In an equally aggressive effort courting the Jewish vote, elected officials, who have publicly announced their backing of Bill Thompson for mayor, are now calling Anthony Weiner out for accepting campaign cash from a lobbyist for Al Jazeera, the NY Post reports.

City Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Brooklyn), called on rival candidate Weiner to return the $4,950 donation to lobbyist John Merrigan.

“Al Jazeera and its lobbyists are no friends to New York City or our Jewish community, and Anthony shouldn’t accept their support,” Fidler said. “They have spread hate and lies against Jews, not only here in New York but across the world. The right thing to do is to give this money back. Anthony should do exactly that.”

Assemblyman Alan Maisel, a Brooklyn Democrat who has endorsed Thompson, also chastised Weiner for taking the contribution from Merrigan, who has done extensive work with the network accused of being anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-United States.

“Anthony Weiner should know better than to accept contributions from friends [at] Al Jazeera, which has been a voice for terrorists and spewed hatred against Jews and the state of Israel,” Maisel said. “They have echoed and attempted to legitimize hate speech about wiping Israel off the map. It’s disgraceful.

“While I respect Anthony, he has done wrong by accepting this terror-tainted money. Now he should do the right thing: return it.”

While Mr. Weiner declined to comment to the NY Post, in an appearance on the Dov Hikind Show, Saturday night, Mr. Weiner accused the Bill Thompson campaign for smearing him based on this single contribution.

“It is funny, last week I was hit for being too hawkish on Israel and this week I being hit for being too close to Al-Jazeera,” said Mr. Weiner.

Mr. Weiner went on to defend himself for accepting the contribution saying the guy is a partner DLA Piper – a state law firm that advocates for the Democratic Party’s causes. “I’ve never met the man. I guess what Mr. Thompson’s supporters are saying is because he represented Al-Jazeera America.. that somehow I’m supporting Al-Jazeera.” Mr. Weiner said. Adding, “I’m not a supporter of Al-Jazeera. I’m not taking money from Al-Jazeera. This makes me smile but this is what happens, I guess, you start doing well.. Old politics kick in.. People want to sell you up a bit to slow your momentum.”

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)