Anti-Semitic content on Obama’s Web site? (Part 2)
Barack Obama’s detractors have made a game out of finding anti-Israel and anti-Semitic material on Obama’s social networking site, My.BarackObama.com, and using it to smear Obama. In part 1 of our response, we discuss the motives behind it and what its architects don’t tell you about the offensive content. In this, part 2, we discuss how anti-Semitism within the Republican party should be of much greater concern to Jewish Americans than offensive content on Obama’s site.
The sad truth is that there is anti-Semitism everywhere. Neither the Democratic nor the Republican party is immune to it, but they differ in a critical way: in the Democratic party, there is some unfortunate anti-Semitism among the membership, while in the Republican party, there is some unfortunate anti-Semitism among the leadership.
- George W. Bush: All Jews are “going to hell.”
- Richard Nixon: His secret White House tapes made clear his unbridled anti-Semitism.
- James Baker: “Screw the Jews - they don’t vote for us anyway.”
- Patrick Buchanan: Capitol Hill is “Israeli-occupied territory”; Hitler was “an individual of great courage.”
- Tommy Thompson (former Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential hopeful): making money “is part of the Jewish tradition.”
- Pastor John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain courted and who McCain praised as his mentor: the antichrist is Jewish; the Holocaust was sent by God to force Jews to move to Israel; and the purpose of the modern state of Israel is to provoke World War III with its Arab neighbors to bring on the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus.
- Pastor Rod Parsley, another minister whose endorsement John McCain courted and who McCain praised during his campaign: a conspiracy of “international bankers” was responsible for the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, and a host of other ills.
- Texas Republican Party, official 2004 platform: “the United States is a Christian nation;” the separation of church and state is a “myth.”
- David Duke: Enough said.
- John Hostettler (former Republican Congressman): The Iraq war was staged by neoconservatives “with Jewish backgrounds.”
- John McCain: He says he wouldn’t have nominated either of the Jewish Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
- Fred Malek: Helped purge Jews from the Nixon administration; now working for the McCain campaign.
When, in a completely 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, come together to publish an open letter to the Jewish community decrying the specious accusations against Barack Obama, whom should we believe — them or some crackpots on Obama’s social networking site?
When Rabbi Yosef Blau, a vice president at Yeshiva University and the president of the Religious Zionists of America, says, “Barack Obama’s personality, record and policy proposals reflect a candidate with whom the Jewish community should be comfortable,” whom should we believe — them or some crackpots on Obama’s social networking site?
When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Orthodox Jew and ardent supporter of Israel, proclaims that the rumors that Obama is anti-Semitic and anti-Israel are a complete fabrication, whom should we believe — Bloomberg or some crackpots on Obama’s social networking site?
When it comes to Jewish concerns, which candidate should concern us more — Obama, whose campaign staff and team of senior advisers are filled with proud Jews (including David Axelrod, Penny Pritzker, Dan Shapiro, Dan Kurtzer, Robert Wexler, Ira Silverstein, Eric Lynn, Barbara Boxer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Abner Mikva), or McCain, who apparently has room for just two — Democratic turncoat Joe Lieberman, and arch-neoconservative Bill Kristol?
When it comes to Jewish concerns, which candidate should concern us more — Obama, who invited a rabbi to give the invocation to a crowd of 80,000 people before he accepted the Democratic nomination for president, or McCain, who courted, and then disavowed, the endorsements of two anti-Semitic pastors, John Hagee and Rod Parsley?
Barack Obama is a friend of the Jewish people and a friend and supporter of Israel. On this, the record is clear, and anyone who doubts the record need only look at the many prominent Jewish leaders and Israel supporters who have vouched for him. The attempts by Obama’s detractors to paint him as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel are a pitifully transparent political ploy which compromises our efforts to oppose and rectify real anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. We must, in good conscience, refuse to tolerate the specious attacks.