On Tuesday, Front Page Magazine became the first to break the story about the BDS past of Maher Bitar, Biden’s National Security Council intelligence pick.

Maher Bitar, one of the executive board members of Students for Justice in Palestine, was one of the principal organizers of the 2006 conference which was being hosted by Georgetown University’s SJP hate group. A photo appears to show him dancing in a keffiyah in front of a banner reading, “Divest from Israel Apartheid”. 

Now, Biden has picked Maher Bitar as the Senior Director for Intelligence on the NSC.

Israel’s “political existence as a state is the cause for Palestinian dispossession and statelessness,” Bitar wrote in one paper. “Israel’s rejection of their right to return remains the main obstacle to finding a durable solution.”

The so-called ‘right to return’ would mean the destruction of Israel.

Bitar could be found presenting at a Sabeel conference featuring some of the worst bigots like Rebecca Vilkomerson of JVP ,who had invited a terrorist to address the BDS hate group, and Richard Falk, who had endorsed a book which wondered whether “Hitler might have been right after all”.

Breitbart picked up my story. JNS reprinted my column. Caroline Glick quoted me in her article. The Zionist Organization of America sent it around to its members.

Fred Fleitz, the President of the Center for Security Policy, retweeted it, saying, “This is outrageous and should be reversed ASAP. Maher Bitar is an Israel hater as well as completely unqualified to oversee intelligence for the NSC. Did @JoeBiden and @jakejsullivan approve this or are they unaware of what is going on in their admin?”

On Wednesday, Adam Kredo at the Free Beacon independently wrote his own researched piece about Bitar that confirmed the same information about his BDS past. The RJC and Newt Gingrich, among others, picked up on that article.

The response from Bitar’s defenders in the media, the foreign policy establishment, and in the anti-Israel J Street lobby falsely accused us of bigotry.

“We are appalled by recent spurious accusations against our staff. We welcome oversight and scrutiny, but there is no justification for false and ad hominem attacks based on ethnic, racial, or religious identity,” the National Security Council spokesperson said.

The media has amplified these same claims which have widely been retweeted without ever showing how the reporting on Bitar’s anti-Israel past is an attack based on ethnic, racial, or religious identity.

Taking the lead was Rep. Adam Schiff, Bitar’s old boss. 

“Maher Bitar is exceedingly smart, principled, insightful and strategic. These attacks on his religion and ethnicity are beyond the pale. NSC is fortunate to have people of his talent, just like we were. Our nation is more secure because of patriotic public servants like him,” Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted.

He did not reply to questions about Bitar’s backing for BDS.

“The spurious attacks on my former colleague Maher Bitar, recently appointed to the NSC, are disgusting, racist, and unacceptable. Maher is a brilliant, committed public servant who has dedicated his considerable talents to defend our country. The attacks must cease immediately,” Daniel Goldman, Bitar’s colleague on the impeachment inquiry and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, tweeted.

Goldman did not respond to inquiries about what these attacks were or about Bitar’s support for BDS.

“I worked with Maher Bitar on @HouseIntel. . He’s a dedicated public servant and will work hard on the National Security Council to keep the American people safe. Any insinuation that he can’t do his job based on his religion or ethnicity is downright offensive and unacceptable,” Rep. Joaquin Castro tweeted.

“The racist attack on Maher Bitar is outrageous. Public servants working to make our country safer shouldn’t have to endure ugly, bigoted attacks,” Rep Gregory Meeks tweeted.

“In the same way that Jewish Dems strongly oppose the vile dual loyalty claims made against our community & another committed public servant, Anne Neuberger, we oppose the egregious smears against Maher Bitar. These attacks are rooted in the same false assumptions, racism & bias,” Haile Soifer, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, tweeted.

Soifer’s organization had previously backed Raphael Warnock despite his hatred of Israel and association with antisemitic figures like Jeremiah Wright.

The pattern is fairly clear.

The pro-Bitar camp has decided to flood the zone with a smear claiming that questions about Bitar’s radical anti-Israel politics and support for BDS are somehow racist without ever actually addressing the allegations against him.

Instead, Democrat House members and foreign policy figures from Brookings to Just Security keep tweeting out the same false claims that Bitar is under attack for racist reasons and refuse to even mention specifics, like his activism with Students for Justice in Palestine, an antisemitic campus hate group, his support for BDS, and implicit support for the destruction of the Jewish State.

The only reason they’re spreading these false accusations of racism is that they don’t want to talk about who Bitar is and what he stands for. That’s especially true of Rep. Schiff who nurtured a former BDS activist. 

But this conversation has just begun. The research is being put out there. And it won’t be shut down with a Schiff smear campaign.