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Is Steve Bannon, Trump’s New Chief Strategist, Anti-Semitic? Alan Dershowitz Says There’s No Evidence

By Darien Cavanaugh
Published on: 18:12 PST, Nov 16, 2016

Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Breitbart News executive chairmen Steve Bannon have come under increasing political fire since Trump announced he would be hiring Bannon as his chief White House strategist and senior counselor to the president, making him a top member of the Executive Office of the President beginning in January.

Bannon has been accused of being a xenophobic nationalist, a sexist, a racist, a homophobe, an anti-Semite, and a general all around bigot and leader of the new “alt-right” movement by his critics.

Much of the criticism stems from articles published at Breitbart News during his tenure, the nature of which many liberals find offensive.

Under Bannon’s stewardship, Breitbart News published articles with headlines such as “Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy,” “Gay rights have made us dumber, it’s time to get back in the closet,” “Suck it up buttercups: Dangerous F*gg*t Tour returns to colleges in September,” “Science proves it: Fat-shaming works,” “There’s no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews,” “Trannies whine about hilarious Bruce Jenner billboard,” and “Bill Kristol: Republican spoiler, renegade Jew.”

Bannon has faced particular heat over an article titled “Hoist it high and proud: The Confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage” that ran only two weeks after the racially motivated shooting at the historically black Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, South Carolina, that left nine parishioners dead in June of 2015. The social media pages of the suspected shooter, Dylann Roof, included photos of him waving a Confederate flag and visiting Confederate heritage sites, according to a report from the New York Times.

Ten days after Breitbart ran the article, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed a bi-partisan bill to remove the Confederate flag from a flagpole in front of the South Carolina Statehouse, Charleston City Paper reports.

An unlikely candidate stepped up to defend Bannon on Tuesday.

American lawyer, author, and civil liberties advocate Alan Dershowitz told Breitbart News, of all places, that in his opinion there is no evidence that Steve Bannon is anti-Semitic.

“I haven’t seen any evidence of personal anti-Semitism on the part of Bannon,” Dershowitz told Breitbart News. “I think the (Breitbart) headline about a conservative Republican being a renegade Jew was ill-advised. But it doesn’t suggest to me anti-Semitism.”

Dershowitz said that instead of exhibiting anti-Semitism the headline merely “suggests…a degree of carelessness.”

His defense of Bannon didn’t end with brushing away the potentially offensive headline about Weekly Standard editor and Project for a New American Century co-founder Bill Kristol. Dershowitz went so far as to make the case that Bannon actually “has very good relationships” with many people in the Jewish community.

“The evidence certainly suggests that Mr. Bannon has very good relationships with individual Jews,” Dershowitz said. “My former researcher, Joel Pollak, is an Orthodox Jew who takes off the Jewish holidays, who is a committed Jew and a committed Zionist, and he has worked closely with him. He has been supportive of Israel.”

The comments may surprise many people on the liberal side of the political spectrum. Dershowitz is known for calling out anti-Semitism wherever he sees, even among his fellow liberals and the left.

The same day that he defended Bannon, he condemned Democratic Representative Keith Ellison (MN) and “the hard left” for their anti-Semitism, Real Clear Politics reports.

Criticism of Israel, in regards to the Palestinian territories, is common among leftist groups.

Dershowitz’s defense of Bannon appears to be rooted, in part, in not wanting to water down the term “anti-Semitism.”

“I think one has to be very careful about using the term anti-Semitic in two ways,” Dershowitz said. “One, I don’t think anybody should be called or accused of being anti-Semitic unless the evidence is overwhelming. And then the second, more subtle and difficult issue is what about characterizing supporters or people who follow them?”

Dershowitz concluded that thought by saying, “Subtle distinctions have to be made.”

While Alan Dershowitz is a prominent and influential voice in Jewish American affairs, it’s unlikely that he will be able to change very many liberal minds when it comes to Steve Bannon. As the articles linked above suggest, there are just far too many people who disagree with him.

[Featured Image by Ben Jackson/Getty Images]

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