A response to Leon Weinstein’s “Second Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama“:

Leon Weinstein is a conservative Republican who is obviously experienced in the methods of the Republican smear machine. He would never vote for any Democrat, so his “open letter to Senator Barack Obama” is not so much an effort to explain why he won’t vote for Senator Obama, but rather an effort to smear him so that other Jews won’t vote for him either.

As Weinstein pointed out, Senator Obama has no control over who chooses to endorse him. Let’s look at a small sampling of the endorsements from prominent, ardently pro-Israel American Jews whom Weinstein chose not to mention:

• Rabbi Ethan Tucker (Senator Joseph Lieberman’s stepson)
• Congressmen Henry Waxman and Howard Berman
• Alan Solomont
• Lester Crown
• Congressman Robert Wexler
• Penn. Congressman Josh Shapiro, Penn. Congressman Daylin Leach, Rabbi Robyn Frisch, Rabbi Seth Frisch, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Rabbi Johathan H. Gerard, Rabbi David A. Teutsch, Rabbi Joshua Waxman, and a gaggle of other prominent Jewish leaders in an open letter to the Pennsylvania Jewish Community before the primary there
• Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf
• Cass Sunstein
• Senator Russ Feingold
• A large group of Maryland Jewish leaders in an open letter before the primary there

There are plenty more, but the point has been made.

Rabbi Yosef Blau, the director of religious guidance at Yeshiva University and the president of Religious Zionists of America, has written, “Barack Obama’s personality, record and policy proposals reflect a candidate with whom the Jewish community should be comfortable.” He also wrote, “If Jewish leaders take a long-range perspective, Obama is an individual that we should want as a friend.”

AIPAC has stated that they have no concerns whatsoever with the Israel credentials of Senator Obama, who has voted witht hem 100% of the time on issues affecting Israel.

In an unprecedented move, the leaders of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the United Jewish Communities, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs came together in January 2008 and published an open letter to the Jewish community decrying the “despicable and false attacks and innuendo” against Senator Obama.

Republicans like Leon Weinstein would like us to believe that it is a bad thing that Senator Obama is respected by Arabs and Palestinians. I, on the other hand, recognize that every bit of progress that Israel has ever made toward peace has been during the presidency of a Democrat who was respected by both sides and therefore able to act as an honest broker between them. Reagan met with Gorbachev. Nixon went to China. Implying that a candidate is unsuitable because he has proven himself capable of earning the respect of people on both sides of an issue as heated as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not only false, it’s patently absurd.

Zbigniew Brzezinski has never been invited to become Senator Obama’s chief political advisor. That is a lie.

Joseph Cirincione Is not Obama’s advisor on nuclear policies. That, too, is a lie. Yes, he got the Syrian nuclear reactor wrong, but he admitted his error, and he’s been right about an awful lot of things, including the absence of WMDs in Iraq, an error for which Weinstein’s neocon buddies have yet to apologize.

George Soros is one of many Obama supporters, but certainly not his “financial backer” and with no more sway over Obama’s policies than any other Obama supporter. To claim otherwise is another lie.

Robert Malley (note: not Simon Malley; if Weinstein can’t even get the <><>right of the people he’s trying to use to smear Obama, do you really think that anything else he writes should be trusted?) does not “loathe Israel” and is not one of Obama’s foreign policy advisors. More lies.

But enough about Leon Weinstein’s lies. Let’s have some truth instead:

• Every vote Senator Obama has cast, every statement he has issued, every interview he has given, every position he has espoused, makes it clear that he is a strong supporter of Israel. Rather than taking the word of people who wouldn’t vote for a Democrat to save their lives (literally!), read what Senator Obama has to say for himself on his Web site. Oh, and by the way, take a look at John McCain’s Web site and you’ll discover that he doesn’t say a word there about his positions on Israel. If John McCain is such a strong supporter of Israel, why doesn’t he say so? Senator Obama does, and not only that, but he has proven it over and over again through his actions.
• There is not a single instance on record of Senator Obama ever in his entire life making a single anti-Semitic statement. Exactly the opposite, in fact… Senator Obama has always counted Jews among his closest advisers. Early in his career, he was accused by members of the black community in Chicago of being too close to the Jewish community. Virtually the entire Jewish community of Chicago supports his candidacy. He stood up in a black church on MLK Day and lectured to the congregation about the need for anti-Semitism to be rooted out of the black community. He has visited Israel and spoken at an AIPAC convention. There is, quite simply, no better friend of the Jews then Barack Obama.
• George W. Bush’s ill-advised, illegal war in Iraq removed the counter-balance against Iran in the region. Iran’s ascendency and the growth of its nuclear weapons program is a direct outgrowth of the war in Iraq. Bush’s war has made Israel less safe now than it was before his presidency.
• In the last year of his presidency, George W. Bush is in the midst of a last-ditch effort to rescue his legacy by trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His method of choice for this is, of course, to pressure Israel to make concessions that will make it less safe without bringing real peace.
• George W. Bush has destroyed our economy, enlarged the gap between the rich and poor, reduced America’s standing to the point where we are feared, hated and ridiculed virtually everywhere in the world, set back civil rights by decades, and allowed religion to infiltrate the Federal government to an extent which should terrify every Jewish American. John McCain has promised us more of the same.
• Jewish Americans throughout the country have joined together in support of Barack Obama for President. He shares our values and our belief in the virtually unlimited potential for Americans and America to do good in the world. Jewish Americans should be proud to support Barack Obama as the next President of the United States.
• The American Jewish community has always been civically engaged in improving the country and repairing the world. We have waited many years to be able to vote for a President who truly represents us. Barack Obama’s positions on social justice, civil rights, the environment, immigration, and helping the downtrodden truly exemplify Jewish values.
• A group of Obama supporters has spent many hours examining Obama’s background, experience, qualifications, record, and policy proposals. They deeply believe that Barack Obama is the right leader for America. You can read more of what they’ve learned at www.jews4barack.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Generalized Smears, Israel Worry, Joe Cirincione, Louis Farrakhan, Robert Malley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.