WASHINGTON (JTA) — A genocide expert who once accused Israel of committing war crimes is reportedly a senior adviser to President Obama.
Samantha Power, a Harvard professor who once enjoyed close relations with the Jewish community because of her exposes of the Western failure to stop the Holocaust, will direct multilateral affairs for the National Security Council, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Power, who is married to one of Obama’s senior administrators, Cass Sunstein, left his election campaign last March after she called his Democratic nomination rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, a "monster" for her campaign tactics.
Obama has in recent months drawn Power back into his inner circle, reconciling her with Clinton, who is now secretary of state, and attaching her to Clinton’s transition team.
Power infuriated pro-Israel groups in 2002 when she said Israel might have committed war crimes in its actions in Jenin, and proposing an international force to protect the Palestinians; subsequent reporting showed that Israel had kept civilian casualties relatively low in an operation aimed at routing the masterminds behind a series of suicide bombs.
