrrjewishtrivia.com/answers/mika-brzezinski-answer.html
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Zimmerman is the author of the Rashi, Rambam and Ramalamadingdong series of Jewish trivia e-books. Learn more at http://www.rrrjewishtrivia.com