NEWS

U.S Chief of Staff

The U.S president-elect Barack Hussein Obama II has given one of the most important positions of Chief of Staff to Rahm Israel Emanuel. It was a very interesting choice by Barack. The Chief of Staff is the number one person the President goes to for advice and he’s responsible for assisting the commander with decisions on directing, coordinating, supervising, and training the staff in most positions. There are many other duties assigned to the COS that you can readup on here but it’s too much to write about here. Anywho, the point is that it’s a very important position in government and it has been given to Rahm Emanuel. Now how much do we really know about him and do we want someone like Rahm to hold that position?

 

Rahm’s History

 

Now if we look back at his history, we’ll see get a general look at his views. First, he was born in Israel and after serving for the Israeli Army in his youth, he defended Israel as a civilian volunteer in the Israel Defence Force during the Persian Gulf War. His wife Amy Rule converted to Judaism before their wedding, and Rabbi Asher Lopatin has said, “It’s a very involved Jewish family” about them. So if anyone was worried that Israel was not going to be defended with this new Obama administration, rest assured Rahm has got Israel’s back. I think it might even stir up more problems in the long run. “Rahm-bo” as some called him went from being an enthusiastic politician senior advisor for Clinton from the years 1993-98, to being an investment banker where he made $16.2 million within a two-and-a-half years time. Then he moved on to make a meagrely disclosed sum of $31,060 in 2000 as a member of the Board of Directors for “Freddie Mac”. However, the following year his disclosed revenue grew to $231,655. He obviously went back into politics and was criticized by Edward Moskal as being “a millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing” about “our heritage”.

 

Rahm’s Policies

 

What I find sort of interesting are Rahm’s views on how the state should be run. Foremost, we must understand that this man is very anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian. This comes as no surprise. And with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sending a letter to Obama with congratulations on his defeat, I wonder if once the Arab nations see how close Obama is with pro-Israel defense politicians, this might not end up as being too good for U.S. Besides that, I also find it peculiar that Obama, someone so Democratic and against Bush’s decision on the war in Iraq would pick a Rahm as his Chief of Staff—a man who was pro-war in Iraq. Rahm is seen as quite liberal on many social issues, but he advocated numerous times that he feels passionate about the idea of a three-month compulsory universal service program for Americans between the ages 18 and 25. Now is this the right man for the job? Choosing a pro-military, pro-compulsory military service program, and clearly with a bias against Arab-nations man who already holds a lot of power in U.S might not be the best decision on Obama’s behalf.

 

Mixed Opinion

 

Some politicians, such as John Boehner stated that, “This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil and govern from the center.” And Alex Conant wasn’t too nice about it either, saying “Barack Obama’s first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to ‘heal the divides’.” However, there have been positive comments such as, “This is a wise choice by President-elect Obama. He’s tough but fair — honest, direct and candid.” by Lindsay Graham. And finally there are some comments like the following made by Rahm’s father for an article entitled “Our Man in the White House”, which bring up a great question that might be viewed as either extremely patriotic or extrmely frightening for Americans: “Obviously, he will influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why shouldn’t he do it? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floor of the White House.”

This post was submitted by Jesse Floreneli.

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