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Jewish World Review Nov. 30, 2001 / 15 Kislev 5762

Evan Gahr

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Consumer Reports


Cynthia McKinney's
Final Solution?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- RAEED TAYEH may have thought he was just following in his boss's footsteps.

But now he's out of a job.

Until Wednesday, Tayeh worked for Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Congresswoman who prattles about like a cross between Noam Chomsky and Al Sharpton. Most recently, McKinney made headlines when she solicited funding from a Saudi prince after Mayor Giuliani rejected his proposed $10 million donation to aid victims of September 11, citing the prince's alleged soft line towards terrorism.

McKinney's now notorious October 12 letter to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal blamed Israel for Arab terrorism, and reeked of contempt for America. In short, the letter is not all that different from the noxious epistle her then-staffer published November 28 in the Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

Responding to a Nov 21 story, "Jewish lawmakers blast Bush on Palestianian statehood position," Tayeh rehashed the ugly canard that Jewish supporters of Israel are guilty of dual loyalties. He said the Jewish congressmen quoted in the Hill story "seemed to care more about Israel than human rights and American values." Worse yet, Tayeh, continued "many of these pro-Israeli lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause."

Tayeh then offers his own little final solution. "The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress."

For the moment, however, Tayeh's service to McKinney has ended. Tayeh was relieved of his duties the same day his Buchananesque letter appeared, McKinney's office told JewishWorldReview.com yesterday. Further questions were referred to her chief of staff, who could not be reached for comment.

Why exactly did Tayeh get the boot? Was he fired because of the viewpoint he expressed? That would seem a bit hypocritical because his viewpoint, again, seems rather congruous with McKinney's. Maybe his real "crime" was upstaging the boss? Is McKinney miffed that he didn't sign her name to his anti-Israel broadside? What's McKinney's official policy: all anti-Israel and anti-American letters should be issued under her name only? Come on, Cynthia: can't you learn to delegate authority?

Or maybe Tayeh's fate is really just a crass example of power politics. Congressional staffers get busted for the same kind of Jew-baiting which left-liberal luminaries indulge with little protest from their fellow "progressives." In 1986, writer Gore Vidal called Jewish conservatives Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter "fifth columnists." Podhoretz wrote to a slew of liberal bigmouths, asking them to repudiate Vidal's ugly charge. Almost none did. The Nation magazine, which published Vidal's screed, later published an editorial defending it.

And, of course, Tayeh's charge stinks of the same kind of anti-Semitism which Al Sharpton indulges when politically expedient.

Perhaps McKinney's aide has a bright future with the Nation magazine--or the Georgia Democratic Party. Another possibility is the Justice Department. In a November 29 email, the American Muslim Council, a pro-Hamas organization, gloats that its president, "Yahya Basha and other American Muslim leaders had a dinner meeting with Attorney General John Ashcroft here at a [Washington, DC area] mosque on Tuesday, Nov. 27."

The Attorney General should know better. And it's high time that one standard obtain for anti-Semites, famous and obscure, left and right. Ironically enough, their own contempt for Israel and the ugly charge that its Jewish supporters are guilty of dual loyalty, is the real betrayal of American values.



Evan Gahr, JWR's Washington correspondent, is an adjunct scholar at the Center for Equal Opportunity in Washington, DC. To comment click here.


Up

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08/20/01: For society's good, PLEASE learn this term: 'TMI': Too Much Info
07/16/01: Sleeping with the enemy
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05/10/01: Ashcroft and Advocacy: Did foundations cross the line?
04/19/01: Creepy People for the American Way
04/12/01: Feminist Chung Vows "New Revolution"
03/28/01: Liberal chickens come home to roost
03/20/01: Teddy's FOBs --- Friends of Bush
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03/13/01: Stonewall Jackson strikes again
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02/28/01: Jesse the spendthrift? 'Moocher' is more like it!
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02/08/01: Of 'players,' boozers, and your tax dollars
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01/26/01: Louts Above the Law
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12/14/00: Gore's last smear campaign
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11/07/00: Hillary's cruel blow to American pluralism
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10/26/00: Remembering Gus Hall, that 'all-American' kinda guy
10/19/00: Hey conservatives, Nader wants your vote!
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06/27/00: Time for To Execute a Murderer
06/20/00: Hillary and the Cop-bashers: Will the real Ms. Rodham please stand up?
06/08/00: For voting rights purposes, should criminal offenders be judged not by the content of their character but the color of their skin?
05/10/00: Feminist Majority Rule
05/02/00: The Tin Man's Doctor
03/07/00: Bob Jones hypocrisy: Liberals are lecturing Americans on "anti-Catholicism"?
02/03/00: The red and the Black: The Left-wing Extremist in Bill Bradley’s Camp
01/06/00: Looking backwards: An anchorman's version of the 20th Century
12/16/99: Yellow journalism for the Pink Lady?
12/07/99: How to make the American Psychological Association squirm

© 2001, Evan Gahr