Flashback video: Mike Pence (2010): 'Mr. President, Whose side are you on?'
This is Mike Pence (R-In), the Republican candidate for Vice President speaking on the House floor shortly after the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010.
Let's go to the videotape. Comment after the video.
Something tells me you won't find a similar video of Tim Kaine (D-Va), the Democratic candidate for Vice President, challenging President Obama's anti-Israel policies.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Kaine, as a member of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, has consistently advocated the need for a two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the only way to ensure
that Israel can survive and flourish as a Jewish and democratic state
and that Palestinians can live with independence and dignity. He was
also a leader in the successful effort to defang the Iranian nuclear
program through tough sanctions and effective diplomacy that produced
the JCPOA agreement.
Funny, but didn't I read something remarkably different yesterday? Oh yes, here. And that's why others feel differently about Kaine.
But for the hawkish Republican Jewish Coalition, such background did not
garner their approval or commendation. They swiftly lambasted Kaine as
enabling Tehran in acquiring a nuclear arsenal and, indeed, his
affiliation with J Street itself — an organization they regard as
lobbying positions that do not serve Israel’s interests.
“After leading President Obama’s disastrous
foreign policy in the Middle East, Hillary Clinton’s selection of
Senator Kaine as her running mate further proves she cannot be trusted
to keep our country safe,” RJC’s executive director Matt Brooks said in a
press release.
“Whether it’s his vote for the Iran deal,
which paves the way to a nuclear-armed Iran, or his proud support of the
progressive anti-Israel J Street agenda which earned him their
enthusiastic endorsement, Senator Kaine has shown how out of touch he is
on the dangers facing our country,” he added. “A Clinton-Kaine White
House would continue the same failed policies that have made the US and
our allies around the world less safe.”
Hey Times of Israel - it's not just the 'hawkish Republican Jewish coalition' that regards J Street as lobbying positions that do not serve Israel's interests - it's the Israeli Knesset.
If Trump wins this election, one of the first actions of Israel's supporters should be the defenestration of J Street.
In 2007, Kaine was the Governor of Virginia and, of all people, chose
Muslim American Society (MAS) President Esam Omeish to the state’s
Immigration Commission. A Muslim organization against Islamism criticized the appointment and reckless lack of vetting.
Federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing that MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” A Chicago Tribuneinvestigation
in 2004 confirmed it, as well as MAS’ crafty use of deceptive semantics
to appear moderate. Convicted terrorist and admitted U.S. Muslim
Brotherhood member Abdurrahman Alamoudi testified in 2012, “Everyone knows that MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”
...
According to Omeish’s website, he was also President of the National Muslim Students Association (click there to read our profile about its Muslim Brotherhood origins) and served for two years on the national board of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA),
which the Justice Department also labeled as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood
entity and unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-financing trial.
His website says he was Vice President of Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center,
a radical mosque known for its history of terror ties including having
future Al-Qaeda operative Anwar Al-Awlaki as its imam and being
frequented by two of the 9/11 hijackers and the perpetrator of the Fort
Hood shooting. Omeish’s website says he remains a board member.
It says he was chairman of the board of Islamic American University,
which had Hamas financier and Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader
Yousef Al-Qaradawi as chairman of its board until at least 2006. Omeish
was also chairman of the board for the Islamic Center of Passaic County,
a New Jersey mosque with heavy terrorist ties and an imam that the
Department of Homeland Security wants to deport for having links to
Hamas.
Omeish directly expressed extremism before Kaine appointed him. He
claimed the Brotherhood is “moderate” and admitted that he and MAS are
influenced by the Islamist movement. In 2004, Omeish praised the Hamas spiritual leader as “our beloved Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.” Videotape from 2000 also surfaced where Omeish pledged to help Palestinians who understand “the jihad way is the way to liberate your land” (he denied this was an endorsement of violence). [Emphasis mine. CiJ]
...
In September 2011, Kaine spoke at a “Candidates Night” dinner organized by the New Dominion PAC that presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for Jamal Barzinji, who the Global Muslim Brotherhood Watch describes as a “founding father of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.”
He first came on to the FBI’s radar in 1987-1988 when an informant inside the Brotherhood identified Barzinji and his associated groups
as being part of a network of Brotherhood fronts to “institute the
Islamic Revolution in the United States.” The source said Barzinji and
his colleagues were “organizing political support which involves
influencing both public opinion in the United States as well as the
United States Government” using “political action front groups with no
traceable ties.”
Barzinji had his home searched as part of a terrorism investigation
in 2003. U.S. Customs Service Senior Special Agent David Kane said
in a sworn affidavit that Barzinji and the network of entities he led
were investigated because he “is not only closed associated with PIJ
[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.” Counter-terrorism
reporter Patrick Poole broke the story that Barzinji was nearly prosecuted but the Obama Justice Department dropped plans for indictment.
Barzinji played a major role in nearly every Brotherhood front in the U.S. and was vice president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought,
which came under terrorism investigation also. Barzinji’s group was so
close to Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian that IIIT’s
President considered his group and Al-Arian’s to be essentially one entity.
The indictment of Al-Arian and his colleagues says that they “would
and did seek to obtain support from influential individuals, in the
United States under the guise of promoting and protecting Arab rights” (emphasis mine).
The quotes about Brotherhood operative Barzinji’s aspirations to use
civil rights advocacy as a means to influence politicians are especially
relevant when you consider that video
from the event honoring Barzinji shows Kaine saying that it was his
fourth time at the annual dinner and thanked his “friends” that
organized it for helping him in his campaign for Lieutenant-Governor and
Governor and asked them to help his Senate campaign.
...
Barzinji’s organization, IIIT, donated $10,000
in 2011 to the New Dominion PAC, the organization that held the event
honoring Barzinji that Kaine spoke at. The Barzinji-tied New Dominion
PAC donated $43,050
to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign between 2003 and 2005. That figure
doesn’t even include other political recipients that assisted Kaine’s
campaign.
Coincidence? Hillary VP candidate one of Obama's blocking backs
In case you've been in a cave all weekend, Hillary Clinton has selected Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va) as her Vice Presidential candidate. There are no coincidences. Kaine, while putting on the appearance of being 'pro-Israel' was one of eight Democratic Senators to boycott Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress in March 2015 (it's also significant that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren - the other two Senators mentioned as possible running mates for Clinton - also skipped the speech). This is not a coincidence.
Mr. Kaine was absolutely no help on any of the Iran deal, which was
opposed by both Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud and the leader of the left
opposition. He was also one the senators who in 2014 refused to sign a
letter to President Obama warning of legislated legal constraints on
funding the Palestinian Arab authority after it struck its alliance with
Hamas. The letter, led by Senators Susan Collins and Ben Cardin, was
signed by 88 senators from both parties.
Senator Kaine was one of the 12 who refused to sign, a reader
reminded us when the first edition of this editorial was issued. So it
takes some brass for Mrs. Clinton’s new running mate to boast that he is
pro-Israel. As the Clintons might say, it depends on what the meaning
of “is” is. As for the price Mr. Kaine has supposedly paid for his
willingness to boycott Mr. Netanyahu’s speech, he can now count his
selection as his party’s vice presidential nominee. What a cost.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
