‘This Man Is a Spite Machine’; Obama Blasted on Social Media for Appointment of Ben Rhodes to Holocaust Memorial Council

Outgoing President Barack Obama’s choice this week of top aide Ben Rhodes to serve on the US Holocaust Memorial Council drew a slew of online ire over Rhodes’ controversial record on Israel-related issues.

Rhodes — whose role as Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications will come to an end on Friday with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump — was a leading advocate of the Iran nuclear deal and a vocal critic of Israeli settlement policies.

“So Ben Rhodes, who is a veritable enemy of Israel, Obama appoints to Holocaust Memorial Council,” American Spectator Managing Editor Melissa Mackenzie tweeted. “The man is a spite machine.”

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer tweeted, “No joke: Obama names aide who bragged of whitewashing Iran’s Holocaust-denying regime to Holocaust memorial council.”

✔@HillelNeuer

Jonathan Greenberg — senior vice president of the Haym Salomon Center — tweeted, “Other board members should refuse to sit with him.”

Journalist Lori Lowenthal Marcus tweeted, “The only interest in the Holocaust I’ve seen from @rhodes44 is his effort 2 help create another 1.”

Lori LowenthalMarcus @LoriLMarcus

The US Holocaust Memorial Council is comprised of 68 members — 55 of whom are presidential appointees. The members serve five-year terms on the council, which meets twice annually.

Last week, as reported by The Algemeiner, the ombudsman of PBS called on the station to issue a “clarifying or correcting” statement in the wake of a false claim made by Rhodes during an interview with Judy Woodruff in December that Israel was constructing “tens of thousands” of new settlements in the West Bank.

Just a few days after the PBS “NewsHour” interview, Rhodes — who was born to a Jewish mother — was called an “expert at fiction” by Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer for asserting that the Obama administration did not orchestrate the passage of the anti-settlement UN Security Council resolution last month.

In a New York Times Magazine profile published in May, Rhodes — the holder of a M.F.A. in creative writing — admitted to creating a media “echo chamber” to promote the Iran nuclear deal. Reporters were “saying things that validated what he had given them to say,” he revealed.

(c) 2017 The Algemeiner Journal

{Matzav.com}