Posted on 05/07/22
| News Source: NY Post
New White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre once urged Democrats to skip a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, claiming it was “severely racist.”
The bipartisan gathering has long been an uncontroversial part of American public life, but in recent years has become more divisive as Democrats have drifted away from America’s closest ally in the region over the unresolved Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“When it comes down to it, AIPAC’s policies are not progressive policies. AIPAC’s values are not progressive values,” Jean-Pierre wrote in a Newsweek Op-Ed in 2019. “It’s time to call a spade a spade.”
In the piece, she blasted the conference as “severely racist” saying it has “become known for trafficking in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while lifting up Islamophobic voices and attitudes.”
“You cannot call yourself a progressive while continuing to associate yourself with an organization like AIPAC that has often been the antithesis of what it means to be progressive,” she added, while also taking a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
She wrote the Newsweek piece while serving as a Senior Advisor and National Spokesperson to MoveOn, a Democratic advocacy group. Jean-Pierre has also worked as a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs since 2014.