4 Jewish Groups Urge Donald Trump To Dump Michael Flynn as Security Pick
Image by Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Four liberal Jewish groups have joined a drive calling on President-elect Donald Trump to rescind the choice of Mike Flynn as his national security adviser, citing the general’s hostility to Islam and his retweeting an anti-Semitic tweet.
“He has written that ‘fear of Muslims is rational’ and said that ‘Islam is a political ideology’ and ‘a cancer’ that ‘hides behind being a religion,’ and continuously peddles the nonsensical fear of ‘Shariah law’ spreading in the United States,” said the letter signed by 53 groups, including J Street, Americans for Peace Now, T’ruah and the National Council of Jewish Women.
“On social media, he shared a blatantly anti-Semitic tweet,” it said, referring to an incident in August when Flynn was attacking Democrats for blaming Russia for stolen emails that embarrassed the party. He attached his comment to a tweet that said: “Cnn implicated. ‘The USSR is to blame!’ … Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore.” Flynn later removed and apologized for the retweet.
Another group signing the letter is the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which combats religious coercion in the military. The group was founded by Mikey Weinstein, a veteran, after his children serving in the military came under pressure to convert to Christianity.
Also signing were an array of liberal and Christian groups, as well as veterans’ groups. J Street initiated the letter and helped lead the drive to find signatories.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
