An anti-Israel staffer for Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) who was once pictured wearing a keffiyeh and dancing in front of a banner calling Israel an apartheid state is slated to head an influential Democratic foreign policy group designed to staff the next Democratic presidential administration, Axios reported on Monday.
Maher Bitar, a Palestinian American who served as a senior official on former president Joe Biden's National Security Council and who most recently served as chief counsel to Schiff, has been selected to lead a reconstituted version of National Security Action (NSA), a Democratic foreign policy vehicle that offloaded many of its members into the Biden administration. Founded in 2018 by Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Obama foreign policy guru Ben Rhodes, the organization is expected to peddle "similar influence in the 2028 election and the next Democratic administration," Axios reported.
"Of any of the significant staffers who could impact the White House's foreign policy, he was easily the most antagonistic to Israel and in direct opposition to the President under which he served—sometimes in obvious ways and more often sub rosa," one former senior foreign policy adviser to Biden told the Washington Free Beacon. "There was the Biden/Jake wing and the Maher/Pod Bros wing. NSA is clearly betting on the latter prevailing in 2028."
With Bitar at its helm, NSA is signaling that Democrats are leaning in to growing hostility to Israel in the party and among their elite foreign policy. Bitar spent years leading anti-Israel organizations that promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and, as a college student, led his campus's branch of the anti-Semitic Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) advocacy group. SJP chapters are now banned or suspended on dozens of college campuses due to violent, hateful language and related misconduct.
A 2006 yearbook picture from Georgetown—where Bitar graduated from the elite School of Foreign Service, which is a pipeline to the Democratic foreign policy establishment—shows him dancing before a sign that reads "Divest from Israel Apartheid," the Free Beacon reported in 2021. That year, Bitar was hired as Biden's senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council.
Bitar, who last served as chief counsel to Schiff, told Axios that his revamped NSA will serve as a "hub" for the Democratic Party's foreign policy messaging and stand "ready for 2028 and beyond." This comes after Senate Democrats voted overwhelmingly last month to block the sale of arms and bulldozers to Israel—a remarkable shift in the party—and as 2028 hopefuls like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) push for ending American military aid to the Jewish state.
Bitar will play a key role in this debate, helping the Democratic contenders formulate a foreign policy message that can galvanize the party's growing far-left flank of anti-Israel activists and Hamas supporters. His time with SJP could also help Bitar's NSA appeal to college students opposed to Israel.
Both Rhodes and Sullivan will remain with NSA, signaling that they are on board with Bitar's brand of anti-Israel policies. While Sullivan complied with Biden's support of U.S. arms sales to Israel when he served in the White House, he shifted that stance after Biden's exit, bringing him more in line with Democratic frontrunners and his NSA ally Bitar.
During his time at Georgetown, Bitar sat on SJP's executive board and helped organize a 2006 Palestinian Solidarity Movement conference that was widely criticized as "anti-Israel propaganda." Notes on the event published by the American Jewish Congress indicate that Bitar instructed supporters on how to promote divestment from Israel within church groups.
Bitar also worked in 2005 as an intern for the Foundation for Middle East Peace, an anti-Israel advocacy organization that backs the BDS movement and has accused Israel of "war crimes" and "apartheid."
