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Stephen Colbert's Unrelated Super PAC Releases Ad Attacking Stephen Colbert

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Killgore Trout1/19/2012 8:02:01 am PST

What left wing antisemitism?
Center for American Progress, group tied to Obama, under fire from Israel advocates

The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank closely aligned with the White House, is embroiled in a dispute with several major Jewish organizations over statements on Israel and charges that some center staffers have used anti-Semitic language to attack pro-Israel Americans.

The White House official, Jarrod Bernstein, told Cooper that the situation at CAP was “troubling,” adding “that is not this administration.”

A White House spokesman, Matt Lehrich, declined to comment on CAP. He said Obama “has repeatedly reiterated America’s unshakable commitment to Israel’s security and stood up against attempts to single out Israel in international forums.” He added that the administration has “ratcheted up unprecedented pressure on Iran.”

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said some of the statements from CAP staffers “are anti-Semitic and borderline anti-Semitic.”

“We’re concerned about it because this is a serious think tank, and it does influence the administration,” Foxman added. CAP is run by “serious people who need to take control of their entities.”

Jason Isaacson, an official with the American Jewish Committee, which often collaborates on policy issues with CAP, pointed to “very troubling things that have been written on a pretty regular basis by certain people associated with the organization.”

“For any serious policy center there are certain lines of fairness and objectivity and good sense that should not be crossed, and yet, disturbingly, those lines have regularly been crossed,” Isaacson added.