MSNBC host Joy Reid once argued CNN’s Wolf Blitzer wore a “flak jacket” for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and wrote about the “possible ‘dual loyalties'” of Americans who support Israel, according to old blog posts that recently surfaced.
Reid also referred to AIPAC as a “powerful lobbying group that holds the whip hand over Republican and Dmeocratic [sic] members of Congress alike.”
Reid harshly criticized Blitzer, a Jewish journalist, for how he covered news about Israel. She pointed out the fact that Blitzer used to work for the pro-Israel group AIPAC, referring to him as a “former flak” of the organization.
In a 2006 post on her blog “Reid Report,” titled, “Blitzer’s bias,” she writes:
“With the Israeli ambassador, Blitzer was solicitous, even posing the incredible question of ‘what can we do’ about the deteriorating situation. We??? Would that be we Israelis or we in the United States, Wolf? Mr. Blitzer, a former flak for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — though you’d never know it from his CNN bio — has consistently carried on that job in another form in his capacity as CNN host. He doesn’t even try to hide his affinity for his Israeli guests, or his partisanship for their cause, while turning instantly to prosecutorial mode when questioning any guest who has the dumb luck to be an Arab or Muslim in King Blitzer’s court.”
Reid also referred to AIPAC as a “powerful lobbying group that holds the whip hand over Republican and Dmeocratic [sic] members of Congress alike, and whose role in a certain series of Iran-related spying cases raises troubling questions about whether foreign agents are operating inside the United States, with the purpose of screening American foreign policy in the Middle East for the government in Tel Aviv? (Or twisting it on Israel’s behalf…)”
She wrote,
“If [Blitzer] wants to do an editorial program promoting the interests of a foreign government (Israel,) he should petition his bosses at the network to do just that. Otherwise, if he is purporting to do ‘news,’ he should stick to the news, and put aside his AIPAC flak jacket.”
This wasn’t all she had to say about support for Israel within the United States.
In a 2006 post titled, “The flag bearers,” Reid writes about the phenomenon of Mexican flags being waved on U.S. soil.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson highlighted this post Wednesday night.
She references another blogger who made the point that “there seems to be a double standard when it comes to a certain other flag often rallied ’round by Americans…”
Reid then writes:
“I think that the fact that the waving of the Israeli flag isn’t criticized doesn’t mean people aren’t unhappy about Israeli flag wavers’ possible ‘dual loyalties.’ I think that concern is out there, particularly when it comes to hard core American likudniks like the neoconservatives. It’s just that there is a tremendous taboo in the United States about saying anything even remotely negative about Israel, or about implying ‘dual loyalty’ when it comes to a Jewish American. It simply isn’t done, because it would expose the speaker to charges of anti-Semitism (Pat Buchanan can tell you all about that, given his periodic criticism of the Israelis). Latinos have not gotten to that place yet where they are essentially immunized from overt criticism, but keep in mind that those who criticize the waving of their flag are being tarred as racists (including Dobbs). So I’m not sure the double standard really exists, so much as one component of it takes place soto voce…”
The Daily Caller reached out to MSNBC for comment but did not receive one by press time.
Reid’s old blog posts have been in the news for months. Old posts of hers contained homophobic and transphobic comments. (RELATED: Joy Reid Wasn’t Just Homophobic — Old Tweets Show Her Openly Using Anti-Transgender Slurs Too)
In April, she claimed that the offensive comments on her blog were placed there by hackers, a claim that appears to be very dubious. (RELATED: Joy Reid’s Hacking Story Filled With Holes)
She later apologized for the homophobic comments, though she maintained that she did not think she wrote them.
