Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison was an early favorite for Chair of the Democratic National Committee. He quickly garnered top endorsements, including from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.But then Ellison’s past came back to haunt him, specifically his membership in and support for Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam and his more recent association with anti-Israel activists, as we explored in these posts:
The fight over Ellison has become a fight over the future of the Democratic Party, and whether it will veer hard left on a host of issues, including Israel.The situation has not become any less controversial for Ellison since my last post. As The Daily Caller reported, Keith Ellison Once Proposed Making A Separate Country For Blacks:
Some newly discovered columns shed light on the shocking views expressed by one of the Democrat’s favorite politicians.According to columns written several years ago in the Minnesota Daily, obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Ellison was once a proponent of a blacks-only nation carved out of America and cash reparations paid from whites to blacks. Ellison also called the U.S. Constitution the “best evidence of a white racist conspiracy to subjugate other peoples.”The Daily Caller News Foundation did some digging to find the columns written in the Minnesota Daily under the pen name “Keith E. Hakim.”TheDCNF obtained scans of four columns written by “Hakim” as a law student. Ellison was around 26 years old at the time these columns were written and published.Over four columns, “Hakim” advocates cash reparations paid from whites to blacks, calls the Constitution the “best evidence of a white racist conspiracy to subjugate other peoples,” and proposes making a separate country for black people.
The student-run Minnesota Daily also is re-publishing the columns, Keith Ellison’s old Minnesota Daily columns surface amid bid for DNC chair:
Now the Investigative Project on Terrorism has obtained audio of statements made by Ellison at a 2010 fundraiser in which Ellison complains about Israel’s influence and the fact that U.S. policy is focused on that small nation rather than the larger Arab world, IPT Exclusive: In Private Fundraiser, Ellison Blasted Israeli Influence Over U.S. Policy
A 2010 audio of Ellison speaking at a private fundraiser obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism calls such praise into question. In a fairly intimate setting, Ellison lashed out at what he sees as Israel’s disproportionate influence in American foreign policy. That will change, he promised, as more Muslims gained political influence:
“The United States foreign policy in the Middle East is governed by what is good or bad through a country of 7 million people. A region of 350 million all turns on a country of 7 million. Does that make sense? Is that logic? Right? When the Americans who trace their roots back to those 350 million get involved, everything changes. Can I say that again?”
IPT provides the following background to the event:
The fundraiser for Ellison’s re-election campaign was hosted by Esam Omeish, a past president of the Muslim American Society (MAS) who was forced to resign from a Virginia state immigration panel in 2007 after an exclusive IPT videotape showed him praising Palestinians for choosing the “the jihad way … to liberate your land.” Omeish was a candidate for Virginia’s general assembly the previous year, and Ellison spoke at a fundraiser for that losing effort.In his 2010 remarks, he described Omeish as “my beloved brother and I love you and you are the best and your family is so beautiful and again, you know, you put it out there. You ran. And I hope you run again.”Also present at the fundraiser was Nihad Awad, a co-founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)….
I reached out to Ellison’s office media contact earlier today seeking comment on the audio, and whether Ellison believes the audio is out of context. So far I have received no response.
Ellison’s 2010 comments pretty much confirm the concerns I previously expressed. While Ellison now talks a relatively moderate-left game when it comes to Israel, his heart lies with the far-left of the Democratic Party which is hostile to Israel.
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