Former Terrorist Irgun Gang Member Weighs in on His Son's Appointment as White House Chief of Staff

In an interview with Ma'ariv, [Obama Chief of Staff Rahm] Emanuel's father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, said he was convinced that his son's appointment would be good for Israel. "Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel," he was quoted as saying. "Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House."

The Ma'ariv article also quoted Dr. Emanuel as saying that his son spends most summers visiting in Tel Aviv, and that he speaks Hebrew, but not fluently. ("Emanuel to be Obama's chief of staff," by AP and Jpost staff, Jerusalem Post, Nov 6, 2008)

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910047157&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A "Change" of Shades of Zionism

Obama's chief of staff is the son of a former member of the terrorist Irgun gang under Menachem Begin.

Obama's first pick: Israeli Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff

Anshel Pfeffer and Shlomo Shamir - Haaretz

November 06, 2008

A day after his historic election to become the first black American president, Barack Obama stepped into the role of president-elect yesterday, inviting Rahm Emanuel to join his administration as White House chief of staff, Democratic officials said.

Emanuel, a former Bill Clinton adviser, is the son of [Benjamin M. Emanuel] a Jerusalem-born pediatrician who was a member of the Irgun (Etzel or IZL), a militant Zionist group that operated in Palestine between 1931 and 1948.

full article:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034855.html

All [Rahm, Ariel, and Ezekiel Emanuel] are the sons of an Israeli father [Benjamin M. Emanuel], now a 70-year-old Chicago pediatrician, who passed secret codes for Menachem Begin's underground. (Elisabeth Bumiller, "The Brothers Emanuel," The New York Times, June 15, 1997)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE1DF173FF936A25755C0A961958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1

"In the 1940s Benjamin Emanuel interrupted his medical school training in Switzerland to take part in an unsuccessful scheme to smuggle guns from Czechoslovakia to the Israeli underground." ("Rahm Emanuel, Pitbull Politician," Fortune, September 25 2006)

http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/17/magazines/fortune/politics.fortune/index.htm

During the Gulf War in 1991, Rahm Emanuel went to "Israel" to "serve as a civilian volunteer."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910044095&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Let there be no doubt that Rahm Emanuel is still a sayanim whose capacity to serve "Israel" has just grown enormously.