On Saturday 5th District Democrats nominated a woman who wrote a book based on an anti-semantic premise. She unapologetically claimed that US foreign policy is controlled by Israel and that Israelis are evil. She sounds as nutty as that Democrat in DC who claimed Jews control the weather. Even the liberal The New York Times Book Review slammed the book as being ridiculous.
And she is already doing damage control on her anti-semantic statements. Her first tweet after she announced her win at the nominating convention is your classic but-I-have-Jewish-friends-style-response. Below are her two tweets, sent two days apart.
That’s a pretty good sign she’s a racist.
Here is more information on this from the press release from the RPV-
Richmond, VA – Today, the Democrat Party of Virginia nominated Leslie Cockburn to run against Republican incumbent Tom Garrett in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. Cockburn has a long history of anti-Semitic rhetoric which can be documented over at least the past 25 years. In the early 1990s, Cockburn co-authored Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship. Cockburn’s book advocated for the inherently anti-Semitic belief that Israel controls America’s foreign policy.
In reaction to the nomination of Leslie Cockburn as the Democratic Nominee in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, Holocaust survivor and co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Jay Ipson released the following statement, “I don’t know to which hate group she was trying to cater with her book, but her [Cockburn’s] claims are wildly inaccurate.”
“Cockburn and the Democrats want to take away Israel’s ability to defend itself,” Ipson said.
“In the wake of the tragedy that was Charlottesville, it is unconscionable that the Democrats would nominate an anti-Semite like Cockburn to represent that town and that district in Congress,” said John Findlay, Executive Director of the RPV. “The Republican Party of Virginia calls on the Democratic Party and Senator Tim Kaine to swiftly and unequivocally withdraw their support for Leslie Cockburn.”
Background:
From the New York Times: “Instead, their book, supposedly a history of the secret ties between Israel and the United States, is largely dedicated to Israel-bashing for its own sake. Its first message is that, win or lose, smart or dumb, right or wrong, suave or boorish, Israelis are a menace. The second is that the Israeli-American connection is somewhere behind just about everything that ails us.”
From Commentary Magazine: “This book is no less than a history of the world since 1948, with the United States of America cast as the chief evildoer, and Israel as the evil genie. As the Cockburns see it, Israel, playing Iago to America’s Othello, has brought out the worst in this stupid, great power. Israel’s leaders, unprincipled, cynical addicts to military force and dirty tricks, manipulate America through American Jews—“women with blue hair and pseudo-athletic men.” These Jews have so corrupted America’s politics with their money that U.S. Presidents, too, have been led to betray our national interests by joining in massive coverups of Israeli misdeeds, including the illegal transfer of U.S. military technology on a scale “much bigger than Pollard.””
Given the recent revelations out of Greene County, this bigotry appears to be part of a larger pattern of behavior from Cockburn and her associates.
It should be easier for Republicans to hold the 5th than the National Democratic Party had hope for. Thank you to Democrats for nominating a terrible candidate.
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