Report: Sanders Adviser With Anti-Israel History Expected to Join State Department
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by Algemeiner Staff and JNS.org
Matthew Duss. Photo: Center for American Progress/Flickr.
JNS.org – Matt Duss, a former foreign-policy adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is reportedly expected to join the US State Department.
According to Politico, the move “will be viewed by many on the left as a victory for progressives.”
It added that the position has not been finalized.
In December, a coalition of progressive groups, including several anti-Israel organizations, sent a list to the incoming Biden administration of 100 candidates for senior positions. Duss was recommended to serve as deputy national security adviser or special adviser to the secretary of state.
Duss has been accused of furthering antisemitic conspiracy theories during his tenure at the left-wing think-tank Center for American Progress.
He allegedly was part of an incident in 2012 where several staffers at the center’s ThinkProgress website were condemned for using antisemitic tropes of Jews dominating politics and money.
The staffers alleged “pro-Israel Jews and members of Congress of being ‘Israel firsters,’ a term implying that those who support the Jewish state have dual loyalties,” according to The Washington Free Beacon.
Criticism came from former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who said, “Hiring someone who praises Fidel Castro and defames Israel’s prime minister is another indication that the only unity in Biden’s foreign policy is between the far left and the extreme left.”
He also faced a backlash for publicizing Nazi-era propaganda posters in 2013.
In 2019, Duss also drew controversy for meeting with Hanan Ashrawi, a longtime aide to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting took place after Ashrawi was denied a travel visa to the United States by the Trump administration.
More recently, Duss called the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh “terrorism.” He also criticized American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris for his comparison between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for their anti-Semitic rhetoric.
