The Internet is forever, Save Jerseyans.
Cory Booker made a big thing out of being present in Israel during Hamas’s weekend assault on the country, but long-time friend Rabbi Shmuley let him have it on social media for having previously voted to free up billions of dollars in Iranian assets.
“You were my student president at Oxford and my brother,” Shmuley posted. “Then you voted to give the Iranian terrorist monsters, who are largely responsible through Hamas for this attack that murdered 700 Israelis, $150 billion to murder innocents, in order to preserve your political standing. Also, right after you made this video, your staff spirited you right out of Israel. And I wonder if you got special treatment to get on a plane to get out of the war zone.”
I don’t doubt Shmuley’s outrage. I do wonder if he ever genuinely saw Cory Booker as anything other than fraudster?
Those of us who’ve been following Booker for years – all the way back to his Newark days – recognize this behavior as nothing new or novel. We know that Cory is consistent only in his detachment from core principals. Whether he’s flip-floppong on school choice and capitalism or putting on Oscar-worthy performances at Supreme Court nominee hearings, Spartacus tries to be whomever he believes he NEEDS to be to advance his career.
Here’s another timely example: when he was testing the waters of a presidential run ahead of the 2020 cycle, Booker visited the far-far-Left “Netroots Nation” conference and posed with a “US Campaign for Palestinian Rights” sign that read “FROM PALESTINE TO MEXICO. ALL THE WALLS HAVE GOT TO GO.” To make the photo op complete, he was standing next to an activist wearing one of those ridiculous word salad shirt that Lefties love to sport in public declaring all of their affiliations (both real and imaginary):
This you, @SenBooker?
(August 2018) pic.twitter.com/mBV5UZJu7s
— Matt Rooney (@MattRooneyNJ) October 10, 2023
Booker played dumb in the aftermath of the photo going viral, an act which I’ll admit he performs pretty convincingly. He didn’t read the sign ahead of taking the selfie – that was his story, and many naturally bought it. He is obsessed with selfies after all! We’ll grant that much…
The Intercept looked into Booker’s claim, however, and concluded that there was reason to doubt the junior senator’s explanation:
“…a USCPR [US Campaign for Palestinian Rights] statement provided to the Intercept casts doubt on Booker’s claim.
That Palestine is a progressive issue was driven home repeatedly at Netroots Nation this past weekend. From a USCPR panel on progressives on Palestinian rights and caucus on cross-movement work, to the overwhelmingly positive response to our presence there, to Black activists taking the stage and asserting that “if you’re not progressive on Palestine, you’re not progressive” to deafening applause, we saw for ourselves how progressives are increasingly embracing the issue of Palestinian rights,” it reads. “Our elected officials are also increasingly embracing Palestinian rights, as demonstrated by the first-ever bill for Palestinian children’s rights, sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) and 29 other Democrats. It was in this overwhelmingly supportive environment at Netroots Nation that our contingent had the opportunity to meet Sen. Cory Booker briefly and discuss our work for freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people before posing for a photo with him.
The last sentence of that statement suggests that Booker had spoken to the USCPR members prior to the photo being taken, thus raising some skepticism about his claim that he did not know what the sign said. Also notable is the fact that one of the USCPR members in the photo wore a T-shirt that read: ‘Palestine is a queer, feminist, refugee, racial justice issue.’”
So yeah… he was full of shit.
He knew what it said and hoped it’d help his efforts to build a national campaign.
By the way: five years later in the wake of the Hamas assault, USCPR posted on Instagram proclaiming Palestinians’ “right to resist” Israel.
An enterprising reporter should ask him about it! I can’t; he’s (still) blocked me on X.
