Hillary Clinton has appointed Earl Hilliard to her Alabama leadership team.  Hilliard, a former congressman who served from 1992 to 2002, has a questionable history when it comes to his attitudes toward Jews and Israel, revealed both through his voting record and remarks he made after his loss in 2002 to Arthur Davis.

As for Hilliard’s voting record, he was a reliable anti-Israel voice in Congress.  The Jewish Press reported:

Hilliard had a long record of hostility to Israel. He refused to sign a resolution in support of Israel’s war on terrorism, and sponsored a bill, after September 11, that would have lifted sanctions on states that sponsor terrorism. Columnist Cynthia Tucker called Hilliard ‘a loose cannon, a dimwit, and perhaps a crook’ who ‘gained a reputation for trying to persuade his colleagues to vote against pro-Israeli initiatives.’

The year prior to his loss, Hilliard also voted against increased military support for Israel.

As for the 2002 election, The Free Beacon reported that Hilliard accused Jews of buying the election.  Talking about the amount of money Davis raised, Hilliard said: “You can’t take money from corporations, so that came from Jews and Republicans. There’s no question where that money came from.”  Hilliard also accused Davis of receiving large sums of money from out of state.  Per a CNN report, while the majority of Davis’s money did come from out of state, so did Hilliard’s.  Davis drew on donations from places like New York, while Hilliard drew on donations from Arab-Americans across the country.  (He also garnered the support of New Yorker Al Sharpton.)

Al Jazeera put in their two cents at the time of Hilliard’s defeat, ranting about Jewish influence, accusing AIPAC of being tyrannical and demonizing Jews or others who care about Israel.

And speaking of the media, Hilliard also had a few things to say about Jews and the media: “Remember, the Jewish media. They started putting word out … they felt that the money they had, that they put in, that they were going to beat me.”

Hilliard also accused Jews of siphoning off billions of dollars from poor communities and sending the money to Israel, claiming that Davis “made a pact with the Israelis” and “was used.”  He went on to say that “[Davis] doesn’t know that his victory sent a message to other Blacks of my era that they better be careful what they say or how they deal with the Israeli or Jewish question.”

Ah, yes.  The Jewish question.

Hat tip: The Right Scoop