More Jews in the White House...

Top Two White House Posts go to Jews


AS KARL ROVE goes into a lower-visibility mode, President Bush has placed two Jews in charge of White House daily policy planning -- making the Jewish presence there more open than ever before, though heavy Jewish influence on Bush has long been known to be a fact. Joshua Bolten was recently named as the White House chief of staff, and today Bush nominated Joel Kaplan (pictured), another Jew, to serve as Bolten's deputy. The Jerusalem Post reports on the reaction of Jewish leaders in the U.S.: '"He is simply appointing the best people for the job," said Nathan Diament, who heads the Washington office of the Orthodox Union. Another Jewish activist added that he "wouldn't read too much into it."'Bolten (pictured, left, with Bush) and Kaplan will probably be the most prominent Jewish members of the Bush administration, but not the only ones. Apart from Bolten, there is another Jewish cabinet member, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and there are other Jewish senior staff members, including Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams and White House staffer Jay Lefkowitz. In the past year, several Jews who were holding senior posts in the administration have left, among them deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, undersecretary of defense Doug Feith, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and political adviser Ken Mehlman, who now heads the Republican National Committee.' The Jerusalem Post wildly downplays the impact of Jews on the Bush adminstration, and completely fails to mention the hugely influential and ubiquitous neocons -- almost entirely Jewish and all slavishly devoted to Israel's interests -- who have led the charge for war in the Middle East and even managed to create their own bogus "intelliegence agency" -- the Office of Special Plans -- to feed the White House cooked-up figures on Iraq's WMDs, and other topics, when CIA data didn't sufficiently jibe with their drive for war. The Republican Jewish Coalition's Executive Director, Matt Brooks, was ecstatic over Bolten's accession to power, saying: "It gives us a special sense of pride to have Josh, a fellow Jewish

Republican, in such a vitally important role, serving at the side of the President." The Washington Jewish Week emphasized Bolten's strong awareness of his identity as a Jew: "When Josh Bolten walked into his first meeting as a member of President George W. Bush's Cabinet in the summer of 2003, he was asked to lead the president and the Cabinet in prayer. He chose to pray for the welfare of the American government, both in Hebrew and English, a sign of his strong Jewish identity." The Week added that, with Bolten's help, Jewish leaders get special treatment not afforded to other Americans: "[Bolten has been] a quiet advocate for Jewish concerns, say Jewish organizational officials, sometimes bringing issues past the White House bureaucracy and straight to influential leaders...." William Daroff, a vice president at United Jewish Communities, seemed to contradict the Jerusalem's Post's take on things when he said "Since the beginning of this administration, he [Bolten] has been a senior-level force for making sure the Jewish community had a voice at the very highest levels of the administration. Josh Bolten as chief of staff to the president will open up great opportunities for the Jewish community to make sure we are heard...."