Obama nominates Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff

A day after being elected by the American people as the 44th president, Barack Obama nominated Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois)as his chief of staff.

Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the fourth-ranking House Democrat and a close friend of Mr. Obama’s from Chicago ....

His father was born in Jerusalem and was a member of the Irgun, a Jewish terrorist organization that fought the British occupation of Palestine during the 30's and 40's. I don't think this is particularly important except that it is obvious that he's a Zionist. I don't know yet if he's a hawkish or a dovish Zionist but if he does accept the position as the president's right hand man, he will have a lot of influence on foreign policy.

In a 2005 interview with the Rolling Stone he said,

We're the party of change. We're the party of a new direction -- a break from rampant cronyism and the status quo. Period.

Doesn't that sound familiar? He was the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and his task was to regain control of the House and Senate. It looks like he put Obama in the White House as well.

On the Haaretz article, one of the commenters had this to say,

Since rich Jews have always financed Obama`s runs for office (in Chicago they were known by the code word, "University of Chicago", why not. Jews are for abortion even though we are a diminishing people. Jews are for higher taxes on the successful, even though we are thought to own the US and have 60% of the money. Jews are for civil rights, even though we are hired last and fired first. Jews are for closing down GITMO, even though every terrorist targeted us first. Jews are for talking and engaging with our enemies, including Iran, No. Korea, Cuba, Venezuela..and Syria..and considering the grievances of Hamas and Hezbollah, while thousands demonstrated in Tehran today shouting, "Death to Israel". Jews are leftists by nature, while Russia is deploying nukes around Polant. Go for it Emanuel.

I thought it was a good summary of Jewish political stances in the US.

In this very long NYTimes piece from 1997, it talks about the Emanuel brothers. One brother is a biomedical ethicist, and the other is a big shot Hollywood agent. The Emanuel in Hollywood inspired the Ari Gold character in the HBO series Entourage, my favorite character on TV by far.