Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has caused something of a storm with his latest statements on foreign policy.

Earlier in the week he threw the leftist MSM into a bit of a tizzy with his promise to appoint John Bolton to head up the State Department. Now, in a bit leaked from an interview with The Jewish Channel, Gingrich has once again stepped on a sacred cow by calling the Palestinians an “invented people.” This has, predictably, drawn the ire of all sorts of people, sending the press scurrying around for outraged statements from Arabs and the politicians who support them.

In the hundreds of news articles that have been written on that short blurb none that I managed to see actually spoke to any historians. Most quoted various Palestinians saying Gingrich is wrong, but without bringing any real arguments to the table. Several articles did make an effort to mention some history as well as comment that, being the Jewish Sabbath in Israel, that no Israeli politicians were available for comment; though this seems to have been a rare occurrence of actual journalism.

(more…)

The Occupy protests, supported by President Obama and my congressman, the supposedly pro-Israel Congressman Steve Israel (NY-2), tried to take over the Israeli Consulate in Boston over the weekend. If you missed it, it’s because the incident wasn’t covered by the mainstream media.

The attempted attack on the consulate should be a big surprise to people who read the mainstream media as they have been reporting the anti-Israel/anti-Semitic incidents coming from the Occupy protests were the product of a few lone-wolf nuts. This particular anti-Israel event wasn’t a fringe group or a lone nut: it was an officially sanctioned Occupy Boston event.

Thankfully they didn’t get into the consulate – only the building’s lobby, but even if they got to the embassy there would have been no one there because these Occupy “friends of the Jewish Community” forgot that Consulates of the Jewish State are closed on the Jewish Sabbath.

One of the Protesters, Kade Ellis explained what they were doing–via her twitter feed.

Kade Ellis of Occupy Boston has the MySpace nickname: Zionismisracist

According to the “No Cure For That” website the reason for the attempted attack on the consulate was:

Here’s an interesting back story to MSNBC’s hiring of racial riot instigator Al Sharpton as their latest evening host.  Back in March of 2000, MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough was Congressman Joe Scarborough  and he introduced House Resolution 270  condemning Al Sharpton as a racist and a bigot. Read the text of the bill which was dug up by Legal Insurrection:

106th CONGRESS 2d Session H. CON. RES. 270

Condemning the racist and anti-Semitic views of the Reverend Al Sharpton

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 8, 2000

Mr. SCARBOROUGH submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

---

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Condemning the racist and anti-Semitic views of the Reverend Al Sharpton

Whereas the Congress strongly rejects the racist and incendiary actions of the Reverend Al Sharpton;

Whereas the Reverend Al Sharpton has referred to members of the Jewish faith as `bloodsucking [J]ews’, and `Jew bastards’;

Whereas the Reverend Al Sharpton has referred to members of the Jewish faith as `white interlopers’ and `diamond merchants’;

Whereas the Reverend Al Sharpton was found guilty of defamation by a jury in a New York court arising from the false accusation that former Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones, who is white, raped and assaulted a fifteen year-old black girl;

(more…)

Twenty years ago this Friday a tragic car accident in Crown Heights Brooklyn escalated into a pogrom against the Jewish people.  The media gives it a politically correct description, violence between the area’s Blacks and Jews. However the violence was not two-sided. The Crown Heights riot was an attack on the Jews by the neighborhood’s Caribbean community, fueled in part by Al Sharpton, now an MSNBC host and adviser to President Obama.

Black Antisemitism in the Summer of 1991

Jews were a key part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s,  when the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous march to Selma Alabama, he walked hand in hand with many Jews including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Along with the Jews was a contingent of Torahs to emphasize that the quest for Civil Rights was a holy mission for the Jewish people.

In spite of the strong Jewish participation in the civil rights movement the transformation from the peaceful marches to Black power movement introduced considerable friction into African American-Jewish relations, especially within the “Black Muslim” movement.

During the 1970s and 1980s African-Americans stopped looking at Jews as their allies but as their oppressors. The Jews were seen as having the political power that the African-Americans desired. Black  leaders such as Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson went public with anti-Semitic comments.

Adding to the hatred were the leaders of the South African anti-Apartheid movement who traveled throughout the United States as conquering heroes, and spreading Jew-hatred.  For example, in 1984  Desmond Tutu publicly complained about American Jews having “an arrogance—the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support.”

Understandably Jewish/Black relations were already rocky as NY City entered the summer of 1991.

(more…)

On the evening of Aug. 8th, Jews across the world begin their observance of the fast of Tisha B’Av, mourning the loss of the two Jerusalem Temples (and many more calamities to the Jewish people). The Talmud tells us the cause of the Second Temple’s destruction was senseless hatred and political insults.

We are taught that during the first century CE,  a man threw a party and intended to invite his good friend Kamtza. His servant screwed up and mistakenly invited the host’s enemy, Bar Kamtza. This led to the insulting of Bar Kamtza, his slandering of the Jewish people to Caesar, and Bar Kamtza’s purposeful wounding of an animal Caesar sent to the Holy Temple to be sacrificed as a peace offering making it unfit to be used.

The offering was rejected by the Great Sanhedrin (think of the Sanhedrin as a Rabbinical Supreme Court whose 71  Judges were some of the wisest  scholars who ever lived.) The Sanhedrin met at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem until it was destroyed, after which they moved to Tiberius where today sits the Holy Land’s greatest Kosher Chinese restaurant, Pagoda (personally I do not believe that is a coincidence, from this we learned that the wise Rabbis of the Great Sanhedrin enjoyed take out now and then).

Anyway, Caesar took  the fact that his animals were rejected as a political insult and rebellious move  so he invaded, resulting in the destruction of the Holy Temple.

The public insulting of one man by one other man steamrolled out of control with the ultimate consequence of the destruction of the Holy Temple, and the exile of the Jewish people from Israel (and the ultimate Kosher Chinese place)  for almost 1900 years.

The story of the Kamtzas is apropos for the solemn day of Tisha B’Av,  but is also be a warning for America following two months of a debt ceiling debate riddled with personal insult and hateful rhetoric.

Despite the insults within and between both political parties, the compromise deal gives a political victory for some and though impotent in a cost cutting way,  it does provide an opening for our leadership to take use this “starting point” as a platform for the additional change necessary so the United States may avoid the Greece scenario and return to fiscal heath.

Although many in the movement would vehemently deny it, the big winner in the debate is the tea party movement. As recently as June 22nd the progressive Democratic Party were talking about a new stimulus package as part of a debt ceiling bill … but thanks to the tea party movement that scenario is long dead. The tea party movement switched the debate from “spending vs. cutting” to how “much should be cut and/or from where,” a huge accomplishment.

Major tea party demands going into the talks were achieved; no new taxes and cuts to the deficit larger than any increase in the debt ceiling. The biggest demand not achieved through the negotiation was the passage of the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). The bill passed by the House required that the Senate pass the Amendment, while the final compromise merely requires a vote. The difference is a huge one.  Since almost all of the states have a balanced budget requirement of some sort, and polls report that somewhere between 70-75% of voters want a BBA, once passed by two-thirds of each house of Congress this amendment is likely to “speed” its way thorough the state approval process (75% of the States must approve for it to be added to the constitution). A BBA would most certainly pass the house, house but will be rejected by the progressive-controlled Senate whose members are reluctant to give up their unlimited credit card.

Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell were also winners. They held to the “no new taxes” pledge despite rumors they had folded. Boehner gets more credit as he was the face of the opposition, took most of the heat, and showed himself willing to compromise not only with Democrats but with his own coalition to make a deal happen.

(more…)

It’s always nice to know where one stands and over the past three days Jewish Americans have been told by the Progressive Movement exactly their role: their place is to shut up or leave the country.

On Thursday, President Obama threw Israel under the bus with his declaration that negotiations should start with the premise of Israel returning to the 1967 borders. At the same time he unilaterally ripped up an agreement between Israel and the United States made during the last administration.

As expected supporters of the Jewish State were very upset and they cheered Israeli PM Netanyahu when he stood up for his country during a White House press op the next day.

But to the progressives this act of insubordination by Netanyahu was deplorable. The support of Bibi Netanyahu by some American Jews proved was a reason to bring out their anti-Semitic meme that Jews are not really Americans, they are frauds whose first loyalty is to Israel not to the United States. They also brought out their bigoted contention that the powerful Jewish lobby controls the government and the media.

George Soros funded M.J. Rosenberg, who regularly uses anti-Semitic buzz words claiming the Jews control the government and the media was quick to announce that the outrage displayed by friends of Israel was both bogus and a product of what anti-Semitics describe as their dual loyalty, although Rosenberg calls them “Israel-firsters.”

And suddenly all hell broke loose. But not immediately. Initially, the right-wing of the “pro-Israel” claque praised Obama for not saying anything that challenged Netanyahu but then Netanyahu said that he was outraged by the reference to the 1967 lines.

And then the robotic Israel-firsters switched their line as quickly as Red 1930’s folk singers changed their lyrics when Moscow complained of deviation. (Stop bashing Nazi Germany; we just signed a pact with it).

This is not to say that MJ is an anti-Semite or one of those “self-hating Jews,” he is a capitalist. He understands generally the progressive left is anti-Israel and the progressive media is a major source of income. Heck George Soros pays part on his salary. So in order to prove his loyalty to the progressive media he acts with venom toward Israel and stereotypes his own people. Rosenberg is just trying to show his progressive handlers that MJ stands for Malign Jews.

(more…)

So, this past weekend Sarah Palin visited Israel. Obviously this couldn’t pass unmentioned in the hallowed halls of the MSM. All of it dripping with digs on Mrs. Palin, Israel, and right-wing American Jews.

For instance, Dan Ephron, of Newsweek, writing for the Daily Beast starts with this classic:

Wearing a large Star of David around her neck, Palin prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, then spent two hours with guides in the Western Wall tunnel, an archeological site whose excavation in 1996 caused Palestinians to riot.

Palin in Israel

While that last bit has absolutely nothing to do with the story, it is also provably false.  The riots, also called the Second Intifada were well planned in advance. There was a great deal of build up and incitement leading up to the “spontaneous outbreak” of violence, as well as promises from heads of Palestinian security that nothing would happen.

Ephron goes on to mention that the trip is also Palin trying to make amends for her use of the phrase “blood libel” after the shooting of Rep. Giffords, when the entire institutional left lied about her and the entire right’s culpability in the actions of a mad man. Except that Palin is on the record standing by her comments.

And then, in the end, it always comes down to money. The real reason Palin went to Israel was to tap into the deep pockets of a few wealthy Jews. Of course, it’s not enough to mention them by name, but as “casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson or the bingo billionaire Irving Moskowitz.” When George Soros gets identified as war profiteer or Pyramid schemer Norman Hsu I’ll have less of an issue with the such mentions. (more…)

A great read from Dershowitz.

The watered-down Dior show for Paris fashion week after Galliano's firing.

Prominent public figures have blurred another line as well — the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, between attacking the Jewish state and attacking the Jewish people.

[...]

Former President Jimmy Carter too has contributed to this new legitimization of Jew-bashing, by echoing Tutu’s derisive talk about the Jewish domination of America (“powerful political, economic and religious forces . . . that dominate our media”) and his use of the term “apartheid” in his book about Israel.

By thus blurring the line between legitimate political criticism and illegitimate bigotry, widely admired people like Tutu and Carter legitimize the kind of anti-Semitic attitudes that manifest themselves in the rants of celebrities like Galliano, Sheen and Gibson.

This blurring has also affected the tone on university campuses around the world, where Tutu and Carter are particularly admired and imitated. I speak at universities and had never, until recently, heard and seen the kind of language now being directed against Jewish students and faculty who support Israel.

(more…)

Bill Maher noted in the last episode of “Real Time” that anti-semitism was in the headlines last week:

“Somehow when you get people talking long enough what comes out is ‘I don’t like the Jews.’”

Ezra “Journolist” Klein was part of the panel. His answer for this phenomena?

“Bad economy. A lot of those anti-semitic arguments have a serious undertone … In Libya you have very high unemployment, high food prices … “

Because it couldn’t have anything to do with the Libyan leadership using the term “Jew” as a pejorative, indicative of Gaddafi’s anti-Jew rule which saw a further exodus of Jews from the country. Says the man who once stated that the Jews should be “thrown into the sea”:

Israel is “behind all of Africa’s conflicts”, Gaddafi told about 30 African leaders gathered under a huge tent at Tripoli airport.

Either Klein is either purposefully obtuse — for the sake of hiding the fact that hatred and bigotry related to religion fosters the extreme anti-semitism of Libya and other Middle Eastern nations, thereby completely shaking the progressive narrative on teh Joos — or completely clueless. The plague of civil discourse isn’t incivility, it’s lies. Refuting by omission Libya’s long history with violence against Jews is a lie.

Gloria Steinem deserves a bit of credit for somewhat correcting Klein on his bizarre answer:

“Throughout the Middle East there is institutionalized anti-semitism because the textbooks are telling the kids …

So according to Klein’s reasoning, the UAE, with it’s metropolitan, “multicultural” Dubai, is welcoming to Jews, yes? Actually, not entirely. Don’t try to enter the country with an Israeli passport and don’t try looking for a synagogue in the country, either. But I’m sure it’s because of “high food prices” and not due to any hostility or prejudice towards Jews at all.

(more…)

As the protests in Egypt have raged on now for more than a week, President Obama and members of his administration continue to practice restraint in their communications and careful selection of the words that are spoken.  Hillary Clinton has cautioned against anything that could increase chaos.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told television networks that the “complex, very difficult situation in Egypt requires careful progress toward a peaceful transition to democracy rather than any sudden or violent change that could undermine the aspirations of the protesters.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs echoed the sentiments that while Egypt needs to change, it’s not the place of the United States to publicly support or oppose the removal of Mubarak.  Likewise, most Republicans are also on the same page as the Obama administration, speaking out in support of democratic reforms in Egypt, yet taking great care not to back or oppose Mubarak either way – at least not publicly.  Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “I don’t have any criticism of President [Barack] Obama or Secretary [Hillary] Clinton at this point.  It’s important for U.S. officials “to speak as one voice during this crisis.”  As many have noted, Egypt is perhaps one of the only issues that’s rendered an overwhelmingly bi-partisan response.

But one man in particular is not exactly in agreement with that bi-partisan response:  George Soros.  And he’s warning us to toe the line – his line, that is.

The leftist billionaire who made his fortune on the back of US capitalism is taking aim at all the “rigid and ideological supporters of Israel” and “the religious right” for standing in the way of democracy for Egypt.

(more…)

The George Soros funded Media Matters has been waging a months-long attack on Glenn Beck trying to brand the commentator as a card carrying anti-Semite. Perhaps before making false charges against Beck, Media Matters should examine its own house of cards.

In a column published today on Media Matters political correction site, MJ Rosenberg claimed that the current Egyptian crisis was the fault of AIPAC and the “Israel Lobby.” For those of you who have lived on a different planet till today, “Israel Lobby” is a polite way of saying “Jews.” It is based on the old anti-Semitic canard that it is the Jews who control the United States government.

Two years ago, Media Matters who has received major funding from financier George Soros, hired Rosenberg, a Jew to chip away at the image of the Jewish State, similar to what Soros did in creating J-Street. MJ Rosenberg was perfect for this role as Jewish-Lobby conspiracy theorist, bully with a keyboard, and a self-proclaimed violator of national security.

(more…)

The title of this article refers to pro-Palestinian groups that organized last May’s six-ship bid to breach Israel’s anti-armament maritime blockade of Gaza. The so-called humanitarian mission ended with nine passengers dead and dozens of other injured. Seven Israeli naval commandos were shot, stabbed, and beaten by peaceful terror-enablers on board the lead craft, the Mavi Marmara.

Now, slow learners who survived the first encounter say they plan to send more, and larger such convoys towards the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave on the upcoming first anniversary of the event.

The Hamas-affiliated Turkish IHH and the Free Gaza movement said they would send another two sea convoys in April and May, Israeli media reported on Monday.

Flotilla supporters say Israel’s blockade causes privation and starvation, is inhumane and violates international law.

However, Hamas often responds to Israel’s allowing in humanitarian aid via several monitored crossing points by issuing counter-offers promising Israel’s annihilation, and then bombing said crossing points, cutting off the aid along with their noses.

So, after the Islamist group’s violent coup wresting power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, and deadly shrapnel showers visited on Israeli cities by close to 10,000 Kassam rockets for more than seven years, Israel cordoned off the Strip until further notice, meaning either Hamas’ leadership learns to dance the hora, or, failing that, that their jig is up. (more…)

A few days ago the miserable Helen Thomas, famed long-time Washington correspondent, let her hatred for Jews get the best of her once again. At a workshop held in Dearborn, Michigan dedicated to fighting anti-Arab bias in the United States, Thomas came out forcefully against the “Zionists” in Israel and the United States and refused to back away from anti-Jewish comments she’s made in the past.

It seems that Thomas’s latest anti-Jewish comments have caused her to lose support of at least one institution: her own alma mater, Wayne State University. The school from which Thomas graduated in 1942 announced this week that it will no longer be awarding its Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media Award to journalists that “stand out in their field.”

As Wayne State once described the award: “The award was established to recognize her leadership role in promoting diversity in the media and the issues of race in America.”

It seems that “diversity” isn’t something that much interests Thomas, however. As Jeff Dunetz reported on Dec. 4, Thomas launched into yet another anti-Jew attack in Michigan. Wallowing in that old the-Jews-secretly-control-everything trope, Thomas regaled her pro-Arab audience with her anti-Zionist comments.

(more…)

I’ve long known The Atlantic has at least one resident Jew hater and Israel basher in Andrew Sullivan. It appears the virus has spread to Jeff Goldberg as well.

In response to the catastrophic forest fires in Israel, the Jewish National Fund has mounted a special campaign asking for donations for its “Forest Fire Emergency Campaign.”

Goldberg urges people not to donate, because after all, those Rich Jew Boys have plenty of money, and besides, it’s all their own fault anyway for not having their fire services up to Goldberg’s standards, him being an expert and all.

(more…)

From the Associated Press:

In a radio interview, former White House correspondent Helen Thomas acknowledges she touched a nerve with remarks about Israel that led to her retirement. But she says the comments were “exactly what I thought,” even though she realized soon afterward that it was the end of her job.

“I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive,” Thomas told Ohio station WMRN-AM in a sometimes emotional 35-minute interview that aired Tuesday. It was recorded a week earlier by WMRN reporter Scott Spears at Thomas’ Washington, D.C., condominium.

Thomas, 90, stepped down from her job as a columnist for Hearst News Service in June after a rabbi and independent filmmaker videotaped her outside the White House calling on Israelis to get “out of Palestine.” She gave up her front row seat in the White House press room, where she had aimed often pointed questions at 10 presidents, going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

She has kept a low profile since then. (more…)

On Thursday Rick Sanchez spent twenty minutes on the radio committing career suicide in a most agonizing manner.  Appearing on the Sirius/XM satellite radio program, Stand Up! with Pete Dominic he started out placing himself in a little hole and kept digging until he exposed a giant pink slip.

He started with a story about how a CNN administrator didn’t want him to become an anchor because he was Cuban. Then he railed against Jon Stewart for making fun of him, claiming Stewart is a bigot. Sanchez believes that Stewart portrays him as stupid because he is Cuban.

I think he looks at the world through, his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine.

Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with? That’s what happens when you watch yourself on his show every day, and all they ever do is call you stupid…. If I did just sit there and read the teleprompter every day, Jon Stewart would never say a word about me. He’d say I’m a good Hispanic anchor, “Way to go, you’ve done a good job, stay right there.” … I am a complex human being; I’m not some moron to be…

Sanchez would still have a job if he stopped right there, but maybe because of some deep-seeded insecurity, he was driven to proving to the world that Stewart’s taunts were true.  That’s when he crossed the career Rubicon. (more…)

The other day I was reading the Daily Kos and my wife came up and read my laptop over my shoulder. She asked “why are you reading a site that is mostly progressive propaganda?”

“I am tired of reading the conservative sites,” I answered. “All they talk about is the economy stinks, the government is getting too big, and on and on.  It gets depressing.  But sites like the Daily Kos make me feel empowered.  They keep talking about how the Jews control the media, the Jews control the banks, the Jews control the government.”

The progressive world is usually very quick to place the “bigot” label on people. The people who opposed the ground zero mosque are Islamophobes, critics of the President are doing so because Obama is partially of African descent. It is interesting that some of the same progressive media that tries to brand the tea party movement as racist spews bigoted venom against Jews.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, published a report that examines anti-Semitic cartoon content used in some of the major progressive sites, such as Mondoweiss, The Daily Kos and Indymedia. Some of the content of these blogs pointed out in this report is short of startling. The sites use “political cartoons: to reinforce negative stereotypes against Jews. The cartoons cloak their anti-Semitism in a veil “anti-Israelism.” (more…)

That would be Rick Sanchez to those of you, as Rush says, in Rio Linda:

First the unremarkable, banal, veritably quotidian spectacle of Israel’s moderate partner in peace glorifying mass murderers. Palestinian President Abbas publicly mourned the death of Munich massacre mastermind Abu Daoud. He personally honored the three terrorists who murdered Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai, an Israeli father of seven. He repeatedly celebrated Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered 13 Israeli schoolchildren and 25 other Israeli civilians. He glorifies “resistance” and incites rioting. He peddles anti-Jewish organ theft libels and even sets up formal committees to investigate those bigoted fantasies.

The Israelis have complained to the White House about Abbas’s incitement, but these things are apparently really complicated. For instance, maybe this video was done on a greenscreen, as opposed to being a recording of an Abbas-sponsored high school graduation celebrating mass murderer. You never know:

Now the New York Times editorial from Tuesday. The NYT board engaged in a little bit of diplomatic freelancing, hoping to cajole Abbas into embracing direct peace talks. Not so much to actually make peace, of course, as much as to expose Netanyahu as the barrier to Middle East stability: (more…)

For what it’s worth – and like fellow Big Journalism contributer Jeff Dunetz – I don’t think Helen Thomas should have been forced out. Now that she’s resigned, the story can be expected to die. And with it will die discussion of how anti-Semitism is not only rampant in some liberal elite media circles, which is what Jeff ran down, but also how it manages to make itself respectable.

First a very thin silver lining, which is that Hamas is going to be grumpy:

Thomas:”Jews do not belong in Israel” – White house correspondent Helen Thomas told Jews to get out of Palestine. In an interview with her, Jewish man named as David, asked Helen for her comment on Israel, she responded by saying: “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.” Turning her attention to the Palestinians, she said, “Remember, these people are occupied. And it’s their land,” adding the Jews should “go home” to Poland and Germany. No doubt that Thomas Helen has told the truth that everybody in the world knows, but as American in a very important position , she was attacked by Zionists who went mad from the reality she mentioned in front of all people.

And it’s not like this fiasco doesn’t have an upshot when it comes to elite liberal anti-Semitism. But the point isn’t merely that many leading anti-Israel reporters and academics are driven by pathological anti-Jewish bigotry.

That’s true, but we already knew that. The real significance is that this is another example of the nudge-wink game that they’re all allowed to play, where they channel their anti-Semitism into ostensibly respectable displays of anti-Israel journalism and scholarship. (more…)