Does Obama have a Jewish problem?

[dragonfly]

OK, it's from the Jerusalem Post, so you have to take that into consideration, but I've gotten this e-mail from like 10 different people today, so its obviously made its way around the internet...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1203589810710&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

With all due deference to the Obama celebrity supporters like Steven Spielberg and George Soros, can Jews herein Israel and in America and other friends of Israel risk a vote for Obama in November? A quick look at the facts should switch on a big red light in most peoples' minds.

First and foremost among the considerations that should trouble friends of Israel is the foreign policy team Obama has selected to advise him. The composition of a candidate's advisory panel is usually a very good indicator of where the candidate will come out on the issues if elected.

This was the test this writer applied to George W. Bush in 2000 at a time when most pundits in Israel and in the Jewish community predicted that his Middle East policy would be a carbon copy of his father's, meaning trouble for Israel. But Bush, the son, had selected a blue-ribbon team of pragmatic and conservative advisors whose views on the Middle East were markedly pro-Israel and pro-democracy. Subsequently, the W. Bush Era became among the closest allies of Israel in her 60-year history.

The opposite is the case with the Obama team. Headed up by Jimmy Carter's ("Israel is an apartheid state") national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obama's team includes such problematic figures as Anthony Lake, Robert O. Malley and Susan Rice.


Brzezinski has been disseminating vitriol about Israel for three decades and recently publicly defended the Walt-Mearsheimer study which concluded that US policy towards Israel was the result of Jewish pressure and inconsistent with American interests. More recently Brzezinski called for the US to initiate dialogue with Hamas, described Israel's action in the Second Lebanon War as a killing campaign against civilian hostages and earlier this month made a trip to confer with Syria's President Assad, ostensibly unbeknownst to the Obama campaign.

Another problematic indicator is candidate's close association with Jeremiah Wright, Jr., pastor of the Trinity United Community Church (a member of the United Church for Christ, which itself has been rebuked for anti-Israel bias), who is well known for his virulent anti-Israel remarks, including a call for a divestment campaign against Israel for the "injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism."

Nor should bring much solace to Jewish voters and friends of Israel that Reverend Wright counts among his closest friends, the nefarious anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan for whom Judaism is a "gutter religion" and Jews are "bloodsuckers." Obama could have picked any one of hundreds of churches in Chicago's South Side; he picked Jeremiah Wright's parsonage, which awarded Farrakhan with the Jeremiah Wright Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer Award in 2007. And Wright's church is the single largest beneficiary of Obama's charitable giving. Even Jewish columnist Richard Cohen of the Washington Post felt compelled to ask Obama to clarify his relationship with these anti-Jewish and anti-Israel community leaders, questioning why Obama has stayed steadfast in his allegiance to Pastor Wright over the years.

 

[dragonfly]

True!

 

[zeke12]

This has been thoroughly debunked.

January 15, 2008

An Open Letter to the Jewish Community:

As leaders of the Jewish community, none of whose organizations will endorse or oppose any candidate for President, we feel compelled to speak out against certain rhetoric and tactics in the current campaign that we find particularly abhorrent. Of particular concern, over the past several weeks, many in our community have received hateful emails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.

These tactics attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks and innuendo based on religion. We reject these efforts to manipulate members of our community into supporting or opposing candidates.

Attempts of this sort to mislead and inflame voters should not be part of our political discourse and should be rebuffed by all who believe in our democracy. Jewish voters, like all voters, should support whichever candidate they believe would make the best president. We urge everyone to make that decision based on the factual records of these candidates, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

William Daroff, Vice President, United Jewish Communities

Nathan J. Diament, Director, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Abraham Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League

Richard S. Gordon, President, American Jewish Congress

David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Phyllis Snyder, President, National Council of Jewish Women

Hadar Susskind, Washington Director, Jewish Council for Public Affairs

 

[dragonfly]

got that one too Zeke, we must be on the same lists

that was like a month ago though ...

 

[Boom_70]

This has been thoroughly debunked.

January 15, 2008

An Open Letter to the Jewish Community:

As leaders of the Jewish community, none of whose organizations will endorse or oppose any candidate for President, we feel compelled to speak out against certain rhetoric and tactics in the current campaign that we find particularly abhorrent. Of particular concern, over the past several weeks, many in our community have received hateful emails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.

These tactics attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks and innuendo based on religion. We reject these efforts to manipulate members of our community into supporting or opposing candidates.

Attempts of this sort to mislead and inflame voters should not be part of our political discourse and should be rebuffed by all who believe in our democracy. Jewish voters, like all voters, should support whichever candidate they believe would make the best president. We urge everyone to make that decision based on the factual records of these candidates, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

William Daroff, Vice President, United Jewish Communities

Nathan J. Diament, Director, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Abraham Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League

Richard S. Gordon, President, American Jewish Congress

David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Phyllis Snyder, President, National Council of Jewish Women

Hadar Susskind, Washington Director, Jewish Council for Public Affairs

How has it been "debunked" Zeke? Did you actually read the article? The JP raises some valid questions as to the look and feel of an Obama cabinet and their postion on the Middle East.

The letter you show that clears things up deals with inuendo about Obama's religion.

When the real campaign starts the Middle East will be a real issue that Obama will need to articulate his ideas on. McCain has a track record and also has Joe Lieberman as a supporter.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Boom --
Read the original e-mail. It's an opinion column, not an editorial statement by the Post.
First, there's this.
"The writer is Co-Chairman Republicans Abroad in Israel."
No kidding.
Brzezinski is an anti-Semite? Tony Lake?
Because he's not likely to keep on lunatics like Wolfowitz and Perle, Obama's an anti-Semite?
ZB "defended" a study that the writer considers to be anti-Israel, but that can just as plausibly be interpreted as an examination of a powerful lobby, Obama can be considered anti-Israel? I guess that speech to AIPAC didn't work.
And his pastor? Again?
zeke may have marginally misused the word "debunked," but this column is a crock.

 

[Boom_70]

Boom --
Read the original e-mail. It's an opinion column, not an editorial statement by the Post.
First, there's this.
"The writer is Co-Chairman Republicans Abroad in Israel."
No kidding.
Brzezinski is an anti-Semite? Tony Lake?
Because he's not likely to keep on lunatics like Wolfowitz and Perle, Obama's an anti-Semite?
ZB "defended" a study that the writer considers to be anti-Israel, but that can just as plausibly be interpreted as an examination of a powerful lobby, Obama can be considered anti-Israel? I guess that speech to AIPAC didn't work.
And his pastor? Again?
zeke may have marginally misused the word "debunked," but this column is a crock.

It remains to be seen. The key point is that Obama will have to clearly articulate his ideas on the Middle East. Something that so far he has avoided.

McCain will be formidible when it comes to his record towards Israel. It won't be something that will be "debunked" easily.

 

[Football_Bat]

Boom --
Read the original e-mail. It's an opinion column, not an editorial statement by the Post.
First, there's this.
"The writer is Co-Chairman Republicans Abroad in Israel."
No kidding.
Brzezinski is an anti-Semite? Tony Lake?
Because he's not likely to keep on lunatics like Wolfowitz and Perle, Obama's an anti-Semite?
ZB "defended" a study that the writer considers to be anti-Israel, but that can just as plausibly be interpreted as an examination of a powerful lobby, Obama can be considered anti-Israel? I guess that speech to AIPAC didn't work.
And his pastor? Again?
zeke may have marginally misused the word "debunked," but this column is a crock.

It remains to be seen. The key point is that Obama will have to clearly articulate his ideas on the Middle East. Something that so far he has avoided.

McCain will be formidible when it comes to his record towards Israel. It won't be something that will be "debunked" easily.

Ha, thought you could slide that one by, huh?

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Boom --
Read the original e-mail. It's an opinion column, not an editorial statement by the Post.
First, there's this.
"The writer is Co-Chairman Republicans Abroad in Israel."
No kidding.
Brzezinski is an anti-Semite? Tony Lake?
Because he's not likely to keep on lunatics like Wolfowitz and Perle, Obama's an anti-Semite?
ZB "defended" a study that the writer considers to be anti-Israel, but that can just as plausibly be interpreted as an examination of a powerful lobby, Obama can be considered anti-Israel? I guess that speech to AIPAC didn't work.
And his pastor? Again?
zeke may have marginally misused the word "debunked," but this column is a crock.

What a straw man. The only one the column referred to as anti-semitic is Farakhan. You consider the guy anti-AIPAC, the author considers him anti-ISrael. Zeke's letter has little to nothing to do with the column. It says that attacks on his religion & person are unfair, but when a guy has no resume on foreign issues, like Obama (and Bush 8 years ago), his advisors are a very fair way to judge him, maybe the only way. These advisors raise red flags among voters who care about certain issues. Why is it out of bounds to discuss that? If Guiliani had gotten the nomination, and had a bunch of pro-lifers advising him on judge selection, would it be OK for NOW to publicize that?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Brzezinski has been disseminating vitriol about Israel for three decades and recently publicly defended the Walt-Mearsheimer study which concluded that US policy towards Israel was the result of Jewish pressure and inconsistent with American interests.

That's at least partially true, and it's a statement that's long overdue. The government's policy of "stand with Israel, whether it's right or wrong" is unquestionably hurting efforts to work toward peace in the Middle East.

 

[alleyallen]

What I'm reading from some of you is more anti-Obama than it is any sort of upholding of the claims made in the original article. And the fact that the letter, signed by many key Jewish leaders, posted by Zeke, seems to indicate that not everyone feels as the writer for the JP did.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

What I'm reading from some of you is more anti-Obama than it is any sort of upholding of the claims made in the original article. And the fact that the letter, signed by many key Jewish leaders, posted by Zeke, seems to indicate that not everyone feels as the writer for the JP did.

I don't see any overlap between the column and the letters. I bet that the column's writer would have signed the letter, and have no idea what any of the signatories think about the contents of the column.

 

[Yawn]

OK, it's from the Jerusalem Post, so you have to take that into consideration, but I've gotten this e-mail from like 10 different people today, so its obviously made its way around the internet...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1203589810710&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

With all due deference to the Obama celebrity supporters like Steven Spielberg and George Soros, can Jews herein Israel and in America and other friends of Israel risk a vote for Obama in November? A quick look at the facts should switch on a big red light in most peoples' minds.

First and foremost among the considerations that should trouble friends of Israel is the foreign policy team Obama has selected to advise him. The composition of a candidate's advisory panel is usually a very good indicator of where the candidate will come out on the issues if elected.

This was the test this writer applied to George W. Bush in 2000 at a time when most pundits in Israel and in the Jewish community predicted that his Middle East policy would be a carbon copy of his father's, meaning trouble for Israel. But Bush, the son, had selected a blue-ribbon team of pragmatic and conservative advisors whose views on the Middle East were markedly pro-Israel and pro-democracy. Subsequently, the W. Bush Era became among the closest allies of Israel in her 60-year history.

The opposite is the case with the Obama team. Headed up by Jimmy Carter's ("Israel is an apartheid state") national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obama's team includes such problematic figures as Anthony Lake, Robert O. Malley and Susan Rice.


Brzezinski has been disseminating vitriol about Israel for three decades and recently publicly defended the Walt-Mearsheimer study which concluded that US policy towards Israel was the result of Jewish pressure and inconsistent with American interests. More recently Brzezinski called for the US to initiate dialogue with Hamas, described Israel's action in the Second Lebanon War as a killing campaign against civilian hostages and earlier this month made a trip to confer with Syria's President Assad, ostensibly unbeknownst to the Obama campaign.

Another problematic indicator is candidate's close association with Jeremiah Wright, Jr., pastor of the Trinity United Community Church (a member of the United Church for Christ, which itself has been rebuked for anti-Israel bias), who is well known for his virulent anti-Israel remarks, including a call for a divestment campaign against Israel for the "injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism."

Nor should bring much solace to Jewish voters and friends of Israel that Reverend Wright counts among his closest friends, the nefarious anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan for whom Judaism is a "gutter religion" and Jews are "bloodsuckers." Obama could have picked any one of hundreds of churches in Chicago's South Side; he picked Jeremiah Wright's parsonage, which awarded Farrakhan with the Jeremiah Wright Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer Award in 2007. And Wright's church is the single largest beneficiary of Obama's charitable giving. Even Jewish columnist Richard Cohen of the Washington Post felt compelled to ask Obama to clarify his relationship with these anti-Jewish and anti-Israel community leaders, questioning why Obama has stayed steadfast in his allegiance to Pastor Wright over the years.

Obviously, scounderels who want their name associated with politicial contributions and don't want it known publicly will find a way to launder the contribution. You think our friends in Al-Queda and other terrorist organizations have got money in one hand, soap in the other?

 

[outofplace]

If nothing else, this does make me more interested to hear what Obama has to say about this country's relationship with Israel.

I do find any connection with Farakhan to be deeply disturbing given his open bigotry against Jewish people and other minority groups. This is a man who in response to being called a "Black Hitler" actually embraced the title. Of course, he claimed it was in reference to Hitler's rebuilding of Germany, but to actually embrace such a comparison?

Oh, and he has insisted that he never called Judiasm a "gutter religion." He claims he called it a "dirty religion." Well, that makes me feel so much better.

And to point to powerful lobbyists as the only reason that the United States supports Israel is also unfair, though it is definitely a big reason. There are others, including supporting a democracy and a perhaps overly-idealistic desire to stand by an ally no matter how unpopular that ally may be.

I'm torn about Israel. As a Jew, there is a part of me that feels obligated to support it. I'm an American first. I've never been there and don't plan to go, but the place does hold meaning for me. But I understand that supporting Israel does come at a price and some of what Israel has become may not fit in with our own ideals. Things would definitely be easier for the U.S. in international relations without Israel as an ally, but the easy path isn't always the right one.

 

[alleyallen]

What I'm reading from some of you is more anti-Obama than it is any sort of upholding of the claims made in the original article. And the fact that the letter, signed by many key Jewish leaders, posted by Zeke, seems to indicate that not everyone feels as the writer for the JP did.

I don't see any overlap between the column and the letters. I bet that the column's writer would have signed the letter, and have no idea what any of the signatories think about the contents of the column.

That's a supposition there, and a might leap at that. You have NO idea how anyone involved in that truly feels, other than the opinion writer. And to make the claim that the opinion writer would have signed that letter is sheer foolishness.

 

[Yawn]

Living a righteous life comes with a price.

Commitment to obligations also comes with a price.

The only people who really don't give a crap about Israel are those who think the Bible is a fantasy tale. Connect the dots here with Obama if you will...would he care more about the Koran beneath the facade of the most liberal Christian denomination on earth? I'm not accusing, just supposing.

 

[alleyallen]

You are accusing, Yawn.

And what solid evidence leads you to believe that Obama would uphold the Koran above the Bible?

And your claim about the Bible and Israel? Pure tripe, plain and simple.

 

[Yawn]

Well, good morning, self-righteous thought police.
We playing judge this morning? Of course.

 

[Yawn]

You are accusing, Yawn.

And what solid evidence leads you to believe that Obama would uphold the Koran above the Bible?

And your claim about the Bible and Israel? Pure tripe, plain and simple.

Well of course you'd consider it tripe because you've probably never darkened the doors of any fundmantalist church in this country. Do me a favor and ignore me.

 

[alleyallen]

Instead of playing that, game, why don't you answer the question? Or are you a coward?