Sebastian Gorka Welcome At Pro-Israel Events Despite Ties To Nazi Allies

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By Nathan Guttman April 20, 2017

Despite his controversial ties to allies of the Nazis, White House counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka has scored invitations to speak at upcoming pro-Israeli events.

Gorka will address on May 7 the Jerusalem Post conference in New York, alongside top Israeli cabinet ministers including defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, justice minister Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, Israel’s minister of education.

The list of speakers at the events also includes Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog and American Jewish leaders Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Julie Schonfeld who heads the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.

In mid-July, Gorka is scheduled to speak at the Washington Summit of Christians United for Israel, America’s largest pro-Israel Christian group. David Brog, CUFI’s director, told the Forward that Gorka was invited to speak a while ago and that he is “used to having good friends being called anti-Semitic, and [I] always insist on studying the facts for myself.”

In recent weeks, the Forward has reported that a Nazi-allied Hungarian group claims Gorka was a sworn member of the organization and that he had backed an anti-Semitic militia in Hungary.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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