Letters to the editor
Readers respond
Not optimistic about Biden’s antisemitism task force
I don’t hold out much hope for meaningful work by this task force (“Biden task force to draft strategy for fighting antisemitism,” online, Dec. 13). The mention of Islamophobia alongside antisemitism concerns me. It smacks of Speaker Pelosi’s bill condemning hate speech in a resolution originally intended to censure antisemitic remarks made by Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Furthermore, I find it ironic that the announcement of the planned task force was made by the White House’s official spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, whose resume includes service as national spokesperson and senior adviser for MoveOn.org, a group that challenged anti-BDS legislation and called for a boycott of AIPAC, which MoveOn.org characterized as a racist group. Nor is Jean-Pierre the only Biden appointee with ties to antisemitic groups. For example, Maher Bitar, whom Biden put in charge of intelligence on the National Security Council, formerly worked for BADIL, a group which demands a “right of return” to Israel of the Palestine refugees (6 million people claiming descent from Arabs who fled Palestine during 1940’s Arab-initiated violence aimed at preventing the emergence of a modern Jewish state in the Jews’ ancestral homeland). These “refugees” have been raised in societies that honor and reward Palestinians for killing Jews. Israel’s taking them in would be the death knell for the nation-state of the Jews.
Toby F. Block
Atlanta, Georgia
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