JTA PODCAST: Obama addresses Jewish concerns
By Ben Harris on Jan 28, 2008 in Podcast, Presidential Race, Primaries |
Barack Obama just finished a conference call with Jewish reporters (read the news brief). He took four questions, the first from JTA’s own Ron Kampeas. But while questions dealt with the Middle East, and the recent controversy about Obama’s church, what the candidate really wanted to talk about was the smear campaign that has circulated by email among Jewish leaders in recent weeks.
The allegations — that Obama is a Muslim and took his oath of office on a Koran — have been thoroughly, and repeatedly, refuted. Still, Obama said he wanted folks to hear the refutation from the “horse’s mouth.”
Before the call broke up, Obama urged reporters to use their “megaphone” to let readers know “that there’s no substance there and that my strong and deep commitment and connection to the Jewish community should not be questioned.”
Asked why it was sufficient for him to denounce his church’s recent praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan but not resign from the church itself, Obama repeated his condemnation of Farrakhan’s “reprehensible” anti-Semitic views. Then he added what sounds like a promise: “My church has never issued anti-Semitic statements, nor have I heard my pastor utter anything anti-Semitic. If I have, I would have left the church.”
Obama also took questions on the peace process, the situation in Gaza, and how he would deal with Iranian nukes.
Click the play button below to listen.
To subscribe to JTA’s Behind the News podcast, click here.
Obama is trying to cover his tail. it is a bunch of double talk for not resigning from his church. Sure, his chuch and pastor may not have spoken any anti semitic views, but there is an old saying that says: ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. the actions of praising an anti semitic in itself, causes the church and the pastor to be anti-semitic and for Obama not to distance himself from his church also makes him an anti-semitic.
R M K | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
TO RMK-
You are a complete and utter moron!!! Go crawl back under your paranoid rock and live out your pathetic scared life there….
RM | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
I’m Israeli. I’m quite confident that all candidates for president, except for Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, are committed to the continuation of the special relation between Israel and the United States. And when I say all of them, it also means Barak Obama.
Zohar Freiberg | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
If it is true that Obama’s Church gave a lifetime achievement award to Farrakhan then that should be sufficient reason to leave his church. We shouldn’t demand any less than if it were a white candidate in question and his church had honored the leader of a white supremest organization.
DMK | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
More of us must learn about Islam — if only to make informed personal decision. There is more than a nuance difference between Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam and other streams of Islam. No doubt some are anti-semitic and others anti-Israel, but shouldn’t you use your brain instead of your bowel to process what is to be labeled as your knowledge?
Jerry Enis | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Forget the Muslim smear. He is still a member of a church that I considerable questionable. But even worse he is all rhetoric with no substance. We need more than oratory in a president. We need to elect a person lwho will be a doer not a glorified talker. The only person to date who had the guts to say what needs to be done with health care is Kucinich. Eventually we will do away with a health care system that profits from the people who are insured, but not in my lifetime. We are being surpassed in the quality of health care by most developed nations. Even Cubans are better off than we are where health care is concerned. Obama’s healthcare plans only helps ensure that the insurance companuies continue to make a profit in an area that shouldn’t make profit the most important ingredient. Superlative health care needs to be the prime objective without Americans having to make sure the private companies can make a killing.
PG | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
iF IT’S TRUE THAT YOU’RE KNOWN BY THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, I SUBMIT THAT HIS INCLUSION OF ALAN HOUSTON, AN INVETERATE JEW HATER, OF THE NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS AS A CLOSE CONTACT TELLS MOUNTAINS ABOUT MY OBAMA’S TRUE FEELINGS. “THE FRIEND OF MY ENEMY IS MY ENEMY”
jrerry chaleff | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
To RM
You are WRONG.
Farrakhan is poisonous and a rabid anti-semite.
To acknowledge him in a positive light completely ignores and/or supports his views.
It is foolish and naive not to link support of Farrahkan with anti-semitism.
david loring | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Dear RMK,
You should really understand what a church is….you don’t just leave becasue someone may have said something - you gently rebuke and correct - walking away is no answer.
The Local Church should be a fellowship of all those who are Christ’s in a town, no divisions of race, denomination or country.
If the pastor is/or isn’t against Israel then God’s knows, God can deal with it - not the media.
How about you RMK - are you for or against God’s chosen people?
TJN | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
PG - you need to consider your own position before God, not questions others.
TJN | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
RM,
You may not agree with RMK, but to get nasty and attack him personally is wrong. You must be a complete and utter moron!!!!!
CT
CT | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
It is not enough for Obama to “disagree” or to “vehmently oppose” Minister Wright’s/Farrakhan’s views.
Would one vote for a Presidential candidate (not your candidate for village supervisor, mind you )who refuses to end his /her membership in a golf club that declines membership to Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, etc.? As a candidate for President, not village dog catcher, he must
quit that church.Make a clean break. He refuses to do this. I cannot in good conscience, give him my support. I cannot think of anything more divisive than Sen Obama’s continuing membership in Minister Wright’s church.
Foxman sometimes overeacts. But this tim,e, he is spot-on.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Jewish Week that Obama should confront Wright, whom he described as someone who “embraces, awards and celebrates a black racist.” If Obama is unable to change Wright’s mind, he should leave the church, Foxman said.
michael caton | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
All you need to know about Obamas is that his foreign policy team is
Robert Malley - Supports Saudi plan for a non-Jewish Israel and says we should negotiate with Hamas
Susan Rice - Supports the Saudi plan for a non-Jewish Israel. Agrees with what Obama himself said that we should not interfere to stop geocide
Zibignew Brezinski - Jimmy Carter foreign policy guru — nuff said
Obama will be happy to send blankets and water to whatever Jews survive a nuclear attack from Iran or al Qaeda, but he won’t lift a finger to stop.
Obama loves the Jews…but only if they are dead, live Jews not so much
George Albert | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Dear Jerry Enis,
I have used my brain. I have used it to read the Qur’an 2x AND the hadiths. Have you done so?
If yes, good for you. If no, you have a very frightening surprise awaiting you. I would suggest not one, but two Ambien after reading these primary sources. This should do the trick. In the meantime, sleep well the sleep of the self-delusional.
michael caton | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Nixon was an anti-semite. The USA commerates him. Does that make all Americans anit-semitic?
If you don’t want to like Obama, don’t. But don’t make up reasons, or speculate reasons.
Matt | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Thanks George Albert for the list. Here is an important article from the American Thinker, Ed Lasky:
http://www.americanthinker.com....._expe.html
on Robert Malley, and here is another : Obama & Israel http://www.americanthinker.com.....srael.html
Juanita | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
For some, Obama is too Muslim. For some, he is too Christian. He has been, and will continue to be, smeared by all sides. I’m surprised no one has accused him of taking orders from the Vatican.
In fact, you might want to consider his record in the United States Senate, which has been consistently supportive of Israel. You may also consider the moment (moments?) when you considered leaving your congregation because you disagreed with the rabbi. Most of us determined that we could stay and help shape our community rather than leave under those circumstances.
Rob | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
I read a lot about OBAMA growing up in kenia and other parts of Africa. When you are a muslim, you stay a muslim. His father is a muslim, and I believe he cannot see the situation in Israel without discrimination against the israelis. IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TO VOTE FOR HIM. American jews will lose their power, the relations with Israel will be terrible, and perhaps a WAR can come up. I HOPE WITH ALL MY HEART THAT HE IS NOT ELECTED.
DANIELE COHEN | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Romney never left the Mormon church when it flat-out discriminated against blacks. Why aren’t we holding him to the same standard that some are holding against Obama?
Rudy’s a Catholic, have we ever asked him to repudiated anything that any Pope has said?
Let’s get some perspective here.
A DC Wonk | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
RMK - Did you really listened to what he said? What do you want from Obama! He has pledged that he will stand by Israel. What more do you want? Lie detector, public flogging of his pastor. Give it rest…
EJR | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
DANIELE COHEN -
What are you talking about? Obama is a Christian, and his father was an atheist. Please do a little more research, and fix your caps lock.
justajew | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Daniel Cohen,
Your facts are not correct. Obama did not grow up in Kenya - his father was Kenyan but met his mother in America and left her when Obama was 2. He spent 4 years living with his mother and step-father in Indonesia and then moved back to America to live with his grandparents, who raised him. Obama himself has never been a Muslim, and his father (who he hardly knew) was raised a Muslim but was an atheist by the time he met Obama’s mother.
More to the point, Barack himself converted to the Christian church while a community organiser in Chicago, having been raised without a religion. He has been a regular churchgoer there for nearly 20 years.
As for the question of Farrakhan, the only connection that Obama has with the man is that his pastor’s daughter edits a magazine that said nice things about him. I am troubled by Farrakhan’s offensive views, as is Barack Obama, but I ask you all to consider whether you would wish to be judged according to every action taken by everyone connected with your place of worship.
Karin | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Michael Canton,
You and anyone else it applies to, like the obnoxious Mr. Foxman, have got the cart before the horse in my opinion! One has no right to say what Obama should do; who do some people think they are,’God’s chosen people’ as TJN is deluded into believing?
One has only a natural right to disagree with someone, and to support or not support them, voting as one chooses, but not to take on airs by saying or assuming they have a right to tell them what they ’should’ do. Mr. Foxman has a right to assert his own naked political bias, and say out loud the naked truth, which is that he and fellow travelers will seek to politically destroy those they disagree with, but let it be done openly and honestly, not with guilt tripping judgmental ’shoulds’.
Personally, I think the moral high ground , when considered between supporting Louis Farrakhan and supporting Israel, is more to be found on Farrakhan’s side. I am unaware of him killing or having killed any innocent people, but Israel does it on nearly a daily basis. Murder is a whole lot more serious than whether someone is politically correct. And murder is only a small, tiny portion of the crimes which Israel inflicts upon the Palestinians, or anyone else that gets in their way for that matter.
As for Obama, his groveling before the Israel lobby (but sadly one cannot even run for President in a serious way unless one does grovel to it) is enough of sign of his character weakness for me. Hey, that is not a fair thing for me say really, (for they all must grovel as I said), but the fact he claimed that he wasn’t dragging religion into the race with his ‘Christian’ flier is a lie or double talk, and enough of indictment of his character for the moment. He has a right to drag religion in if he wishes, as does any candidate, and he joined in that joust with the issuing of that flier, and it’s just stupid for him to pretend otherwise. Otherwise he would have said, “Be I Muslim, or not, Christian or not, I will put the interests of the country and the people (of the USA, I mean) first in all my acts.”
Rex | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
To Zohar Freiberg:
As ZOA and Manhigut Yehudit have noted, economic aid to Israel stopped years ago. The only aid today is military aid which gets spent back here in the USA. The Jewish Leadership Movement has itself called for an end to US aid since it forces Israel to act in ways that are not in its best interest. Cong. Ron Paul is simply following the actual law of the land when he is reigning in foriegn aid, not just to Israelm, but to all the arab states who get three times the aid Israel gets. IOW, stop arming both sides!!!
Hirsh | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
I am surprised that any of you who believe, would get so upset. This is the devine hand
of YWHA. What has been written can not be changed. Those who bless Israel will be blessed,Those who curse Israel will be cursed.
It is by the devine hand of the Holy One that
one sits in position of power or not.
Linda Sieg | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
It is Geirge W. Bush who speaks with forked tongue, not Obama! WeAmericans have endured this administration, unfortunately, for nearly 8 years.Look at what we have NOW: Bush, dances holding a
sword over his shoulder with the King of Saudi Arabia. He attacked Iraq in retallation for 9/11, when the majority of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and Iraq had nothing to do with that terrible happening. Sadaam was a tyrant and an anti-semite; tghe King of Saudi Arabia is even more so.
I will vote for Obama! We need new beginning and a return to contitutional law.
God Save America!
Donald Vineburg | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Dear Rex,
I am deeply grateful for your response. It confirms my pessimistic view that anti-semitism is a pathology; an obsession
that, alas, lies beyond the healing power of even
the most capable minds of the medical profession.
In short, a painful, agonizing, and incurable
malady. You are destined to suffer with it for the remainder of your life. One more life wasted, gone awry.
michael caton | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
As an Italian American and as a Bible Believing Christian I am against a two state solution within the current borders of Israel. Giving up land for peace has not only hurt the Israeli’s every time it has been tried it also flys in the face of God’s Eternal Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and King David. I believe in One Jerusalem under Israeli control…it is in everyone’s best interest. May God give us the right US President who will promote Peace in harmony with God’s clear revelation in the Torah and center’s on God promise to restore Israel that is repeated in the New testament. All nations will benefit. I pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, Israel and for all her neighbors and the Palestinians too but a true Peace that God will honor.
John Saputo | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Michael Canton,
Oh you can be sarcastic. How clever!
You know what they say; you are entitled to your opinion. However your ‘opinion’ is based on fantasy, and wish fulfillment, not reality, and so even to consider it reaching the level of opinion does the term a serious disservice.
Perhaps the one who casts their pessimistic stone is projecting not just stones, but their own character limits only. I can tell you for certain that I am not in agony, quite the contrary; a fact that I hope you are also grateful for. That is my sarcasm, for I would not believe you on anything after the display of insincerity masking as wit.
Rex | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Linda Sieg,
The devine hand of YWHA? Who knew the Young Women’s Hebrew Association had a divine hand? Wake up why don’t you! Where was your Holy One during the Shoah? You think you can rely on a bubeh maiseh?
Fred | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Rex,
Nobody has to “grovel”, but it is important to know where the candidate is coming from, what is the company he keeps, who are the people he or she is listening to. I just hope that none of them listen to the likes of you, who showed a distinct bigotry against the people of a little country sorrounded with deadly enemies.I feel sorry for the likes of you who cannot see the forest from the trees.
Klara | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Well if they don’t grovel, they will certainly get the ’special’ love people like you offers the ‘likes’ of me. And they sure won’t get elected.
And that poor little country was created by murdering Palestinians and stealing their land. And I bet Palestinians think that such people of the likes of those who did this to them are a lot worse than people, the likes of me, who merely states his views, not dropping bombs on people from the safety of a supersonic jet.
I also bet a lot of Lebanese also have a tad trouble feeling sorry for that ‘poor’ little country and the poor people who rejoiced to bomb away on Lebanon until it turned out a rag tag army stood up them!
Rex | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Juanita,
Rob Malley has no role in Obama’s campaign. It was misreported by Newsweek that he did, which was then corrected by Newsweek. Lasky, who of course never asked the campaign, chose not to use the corrected Newsweek piece because it did not serve his right wing attack purposes.
Senator Obama’s Middle East Policy Advisors include:
Dennis Ross
Tony Lake
Rep. Robert Wexler
Denis McDonough
Dan Shapiro
Eric Lynn
BC | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
TJN said “The Local Church should be a fellowship of all those who are Christ’s in a town, no divisions of race, denomination or country.” The Trinity United Church does not meet your criteria.
Obama’s church is Afrocentric by their own admission. Don’t believe me, read their home page. Here is an excerpt:
“We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization…We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.”
Now you may say that this is not racism but if any of the White presidential candidates belonged to a church that provided a White worship service or addressed the White community you would hear the howls of racism from Sharpton, Farrakan et al and of course Obama would consider it “troubling.”
Can you say double standard.
Lesly | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Lesly,
How is this different?
“We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Zionist and Unapologetically Jewish… Our roots in the Jewish religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an Israeli people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization…We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Jewish worship service and ministries which address the Jewish Community.”
Jacob | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
If his church gave a lifetime achievement award to Farakhan, he should have quit his church. Period.
I do believe that Obama is charasmatic and would be good for the Jewish community…
HOWEVER, Hillary Clinton would be much better! She has more experience, has a proven track record of being strong for Israel, and her husband was a good pro-Israel President.
Rabbi for Hillary | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
Jacob,
Thank you for your comment. Lesly almost had me convinced, but your note gave me a clearer view of how that church’s message should be understood. Thanks.
David
David | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply
BC.
I can’t seem to find verification for your assertion: “Rob Malley has no role in Obama’s campaign. It was misreported by Newsweek that he did, which was then corrected by Newsweek.” I can find the initial report ( http://www.newsweek.com/id/40772 ) but not the correction. Of course that still leaves us with Rice and horrors! Brezinski, lol.
Can you point me to the correction? I tried to find his advisors on his website too without success.
Juanita | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
Anyone who listens to Obama’s words should be swayed by his intelligence, his eloquence and his utmost support of the State of Israel.
He is a much better choice than any other candidate on either side, ESPECIALLY Hillary Clinton, who sided with the right to a Palestinian homeland as suicide bombers blew up Israeli schoolchildren. Listen to his words: “We cannot move forward until there is some confidence until the Palestinians the sort of security apparatus to prevent attacks against Israelis from taking place.” In other words, he’s a realist who will not blindly PUSH Israel , like Clinton did, toward accepting a solution that means giving away land for no promise of true peace.
Isser | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
It is so good to know that what is good for Israel is what American Presidents should concern themselves with! The heck with what is good for the American people, and the heck pursuing justice.
How TERRIBLE that Clinton allegedly ‘PUSHED’ poor Israel; who did the guy think he was?
Just because Israel wouldn’t exist at all if the USA hadn’t enabled it, and gives it US tax dollars and military supplies, and protects it in the UN, that doesn’t mean American Presidents have a right to think outside the box of worshiping Israel.
By the way, what Clinton really did, out of cowardice I assume, is betray Arafat; screwed him royally! That was the biggest mistake Arafat ever made; trusting Clinton enough to go to the Camp David thing. The Israeli lies about what happened spread with the ample and vigorous help of the Christian Zionists in the US, caused such damage to the Palestinian cause that Clinton would have been kinder to Arafat and Palestinian people to have just cut Arafat’s thought outright than to betray him and the Palestinians the way he did.
Rex | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
Its not enough! Using your social good acts to cover your antisemitism is part and parcel of the hate mongering. Hitler, of cursed memory, built the autobahn, put thousands to work (ha, ha, arbit mack frie)and did a lot for the poor in Germany while planning the conquest of the world and the “Final Solution of the “Jewish Problem.” Many lauded his accomplishments and it was often heard, “He’s doing a lot of good….” Todays terror organizations do the same! Oboma needs to say goodbye to the church he is a member of and disassociate with people who support Farrikahn and others like him.
Steven Israel | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
Steven Israel,
It is not enough! Not enough to live in a paranoid world that sees all out to get you and complain about it while touting your ‘good works’. It is not enough to complain without asking the question:” Am I as innocent as I imagine myself to be? Is it possible I contribute to my own fate by my own attitude and actions.”
Think about it! How ironic it is that you can say what Obama ‘NEEDS’ to do about Farrakhan who is not known to have murdered anyone, while having in your own family closet the Israelis willingly electing a known terrorist, mass murderer and war criminal, the ‘bulldozer’ Ariel Sharon. Talk about chutzpah!
Rex | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
Romney @ UDOLPH W. GIULIANI Shod led the country to the lectio
Shay Weiss | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
More shameless pandering to Israel, but as an earlier post observed, little different than any of the other candidates.
As a longtime reader of the Israeli press I noted that nearly all of the prospective Presidential hopefuls were campaigning in Israel long before they made one speech in the USA. All were falling over each in a competition to plant more kisses on Israel’s tuchas. Yet there is no debate, discussion, barely a mention, of Israel-Palestine in any of the so-called debates.
Israel and her last-ditch supporters in the US set the parameters of discussion. As long as that is allowed to continue there well be no just solution to the conflict, no end to the violence, and no end to the hatred of the US throughout the region. A nod of thanks to the mindless ideologues of the Israel Lobby.
Grif | Jan 29, 2008 | Reply
I am shocked that Jews have such disrespect for United States as to question the future Presdinet about his inclination to their “state”.
I consider this disgusting, and uncivilized, since no other state, nation or religion has intervened in US election so blatantly and disrespectfully.
It would be much better, if Israelis accept such questioning of their own leaders by outside parties, since it is Israel which has comitted unlawful acts for the past 60 years against the people of Palestine
Alex | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
I am ashamed of most of my fellow Gentiles, to tell anyone the truth.
In fact, they (us Gentiles) seem to perform so poorly that I honestly question at times whether it might be true that Jews as a people really are superior to us Gentiles. Certainly, if we Gentiles are inferior as it often does seem, that is fine with me. I have no problem being inferior to anyone in any way, and of course I and any of us are inferior to another in some way i.e. a better athlete, a brainier mathematician, a better orator, a more handsome star and so on, and of course that does not bother us, or it shouldn’t, because being found inferior in some way, is the most natural thing on the world, just as most of us can be found to be superior in some way to someone else in some area, and this neither detracts nor adds a bit to our humanness and value as life. If we could not accept such natural inequities in our abilities and opportunities, we would certainly go mad.
So in light of that, why am I ashamed? It is because I am almost certain that the power exercised by Jews is not obtained naturally, but by cynical manipulation. Just as whites dominated in sports only because Blacks were excluded from the game, so too are Gentile voices and talents excluded or falsely belittled, tipping unfairly the public impression. Consider the fact that there are hundreds, even thousands of Jewish organizations, websites, newspapers, Christian Zionists, and even a Jews only Nation, proudly and unashamedly debating and shaping policy and public opinion, and not one proud Gentile organ to offset this. But then, by definition, a Gentile is one of those ‘NOT chosen by God’, and so it is perhaps a little hard for the Gentile to organize; indeed the word Gentile and the status ‘Gentile’ exists only because Jews decreed it to be so; and so then how can the Gentile possibly gain equal status with the Jews unless they critique the Jews and their logic, and to do this is practically a crime.
What prevents the resolution of this issue is censorship.
The censorship has political power behind it, and resorts to even imprisoning people who dare to speak out loud any thought not deemed politically correct. The denial of the holocaust laws for example. Not content with slandering people who do not tow the PC line, they have gone on now for some years to put them in prison. Yet,let us be rational here; the justice of any Jewish goal, or Armenian goal etc. is not dependent upon whether they did or did not suffer a crime upon them, or how many did or did not die as a result. Such questions are irrelevant! The injustice and need for redress of it for the sake of the Palestinians is not increased by the number of dead Palestinians murdered by the Israeli state. The urgency may be increased yes, for the crime against the Palestinians is ongoing, but the issue of justice must stand or fall upon its own merits only.
The purpose of such laws of denial is not truth; truth cannot be changed by someone having even a incorrect opinion. The purpose is solely naked political power exercised in this case with the aide of the political power structure. In reality, knowing the truth about the holocaust, any of hundreds of such events dating back to the biblical ‘god’ exhorted genocides, is irrelevant to the real world and what will happen in it! Opinion about the ‘holocaust’ will not cause nor stop future ‘holocausts’ as we have clearly seen in the events since; it has been used effectively however, to guilt trip many people and one crime has been used to help rationalize another crime.
When it comes to the Jewish vote choice for President of these United States, the Jews have an embarrassment of riches as each candidate strives to be better for the Jews than the next, even the US Military is not as brazenly courted. This pandering is not the result of the mere number of Jewish votes available, but a reflection of the Jewish power exercised but usually forbidden to even speak of, since, get this, it “doesn’t exist”.
Rex | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
I think that some overreact to the power of the less than 2% American Jewry just as Hitler overreacted to the less than half of 1% German Jewry!The average American Jew has less than 10% greater income than others, but this can be attributed to educational level.
I suspect that every country on the planet has a vested interest in our elections and foreign policy.
I’ll grant you things have been hard on the Palestinians for 60 years, but of course they could have accepted the UN decision of 1947 and come out way ahead. Most of the Palestinians arrived after 1900; there was a constant need to replace the population dying of malaria, starvation and murderous Arab tribes.
When are we going to acknowledge that the states of the Arab League from 1948-67 drove out more than a million Jews after 2500 years of humiliation and abuse. Most of these penni-less Mizrachi Jewish refugees settled in Israel without the world’s note.
Like the Palestinian refugees, it seems to me that Israel should dramatize the misfortune of its Arab Jewish brethren by staging a encamped sitin each year on the beaches huddled so that the world can note their plight. They had the good grace to begin new lives instead of living under such deplorable conditions on the UNWRA dole for these 60 years. Could it be that they are the victims of their Arab brothers? Go to any Arab country and see how the Palestinians are treated. Incidentally, when are the Mizrachi Jews going to receive restitution? Maybe we can just call this a popoulation exchange.
ESLombard | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
ESLombard,
You do a good job of repeating Joan Peters lies and distortions from her discredited propaganda piece “From Time Immemorial”, and echoing the common Christian Zionist propaganda themes.
Of course your comment about Palestinians living on the UNWRA dole (should be UNRWA) is callous and contemptible beyond belief. One must assume therefore, from this and other assumptions you make, that you exist with a vast degree of ignorance about the subject you chose to comment upon.
Rex | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
rex, get your history straight: “from time immemorial” by joan peters, a british journalist/historian who set out to write a pro-arab book, but the deeper she got into the research the more truth she found. you could also read “israel,echo of eternity” by heschel. you could do alot of good for the world if you had the truth on your side. question is: are you willing to come out of the fog?
realdeal | Feb 2, 2008 | Reply
realdeal????
I don’t care what nationality Joan Peters is purported to be, nor should you ‘realdeal’.
Nor do I care about fairy tales that follow the formula, “I set out to prove Christianity was a fraud, but the more I researched, blah blah blah!”, now we know THAT CHRISTIANITY IS REALLY TRUE! That is the formula of con men ‘realdeal’
She worked in the Carter administration, She also helped create a series of TV news documentaries for CBS in 1973 regarding the the Israeli-Arab conflict. So tell me ‘realdeal’, how ridiculous is this fairy tale that her naive self suddenly in 1984 discovered while seeking to help Arabs, that the old lie, ‘A land without a people for a People without a land’ is, aw shucks, true?
Her book is trash.
I am not in a fog thank-you!
The facts are on my side.
That is the real deal.
PS Oh by the way I originally set out to prove my pro Jewish beliefs were backed by the facts but the deeper I studied…Ha Ha, I have a bridge to sell you.
Rex | Feb 2, 2008 | Reply
I think these white jews love to have a pitty party want everyone to feel sorry for what happen to them.Yes it was very bad but not so bad that people have to keep kissing their ass for it.What about jews the jew hater who hates blacks who has had it for worst the they.Where’s the love Farrahkan is your best bet of keeping the friendship of blacks and the world over.If farrahkan is harmed you think you have jewish haters try the whole world hating you may god bless the true jewish people or any persons who are real jews from the people of god peace.
darrell | Feb 2, 2008 | Reply
peace
darrell | Feb 2, 2008 | Reply
To RMK,
I agree with you. Words are meaningless, actions absolutely speak louder than words!
sari | Feb 7, 2008 | Reply
I think you are going a little overboard in your comments. I’m not a Donkey; I’m an Elephant, but the best discourse is to attack ideas not the person. I have some doubts about Obama’s position on Israel but I would want to hear from him directly.
MKS | Feb 9, 2008 | Reply
The history between Pastor Wright and Farrakhan is one that goes back 25 years. Obama chooses this man as his Spiritual Advisor.Obama Chooses to belong to this Church. This cannot be excused. Farrahkan is a modern day Hitler.
Mel | Feb 17, 2008 | Reply
Why don’t you make Obama get on his knees and pander some more. Isn’t it enough that he’s stated his position?
This paternalistic attitude is sick!!
Get a life -
GM | Mar 10, 2008 | Reply