In today’s Times, there was a profile of rightwing radio host Michael Savage that made something of his Jewishness. Turns out his real name is Weiner and he has a picture of his bar mitzvah in a glass case. “Tell that to my Muslim friends," he taunts. In yesterday’s Times, by contrast, there was a book review of a biography of Richard Perle that while delving into the lives of the neocons said nary a word about Jewishness.
Religion is everywhere in the discourse right now. Romney’s Mormonism, Huckabee’s evangelism. The media encourage us to discuss the importance of personal religious belief endlessly when it involves Christians.
Today I was listening to public radio in New York and host Brian Lehrer was interviewing Zev Chafets, the reporter for the Times Magazine who elicited the "Satan/Jesus" insult of Mormons by Huckabee. Lehrer took calls from various Christians about their beliefs, and Chafets held forth on the weakness of the evangelical Christian church in Connecticut and the likely controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s church in Chicago. At one point Lehrer said that many American Jews feel strongly about Israel, but they quickly moved away from that issue. There was no mention of Chafets’s Zionism; he once worked for Menachem Begin, pioneer of Israel’s settlements policy, and last year wrote a book celebrating the alliance of right wing Christians and Zionists in supporting Israel. On a later segment, when a reporter with an Indian name described the environmental hazards of Christmas trees, Lehrer said, "Now you’re a Hindu"–you didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas. She cheerfully answered.
Then tonight on Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell and Howard Fineman, who I believe are both Jewish, held forth on the significance of Huckabee’s Christmas ad. Mitchell seemed excited to point out that the music playing in the background of the ad is "Silent Night." Hold the presses!
I don’t mind interrogating public Christians about their beliefs. The imbalance is that Jews are rarely if ever interrogated about the role of their beliefs–even as The Israel Lobby has become a central issue in our subterranean politics. The reason Jews aren’t quizzed about this is, in fairness, because it’s a can of worms. Many of the reporters reporting on Christians are Jewish– four of them, in the two shows I heard today. That’s a position of incredible power. Talking about their own Jewishness would be squeamish-making and difficult and would expose the incredible numbers of Jews in the media (I know: a canard). So meanwhile the cultural/political significance of Jewish belief in our public life, on issues from stem-cell research to the occupations, goes unexamined.
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This is a very important point that I think everyone misses.
I got a sort of a lightbulb going in my head (as well as a DING DING DING sound) when I watched Jon Stewart interview Perle on his Daily Show.
What I got from the show was Perle winking and nodding, talking in circles but TRYING to tell Jon: "Jon, you're Jewish! What the **** are you doing discussing this? You should support us, your people, and not this USA thing… Your first loyalty is to US".
Perhaps I was wrong, but that is what I saw. A sort of an epiphany if you will. But there is more.
What I also saw, symbolically, is that the discussion about the most important issues, like the Iraq war, neocons, etc, is sans goyim. And symbolically, that is what the Stewart-Perle interview demonstrated to me.
There are the Jews on the left (Stewart), and on the right who WERE on the trotskyite left before (Perle), and they are discussing WHAT is BEST for USA (and really, Israel), with goyim having no say in the matter.
Oh sure we dumbasses goyim have our politicians, who posture a lot and hug babies, when they ALL, democrats or republicans, go to the AIPAC conference, wear the yarmulka (bush in yarmulka is positively sickening – he is not a Jew, he is just an idiot), and shout the loudest about the fact that they, and not their opponent, support Israel more.
A third ding ding ding moment for me was in my lecture of Charlie Wilson's War, in a small passage of text in which Charlie leapt over in very senior Democrat to grab a coveted spot on the Finance Committee.
Thanks to his Jewish friends.
According to the book, the Finance committee is the one with power (golden rule – he who has the gold makes the rules), while the rest of the committees were just debating societies. Because they all depend on the finance committee giving them funding.
And Charlie's "Jewish friends" were powerful enough to simply give him a seat on that committee.
Now THAT is REAL power.
The rest of our political process is simply clowning for the cameras. All the elections, all the hoopla, that is bullshit.
We are simply voting whether we want Kerry ("I voted for Israel 100% – not 99%, 100%") or bush jr (the yarmulka wearing clown).
Let us start with a FRESH NEW ARGUMENT.
The mantra of "We must support Israel" is a given and NEVER questioned. OK, let us question it anyway. We are anti terrorism? Fine, let's talk about Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and their long (comparable to the Palestine situation in longevity) fight there, with suicide bombers, guerrilla fighting, killing of civilians, butchering of whole villages of people, the lot.
And we the Yoo Ess of Ey simply do not give a **** about the situation there.
We do not support Sri Lanka in their fight against the Tamils, who DO use terrorist tactics (suicide bombers, etc.). We are not involved in the slightest. No peace drive there, no Jesse Jackson nor Mr. Carter there either.
So why is it a GIVEN that we MUST support Israel? Exactly why is that canard more holy than jesus during a money pledge at TBN?
Mr. Weiss (I don't dare call you Philip because really, I have a LOT of respect for you), you have an outstanding blog and your heart is in the right place.
As a Jew, I am sure that you DO care about Israel, while I, a dirty goy, simply could care less, much like you (and the USA) cares about the Sri Lanka civil war. Incidentally I care as much about the civil war in Sri Lanka as you, the rest of the clueless americans, or our government. Which is to say not a whole lot.
In my defense I do not wish the Jews or Israel harm (or anybody in Sri Lanka for that matter), just like I do not wish any human being to suffer unnecessarily (I am a liberal progressive – yes, that dirty lib word).
I simply cannot stand the bull**** of our American Media gloatingly reporting the bombing of Lebanon during the last Lebanon-Israeli war.
Fourth ding ding ding moment – the United States was the ONLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRY CHEERLEADING Jews killing christians in Lebanon. With airstrikes levelling whole city blocks because Shin Bet or Mossad had
intel that "possibly" a terrorist lived there (so lets level a huge city block with 50+ people living in it…). The bull**** just got too much. Especially when the word got out that christians there offered shelter to the shiites who were being butchered by Israeli bombs (of the cluster variety – a war crime, but I digress).
Which to me was unbelievable, given the history of Shabra and Shatilla massacres.
I am a weak man, I simply cannot take it anymore. USA condemned (justifiably!) shiites firing rockets into Israel to kill civilians. Then we as a country goddamn better condemn Israel for bombing whole civilian apartment highrises to (supposedly) kill one guy. No to mention blowing up ambulances, water facilities, etc etc.
I look forward to reading more of your thoughts Mr. Weiss and look forward to learn a lot more about the Jewish lobby issue in the USA and more topics.
Thank You.
http://americangoy.myblogsite.com/
This is a very important point that I think everyone misses.
I got a sort of a lightbulb going in my head (as well as a DING DING DING sound) when I watched Jon Stewart interview Perle on his Daily Show.
What I got from the show was Perle winking and nodding, talking in circles but TRYING to tell Jon: "Jon, you're Jewish! What the **** are you doing discussing this? You should support us, your people, and not this USA thing… Your first loyalty is to US".
Perhaps I was wrong, but that is what I saw. A sort of an epiphany if you will. But there is more.
What I also saw, symbolically, is that the discussion about the most important issues, like the Iraq war, neocons, etc, is sans goyim. And symbolically, that is what the Stewart-Perle interview demonstrated to me.
There are the Jews on the left (Stewart), and on the right who WERE on the trotskyite left before (Perle), and they are discussing WHAT is BEST for USA (and really, Israel), with goyim having no say in the matter.
Oh sure we dumbasses goyim have our politicians, who posture a lot and hug babies, when they ALL, democrats or republicans, go to the AIPAC conference, wear the yarmulka (bush in yarmulka is positively sickening – he is not a Jew, he is just an idiot), and shout the loudest about the fact that they, and not their opponent, support Israel more.
A third ding ding ding moment for me was in my lecture of Charlie Wilson's War, in a small passage of text in which Charlie leapt over in very senior Democrat to grab a coveted spot on the Finance Committee.
Thanks to his Jewish friends.
According to the book, the Finance committee is the one with power (golden rule – he who has the gold makes the rules), while the rest of the committees were just debating societies. Because they all depend on the finance committee giving them funding.
And Charlie's "Jewish friends" were powerful enough to simply give him a seat on that committee.
Now THAT is REAL power.
The rest of our political process is simply clowning for the cameras. All the elections, all the hoopla, that is bullshit.
We are simply voting whether we want Kerry ("I voted for Israel 100% – not 99%, 100%") or bush jr (the yarmulka wearing clown).
Let us start with a FRESH NEW ARGUMENT.
The mantra of "We must support Israel" is a given and NEVER questioned. OK, let us question it anyway. We are anti terrorism? Fine, let's talk about Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and their long (comparable to the Palestine situation in longevity) fight there, with suicide bombers, guerrilla fighting, killing of civilians, butchering of whole villages of people, the lot.
And we the Yoo Ess of Ey simply do not give a **** about the situation there.
We do not support Sri Lanka in their fight against the Tamils, who DO use terrorist tactics (suicide bombers, etc.). We are not involved in the slightest. No peace drive there, no Jesse Jackson nor Mr. Carter there either.
So why is it a GIVEN that we MUST support Israel? Exactly why is that canard more holy than jesus during a money pledge at TBN?
Mr. Weiss (I don't dare call you Philip because really, I have a LOT of respect for you), you have an outstanding blog and your heart is in the right place.
As a Jew, I am sure that you DO care about Israel, while I, a dirty goy, simply could care less, much like you (and the USA) cares about the Sri Lanka civil war. Incidentally I care as much about the civil war in Sri Lanka as you, the rest of the clueless americans, or our government. Which is to say not a whole lot.
In my defense I do not wish the Jews or Israel harm (or anybody in Sri Lanka for that matter), just like I do not wish any human being to suffer unnecessarily (I am a liberal progressive – yes, that dirty lib word).
I simply cannot stand the bull**** of our American Media gloatingly reporting the bombing of Lebanon during the last Lebanon-Israeli war.
Fourth ding ding ding moment – the United States was the ONLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRY CHEERLEADING Jews killing christians in Lebanon. With airstrikes levelling whole city blocks because Shin Bet or Mossad had
intel that "possibly" a terrorist lived there (so lets level a huge city block with 50+ people living in it…). The bull**** just got too much. Especially when the word got out that christians there offered shelter to the shiites who were being butchered by Israeli bombs (of the cluster variety – a war crime, but I digress).
Which to me was unbelievable, given the history of Shabra and Shatilla massacres.
I am a weak man, I simply cannot take it anymore. USA condemned (justifiably!) shiites firing rockets into Israel to kill civilians. Then we as a country goddamn better condemn Israel for bombing whole civilian apartment highrises to (supposedly) kill one guy. No to mention blowing up ambulances, water facilities, etc etc.
I look forward to reading more of your thoughts Mr. Weiss and look forward to learn a lot more about the Jewish lobby issue in the USA and more topics.
Thank You.
http://americangoy.myblogsite.com/
Incidentally, does anybody else find it hilariously funny that Savage's real name is Weiner?
If there is a god, certainly I am starting to adore his (her/it?) sense of humor.
I am now fully back into my blogger's idiot persona.
Please excuse me.
http://americangoy.myblogsite.com/
Weiner engaged in pedofile sex in Thialand during his "leftist" days, based on a strong case made in Wikipeida.
He hung out with the NAMBLA guy Ginsberg at that time.
There is documentary evidence to support this.
Listening to Weiner is like gazing at a smutty NAZI magazine or comic book. His only sacred cow is Israel. Interesting feat.
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