Obama silent as Louis Farrakhan spews hatred

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has written to the leaders of more than a dozen major U.S. Jewish groups and denominations seeking "repair of my people from the damage" he claims Jews have caused blacks for centuries.

Farrakhan sent the letter along with two books from the Nation of Islam Historical Research Team that the 77-year-old minister said prove "an undeniable record of Jewish Anti-Black behavior," starting with the slave trade and Jim Crow laws.

"We could charge you with being the most deceitful so-called friend, while your history with us shows you have been our worst enemy," he wrote.

Farrakhan has long accused Jews of wrongdoing in speeches, but he has rarely addressed Jewish groups so directly in writing.

The Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish civil-rights group that distributed copies of the letter, said in a statement Tuesday that Farrakhan's "anti-Semitism is obsessive, diabolical and unrestrained. He has opened a new chapter in his ministry where scapegoating Jews is not just part of a message, but the message."

In the past, Farrakhan's most inflammatory comments have included referring to Judaism as a "gutter religion" and calling Adolf Hitler "wickedly great."

Here is Barack Obama's response:

But here is Barack Obama's comment on the arrest of his friend Henry Gates during a perfectly correctly handled incident but one marked by racial overtones "anyone would be angry" and the " Cambridge police acted stupidly".

A double standard? Or is it valid to denigrate a policeman because he is an instrument of state power whereas Farrakhan is just a civilian exercising his right to free speech?

Let us not forget that Pastor Wright (Barack Obama's "sounding board") considers Farrakhan a close friend, traveled to Libya with him, and had his church give him an award.

Let us also not forget that Barack Obama marched in Farrakhan's Million Man March, referred ( during the campaign) to Farrakhan by his honorific "Minister", and - also during the campaign - declared that "nobody has spoken out more fiercely on the issue of anti-Semitism than I have" ( a claim ridiculed by ABC news correspondent Jake Tapper ).

Barack Obama, during the campaign to tamp down concerns about him in the Jewish community, said that he always the goal "to bridge what was a historically powerful bind between the African American and Jewish community".

But that was campaign talk-so much chaff to distract people from news stories about Barack Obama and his anti-Israel friends. Now he is President and remains mute.

By the way, here is the response from Hannah Rosenthal, Obama's handpicked Envoy on Anti-Semitism:

A double standard?