The Shift: White House Press Secretary calls progressives calling for ceasefire ‘disgraceful’ and ‘repugnant’

During an October 10th briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called progressive congress members who have called for a ceasefire in the Middle East “disgraceful” and “repugnant.”

“There have been some members of Congress who have called for a ceasefire, and they have not gone as far as backing the administration’s call for support for Israel,” a reporter told the press secretary.

“So, look, I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend. And we’re going to continue to be very clear: We believe they are wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful,” responded Jean-Pierre.

“Our — our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped hundreds — hundreds of Israelis,” she continued. “There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here. There are not two sides.”

“President Biden has been clear on where he has stood. You heard him — you heard from him directly today. You heard from him also on Saturday on this. There’s been multiple statements from this President. And he’s taking action to provide additional support to ensure that Israel has the — has what they need to defend themselves.”

Virtually every member of Congress has expressed unfettered support for Israel despite the country’s brutal bombing of Gaza. However, some progressive House members have called for an end to the violence and voiced concern for Palestinians currently under fire.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Cori Bush (D-MO) have faced criticism from pro-Israel groups, Republicans, and members of their own party over their statements. Both lawmakers called for an end to military aid

“I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,” read Tlaib’s statement. “The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer,” she said. “We cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

Bush condemned the Hamas attack over the recent violence. “As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to stop this violence and trauma by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid,” she added.

“It sickens me that while Israelis clean the blood of their family members shot in their homes they believe Congress should strip U.S. funding to our democratic ally and allow innocent civilians to suffer,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer told Jewish Insider (D-NJ).

“The attacks are coming from Democrats who retain close ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the flagship of the Israel lobby groups. Gottheimer is one of the top recipients in Congress of money from the group,” Akela Lacy notes at The Intercept.

“Meanwhile, members of the leadership remaining silent on the political broadsides are also close to AIPAC. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a staunch AIPAC ally, has taken nearly half a million dollars from the group since last year; he also led an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel for incoming House Democrats. (Gottheimer and Jeffries did not respond to requests for comment.)”

Meanwhile, HuffPost reports that the State Department circulated an internal email cautioning officials against using three specific terms when discussing the situation: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.”

Judge says he won’t hire students who support Palestine

In a Linkedin post federal judge Matthew Solomson declared that he won’t hire any students who have signed campus statements in support of Palestine.

“Judges want clerks who are smart, thoughtful, precise, and have integrity; it goes without saying that they should have superior research and writing skills. But judges also have other hiring preferences,” wrote Solomson. “Some look for particular schools or law review or work experiences. Some judges, no doubt, favor membership in particular groups. In general, I take no issue with judges who prefer to see FedSoc or ACS membership or any number of other indications of philosophical outlook or biographical background. Some of my colleagues may care less about what their clerks think about this or that issue. I certainly don’t ask about particular policy views, but I do happen to prefer clerks who, like me, love the United States, consider themselves patriots, and generally think this is the best country with the best legal system on the planet.”

“That’s a long way of saying that reasonable judges may reasonably look for (vastly) different qualities and attitudes in their law clerks,” he continued. “But no Federal judge I know would hire a card carrying member of some wacky white supremacist group or even someone that is on record as remotely supporting or even sympathizing with such a group’s activities.”

“It is in that vein that I make clear here that I will not hire any student or intern who is a member of any group that signed on to this Harvard letter or any other similar letter, whether from HLS or any other law school.”

This week, a number of Harvard University campus organizations have faced criticism for signing onto a statement authored by the Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee that holds the “Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

Solomson was nominated as federal judge by former president Donald Trump in 2019 and confirmed by the Senate in an 88-7 vote. He’s the former aassociate general counsel at Booz Allen Hamilton.

NYC Councilwoman arrested

New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov was arrested for publicly displaying a gun at a Palestine solidarity rally.

The GOP lawmaker was charged with criminal possession of a firearm after filming herself in front of the Brooklyn College protest.

“At today’s rally on Brooklyn College campus led by the students in their SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] chapter, Inna Vernikov showed up showcasing a gun to Palestinian students and their allies,” wrote the campus group CUNY 4 Palestine on Twitter. “These are the tactics of force and intimidation used by Zionist groups to silence any support for Palestine.”

Last year Vernikov announced that she was pulling $50,000 in funding for CUNY Law School because the faculty endorsed a BDS resolution. “It seems as if antisemitism is the only politically acceptable form of racism which exists. We must stop handing out free passes to anti-Semites like candy,” Vernikov told the New York Post at the time.

Bush on Israel

In a private event in California former U.S. president and war criminal George W. Bush expressed his support for Israel and pushed back against those criticizing Israeli violence. Video of the talk was first obtained by Axios.

“It’s not going to take long for people [to say]: ‘It’s gone on too long Surely, there’s a way to settle this through negotiations. Both sides are guilty,'” Bush told the crowd. My view is: One side is guilty. And it’s not Israel.”

“[W]e need to support Israel, no ands, ifs, or buts,” he added. “This is an unprovoked attack by terrorist people willing to kill innocent people to achieve an objective. Hamas is a political organization. They do not reflect the majority of the Palestinians. … I’m pretty confident the United States will stand squarely with Israel.”

During Bush’s time in office Hamas won a democratic election and thwarted an illegal coup launched by the administration in response to the results.

Elbit Systems update

Yesterday we covered a protest that took place out of Elbit Systems in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The defense company is Israel’s largest weapons supplier.

Protesters blockaded the front door, splashed paint across the entrance, and spray painted “Shut Elbit Down” on the building. I wrote that activists had effectively “shut down” their offices, but a spokesperson for the company emailed me Mondoweiss to let us know that isn’t technically true. We regret the mistake.

“Michael – our office was never shut down by the protest today – please update your article to reflect that their attempt to do so was unsuccessful,” they wrote. The article has been corrected. They also asked us to run the following statement: “Elbit America unequivocally condemns Hamas and its barbaric acts of terrorism. We stand with Israel and its people as they defend their country and citizens.”

After cleaning the aforementioned graffiti, the Elbit building was apparently spray painted by activists again last night.