I am not happy about Emmanuel's appointment. Rahm Emmanuel subordinates US foreign policy, US interests, and US security to Israel's. Either that, or he thinks that what is best for Israel is best for the United States. His father was a member of an extremist Zionist group that conducted military operations inside Palestine for 15 years and was responsible for the bombing of the King David hotel. People describe Emmanuel's position on Israel to the right of George Bush.

I do not think that relations between black and Jewish people can ever be repaired until Israel repudiates its active support and affinity for apartheid South Africa. South African Jews were enthusiastic supporters of apartheid once they were assured that they would not suffer under it. It should be noted that one secular Jew in the South African parliament did denounce apartheid. She was a lone voice. Percy Yutar was the man who persecuted and finally imprisoned Nelson Mandela. He was a celebrated Zionist. In 1976, Israel invited South African PM Vorster (who was a Nazi sympathizer) to make a state visit. He was feted by Yithak Rabin. Rabin called him a freedom fighter and said that South Africa and Israel were both victims of foreign nations that tried to destabilize them. Israel and South Africa were kindred spirits, he said, because they were both fighting "dark peoples."

Israel did everything it could to help South Africa circumvent UN sanctions meant to punish South Africa for apartheid. Israel sold South Africa nuclear weapons, helped South Africa invade Angola, supplied South Africa with weapons used specifically to violently control black populations. Israeli and South African officials loudly professed their support for one another by claiming both were white minority states under siege by "dark people."

Israel was finally shamed into tamping down its public love for South Africa, but its security forces continued to support that vicious regime. And, it was during the 1980s that Israel and South Africa were closest. Shimon Peres and Gideon Mier refuse to repudiate their relationship with such a brutal regime.

I think Israel was supportive of South Africa because of racist beliefs and because they used the same tactics. The US is to Israel what Israel was to South Africa. As a black person, I am not comfortable with Obama appointing someone who is supportive of a state that does not like "dark people" and aided and abetted their oppression and brutalization. It certainly does not help mend black and Jewish relations.

The past two election cycles have been a repudiation of George Bush and his administration. Republicans lost seats in Congress because of him. He was nowhere to be found on the campaign trail because the candidates know that voters wanted nothing to do with anyone who supported him. John McCain went out of his way to distance himself from Bush. Polls showed that the majority of voters viewed a McCain administration as a third term Bush administration. Congressional candidates could not get the stench of Bush off of them either. Dick Cheney did not make many appearances either. If the Republicans did not want his ass around and treated him like a leper, why on earth should Democrats show him any deference?