PrintAugust 4, 2009
Jewish Democrat Organization averts its eyes
The National Jewish Democratic Council averts its eyes from Barack Obama's selection of Mary Robinson for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The organization actively satirizes its willful blindness to an anti-Israel outrage by issuing a press release hailing the President's inclusion of two Jews (one of them dead) on the list of honorees. This is kind of like noting that Mussolini made the trains run on time. True, but it leaves out relevant information.
The NJDC is on a jihad against American Thinker, by the way. Just yesterday, Marc Stanley, NJDC Chairman took to the pages of the Jerusalem Post to attack AT in an op-ed titled "The chutzpah of Obama's Jewish critics" (apparently criticizing Obama is now aducity in the organization's view):THE SMALL anti-Obama wing of the Jewish community has long found refuge in Web sites like American Thinker, where their fictional understanding of the presidency is confirmed (a representative title: "Obama's hostility to Israel is clear"). But there are some times when elements of their argument spill into more respectable platforms such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Yes, the Times is very respectable. It buried news of the Holocaust in small items on its inner pages while it was in progress. It propagandized for Stalin, deliberately ignoring the politically-induced famine in Ukraine, that killed millions more. And we all know the familiar claim the Times vets everything it publishes, unlike those untrustworthy websites with chutzpah. How awkward then for the Times to find itself in this situation.
That's the kind of respectability the NJDC covets.
Since the NJDC takes issue with AT, I wonder why they have not risen to the defense of Mary Robinson? She claims that unnamed websites ("certain elements" of the Jewish community) publish "stuff ...out on the internet" that amounts to "bullying." No specifics, of course. Just like Marc Stanley.
I am glad the NJDC is showing America's Jews that Mary Robinson's award strikes them as not worthy of note.
I am glad the NJDC is showing America's Jews that Mary Robinson's award strikes them as not worthy of note.
Hat tip: Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Contentions
Update from Gene Schwimmer:
Update from Gene Schwimmer:
Marc Stanley, spends a lot of time emphasizing that Obama is, indeed, "talking" to the Israelis, but fails to realized and/or acknowledge that almost all of that "talk" has been devoted to pressuring Israel not to build housing for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, a city in which all other faiths can, and do, live in every part of the city.
Stanley maintains that, when Obama gave his speech in Cairo, he was speaking to Israelis, too. That speech, contrary to Stanley's assertion, was widely touted (and uncontroverted by the White House) as a speech to the Muslim world.
