Dan Pollak, the Zionist Organization of America’s Director of Government Relations, spoke with Breitbart News about how President Joe Biden’s roundtable to address antisemitism is a “sham” because his administration is rampant with antisemitic officials.
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Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle began the interview by asking Pollak to speak about how President Joe Biden’s efforts to curb antisemitism have fallen short.
Pollak pointed to Biden’s nomination for Brazilian ambassador, Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, as an example of the president’s failure to address antisemitism.
“Unbelievably, in 1998, she was talking about stupid pro-Israel Democrats, she was criticizing other Democrats. And she said, ‘because there’s a Jewish factor.’ She wasn’t even smart enough to hide her anti semitism as anti-Israelism,” Pollak said. “She said there’s always the influence of the Jewish lobby, because there is money involved. So this is the classic antisemitic trope, overtly saying that Jews are controlling things because of their money.”
Pollak then pointed out the hypocrisy and said that if a conservative had said these hateful things, they would not be elevated in the same way Biden is elevating her.
“It’s difficult to think of any conservative that would have a similar, horrible, racist thing to say that any would forgive 20 years later, 30 years later, anytime in the past. That’s the number one example,” Pollak continued.
He also faulted Democrat Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for setting the stage to bring Bagley’s confirmation vote before the full Senate to become the U.S. ambassador to Brazil.
Boyle pointed out that during Bagley’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she admitted to engaging in antisemitism, but all 11 Democrats still voted to advance her nomination.
Pollak characterized Biden’s antisemitism roundtable as a “sham,” because they did not invite organizations that monitor antisemitism that comes from the political left.
He then called out other Biden administration members who are antisemitic.
Pollak called out Hady Amr, a Biden official who was just promoted to be the “de facto ambassador, special envoy to the Palestinians” in Biden’s State Department.
“He said that he was inspired by the Palestinian intifada. He has defended and supported people who are supporting BDS. During this intifada that he is inspired by more than 10,000 Jews have been murdered or maimed,” Pollak said. “And it’s just an incredible thing for a person seeking higher office in the U.S. government to say they’re inspired by this violent uprising that the Palestinian Arabs call the Intifada.”
Boyle then called out two more Biden staffer’s who have spouted antisemitic rhetoric, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs Reema Dodin.
Pollak highlighted how, during the 2020 presidential campaign, Jean-Pierre was highly critical of any Democrats who attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual conference.
Pollak then highlighted Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke’s antisemitism and said that hers is the one he is “most upset about.”
“She supports BDS, you know the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel. And she criticized ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, for ever making any negative comments about representative Ilhan Omar,” Pollak said. “And incredibly, ADL still supported and endorsed her nomination. So the reaction by American Jewish groups other than ZOA, frankly, has been incredibly tepid. We are very upset with them.”
“When she was in college, she invited really, really bad antisemites to speak at Harvard. And then she defended them in the face of pushback from Jewish members of Harvard’s student body,” Pollak continued.
Boyle noted that Biden’s White House is running “rampant” with antisemitic officials.
Pollak again called out the Democrat hypocrisy and noted that if Republicans nominee notorious antisemites to high-level positions within the federal government, they would not have been confirmed.
“I mean, to be honest, there are some people who are simply anti-Israel zealots, that it’s incredible that people don’t have more visibility than the fact that they’re being placed in positions of important responsibility within the foreign policy apparatus,” Pollak said. “But others are so far beyond the line of actually being antisemites that again, if the positions were reversed, one cannot imagine a Republican extremist ever being confirmed to a higher office.”
Boyle then asked Pollak to talk about what Americans can do to prevent antisemitism from spreading rampantly through Biden’s administration.
Pollak suggested Americans speak up against these antisemitic officials and call their congressional representatives to raise awareness about the issue.
“The only thing I can suggest is, people should be speaking about it. The biggest danger and example of this Brazilian ambassador – the thing is, it seems to be heading forward without a great deal of fuss,” Pollak said.
He called out the House of Representatives for not singling out Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) antisemitism directly.
“In the House of Representatives, Ilhan Omar did several antisemitic acts and they were about to sanction her. And instead, they had a watered down version of a sanction that only didn’t mention her name at all, and condemned all forms of hatred,” he said.
Pollak said that, ultimately, Americans need to make sure that officials “pay a price” for their antisemitism.
“And the spotlight of media attention is what we need on these things. That’s the best way to make them pay a political price. We’re not going to stop antisemitism. We’re not going to stop these people, anti-Israel policies,” Pollak said. “But what we can do is make them pay a political price. Anytime anyone on either side does something antisemitic, we think that everyone should be talking about it, and they should be ashamed.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.