by Bill Levinson

Steve Rabin’s Right Wing Extremists for Romney condemns Mitt Romney’s address to “right wing extremist Pat Robinson’s Regent University.” The blog entry cites several statements of Robertson’s, which range from merely distasteful to completely reprehensible. However, despite our E-mail to NJDC (dated April 23), NJDC continues to ignore the appearance of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards (along with Richardson, Dodd, and Biden) at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network: a racist and anti-Semitic hate organization that is every bit as reprehensible as the Ku Klux Klan or White Aryan Resistance. It is arguably a violent hate organization, noting its role in the Freddy’s Fashion Mart incident in Harlem in 1995.

The following was just sent to njdc “at” njdc.org:

To Ira Forman and Steve Rabin (cc: blogs),

Re: Mr. Rabin’s blog entry about Mitt Romney and Pat Robertson (http://njdc.typepad.com/njdcs_blog/2007/05/right_wing_extr.html).

Robertson’s statement about Islam (” [T]he goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination”) is accurate, noting that numerous demonstrations by militant “Muslims” feature signs that proclaim how Islam is going to dominate Europe, and even North America. Efforts by militant “Muslims” to introduce Sharia (fundamentalist Islamic law) to Europe and North America reinforces this position. Robertson’s other statements were indeed uncalled for, and they seem to range from distasteful to reprehensible.

On April 23, however, you received an E-mail that asked NJDC’s position on the appearance of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and three other Democratic candidates (Richardson, Dodd, and Biden) at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Al Sharpton is, as described in that E-mail, a prominent racist and anti-Semite. The National Action Network is a hate organization, and arguably a violent one given its role in the Freddy’s Fashion Mart arson of 1995. Prior to the actual arson by one of Sharpton’s followers, the National Action Network, often led by Mr. Sharpton himself, paraded around the Jewish-owned store while screaming racial and anti-Semitic epithets, along with threats to burn the building down. Sharpton personally used the term “white interloper,” and his followers threw in terms like “cracker” and “don’t give the Jew a dime.” The ensuing arson killed seven people, including a Black security guard whom Sharpton’s followers called a “cracker lover.”

It is eminently reasonable to compare Sharpton’s and the National Action Network’s behavioral choices to those of Ku Klux Klansmen who menace a Black-owned business in a white neighborhood, threaten to set it on fire, and then do set it on fire. There is also the matter of the Crown Heights riots, in which Sharpton’s mob reenacted the Night of the Broken Glass while yelling “Kill the Jews!” As you know, they did murder a Jew named Yankel Rosenbaum. There are plenty of other examples of Sharpton’s hate speech directed at Jews, white people in general, gay people (”Greek homos,” which Sharpton claims is not an anti-gay slur), and even Black people (David Dinkins, to whom he applied the N word). While some of Robertson’s statements are indeed repugnant, his rhetoric has not played at least an indirect role in fomenting racist and anti-Semitic violence that ended up killing eight people (seven at Freddy’s, plus Mr. Rosenbaum).

NJDC has not yet responded to the E-mail inquiry of April 23, but it is reasonable to expect that NJDC will apply the same standards to Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson, and Biden that it is applying to Romney. It is also eminently reasonable for the Republican Party to apply NJDC’s standards to these individuals, should one be nominated. NJDC should therefore encourage the Democratic Party to find other candidates who are more suitable for our nation’s highest position of public trust and responsibility.

Perhaps part of the problem is the National Jewish Democratic Council’s own dishonesty and bigotry. We remind our readers that Ira Forman lied to his readers about MoveOn.org knowingly and willfully allowing its now-disgraced Action Forum to serve as a platform for racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic hate speech, along with 9/11 conspiracy theories wackier than those of Rosie O’Donnell. It is Ira Forman, and not Republicans, who does not let truth and facts get in his way.

Jewish voters should take comfort in knowing that MoveOn.org is not a haven for anti-Semitism and the organization will renounce and remove any postings of the sort. Leave it to Republicans to not allow the truth to get in the way of campaigning.

Sincerely,
Ira Forman
Executive Director
National Jewish Democratic Council

In addition, the National Jewish Democratic Council’s “Bubbie” video portrays Christians and Christian symbols (not Republicans, CHRISTIANS) in a “This is the Enemy” context. We have seen so far that NJDC is anti-Semitic for lying to Jews about MoveOn.org’s anti-Semitic hate activities. NJDC adds to this its own vicious anti-Semitic propaganda. From Republicans’ Elephant in the Living Room comes this beauty:

As for the purportedly common ground between Jews and Christians on American domestic issues, it is narrow indeed. Research by a variety of scholars and pollsters - Ken Wald of the University of Florida, Eric Uslaner and Mark Lichbach of the University of Maryland, the survey released just last week … shows a chasm between American Jews and evangelical Christians on issues ranging from the Iraq war to legal abortion to gay rights. More than identifying the schism on any specific topic, the research describes a visceral distrust, bordering on antipathy, for Evangelical Christians on the part of American Jews. For myself, I find this attitude to be exaggerated, or at least more suited to the past than the present, and yet it is an undeniable political reality. It is the kind of passionate reflex that a political consultant of my acquaintance, who happens to be a Republican, refers to as an “emotional trigger.” And in any campaign, he says, you need to find your side’s emotional trigger to get people out the door to vote.

This statement is clearly designed to damage relations between Jews and evangelical Christians, and it is therefore anti-Semitic. It is, in fact, similar to “Jew as Christian-hater” propaganda that anti-Semites have spewed for centuries to incite pogroms and, most recently, the Holocaust. From “Propaganda and Children during the Hitler Years” by Mary Mills at Nizkor’s Web site,

Drawing on several centuries of anti-semitism, Bauer intensifies her anti-semitic assault by making the virtuous German the object of the Jewish hate. …An example of this concept of the Jew as a Christian-hater occurs in Uncovered Jewry, Or A Thorough And Truthful Report About The Horrible Ways The Hidden Jews Desecrate The Holy Trinity.

It would be one matter if a statement like “a visceral distrust, bordering on antipathy, for Evangelical Christians on the part of American Jews” had come from the Ku Klux Klan or some other white supremacist group, because it could then be written off as white supremacist hate speech. When it comes from a purportedly Jewish organization, however, it becomes believable–just as depictions of Black men as pimps and Black women as “hos” becomes semi-credible when they come from a Black rapper like Snoop Dogg. The proper response, of course, is to write off Snoop Dogg as a low-class entertainer who is no more representative of Black people than NJDC is representative of Jews.

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Related: Anti-Semitism, Elections, Pure Politics

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