{"id":857291,"date":"2021-10-07T17:14:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T21:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=857291"},"modified":"2021-10-07T17:14:06","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T21:14:06","slug":"meeks-wont-say-if-hell-return-donation-from-activist-who-called-israel-a-parasite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/meeks-wont-say-if-hell-return-donation-from-activist-who-called-israel-a-parasite\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeks Won\u2019t Say If He\u2019ll Return Donation From Activist Who Called Israel a \u2018Parasite\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmeeks-wont-say-if-hell-return-donation-from-activist-who-called-israel-a-parasite%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=857291&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1235603264_736x514.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) is silent on whether he will return a $3,000 donation from a&nbsp;prominent Palestinian activist who called Israel a &#8220;parasite&#8221; that &#8220;sucks the blood of America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Osama Abuirshaid, the executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, during an interview with Jordan&#8217;s Yarmouk TV on Sept. 22 described Israel as &#8220;a parasite living off the American body&#8221; that &#8220;sucks the blood of America and scatters its attention,&#8221; according to a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Abuirshaid, who has a history of anti-Semitic comments, donated $3,000 to Meeks in March, according to Federal Election Commission records. A spokeswoman for Meeks did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Meeks&#8217;s silence comes at a time when the left flank of the Democratic Party has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Israel. Last month, House Democratic leadership agreed to remove funding for Israel&#8217;s Iron Dome missile defense system from a spending bill in response to protests from progressive members.<\/p>\n<p>Meeks has been a mainstream voice on Israel within the Democratic Party but has also worked to pacify anti-Israel progressives. Last spring, he <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/554127-top-house-democrat-backs-off-plan-to-ask-for-delay-in-israel-arms-sale\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sided<\/a>&nbsp;with progressives and backed delaying an arms sale to Israel during its conflict with Hamas, before reversing course.<\/p>\n<p>Abuirshaid applauded the Democratic Party&#8217;s shift against Israel during the September interview, saying the United States is &#8220;witnessing the closing of the ranks, and an emphasis on the force that supports Palestine within the Democratic Party.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his contribution to Meeks, Abuirshaid gave $25 donations to Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), Cori Bush (D., Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), and Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) in May. He contributed $300 to Rep. Andre Carson (D., Ind.) in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time Abuirshaid has made controversial comments. He railed against &#8220;Zionist influence in the media&#8221; in 2016, claiming that Jews &#8220;have a significant impact on the media, as well as on Hollywood. They have managed to endear Israel and the Jews upon American public opinion,&#8221; according to a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.memri.org\/tv\/american-palestinian-activist-osama-abu-irshaid-memri-used-infiltrate-american-consciousness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">translation<\/a>&nbsp;by MEMRI.<\/p>\n<p>He also praised Hamas while criticizing &#8220;Arab apostates&#8221; who &#8220;allied with the despicable Jews and the hating Crusaders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They want to defeat Hamas and disarm Gaza. However, they forgot that Gaza&#8217;s men only know victory. For them it is either jihad, victory, or martyrdom,&#8221; Abuirshaid wrote in a Facebook post, <a href=\"https:\/\/canarymission.org\/individual\/Osama_Abuirshaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a>&nbsp;to the anti-Semitism watchdog group Canary Mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) is silent on whether he will return a $3,000 donation from a\u00a0prominent Palestinian activist who called Israel a &#8220;parasite&#8221; that &#8220;sucks &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-857291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}