politics to go: jeff dunetz

Jewish Star columnist says Bannon is no anti-Semite

Posted

With the appointment of Stephen Bannon to a senior position in the Trump administration, the media talons came out. The man is a white supremacist and an anti-Semite, said the critics.

The claims of anti-Semitism start with allegations made by his wife during a contentious divorce several years ago. When they considered sending their daughters to the Archer School for Girls, Bannon’s ex-wife claimed that he “went on to say the biggest problem he had with Archer is the number of Jews that attend. He said that he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats’ and that he didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.”

They ultimately decided to send their daughters to Archer, and Bannon denies he made those statements.

Other protestations regarding the Bannon appointment claim that under Bannon, the Breitbart website had become anti-Semitic. Keep in mind that Andrew Breitbart and his friend Larry Solov conceived of Breitbart News with “the aim of starting a site that would be unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel.” It boggles the mind that Andrew Breitbart would choose Bannon as a friend and adviser if he had the slightest touch of anti-Semitism. 

It was certainly that way when I worked there and, to be honest, I haven’t seen any change from the Jewish/Israel point of view. Certainly, Larry Solov, who was the late Andrew Breitbart’s closest friend and now Breitbart CEO, would make public protestations if the Breitbart sites became anti-Semitic. In fact, it was under Bannon’s tutelage that Breitbart expanded into Jerusalem.

On Monday morning, when the venomous allegations of Bannon’s anti-Semitism began to break, Joel Pollak, a senior editor at Breitbart (who I worked for at Breitbart) and an Orthodox Jew, tweeted: “I’ve worked closely w/Steve Bannon at Breitbart. He’s an American patriot who also defends Israel & has deep empathy for the Jewish People.”

I know Joel well enough to say if he thought there was the slightest anti-Semitism coming from Steve Bannon he would have left Breitbart a long time ago.

Also on Monday, another Jew, David Horowitz, denied the charge of anti-Semitism against Bannon, writing: 

“CNN, which has been particularly vicious, did a nasty attack on Bannon using another of the thinnest reeds available: This was a headline at Breitbart.com calling Bill Kristol a ‘renegade Jew.’ In fact, neither Breitbart nor Bannon is responsible for that statement. A Jew is. I wrote the article, which was neither requested nor commissioned by Breitbart. And I wrote the headline: ‘Bill Kristol, Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew’.”

When Horowitz’s article was published, I referred to it as anti-Semitic “click-bait.” David and I spoke about it and agreed to disagree, but none of it reflects on Steve Bannon, the same way that just because MSNBC has a once-a-week Al Sharpton program, it doesn’t mean the entire network is anti-Semitic.

Another Jew, David Goldman, a well-known economist and author, wrote a column for PJM which said in part, “I know Steve Bannon, and have had several long discussions with him about politics. Steve is fervently pro-Israel, and it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that he is anti-Semitic.”

So there you have it. Aside from statement by his ex-wife, there is nothing in the public record showing Steve Bannon to be an anti-Semite. There are no anti-Semitic incidents, no complaints by Jewish employees, etc.

One would think that a guy who spent ten years in the Navy, had a senior position at Goldman Sachs, and ran Breitbart (which employs many Jews) might have had at least one slip-up  — but nothing! If Bannon is such a big Jew-hater, why can’t I find anything?

I didn’t write much for Breitbart after Andrew passed, therefore I never met Bannon. But based on the evidence, to this particular Jew who is a former Breitbart writer, the claims that Bannon is an anti-Semite is what we call in the mamma loshen, bik drek.

As Joel Pollak said on CNN Monday evening, “the worst thing Steve Bannon has done is win the White House.” And that really seems to be what is animating the witchhunt against Bannon — the impotent rage of those who wanted “anyone but Trump.”

Jeff Dunetz: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com