The Editors ask: McCain: Enemy of Israel or All Out Anti-Semite?:
The media has paid far too little attention to John McCain’s pledge in April to cut off all aid to Israel. Shortly after McCain issued that promise to completely abandon Israel, the McCain camp was forced to backtrack publicly due to pressure from various campaign advisors. But that was for purely cynical, campaign-related reasons, not due to a change of heart. If elected, there is little doubt that McCain will swiftly implement a clean break with Israel.
In fact, it is the ultimate goal of both sides of the GOP ticket. How can I know this? The evidence is pretty clear.
First, Sarah Palin’s church patronizes preachers from a group that the Anti-Defamation League has claimed targets “Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.” Speaking of such preachers, one recently had these charming things to say about the people of Israel:
Brickner [the preacher] also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God’s “judgment of unbelief” of Jews who haven’t embraced Christianity.
“Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It’s very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can’t miss it.”
In the past few days, Palin has taken to quoting Westbrook Pegler, a virulent anti-Semite, whose hatred for Jews was so extreme that even the John Birch society found him to be a bit on the extreme side - and it takes a lot to move the anti-Semitism needle with the Birchers.
It’s an odd source because Pegler, who moved further right as his career went on, ended up very, very far out. Frank notes that he talked hopefully of the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt.
He was also known for what Philip Roth described as his “casual distaste for Jews,” which had become so evident by the end that he was bounced from the journal of the John Birch Society in 1964 for alleged anti-semitism. According to his obituary, he’d advanced the theory that American Jews of Eastern European descent were “instinctively sympathetic to Communism, however outwardly respectable they appeared.”
Can we afford to ignore these warning signs any longer? Ask John McCain why he wants to cut Israel off entirely. Ask Sarah Palin why she finds inspiration in the words of unrepentant anti-Semites. Ask McCain and Palin if they, too, have a casual distaste for Jews, or is it something more serious.
The American people deserve answers.
Indeed we do.
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Tracking back the sources of the "cut aid to Israel" assertion, it's basically a third generation effect of a proposal of a rumor; a sort-of "I'll cut out earmarks"--->"aid to israel is often in earmarks"--->"therefore i'll cut all aid to israel".
I'm not buying that either candidate has any different plans for the israel/palestine conflict than any other recent president.
Now, palin being associated with wackaloons, that's another story.
but how can eliminating pork deprive Jews?
I'm not so big on using a pledge to cut aid to Israel as evidence of anti-Semitism. I don't see how it relates to the rest of the story.
I have seen a photo of Sarah Palin in her office with an Israeli flag in the background. Ultimately you are holding Sarah Palin responsible for a speech she probably had little to do with writing. Neo-conservatives have always been hardcore Zionists, so this accusation is somewhat silly.
B.B. raises two important questions:
(a) When will Sarah Palin speak words she is responsible for? (b) Who is responsible for the Pegler quote?
I don't see either major party abandoning support for Israel. I don't think it is anti-Semitic, however, to question your unspoken assumption that it is the responsibility of the American taxpayer to provide ongoing financial support for Israel (or any other country).
Give me one reason for America to support a country that is little more than a loose cannon and just a few bits shy of being a terrorist nation itself, if not racist. I will not vote for McSame but I'm not happy about Obama feeling he had to vet himself before AIPAC. I do not now support Israel's constant attempts to keep the mid-east in crisis on the theory that it has some god-given right to the Palestinian lands and that the good 'ol USA will jump to it's rescue with money and weapons whenever it get's it's ass in trouble. I see no need for Americans to die for the right of Israel to enslave arabs and practice genocide. Perhaps a little denial of funds and weapons will help Israel dump the right wing maniacs who have been running Israel in recent years and come up with a group that can actually establish some peace in the area before the really hot weather comes.
What is your take on Palin's statement in the ABC soft-ball 'interview' re: Israel?
Via Haaretz:
I'm with other readers. I fail to see the connection between anti-semitism and cutting earmarks to Israel. That's like Sharpton claiming racism for all the stupid things he claims racism for. Pick any example.
This may be the only issue I agree with McCain on.
I agree that there are reasons to zero out aid to Israel which wouldn't be antisemitic, but there are also antisemitic reasons to do so. And given McCain-Palin's other statements and associations, I don't know which set of reasons motivated McCain.
Josh Rosenau "And given McCain-Palin's other statements and associations, I don't know which set of reasons motivated McCain."
At this point I don't think that McCain knows which set of reasons motivates McCain (except for him really, really, really wanting to be called Mr. President). I keep waiting for his head to pop. If I remember biology class correctly, it's full of candy.