NEW YORK — New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s continued association with anti-Israel radical Linda Sarsour is “appalling,” while the politician’s seeming turn against Israel “is certainly not what New Yorkers support,” declared Gillibrand’s Republican challenger, Chele Farley.
“We absolutely cannot have that,” stated Farley of Gillibrand’s ties to Sarsour. “It is not good for the people of New York. It is not what they think.”
Farley, who is running against Gillibrand in next month’s election here, was speaking after the New York politician appeared with Sarsour at a Washington D.C. rally last Thursday to speak against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, who was officially confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday.
Sarsour introduced Gillibrand to attendees as a politician “who works for us on the inside.”
Promoting Gillibrand, Sarsour stated: “I want to introduce to you another champion, another one of our people who works for us on the inside. Someone who understands that she works for the people of this country, who’s been speaking up against sexual assault and sexual violence before there was a Brett Kavanaugh. Please give it up for the senator.”
Farley was speaking in an interview on this reporter’s Sunday night talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia.
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Farley further charged that Gillibrand has been deliberately moving toward the anti-Israel camp along with others in the mainstream of the Democratic Party.
“I don’t understand why the Democratic Party has moved this way,” Farley stated.
“They have moved so wildly to the left to appeal to these national liberal activists and coalitions. And certainly, being anti-Israel has become part of their plank. And it has got to stop. And it is certainly not what New Yorkers support. It is not what I support. And we need an alternative. And the fact that Kirsten Gillibrand, who represents the people of New York, feels this way I think is bad for the state.”
Farley was also responding to a Breitbart News piece last week in which this reporter outlined “five reasons Gillibrand is dangerous for Israel.”
Those reasons, this reporter contended, include:
- Gillibrand broke from the mainstream of the Democratic Party when she withdrew support from the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” which opposes the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
- Gillibrand provided key support for President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, which the Israeli government strongly opposed over security concerns. She also opposed Trump’s decision to leave the Iran accord in hopes of negotiating a better deal.
- Gillibrand glowingly praised Sarsour.
- Gillibrand sided with an anti-Israel activist who claimed the Israeli government does not respect Palestinian rights. She also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who offered the Palestinians a state on numerous occasions, as “not hav[ing] a plan for peace.”
- Gillibrand voted against confirming Israel supporter David Friedman as President Trump’s ambassador to Israel.
Regarding Sarsour, Gillibrand has other links to the anti-Israel activist.
Gillibrand authored a profile of Sarsour when the extremist made Time magazine’s 100 most influential people last year.
Gillibrand hailed Sarsour and three other leaders of the anti-Trump Women’s March, which Gillibrand also headlined, as “extraordinary women.”
“These women are the suffragists of our time,” Gillibrand gushed.
Gillibrand’s office did not respond when major Jewish groups urged the New York senator to retract her praise considering Sarsour’s anti-Israel comments, including tweeting that “Nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
Sarsour also claimed one cannot be a Zionist and a feminist even though Israel is the only country in the Middle East where women have equal rights and the Islamic nations that Sarsour champions are well-known abusers of women’s most basic rights.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center attempted to appeal to Gillibrand’s sensibilities over her support for Sarsour. “I think the Jewish community in New York and across the U.S. has a lot of respect for the senator, but she may want to reevaluate the statement in Time magazine,” Cooper said. “If someone is in effect saying you have to make a choice between being a progressive woman or a Zionist, the senator, reflecting on such comments, would I hope make a different type of statement.”
“Linda Sarsour spends most of her waking hours working to delegitimize Israel and its supporters,” Daniel Mariaschin, the Executive Vice President of B’nai B’rith International, commented. “We’d ask Senator Gillibrand to recognize that you can’t compartmentalize on these things. It isn’t enough to say, ‘You know, she worked on the Women’s March, and therefore she deserves this kind of recognition.’”
Gillibrand also keynoted the October 2017 “Brooklyn Conference” at the Brooklyn Museum, which featured Sarsour as a speaker on the same day.
Another speaker that day was Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, which supports the BDS movement. The main sponsor of the conference, as advertised in literature for the event, was George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. The Open Society supports scores of pro-BDS groups.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
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