It’s not unusual for companies to make donations to political candidates. It is, however, strange for a company founded by a Jewish woman with a son, who sits on the board of directors, and is an outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism, to support a political candidate who isn’t shy about expressing her anti-Semitic views.

Jewish billionaire Ronald Lauder is the youngest son of makeup maven Estée Lauder, who founded her eponymous beauty company in 1946. He became the chairman of Clinique Laboratories in 1994 and still occupies that position today.

Billionaire Ronald Lauder (right) and WJC CEO Robert Singer (left) with Joe Biden in the center.

In March 2015, Forbes reported about Lauder’s testimony before a House of Representatives subcommittee that highlighted a growing number of attacks targeting Jews in Europe. Lauder, the World Jewish Congress’ president,  called the trend “reminiscent of a darker time that we thought we had behind us” as he cited the recent terror attacks in France and Denmark that shocked the international community.

Lauder’s testimony pointed to Jews making up less than 1% of the population in France, though they were victims of more than half of all racist attacks in that country last year. He also said anti-Semitic attacks doubled from the year before in France, Great Britain, and Austria. “You don’t have to be a mathematician to see an obvious trend here,” he said.

Lauder is worth an estimated $3.9 billion — largely from his stake in the cosmetics conglomerate his mother Estee founded — but he has focused much of his career on diplomacy and politics. President Ronald Reagan appointed him U.S. ambassador to Austria from 1986 to 1987  — a time he has said shaped him due to experiencing instances of anti-Semitism. Before that, he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for European & NATO affairs from 1983 to 1986.

He cited four reasons for the recent wave of anti-Semitism across Europe: A minority of Muslim immigrants adopting radical Islamic values, the rise of small Neo-Nazi extremist groups, “an educated, elitist class” having “a pathological hatred of Israel,” and social media aiding the spread of propaganda.

“There are thousands of young European Muslims that have left to fight with Islamic radicals in Iraq and Syria, and there is a real fear that they could return, bringing the bloodshed with them. Some have already returned and we have seen the consequences,” he said.

In 2012, Ilhan Omar, the Muslim MN state lawmaker from Somalia, tweeted: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.

After Omar tweeted, “Its’ all about the Benjamins baby,” in reference to AIPAC’s alleged influence with lawmakers in D.C., the House threatened to censure Omar. Instead, the Democrat Party rallied behind her and turned what should have been a censure of her remarks into a resolution that “condemns hate” instead of anti-Semitism by Omar.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) came out strong against Democrat lawmakers. He reminded the members of Congress that they were gathered together to address multiple occasions when “one member of the Chamber” made “anti-Semitic” comments.

Zeldin correctly revealed the hypocrisy of the Democrat Party and how they only address “hate” if it doesn’t involve their party or members of their party. He told them, “If that member was a Republican, that member’s name would be in this resolution, and this resolution would be all about condemning anti-Semitism, and it would be done so forcefully.”

That member in January had to apologize for talking about a ‘hypnosis of Israel that they have over the entire world.’ That member had to apologize in February by saying if you support Israel, it must be because you’re bought off by Jews. That member called it an ‘unequivocal apology’ even though it was filled it with equivocations.  And now, we’re back again, this time by saying that if you support the Israel relationship, you must’ve pledged allegiance to a foreign government. Except for this time, that member is refusing to apologize. Even if you gave that member every benefit of the doubt—that she had no idea what she was doing, why now, wouldn’t she be apologizing? Why would she be more emboldened to refuse an apology altogether? 

I apparently, am giving Omar more credit than the speaker is because I don’t believe she is naive. I believe that she knows exactly what she is doing.

It is an American value, by the way, to have reasonable legitimate criticism of a government, whether it be the U.S. government, Israel or any other government. It is not an American value though to be hurling anti-Semitism.

We have members of this Chamber who have associated with Louis Farrakhan, who says, quote, ‘Hitler is a very great man.’”

Watch:

On April 12, 2019, President Trump called out flippant remarks made by Omar at a CAIR event in March, where she referred to the 9-11 terror attack by Islamic terrorists as, “Some people did something.”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1116817144006750209

If Ronald Lauder is such an outspoken activist against anti-Semitism, why did the Estee Lauder companies agree to give money to Ilhan Omar’s political campaign in 2018?

According to Open-Secrets, Estee Lauder Companies curiously donated $4,000 to Omar’s campaign. In addition to CAIR and some radical Democrat groups, the Walt Disney Company also donated $3,605 to her campaign.

President Trump has been hailed by many as the most pro-Israel President in the history of the United States, yet Jewish Americans, who typically vote as a Democrat block, are slow to warm to him. Will Jewish-owned businesses and wealthy Jewish U.S. citizens continue to support Democrat Ilhan Omar, as she runs for reelection in 2020, or will they do the right thing, and walk away from her campaign? We’d love to hear what you think in the comment section below.

 

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