Phoenix,

Re: Eric Alterman and "Some Jews Against Obama"...

To paraphase a former New York Mayor, any person of sound Jewish conscience, who REALLY does support Israel and is troubled by the rise of Anti-Semitism amongst the Left who would vote for Barack Obama is crazy.

Those so-called "Jews" who don't, i.e., the Altermans, Soroses, Chomskys of the world have never held any great feelings for Israel, for its security, and have always equated an Israeli response, even as tepid as they've become, to the deliberate genocidal bombings of Jewish women and children in Israel. An Alterman holds no great concern for the future of Sderot, constantly rocketed by those oh-so-peace loving Palestinians. He holds no brief for the kidnapped boys who, if still alive, are rotting away in some Islamonazi torture camp much, much worse than the most sicko Leftist fantasy about Gitmo ever could be.

These are the "Jews" who support Obama. The ones who pooh-pooh the sheer hatred and venom pouring out of a Jeremiah Wright, but boy, the same ones who'd throw the book at Mel Gibson for much less. The ones who even after Wright, don't seem to mind Obama's inconsistences on Race - a direct attack on "Reagan Democrats" and even on his own Grandmother who raised him while mommy was seeking out yet another Third World Muslim.

The ones who give Obama a pass on Wright and don't seem to mind his friendship with one Senator Byrd, (not so) former Grand Kleagle of the West Virginny KKK. Or Obama's own hypocritical remarks about Lincoln.

They also don't seem to mind the coterie of advisers who, if not downright anti-semitic, are at best very ambivalent on Israel. The Brezinzskis, the Powers, the Malleys, the Lakes, Susan Rice and McPeak. Malley for example is defended by Aaron Miller and Dennis Ross - EVEN after they proved what a liar he was in singling out Israel for blame at the breakdown of the Clinton-Barak-Arafat talks. The Mel Levines and the Bobby Wexlers will, like Alterman, come screaming to the aid of someone who doesn't hold Jewish concerns with much value. Why? Because they are lackeys of a party that sold its heart and soul to MoveOn.Org, the Blame America, and Hate Israel crowd, of which Obama is a hero.

It is said we are our own worst enemies. To me, those of the Left who use the term "Neo-Con" as an anti-Semitic creed are no better than the Nazis they claim to abhor. If you refer to a Neo-Con in such terms, how do you define a "Jew" who supports Obama ala Alterman, Wexler, et. al., Kapos? Judenrate? Because until Obama has the courage - which he lacks in so many places, to denounce Wright, to end the insipid remarks about those who "support Likud" - ala Alterman, to stop hiring anti-Semites ala Brezinzski and Malley - well, if the label of anti-Semite or just being insensitive to Jewish concerns or denigrating the security of Israel fits, he will have to wear it. As he seems to be doing now.

Alan Rockman
04/07/2008 @ 9:33pm

New York, N.Y.

Those wishing to stop Obama have to get in line. The New York Times, the Canadian government, most Republicans, all conservative radio and talk show hosts, even many Democrats imprisoned by the past, and on and on and on...

In fact, I've never in all my 53 years seen the kind of fear-mongering, race-baiting panic I'm seeing now, in this campaign season.

It's ironic: now that the meditations and prayers of so many for an end to the daily planetary nightmare of fear, small-mindedness and ineptitude brought to a crescendo by the stunningly incompetent Bush 43 and co. are being answered in the form of a talented, brilliant, fair-minded, gifted politician named Barack Obama, behavior motivated by fear and panic is manifesting like a setting sun going down in a breathtaking inferno of blazing inevitability.

I suppose it's human nature to wish for something with all our might, and then try to destroy it when it actually arrives.

Steven Kyriak
03/13/2008 @ 01:03am

Washington, D.C.

Eric Alterman is to be thanked for his series of reports on the adventures, and misadventures, of the Israel lobby. One difficulty is the implicit, if unwilling, collaboration between large parts of US public and those who claim to believe that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Harris, Hoenlein and their colleagues have convinced the media and the public into ascribing undue weight to their opinions. (Credit where credit is due: Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League has been rather critical of his usual associates and decried the attack on Obama.) The fact that they do not speak for a united American Jewry will come to attention only when and if our gentile fellow citizens ask a number of hard, if legitimate, questions.

They'll have to begin with the realization that a significant segment of American Jewry, despite the openess of our culture and society, has ghettoized itself. Perhaps there is something to be learned from our colleges and universities, where many administrators and teachers have been adamant in refusing to allow the Israel lobby to dictate what may or may not be said about US policy toward the Mideast. Their message to Jewish students (and, a particularly obtuse group, Jewish communal officials on campuses): you signed on to an institution whose rules are open discussion, and that is our institutional charter. The American Jewish community enjoys the rights of citizenship in a plural society: there is no moral or philosophical basis for its claim to exclusive ownership of policy toward Israel. Many, indeed a majority, of American Jews accept the point and indeed as Americans and Jews think of much of Israel policy as unacceptable. The others would shout less and think more if our Gentile fellow citisens were more outspoken.

As for the professionalized leaders of the Jewish organizations, some of them, alas, seem to be exploiting history to legitimate their own positions. It was right of Senator Obama to insist on the range of discussion in Israel--an act of courage by one presidential candidate, whilst Senator Clinton on this matter is loudly silent.

Norman Birnbaum
03/09/2008 @ 01:54am

Savannah, Ga.

The neoconservative pro-Likud Americans who helped Bush to go to war in Iraq, who have agitated for a war against Iran, are now trying to sink Obama's political career by raising issues of alleged anti-Semitism. All they are really accomplishing is to justify those who view Zionism as fascist and racist, which in its integrist wing it definitely is.

I wish it were possible for Obama, and even for Clinton and McCain, to tell the Likud agents among our population to go to hell. Unfortuntely, it is not. Israel continues to rely on passive or active acquiescence in whatever it wishes to do. An eye-for-an-eye policy will continue among both Israelis and Palestinians--witness the killings yesterday in that seminary in Jerusalem, a hotbed of religious and political extremism and therefore a great target for Hamas/Hezbollah radicals.

The only way to find peace between Israel and the Palestinians is for mutual concessions and an abandonment of trying to find out who is right and who is wrong. In these ethnic battles with roots going back a long way all participants are both right and wrong. Perhaps one could learn something from the Irish, North and South, about working towards peace.

Meanwhile Jewish pressure groups had better be careful about yelling anti-Semitism all the time. We all remember the boy who cried wolf.

Norman Ravitch
03/07/2008 @ 09:16am

Walnut Creek, Calif.

Obama explicitly supported the Senate Amendment restricting the use of cluster bombs against civilian populations soon after Israel's use of them in Lebanon. I am sure this scares the hell out of the Israeli hawks. Your colleague Naomi Klein can speak falsely of Obama's giving in to anti-Muslim prejudice, but when it came to defending innocent Muslim life, Obama stood up. Hillary Clinton voted against the amendment for the restriction of the use of cluster bombs.

A.L. Hartal
03/06/2008 @ 4:58pm