Over the past week, Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio has been fielding questions about his past association with the Sandinista party after the New York Times published an article that delved into his time in Nicaragua where he traveled as a young activist, “developing an admiration for the Nicaraguan revolutionaries.”

Mr. de Blasio brushed off the criticism, defending his support for the Sandinistas at the time and offering no regrets for his past activity as opposed to US Foreign Policy.

“I think the U.S. policies at that time were wrong. This is something I’ve been open about for years.,” he said in an interview with PIX11. “I was very proud to be involved in that work because I think the United States funding the Contra forces in Central America, intervening in other countries — I think that was bad policy.

“That was Reagan-Bush policy that was failed and the fact is, people in this country turned against it.”

While criticizing Reagen’s foreign policy and its intervening in other countries, Mr. de Blasio did not make public the fact that the Sandinistas regime had an intimate relationship with the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) headed by none other than Yassar Arafat, at the same time Mr. de Blasio was supporting the regime. The PLO was considered by the United States and Israel to be a terrorist organization until the Madrid Conference in 1991.

In fact, Nicarague was the first country in Central America to give the PLO (a terrorist group) diplomatic representation. “We are together, your enemies are our enemies, your friends are ours, and if you suffer aggression, we will fight on your side.” said Yasser Arafat at the opening of the new mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, in 1980.

In 1985, President Reagan, in a hard-hitting address to some 60 legislators from the Western Hemisphere, mostly from Latin America, charged there is a “new danger in Central America” from the support given Nicaragua`s Sandinistas for subversion of its neighbors by Libya, the Palestine Liberation Organization and Iran.

“Sandinistas have been attacking their neighbors since August 1979,” he said. “A new danger we see in Central America is the support being given the Sandinistas by Colonel (Moammar) Khadafy`s Libya, the PLO and most recently (Ayatollah) Khomeini`s Iran.”

The Sandinistas were also fighting alongside the PLO in the Middle East as early as 1970, according to a White House Digest report, provided by the White House Office of Media Relations and Planning, in 1983.

“There is a longstanding blood unity between us and the Palestinians,” Sandinista press spokesman Jorge Mandi said in June, 1979, shortly before the Sandinistas came to power. “Many of the units belonging to the Sandinista movements were at Palestinian revolutionary bases in Jordan. In the early 1970′s, Nicaraguan and Palestinian blood was spilled together in Amman and in other places during the Black September battles. It is natural, therefore, that in our war against (President Anastasio) Somoza, we received Palestinian aid for our revolution in various forms.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yar-pW556nQ&w=580&h=315]

Mandi also made it clear that the Sandinistas had participated in PLO terrorist acts such as hijackings, according to the Digest. In 1980, PLO chief Yasir Arafat told the Sandinistas while he was in Managua: “The links between us are not new; your comrades did not come to our country just to train, but to fight. Your enemies are our enemies,” the Digest reported.

In 1978, the Sandinistas joined the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in aThe PLO was considered by the United States and Israel to be a terrorist organization until the Madrid Conference in 1991

In 1982 Arafat said publicly that PLO guerrillas were serving in El Salvador and documents captured in Beirut during the summer of 1982 revealed that there were Salvadoran guerrillas in. PLO camps in Lebanon.

During primary season Mr. de Blasio was slammed for accepting the endorsement of a lesser evil. Senator Al D’Amato, who was at the time a key surrogate for Bill Thompson, argued in an interview with YWN that Jewish voters who support the State of Israel should be troubled of the fact that Mr. de Blasio accepted the endorsement of a leftist philanthropist – George Soros.

“New York city has an unbreakable bond with the State of Israel and its people. That means whoever is going to be elected as our next mayor, will have a major platform and a major microphone, second only to the President and the secretary of state, to state of behalf of the things that are important to the people and the state of Israel,” Mr. D’Amato said. “And that’s why Bill de Blasio’s decision to accept the support from a known anti-Israel as George Soros is so deeply troubling and disturbing.”

“It’s troubling to me as a New Yorker and it should be troubling to every other New Yorker, especially the Jewish voters, who want to maintain our City’s strong relationship with the State of Israel. No American should be silent as it relates to this guy – Soros,” he added.

“It is so disquieting to see a major political force, a major candidate like Bill de Blasio accept his endorsement. That is unacceptable,” Mr. D’Amato said. “I would hope that Bill de Blasio would renounce those statements and renounce the support that George Soros is giving him. This is not a political game. This is about the future of the people in Israel and we cannot sit idly by and just say nothing.”

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)