Obama Appoints Hawk and Hard Line Zionist Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel was appointed by Obama to be his chief of staff. According to World Net Daily Emanuel supported the invasion of Iraq. In 2005 when asked by Tim Russert whether he would vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq even though he knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, Emanuel said he would. Emanuel added, "I still believe that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do, OK?" When congressman Jack Murtha, a democrat from Pennsylvania suggested withdrawing immediately Emanuel distanced himself from Murtha In Rahm Emanuel's book “The Plan” he proclaims that the democrats should not be afraid to “"take the fight to the enemy." He also said in his book, “"We need to use all the roots of American power to make our country safe."

During the 2006 election cycle he went to the battleground states and looked for the most conservative democrats to run against republicans. He also pressured local democratic party organizations to reject more liberal candidates. Leading up to the 2006 elections public opinion was clearly against the war in Iraq. The democrats in the house were forced to announce they would cut off funding for the War in Iraq. They ended up wining a majority in the house, but the funding did not get cut. In fact the funding increased. The democrats that Emanuel sought could not be counted on to vote against the funding. Even though the democrats had the majority too many of them were conservative militarist which were sought out by Emanuel

This hawkish view compliments Emanuel's hard line Zionist views which were probably encouraged by his family history. Rabbi Micheal Learner points out that his father was part of the “ultra-right-wing
terrorist organization, Etzel that targeted British civilians in the 1940's. He is a strong supporter of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. He was also a strong supporter of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Emanuel has worked hard to pressure his fellow democrats to embrace the hard line policies of the Israeli government which have been pushed by the Israeli Lobby. In this process he has prevented Jewish Peace groups who believe Israel's security is best helped by a two state solutions based on the 1967 boarders from having an influence on U.S. Policy towards Israel.