Adam Milstein, right, with wife Gila Milstein. Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis March 19, 2019

Adam Milstein, the chairman of the hawkish Israeli American Council, backed out of a commitment to moderate a panel at the upcoming AIPAC conference amid a controversy over a tweet in which he said that the values of Muslim congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib “clash with American values.”

Milstein, who also serves on the boards of a number of pro-Israel groups, including the AIPAC National Council, the Israel on Campus Coalition and StandWithUs, has a long history of controversial tweets. Below, some standouts.

1. Soros

In 2017, Milstein tweeted a picture depicting Jewish billionaire George Soros as an octopus enveloping the world — an image that drew on common anti-Semitic tropes. He later deleted the tweet. “I’ll try to be more careful in the future,” he told JTA at the time.

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2. Soros, again

Earlier that year, Milstein had described George Soros in a tweet as “a self-hating #Jew.”

3. “Terrorist”

On Tuesday, Milstein tweeted a video in which he said Glenn Beck had exposed Omar “as a Terrorist.”

4. “Terrorist,” again.

In an October 2018 tweet, Milstein called prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour a “Terrorist.”

5. “Kill #Jews”

In the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, Milstein posted tweets characterizing a conference organized by the pro-Palestinian student group Students for Justice in Palestine as “a conference calling to kill #Jews.”

6. “#Jew hatred”

In January 2019, Milstein posted images of conflict at a pro-Palestine protest in Amsterdam, then asked how long until Tlaib and Women’s March leaders Sarsour and Tamika Mallory would be “successful in bringing this #Jew hatred and #Antisemitism to America?”

7. “Islamicization of Europe”

Milstein, an Israeli-American, has tweeted frequently about what he refers to as the “Islamicization of Europe,” often citing stories of crimes committed by Muslims, with many links coming from disreputable sources. (Several of the tweets cited here have since been deleted).

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis

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