{"id":1309890,"date":"2023-11-02T11:29:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=449731"},"modified":"2023-11-02T11:29:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:29:56","slug":"before-joining-white-house-karine-jean-pierre-slammed-netanyahu-for-alleged-war-crimes-against-gazans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/11\/02\/before-joining-white-house-karine-jean-pierre-slammed-netanyahu-for-alleged-war-crimes-against-gazans\/","title":{"rendered":"Before Joining White House, Karine Jean-Pierre Slammed Netanyahu For Alleged War Crimes Against Gazans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">During the 2020<\/span> presidential campaign, Karine Jean-Pierre applauded the decision by every Democratic candidate to skip the annual conference put on by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC. She slammed it for \u201cracist, Islamophobic\u201d rhetoric and for inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak. Netanyahu, Jean-Pierre correctly noted, was facing allegations of war crimes and a raft of corruption charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Netanyahu still faces those allegations, and many more, Jean-Pierre has defended Netanyahu\u2019s bombardment of Gaza in her current role as press secretary for President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNetanyahu not only has personal charges levied against him\u2014he&#8217;s been indicted on both bribery and fraud charges\u2014but under his leadership of Israel, according to the United Nations, Israel may have committed war crimes in its attacks on Gazan protesters,\u201d Jean-Pierre <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/aipac-2020-election-democrats-israel-1375697\">wrote in a March 2019 column in Newsweek.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s time to call a spade a spade,\u201d she continued. \u201cAIPAC is not progressive. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jean-Pierre at the time was a spokesperson and senior adviser to the liberal group MoveOn, a former Obama administration official, and a commentator for MSNBC. The column explicitly noted that it represented her personal views, not those of her employer.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As White House press secretary, Jean-Pierre\u2019s rhetoric has more closely aligned with AIPAC\u2019s than with her own previous assessment. \u201cI\u2019ve seen some of those statements this weekend,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/4248451-white-house-calls-lawmakers-not-backing-israel-wrong-disgraceful\/\">Jean-Pierre said in mid-October<\/a>, referring to calls by some Democratic lawmakers for a ceasefire. \u201cAnd we\u2019re gonna continue to be very clear. We believe they\u2019re wrong. We believe they\u2019re repugnant and we believe they\u2019re disgraceful.\u201d (It was not entirely clear what she was referring to as repugnant.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When recently asked about whether \u201canti-Israel protesters\u201d were extremists, Jean-Pierre conflated protest against Israel with antisemitism and pivoted to talk about white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the White House also condemned those neo-Nazis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<!-- BLOCK(oembed)[2](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22OEMBED%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22EMBED%22%7D)(%7B%22embedHtml%22%3A%22%3Cblockquote%20class%3D%5C%22twitter-tweet%5C%22%20data-width%3D%5C%22550%5C%22%20data-dnt%3D%5C%22true%5C%22%3E%3Cp%20lang%3D%5C%22en%5C%22%20dir%3D%5C%22ltr%5C%22%3EThe%20White%20House%20just%20compared%20%5Cu201canti-Israel%20protesters%5Cu201d%20%5Cu2014%20the%20phrase%20used%20by%20the%20Fox%20News%20reporter%20in%20his%20question%20%5Cu2014%20to%20the%20white%20supremacists%20who%20marched%20in%20Charlottesville.%20%3Ca%20href%3D%5C%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Ft.co%5C%2Ft9oEu6YyOe%5C%22%3Epic.twitter.com%5C%2Ft9oEu6YyOe%3C%5C%2Fa%3E%3C%5C%2Fp%3E%26mdash%3B%20Ryan%20Grim%20%28%40ryangrim%29%20%3Ca%20href%3D%5C%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Ftwitter.com%5C%2Fryangrim%5C%2Fstatus%5C%2F1719140783377232028%3Fref_src%3Dtwsrc%255Etfw%5C%22%3EOctober%2030%2C%202023%3C%5C%2Fa%3E%3C%5C%2Fblockquote%3E%3Cscript%20async%20src%3D%5C%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fplatform.twitter.com%5C%2Fwidgets.js%5C%22%20charset%3D%5C%22utf-8%5C%22%3E%3C%5C%2Fscript%3E%22%2C%22endpoint%22%3A%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fpublish.twitter.com%5C%2Foembed%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22unknown%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Ftwitter.com%5C%2Fryangrim%5C%2Fstatus%5C%2F1719140783377232028%3Fs%3D20%22%7D) --><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The White House just compared \u201canti-Israel protesters\u201d \u2014 the phrase used by the Fox News reporter in his question \u2014 to the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t9oEu6YyOe\">pic.twitter.com\/t9oEu6YyOe<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ryangrim\/status\/1719140783377232028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 30, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><!-- END-BLOCK(oembed)[2] -->\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Her tough words were directed instead at AIPAC before Biden was sworn in. \u201cIts severely racist, Islamophobic rhetoric has proven just as alarming\u201d as its choice of speakers, Jean-Pierre went on. \u201cThe organization has become known for trafficking in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while lifting up Islamophobic voices and attitudes. As we&#8217;ve seen over the course of the Trump administration&#8217;s tenure, words can prove just as destructive as laws. Anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric doesn&#8217;t simply sit in a silo. It interacts with the world, creating and fuming hatred that leads to hateful acts, whether the package is individual hate crimes\u2014or collective\u2014the Muslim ban.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The war crimes Jean-Pierre referred to relate to the Great March of Return, which began in early 2018, with Gazans gathering each Friday and peacefully marching to the Gaza border. The Israeli army responded by shooting and killing hundreds of unarmed Palestinians and wounding many more. Israeli forces famously <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/6035b1d3293c4a298145afbff50ab844\">began shooting at their legs.&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe number of wounded has reached colossal proportions,\u201d the AP reported. \u201cThe upsurge in violence has left a visible mark on Gaza that will likely remain for decades to come. It is now common to see young men walking through dilapidated streets on crutches. Most have legs bandaged or fitted with a metal frame called a fixator, which uses pins or screws that are inserted into fractured bones to help stabilize them.\u201d The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/two-years-on-people-injured-and-traumatized-during-the-great-march-of-return-are-still-struggling\/\">United Nations warned <\/a>that, on top of maiming the population, Israel had rejected requests by Palestinians to leave Gaza for medical treatment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jean-Pierre herself has been dubbed \u201canti-Israel\u201d by critics. When she was named to replace Jen Psaki as White House spokesperson, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/us-news\/2022-05-11\/ty-article\/.highlight\/republicans-slam-anti-israel-white-house-press-secretary-over-aipac-boycott\/00000180-d639-d572-aba5-debd40f80000\">her Newsweek column resurfaced<\/a>. \u201cAmidst all the celebration of Biden\u2019s new press secretary checking multiple boxes in identity politics,\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Haaretz, \u201cthe mainstream media forgot to mention that she hates Israel.\u201d The false charge that she \u201chates Israel\u201d rhymes with Jean-Pierre\u2019s current lumping of protests against Israel with antisemitism. Richard Grenell, the former acting director of National Intelligence under Trump, also said to Haaretz: \u201cHas there ever been a White House spokesperson so hostile to Israel?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biden, however, defended her, as did the group Democratic Majority for Israel, which is aligned with AIPAC. \u201cJill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this administration,\u201d Biden told Haaretz at the time. Outgoing press secretary Psaki had kind words as well. \u201cKarine\u2019s role as Press Secretary will be to speak on behalf of President Biden, who throughout his 50-year career \u2013 in the Senate, as Vice President, and as President \u2013 has been, and will continue to be, a steadfast supporter of Israel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her Newsweek column, it was AIPAC that Jean-Pierre accused of going soft on antisemitism.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAIPAC itself has refused to condemn the repeated and callous anti-Semitic remarks that have come out of the Trump administration,\u201d she wrote. \u201cSteve Bannon, a close ally and former member of the Trump administration, reportedly had his kids removed from school because of \u2018the number of Jews that attend\u2019 and that he \u2018didn&#8217;t want [his children] going to school with Jews.\u2019 These \u2018reports\u2019 are according to Bannon&#8217;s wife. Time after time, policy after policy, speech after speech. At nearly every opportunity, AIPAC has shown that it is no bastion of progressivism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/11\/02\/karine-jean-pierre-israel-netanyahu-aipac\/\">Before Joining White House, Karine Jean-Pierre Slammed Netanyahu For Alleged War Crimes Against Gazans<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/\">The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/11\/02\/karine-jean-pierre-israel-netanyahu-aipac\/\">The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jean-Pierre applauded Democrats for skipping the AIPAC convention back in 2019, calling out its \u201cracist, Islamophobic\u201d rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/11\/02\/karine-jean-pierre-israel-netanyahu-aipac\/\">Before Joining White House, Karine Jean-Pierre Slammed Netanyahu For Alleged War Crimes Against Gazans<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/\">The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309891,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309890\/revisions\/1309891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}