At the legendary South Loop delicatessen, Manny’s, every stratum of Chicagoan comes to enjoy the delicious corned beef sandwiches. They eat elbow to elbow – blue collar workers, professionals, journalists, cops, figures from the Outfit and notable Democratic politicians (Republican politicians in Chicago have been extinct for many years). Two of the most prominent Democratic VIPs often seen schmoozing and eating together are close friends, Rahm Emanuel and David Axlerod.
Or maybe Cassius and Brutus, the conspirators against Julius Caesar. Although in Rahm and David’s plotting, the treachery is against their fellow Jews. If what’s going on now is any indication, Emanuel and Axelrod are probably exchanging notes over potato latkes on how best to betray Israel.
Last month, Emanuel, the former mayor and now a wannabe presidential candidate, delivered the first volley in the sell-out of Israel, ‘The days of taxpayers subsidizing Israel militarily, that’s over. No more financial aid… the US should never spill any blood for the state of Israel’s security.” Dispiriting words from someone who was once an Israel Defense Forces volunteer. We wouldn’t want to help fund our best, most trustworthy allies in the Middle East in the face of an existential struggle, would we?
Not to be outdone, his friend Axelrod, former chief strategist and adviser to President Barack Obama, opined on CNN about the recent victory of Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary. Axelrod said of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group that gave money to El-Sayed’s opponent in a losing cause, “I think it’s a legitimate question: Should essentially an agent of any foreign government, whether it’s Israel or any other, be able to spend—or is it healthy for them to spend—$30 million in a race like this to influence the outcome of that race.”
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