Richard Goldberg - kills everything related to Iran and Palestinians and BDS

[yankeedoodle]

Richard Goldberg, a Chicago-based pro-Israel neocon...is currently a Senior Adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a hawkish foreign policy "think tank" that according to the Jewish News Syndicate helped guide the Trump administration's Iran strategy.

At FDD Goldberg is said to have worked behind the scenes in 2018 to kill support within the Trump administration for the Iran Nuclear Deal. He is described as the Iran hawk John Bolton brought onto the National Security Council (2019-20), where he coordinated Trump's "maximum pressure campaign" against Tehran. According to the Jewish News Syndicate, the campaign included sanctions, military force and the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. A few days after the assassination, Goldberg left the Trump administration and returned to the FDD.

Goldberg's latest target through FDD is the United Nations for "demonizing" Israel. He has branded  UNRWA as antisemitic and linked to terrorism and guilty of perpetuating a "myth of Palestinian refugees." When Trump defunded UNRWA in 2018, Goldberg told AP News that it was a "'win for U.S. taxpayers and peace'...that would make Palestinians more self-sufficient..."

He is also the person who "spearheaded the first ever" anti-BDS law, which "sparked a nationwide initiative in state capitols around America," as he asserts in his FDD bio.

[...]

Goldberg created the anti-BDS law (SB1761) in 2015 while deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs for former Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. He had recently completed 10 years on Capitol Hill, in various capacities for former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), also a former Illinois Congressman. As Kirk's senior foreign policy advisor, he was a leading architect for the toughest sanctions imposed on Iran, and in an earlier position, played a key role in expanding and securing military funding for Israel.

From his earliest days as governor, Rauner was not a friend of unions and gained a reputation for exploiting pension funds. Goldberg's idea of forcing pension funds to divest from sound companies with a social responsibility component must have struck a chord with Rauner because he took up SB1761 almost immediately.

In March 2015, about two months after taking office, Rauner hosted a Passover seder at the Governor's Mansion. Besides the usual four questions, a main topic was BDS, with the governor pledging that Illinois would be a "national leader" in the battle against it. Richard Goldberg was in attendance, along with Jewish Federation leaders from across the state. The Chicago JUF News story thanked Goldberg for his Jewish United Fund (JUF) "partnership" on the event, and reported that about 75 state legislators and executive officials attended.   

https://mondoweiss.net/2022/02/inside-the-illinois-state-pension-board-seeking-to-promote-israeli-control-over-the-west-bank/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-email-mailpoet 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soYZss2h8OM