(Free Beacon) Former Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak, the 25th Democratic presidential candidate this year, took sharp criticism in 2010 for his Israel record en route to losing a U.S. Senate election that year.
In the summer of 2010, the newly founded pro-Israel outfit Emergency Committee for Israel released its first ad, blasting Sestak for speaking in front of the Council [on American-]Islamic Relations (CAIR) in 2007, as well as signing a left-wing J Street letter to President Barack Obama criticizing the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Sestak was also hit for not signing a defense of Israel circulated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Sestak erupted at the charges, saying he had a pro-Israel record and the ads were a smear. He said the CAIR event was not a fundraiser and rejected the notion the group was a front for the terrorist group Hamas.
