Dan Senor

Daniel Samuel Senor (/ˈsiːnər/; born November 6, 1971) is an American-Canadian columnist, writer, and political adviser. He was chief spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and senior foreign policy adviser to U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 election campaign. A frequent news commentator and contributor to The Wall Street Journal, he is co-author of the book Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle (2009). He is married to television news personality Campbell Brown.

Dan Senor
Born
Daniel Samuel Senor

(1971-11-06) November 6, 1971
Utica, New York, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Western Ontario (BA)
Hebrew University
Harvard University (MBA)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
(m. 2006)​

Early life and education

Senor was born in Utica, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario, the youngest of four children. His father, Jim, worked for Israel Bonds; his mother, Helen, was from Košice, now in Slovakia, where she and her mother hid from the Nazis during the Holocaust.[1] Helen Senor's father was murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the war, Helen and her mother fled to Paris, then via New York to Montreal. Senor said that his mother's post-Holocaust trauma "was very heavy for us growing up".[2] Senor graduated from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute and then studied at University of Western Ontario before moving onto Hebrew University and Harvard Business School.[3]

Career

Early career

Senor spent much of the 1990s working as a staffer on Spencer Abraham's (R-MI) 1994 Senate campaign and then in his Capitol Hill office. He later worked for Senator Connie Mack III (R-FL) and at AIPAC. During that time, he caught the attention of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, who introduced him to the neoconservative group affiliated with George W. Bush.[2]

From 2001 to 2003, he was an investment banker at the Carlyle Group.[4]

Iraq

In the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and during the fighting, Senor was a Pentagon and White House adviser based in Doha, Qatar, at U.S. Central Command Forward; he was subsequently based in Kuwait, working with General Jay Garner during the final days of the invasion and was in southern Iraq when the Saddam Hussein regime fell.

According to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Senor was known for the zealous spin that put a good face on the disaster unfolding in Baghdad (the Iraq War did not end until December 2011). Some statements he made to the press did not reflect the actual situation in the city.[5][6]

Senor formally re-located to Baghdad on April 20, 2003. He traveled with General Garner's team in the first American post-war civilian protection unit, becoming one of the first American civilians to enter Baghdad after the fall of the regime. In Iraq, Senor served as Chief Spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), as Senior Advisor to Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, and as adviser to the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. In the U.S., he was "a regular television fixture in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Iraq invasion", thus becoming "the face of the Bush Administration's efforts in Iraq".[2]

Senor remained in Iraq until the summer of 2004. His 15 months working for the CPA from Baghdad made him one of the longest-serving American civilians in Iraq at the time. For his service, he was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, one of the Pentagon's highest civilian honors.

Start-up Nation

Senor is the co-author, with his brother-in-law, Jerusalem Post columnist Saul Singer, of Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. The book, published in November 2009, examines the entrepreneurial economy of Israel and the cultural and social environment that supports this economy.[7] "It's a book about Israel that's not for Jews," Senor has said. "I didn't want it to be in the Judaica section of the bookstore, or the Israel or the Middle East section."[2] Instead, the book is typically found in the Business section of the bookstore. The book has provoked a wide range of responses, from reviews that hail its research and its portrayal of often-neglected facets of Israeli society, to reviews that claim the book implicitly justifies never-ending conflict in the region. Senor and Singer have been praised for the effectiveness with which they have "translat[ed] Israel's own image of itself for an international audience"; their book's title has entered the language as shorthand descriptive term for Israel.[2] The book inspired the creation of Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit organization based in Tel-Aviv.[8]

Other professional activities

Senor was an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.[9] He hosted two investigative documentaries on Iraq and Iran for Fox News, where he is a contributor. He has written work published by The Wall Street Journal, and has authored pieces for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Post, and The Weekly Standard. He currently serves on the advisory board for nonprofit America Abroad Media.

Senor was a member of the honorary delegation that accompanied President George W. Bush to Jerusalem in May 2008 for the celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary.[10]

In March 2010, national Republican leaders encouraged Senor to run against freshman New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the 2010 United States Senate election in New York. Senor was reported to be seriously considering a challenge,[11] but ultimately decided against it. He said in a statement it "wasn't the right time in my family and business life for me to run."[12] Instead, he established a new think tank, the Foreign Policy Initiative, along with William Kristol and Robert Kagan.[13]

The Wall Street Journal ran an article in September 2009 in which Senor praised President Obama for having "doubled down his commitment" to the war in Afghanistan. "There should therefore be no stronger advocates for Mr. Obama's Afghanistan strategy than the GOP," he wrote.[14] In a 2011 Journal op-ed, Senor accused Obama of having "built the most consistently one-sided diplomatic record against Israel of any American president in generations";[15] he returned to the same theme in a Journal piece the next year.[16]

Role in the Romney campaign

In 2012, Senor served as a foreign policy adviser to U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney.[17][18] "The two of them hit it off immediately," Romney chief of staff Beth Myers said. "I can't think of anyone who Mitt has ever met that he hit it off with so immediately as Dan Senor." Romney's July 2012 trip to Israel was described as the "brainchild" of Ron Dermer, Benjamin Netanyahu's chief strategist, "and, Dan Senor". Senor brought to the campaign a network of close ties to Israel, including his sister Wendy Singer, who runs the Jerusalem office of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.[2]

Senor stirred controversy when he told journalists that if Israel launched a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Romney "would respect" the move.[19] Also, Romney was called a racist when, citing Senor's book, he contrasted Israeli and Palestinian "culture" in a way that was seen as slighting Palestinians.[20]

Senor praised Romney in an August 2012 op-ed for USA Today as "a longstanding supporter of the Jewish state" who "sees in Israel's heroic story a mirror of the heroism that America's Founding Fathers exhibited when, against all odds, they fought for independence and self-government".[21] Senor said in September 2012 that Obama's failure to overthrow President Assad of Syria made the U.S. look "impotent".[22]

In August 2012, Politico said that if Romney were elected, Senor "would likely get a top West Wing job, perhaps deputy chief of staff or even national security adviser".[23] He gave "intensive coaching" to vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan for the latter's debate with Vice President Joe Biden in October 2012.[24]

Post election

After Romney lost the November election to Obama, Senor's criticism of leading Republicans for being fair-weather friends to the candidate, cheering him as "iconic" before the election and "eviscerating" him afterward, was widely reported.[25][26]

Personal life

In April 2006, Senor married Campbell Brown, editor in chief of The 74, a nonprofit education news website,[27] who was then weekend anchor of Today on NBC[28] and host of Campbell Brown, formerly on CNN. They have two children.[29][30] His father-in-law is former Louisiana Insurance Commissioner and Secretary of State James H. "Jim" Brown, a Democrat. His mother remains a resident of Toronto.[3]

References
  1. "Campbell Brown and Dan Senor". The New York Times. April 9, 2006. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  2. Hoffman, Allison (July 27, 2012). "Romney's Jewish Connector How Dan Senor became the GOP candidate's key emissary to Israel's intelligentsia and the Washington policy scene". Tablet. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  3. "With roots in Canada, a key advisor helps Romney push for the presidency".
  4. Marshall, Joshua Micah; Rozen, Laura; Soloway, Colin (December 2003). "The Washington Monthly's Who's: Who Special Baghdad Edition". The Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  5. Rajiv, Chandrasekaranl. Imperial Life in the Emerald City. New York Vintage Books. pp. 144–147, 151–153, 229–230.
  6. Barrett, Wayne (October 15, 2012). "Why Is Failed Iraq Neocon Dan Senor Dictating Romney's Foreign Policy?". The Washington Spectator. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  7. Senor, Dan (2009). Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. Hachette Books.
  8. "Start-up Nation teams up with African NGO to help African Farmers". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  9. Daniel Senor biography, Council on Foreign Relations, retrieved March 11, 2010
  10. Lake, Eli (May 13, 2008). "Bush Visit May Boost Olmert". New York Sun.
  11. Barbaro, Michael (March 10, 2010). "Another Republican Is Encouraged to Join the Race for Senate". The New York Times.
  12. Royzar, Chris (March 24, 2010). "Dan Senor Won't Run Against Kirsten Gillibrand". New York.
  13. Beckerman, Gal (March 24, 2010). "Senor Decides Against Running for Senate, Citing Family and Business". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  14. Dan Senor; Peter Wehner (September 3, 2009). "Afghanistan Is Not 'Obama's War'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  15. Why Obama Is Losing the Jewish Vote, The Wall Street Journal
  16. Why Israel Has Doubts About Obama, The Wall Street Journal
  17. Acosta, Jim (July 29, 2012). "Romney would 'respect' Israeli strike against Iran, Campaign Adviser Says". CNN.
  18. "Paul Ryan selection shrouded in secrecy". Fox News. Associated Press. August 12, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  19. Slater, Joanna (July 31, 2012). "With roots in Canada, a key advisor helps Romney push for the presidency". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  20. Gahrib, Ali (August 2, 2012). "Meet Dan Senor, Mitt Romney's 'Closest' Foreign Policy Adviser". Think Progress. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  21. Senor, Dan (August 2, 2012). "Opposing view: America is best when it lock arms with allies". USA Today News. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  22. Robillard, Kevin (September 21, 2012). "Dan Senor: U.S. 'looks impotent'". Politico. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  23. Allen, Mike; Jim Vandehei (August 28, 2012). "Who's on the inside track for a Romney Cabinet". Politico. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  24. Dowd, Maureen (13 October 2012). "An Irish Catholic Wake-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  25. Robillard, Kevin (November 21, 2012). "Senor rips GOP officials on about-face". Politico. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  26. Wing, Nick (21 November 2012). "Dan Senor, Mitt Romney Adviser, Blasts Republicans For Deserting Candidate After Loss". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  27. "About Us". The74. Archived from the original on 2015-08-01. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
  28. Silverman, Stephen M. (April 2, 2006). "NBC's Campbell Brown Gets Married". People.
  29. Dyball, Rennie (December 18, 2007). "CNN Anchor Campbell Brown Has a Baby Boy". People.
  30. "Campbell Brown Welcomes Baby Asher Liam Senor". The Huffington Post. April 6, 2009.
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