Cory Booker: I was tricked into holding this anti-Israel sign
Extremist group U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights ambushed Booker: “amid the rush, he was posing for a photo and was passed a sign to hold — he didn’t have time to read the sign, and … didn’t realize it had anything to do with Israel”
Senator Cory Booker appeared at the Netroots 2018 conference.
Netroots is the annual gathering of far-left (“progressive”) activists. For presidential hopefuls hoping to generate buzz among the base, Netroots is a must. This year Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker were among the speakers.
Also in attendance was the anti-Israel group U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (fka U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation).
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights – An Extremist Anti-Israel Group
USCPR is among the most extreme groups and acts as a coordinator for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) efforts nationally. In a recent post, we highlighted the background and role of USCPR, ALERT: Anti-Israel coordinating group to launch municipal-level campaigns against Israel in June:
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, formerly known as the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, is a leader and mobilizer of BDS activism in the United States. A 501(c)3 charitable organization founded in 2001, it self-describes as a “national coalition working to end all US support for Israel’s military occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians.”
According to NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based watchdog group, in 2016 USCPR had a budget of approximately $850,000. It claims that it receives the majority of its funding through “small individual donations.” However, it reportedly recently received $90,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which as we noted in several recent posts also funds JVP along with other virulently anti-Israel and pro-BDS groups:
- Anti-Israel ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ Funding Network Revealed
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund finances Jewish Voice for Peace as it launches new anti-Israel campaign
USCPR works behind the scenes as an umbrella organization to organize and coordinate hundreds of groups…
As documented by NGO Monitor, some of the groups that USCPR supports have ties to Palestinian terror organizations. One of its staff members, Director of Grassroots Organizing Ramah Kudaimi, has promoted incitement to violence against Israelis.
It’s worth noting too that Josh Ruebner, who serves as USCPR’s Policy Director, is an ADL-flagged activist who has publicly claimed that the IDF “studied what the Nazis did” during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in order to “attack and kill Palestinians” in Gaza.
We discussed in a prior post that Ruebner also has a nasty habit of smearing Jewish members of Congress as “Israel firster” traitors to America because of their support for Israel….
As for Executive Director Yousef Munayyer, he’s advocated on behalf of the unrepentant terrorist and U.S. immigration fraudster Rasmea Odeh:
Munayyer has also been at the forefront of the ugly effort within U.S.-based anti-Israel circles to exploit the U.S. civil rights struggle for the Palestinian cause. Under Munayyer’s directorship, USCPR has preposterously cast Israeli policies toward the Palestinians as a discriminatory “matrix of control” with laws similar to those used against Black Americans during the Jim Crow era.
These days, Munayyer spends an inordinate amount of his time trying to racialize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, making untenable connections between the experiences of black men in America’s inner cities and his own as an Israeli Palestinian and trying to sell the idea that Palestinians are people of color oppressed by privileged white Jews.
It is not surprising that Netroots would offer USCPR the opportunity to host a panel during the conference.
Co-opting progressive events and organizations has been a key strategy of anti-Israel activists, from Ferguson to Black Lives Matter. We explored this “intersectional strategy” in If you are surprised #BlackLivesMatter joined war on Israel, you haven’t been paying attention:
For years we have been documenting the efforts by anti-Israel activists to stoke racial hatred of Israel through the concept of “intersectionality” – the notion that all revolutionary struggles, particularly against racism, are connected.
The almost exclusive focus, however, is Israel. Hence, Israel is falsely blamed for local police shootings of blacks in the U.S. based upon false and misleading claims I debunked in my post, Exposed: Years-long effort to blame Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks.
The movement to connect Ferguson-to-Palestine launched after the Michael Brown shooting, and has been a singular focus of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists ever since….
No other country except Israel is used as pervasively as the connector for intersectionality. It’s a seedy tactic meant to exploit domestic U.S. racial tensions having nothing to do with Israel, and to turn those tensions into racial hatred of the supposedly “white” Israel. Underlying it all are anti-Semitic stereotypes of omnipresent Jewish manipulation…
USCPR at Netroots – Intersectional Anti-Israel Activism
So there they were at Netroots 2018, pushing the anti-Israel intersectional agenda:
USCPR’s messaging at Netroots sought to equate Zionism to racism, sexism, and even anti-Semitism. That’s right, USCPR equates Zionism to anti-Semitism. As I said, these are true extremists:
Comparing Mexican Border and Israeli Security Barrier
The USCPR messaging also equates the Israel security barrier, which was erected during the Second Intifada to prevent the suicide bombing campaign that killed several hundred Israelis, with barriers at the U.S.-Mexican border.
[Women’s March organizers Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez stopped by the USCPR-Jewish Voice for Peace booth at the Women’s Convention, October 2017][via US Campaign Facebook]
But in the age of Trump, anti-Israel groups are trying to steer the Resistance into an anti-Israel stance with signs and messaging that say “From Palestine to Mexico, All the Walls Have To Go.” This close up of the panel shows that slogan on signs in front of each speaker:
Senator Cory Booker in Photo With Anti-Israel Sign
USCPR appeared to score a goal when it posted on Twitter a photo of U.S. Senator Cory Booker holding the “From Palestine to Mexico” sign, suggesting it was the result of discussions with him.
We immediately tweeted to Booker questioning his judgment in appearing with USCPR:
The image also generated immediate coverage, including at the Free Beacon:
Standing next to Booker in the picture is Leah Muskin-Pierret, who heads government affairs for the group and is wearing a shirt that says, “Palestine is a feminist/queer/refugee/racial justice issue.”
Muskin-Pierret has been a vocal anti-Israel advocate since her college years at Tufts University, where she was an active member of Students for Justice in Palestine, the main vehicle for rising anti-Israel activity on college campuses across the United States.
Muskin-Pierret’s views on Israel are so radical that she has even targeted J Street, a left-wing advocacy group highly critical of Israel.
“Lobbies like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the only superficially more progressive J-Street continue to strong arm congressmen and presidents alike to swear their allegiance to Israel and hound those who dare voice even tepid dissent,” wrote Muskin-Pierret, who goes on to say the groups are controlled by “the same corrupt political money.”
She also contributed to the legal defense fund for Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted for her role in 1969 terrorist bombings in Jerusalem that killed numerous Israelis. The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has regularly voiced support for Odeh, professing its “love” for the terrorist and saying it hopes to see her in a “liberated Palestine.”
Booker Says Was Caught Off Guard – And Supports Israel’s Need for a Security Barrier
We reached out to Booker’s office, and by the time they responded just a little while longer, they were seeking to halt the building firestorm.
According to a statement released by Booker’s spokesperson, Booker was leaving Netroots when someone approached him for a photo and handed him a sign he didn’t pay much attention to:
“Just before delivering a speech in New Orleans, Senator Booker was approached by dozens of people for photos. In one instance, amid the rush, he was posing for a photo and was passed a sign to hold — he didn’t have time to read the sign, and from his cursory glance he thought it was talking about Mexico and didn’t realize it had anything to do with Israel. He hopes for a day when there will be no need for security barriers in the State of Israel, but while active terrorist organizations threaten the safety of the people living in Israel, security barriers are unfortunate but necessary to protect human lives,” said Booker spokesperson Jeff Giertz.
Booker’s stated scenario has a ring of truth to it. Anti-Israel activists are constantly seeking misleading photo ops to further their agenda. They understand the power of an image, and if the image is not what it seems, they don’t care. It’s a form of Pallywood.
But is Booker completely innocent here? He was at Netroots pandering to progressives. Someone handed him a sign and he didn’t even look at it? He may not have understood the significance of the slogan, but it should have raised a red flag with him even in that environment.
The best thing to come out of this is that a lot of people have been alerted to the deviousness of USCPR, and Booker reaffirmed the justification for Israel’s security barrier:
“while active terrorist organizations threaten the safety of the people living in Israel, security barriers are unfortunate but necessary to protect human lives”
So the anti-Israel activists scored a goal, but it appears to be an own-goal.
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Comments
Too ignorant to know how to read?
I’ve got a little bit of sympathy for The Book. Those photo lines are an assembly line operation. Pay your money, move up, smile, move on, next. He did at least backtrack, which is a step further than most.
Plus he can now have it both ways, depending on the audience.
Holding a sign isn’t usually a part of it. Holding a sign he hasn’t read really isn’t a part of it — nor was it here.
They suckered him, I hope that this incident has taught him just how sleazy these people are. It would be poetic if this stunt drove him into the pro Israel camp.
Well, yes and no. If someone else was holding a sign, that excuse is fine. But if someone says, “hold this sign while I get a photo with you” are you not even gonna look at the sign?
What if it had the tweets of the NYT’s newest racist op-ed writer? “F*** the police, cops are assholes!”
I’ve worked for a member of Congress and understand how spur-of-the-moment stuff happens. But in this case I gotta think the guy is more of a careless doofus than I thought.
Public school!
Should of asked T-Bone.
SUUURE he was tricked. Yup. Yup yup.
Booker– another useful idiot……. like so many on the left, and so many in Congress.
Gee, I wonder if PDJT were to tweet he was tricked by the roooskies if crybaby cory would agree to cease the special counsel investigation?
“Sergeant Takeheraway and Booker”. (Police Squad)
The clip: https://youtu.be/2pmdE-xP_K4 .
Do they really mean it when they put “Antisemitism” on that list of things to resist, four lines below “Zionism?”
As it shapes up, the Democrat platform going forward seem to be:
Dump Trump
Dump 2nd Amendment
Dump Military
Erase Borders
Free Health Care
Free College
Free Housing
Forget Gender
Legalize Drugs
Tax the Rich
Government-funded abortions
Government-funded birth conrol
Government-funded tampons
Guaranteed Livable Income
No plastic straws
Did I miss any?
And no Animal House.
“Did I miss any?”
Yep, but you would need to write a book or two to cover all of their wants
Either an ignorant fool–or a liar–take your choice !!! ABJ
So, we are to believe that Cory Booker is either stupid or an idiot
I’d say all of the above!
He was tricked into thinking there was no photographer.
There is no spoon
Sorry Professor, but I’m really conflicted about this person.
To begin with I’m anti-Palestinian, pro-Israel, pro-Trump and after living over two decades in crap-holes such as this man lived as a successful adult, I kind of admire his character. It takes a lot of guts to live in the poorest neighborhoods around, especially when you don’t have to. Prior to politics Booker was a firebrand ‘do-gooder’, but it seems he ‘lived’ what he preached. Not like our Kenyan sock puppet. That’s a big deal to me…
Conversely, he’s a professional liar now (aka Politician) and it takes more wisdom than he’s shown here to become successful. Likewise, it grates on me that he twists Bible verses to justify his position…it really gets on my nerves, just throwing out a verse expecting every atheist in the room to understand what he’s saying. Grrr… Virtue signaling in the lowest form, IMO.
Maybe something unseen will cause him to shut his pie hole and quiet down a little. Although he’s talking about running for POTUS, probably in hopes of being Obama II, I can’t see it happening.
BDS is for dishonest people with weak minds, especially feminist losers who can’t find a husband to boss around and terrorist wannabee’s. I write them off as the insane haters of Israel that have reappeared for over 3,500 years…
Did he? Where was he living before he was elected to the senate? Not in the Newark apartment he listed as his address, that’s for sure. It’s a big mystery where he was actually putting his head down at night, but the most likely-sounding speculation was Manhattan.
Not so much. Most of his famous exploits were invented or staged.
Your references?
not speaking for others, just for myself – all of Cory Booker’s stories about growing up on the “mean streets of Newark” were literary inventions which would have earned him top grades in any creative writing class, especially his stories about his imaginary drug dealer friend “T-Bone”, who apparently never actually existed:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/08/cory-bookers-imaginary-friend-eliana-johnson/
Truth is that Booker grew up rich, son of two IBM executives, lived in a wealthy suburb 20 miles outside of Newark, went to Stanford University, and ALWAYS had a very comfortable and pampered life. This idea that he was ever on “the mean streets of Newark” is a fantasy that East Coast liberals love to hear from Black Politicians. In Cory’s case, it is all a lie.
“Truth is that Booker grew up rich, son of two IBM executives”
Gold spoon, much like Obama.
Look up the news articles during his senate campaign, when people first started seriously digging into his self-made image and found there was nothing behind it. Also look for numerous news stories about the time he supposedly saved a neighbor from a fire. He wasn’t living at the apartment he listed as his address. Where he was living nobody knew and he refused to say.
Like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, Booker just needs a fake Nobel peace prize to think he has enough brains to be president.
Too bad for booker, but the obama scam ran its course. We won’t be fooled again.
Booker and Harris are two blacks that have missed the hate train that obama started. They will not get the sympathy from the center that obama got. Once he got into office the facade of MLK’s historic statement that “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” fell away from his biased face. That train has left the station and these two will not be on it. Now the two of them are beclowing themselves.
Anti-Semite and dimwit are not mutually exclusive categories.
An interesting questionnaire for Palestinian Advocates by Yashiko Sagamori
If you are so sure that “Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history,” I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine:
When was it founded and by whom?
What were its borders?
What was its capital?
What were its major cities?
What constituted the basis of its economy?
What was its form of government?
Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
What was the language of the country of Palestine?
What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, the German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.
And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
Um, who, exactly, claims that “Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history”?
Better question: who exactly is this so-called “Yashiko Sagamori”, and why does he pretend to be Japanese?
Who makes claims about the long history of Palestine as a country? Members of the PLO leadership have for starters.
The Palestinians also say the Jews are the invaders taking Palestine away from the true descendants.
Really? Which ones, and when? Evidence, please. I have never heard of any PLO representative, or any advocate of theirs, ever make such a silly and easily-refuted claim.
What I do know is that “Yashiko Sagamori” is the pseudonym of a Jew living in NYC.
Excellent post!
And, he wants to be President! If he was so easily “tricked” by USCPR, will he also be easily tricked by the Russians, the Iranians, the Lower Slobovians, et al?
Would anyone believe Cory Booker was tricked into holding up a sign which he does not believe in ?? According to Booker, he is the smartest man in the Senate, alas, he is unable to read…tsk,tsk,tsk.
Highly improbable that he is the smartest.
Any one who is descent stands with Israel. I will happily expand on that point. Don’t think I can’t.
The Jews are the most hated people in history. Why? And what did Christ promise us? Brother against brother. Not peace in this world, but a sword. Not for us to use in hate, but to be used against us.
Isaiah 49
“Israel, A Light to the Nations
Listen to me, distant nations,
you people who live far away!
Before I was born, the Lord chose me
and appointed me to be his servant.
2
He made my words as sharp as a sword.
With his own hand he protected me.[a]
He made me like an arrow,
sharp and ready for use.
3
He said to me, “Israel, you are my servant;
because of you, people will praise me.”
I have long suspected that Jews are disliked because they are usually smart and successful. It seems that people often dislike other who are smarter or better endowed 🙂
Your Sunday thought. I hope the Jews can forgive me.
“Plus he can now have it both ways, depending on the audience.”
He fits in well with the Palestinian leadership, which says one thing in English and another in Arabic.
Looking forward to the 2020 Democratic Party platform fight over Israel. I believe it will be the time and place where Schumer and the old Democrats lose total control of the party to the far left.
Shows you how he would respond to sudden situations. Should have not held any sign he wasn’t aware of what was on it. As Pres he would be easily be pushed around. Bad as a redline in the sand.
No border walls for the U.S. but it’s okay for Israel? How many “allah akbar’s do we have to suffer before something is done?