This morning Adam Horowitz wrote a post about Congressman Bill Pascrell's journey to supporting relief for the people of Gaza in the House. The post prompted a journalist friend to send along the following story about a supporter of Pascrell who had political ambition in New Jersey. As the journalist says, "It's a textbook example of the intimidating impact that 'the lobby' has on politicians -- an explanation of why we get 390-5 votes in the House on pro-Israel resolutions. I wrote this essay about it a while back, but obviously there's no place to publish it."
We asked if we could publish it here, the journalist said yes.
In 2004, Sami Merhi, a friend and fund-raiser for Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell, decided he wanted to run for freeholder (the county legislative board) in Passaic County. Merhi is respected businessman and was serving as president of the county-owned hospital’s Board of Directors. His background is Lebanese-Druze.
Then, as now, Passaic had a growing Arab/Muslim population, so running Merhi made sense for the county’s Democratic Party, which had been slow in reaching out to these new voters. It’s important to note that in New Jersey , county party organizations are still strong, like they once were everywhere. To be picked by the county party to run “on the line” in the Democratic primary is tantamount to winning the actual primary.
Merhi seemed set to receive party support for one of the open freeholder seats. Pascrell, with wide influence in Passaic Democratic politics, was pushing him, and, well aware of the need to reach out to new voters, the county’s Democratic chairman, John Currie, was set to sign off on him. County politics is low profile stuff in New Jersey (and elsewhere), so none of this was controversial. He was just going to be another name on the ballot.
Then the other shoe dropped.
Before we get to that, though, some background may be helpful. New Jersey has a large, well-organized, and well-connected Jewish community. It’s one of the few states where the Jewish vote can swing an election. The Jewish community is also a major source of campaign cash, and money matters more in New Jersey than in most states: because the electorate is disengaged (more focused on New York or Philly or the world at large) and because there is no statewide television station, the ability to afford astronomically expensive advertising on New York or Philly television stations can determine a candidate’s fate. It’s not uncommon for a candidate for the state Senate in New Jersey to spend as much on his campaign as a candidate for U.S. Senate in another state. All of this has powerfully affected the state’s political culture.
One of the required stops for any politician who wants to seek statewide office is Israel itself; trips are regularly organized for aspiring pols. (This is how Jim McGreevey, one year before he was elected governor, met future lover Golan Cipel, who was then the municipal spokesman for Rishon LeZion , Israel .) Members of Congress rush to put out the most hawkishly pro-Israel statements, and candidates bend over backward to pronounce their commitment to “ Israel ’s security.”
When he delivered his State of the State address a few weeks ago (at the height of the Gaza operation), Jon Corzine (if I saw right on TV) wore a lapel pin with the U.S. and Israeli flags. In one telling episode in 2008, it was revealed that a Republican congressional candidate had once donated money to Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg. The actual explanation was simple and cynical. The Republican candidate was a defense contractor who’d wanted to ingratiate himself with his state’s man in Washington . But a politician can’t admit something like this, so he needed a cover story and came up with this: I gave to Lautenberg to thank him for his unwavering support of Israel, something we all agree on. That’s how monolithic the political community in New Jersey is on this issue.
Now, to bring it back to Merhi. When he decided to run for freeholder in ’04, it quickly became apparent that some Jewish leaders and activists in Passaic County and North Jersey essentially had Merhi on their watch list. The reason: In April 2002, the New York Times had sent a reporter, Matthew Purdy, to Paterson (the anchor city of Passaic County) to gauge local Muslim and Arab reaction to Israel ’s just-launched assault on the West Bank . One of the featured interviews was with Merhi, whom Purdy met at a fundraising event he had organized for Congressman Pascrell.
Purdy’s article noted that Merhi’s own godson had died in the World Trade Center attacks just seven months earlier and quoted him calling the 9/11 hijackers “coldblooded murderers and things I can't say to you on paper. Crazy fanatics. They're as far from God and Islam as hell itself.”
Then, since the story was prompted by the West Bank incursion, Purdy asked Merhi whether he felt the same about Palestinian suicide bombers, whose actions were the justification for Israel ’s move. “I can’t see the comparison,” was his reply. Purdy also included this characterization of Merhi’s opening remarks at the Pascrell fundraiser:
When the story was originally published, Pascrell issued a statement distancing himself from Merhi’s quoted words: “I strongly disagree, and completely disassociate myself with, the reported remarks of Sami Merhi at an event last Friday evening.”
When word leaked in March ’04 that Currie, the county Democratic chairman, was ready to sign off on Merhi’s selection as a freeholder candidate, Jewish leaders in North Jersey were immediately alarmed and pushed back against the impending move. A story was leaked to the press, challenging Merhi’s selection on the grounds that his comments would make him “unelectable,” and threats were made to withhold money from Currie organization for the fall campaign.
Merhi tried to defend himself, but Currie had gotten the message – sticking with Merhi for a lowly job like freeholder would never be worth the public grief and lost money it would cause for him and his party. Initially, Pascrell stood by Merhi behind the scenes, but the decision had been made, and when Currie announced a few weeks later which candidates would run “on the line,” Merhi wasn’t one of them.
But Merhi didn’t give up. Even after his snub, he kept quiet and kept on raising money for the party. Currie advised him to “fix” his relationship with Jewish leaders before running again. Two years later, in the spring of 2006, there was another freeholder vacancy and Merhi tried again – once again with Pascrell’s backing. This time, he cleared the first hurdle – barely. In March 2006, Currie’s executive committee approved, by a vote of 13-9, Merhi for a place on the Democratic line in the June primary.
For any other candidate for county office in New Jersey , that would be the end of it – he’d then run “on the line” in the low turnout June primary, easily win the nomination, and run on the party’s ticket in the fall. For Merhi, in Democratic-friendly Passaic , winning that committee vote was practically the same as winning election in November; the heavy lifting was over.
But angry Jewish leaders wouldn’t accept the result and instead appealed for help to their most powerful allies in state politics, who dutifully complied. Robert Menendez, who was then running for a full-term in the U.S. Senate and facing an expensive and highly-competitive race against a popular Republican (Tom Kean Jr.) in the fall, went to the media to pronounce Merhi’s ’02 quotes “very disturbing” and applied intense pressure on Currie to drop Merhi from the ticket.
Corzine announced that he wouldn’t support Merhi, even if he were the Democratic nominee in the fall.
Pascrell was told that his fundraising would dry up and that he’d face a well-funded challenger if the Merhi decision stuck. In an almost unheard of move, Currie’s executive committee reconvened a week later. They heard an earnest plea from Merhi. But it was no match for the messages they’d received from Menendez, Corzine and a host of vocal Jewish leaders and donors. This time, the vote was 20-3. Merhi was kicked off the ticket.
Merhi said he felt betrayed; he’d dreamed of serving in county government for decades. Aref Assaf, the president of the Arab American Forum, said Merhi's extraordinary treatment was the result of “influential Jewish leaders who threatened to withhold their financial support if the party does not comply.” Pascrell, asked whether the pressure to dump Merhi came from the Jewish community, gave this odd response to the New Jersey Jewish News: “Not from the community as such, but from some within it.”
Of course, Corzine and (particularly) Menendez got what they wanted. Largely because of their involvement, the story ended up going national, with Arab-American groups loudly pleading Merhi’s case. In the view of Israel ’s most reflexive backers in the United States , this certified Menendez as a reliable ally. For Menendez, the timing couldn’t have been any better: The most important election of his life was seven months away, and those New York and Philly ads weren’t getting any cheaper.
This is very powerful because it's so specific and detailed.
It also shows the high degree of censorship. Merhi's the kind of reasonable person one would want to see in office.
"Merhi's the kind of reasonable person one would want to see in office."
I second that. When are the people of the US gonna throw AIPAC out of their country?
Great story! It should win the Pulitzer Prize for unpublished reporting!
I hope Professor Walt sees this and considers adding it to the next edition of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. It belongs in the Lobbyology textbook.
This story literally hits very close to home, as I live in New Jersey in a northern county that borders Passaic. I deal with our corrupt politicians all the time – I can't tell you how many "form" letters I've gotten the past few years as responses to my letters, be it on the erosion of civil liberties, drug law reform, prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, internet neutrality, and , more recently, Israel.
Frank Lautenberg, our other senator opposite Menendez (both Democrats) is about a hundred years old and has no business being in office anymore. Years ago, he was perhaps a decent politician, as far as politicians go, but he's long past any semblance of competence. Of course, he's fiercely pro-Israel.
Don't get me started on Menendez, who is a classic political yes-man, no substance, signs onto whatever will advance his career, gives the appearance of caring about "left" causes and then votes establishment-right every time.
The pro-Israel sentiment in our state is best exemplified by our state paper, The Star Ledger, which does a great job on local issues (although it, like most print, has been cutting back tremendously of late – the paper gets thinner and thinner by the day (yes, I still do buy the classic paper format!) Nationally, it's allegedly "on the left", but obviously adheres to the classic business-first, Capitalist model, with some dissent allowed, albeit within a limited frame.
On international stuff, the Star Ledger is more often than not classic imperialistic propaganda, although it does allow more peaceful voices to be heard, especially now, in the wake of the last eight years. That said, it's been completely behind the Afghanistan-Pakistan buildup and slaughter, so it's sort of takes the typical "Iraq was bad, we need to build up relations and dialogue with the rest of the world, oh, and we need to bomb Afghanistan and Pakistan and maybe Iran too" stance.
In regards to Israel, it's right there with the New York Times – even worse, perhaps, as I monitor pretty much every day and I've never seen a pro-Palestinian voice, op-ed or otherwise.
Interestingly, southern and central New Jersey are served more by the Philadelphia press, and my limited exposure to them indicates that they're not so Israeli-centric down in Philly. The Philadelphia Inquirer pretty much toes the Israel line (Trudy Rubin is their resident Israeli apologist, and she does it from a softer perspective, seeming to give at least some credence to the humanity of the other side, but still enveloping everything in the overall context of "Israel is defending itself").
But the Philadelphia dailies aren't as pro-Zionist as the NY dailies, perhaps because at least one of them is owned by McClatchy which, according to a recent article by Paul Craig Roberts, is essentially the last remaining newspaper publishing house in this country that isn't entirely pro-Israel.
“I can’t see the comparison,” was his reply.
Well if he felt that a suicide bomber entering a room where a seder was occuring, stepping between a grandmother and her newest grandchild, and then blowing himself up, ensuring at least those two where murdered in cold blood, was much worse than 9/11, then he should have said so.
First step: AIPAC must register as a foreign lobby.
This is ruining our democracy.
'This is very powerful because it's so specific and detailed.'
Precisely. To quote myself from another thread:
'while one arm of the I/P problem, Israel's murderous behaviour, is at last being forensically dissected rather than ignored in the West, the other part – the crucial support of the Lobby- is not. We must move from the general to the particular on BOTH fronts, and that means naming names, publicising sometimes rather boring minutiae on who did what and when.
Michael Backman had his site cyber-attacked after he wrote his Nepal trekker column; will the names of people who arranged this ever come to light? The reputed hundreds of letters that bomb newspapers that dare publish a Palestinian POV – who are they? Is it astroturf? Are they arranged by the official organisations? Do they maintain their own email lists?
This stuff needs sunlight to disinfect us from it's corrosive effects.'
9/11 was a protest to all Americans that (in keeping with American values) they should quit funding and UN -supporting Israel no matter what Israel does.
Its a small world nowadays.
If the seder family hadn't been supporting US F-16 & Apache attacks
on the suicide bomber's family while they were silently protesting the rape of their olive trees, American tractors demolishing their home, American cluster bombs killing their kids, and
irresponsible US taxpayers ( themselves trying to find or keep their jobs), then there'd be no suicide bomber.
Agreed. Let's make AIPAC register as a foreign lobby. Let's also find a way to out all those Zionist orgs that masquerade as anything but Israel First orgs.
If you come along soon enough after he has done it, and work your way back through the posts, you can see chris berel has just worked his way back through them himself, posting at the bottom of each one the first sarcastic thing he can think of.
while one arm of the I/P problem, Israel's murderous behaviour, is at last being forensically dissected rather than ignored in the West, the other part – the crucial support of the Lobby- is not. We must move from the general to the particular on BOTH fronts, and that means naming names, publicising sometimes rather boring minutiae on who did what and when.
Michael Backman had his site cyber-attacked after he wrote his Nepal trekker column; will the names of people who arranged this ever come to light? The reputed hundreds of letters that bomb newspapers that dare publish a Palestinian POV – who are they? Is it astroturf? Are they arranged by the official organisations? Do they maintain their own email lists?
This stuff needs sunlight to disinfect us from it's corrosive effects.
Totally agree. And it needs to be done intelligently, clearly and concisely, so as to avoid the smears of "conspiracy".
If you come along soon enough after he has done it, and work your way back through the posts, you can see chris berel has just worked his way back through them himself, posting at the bottom of each one the first sarcastic thing he can think of.
LOL. Yes, it's an easily discernible pattern.
If we're going to get AIPAC to register as an agent of a foreign country (an incredibly necessary step, though only the tip of the iceberg), then let's do it. Start the letter writing.
I haven't been to the "If Americans Knew" website in a while, but perhaps they have a letter already written. I'll spend some time to write it, if necessary, but I don't have a site to put it up on so that people can put in their personal information and send it off.
Let's coordinate and get as many as people as possible to do this. I know most of our "representatives" are bought and paid for, but the tide is slowly turning, and there's no better time then now to put the pressure on, and keep it on.
I have also heard that sending certified letters is much more effective than emails, but obviously this costs a bit.
This is a fascinating glimpse into retail NJ tribal politics. I wish it got more play in the MSM. As a former NJ pol living in another state, this all sounds familiar. Average Americans have no idea that allegiance to a foreign power is necessary for public office in New Jersey.
The sheer number of Arabs in Passaic County will sooner or later translate into fund raising power as well. Similarly, the large number of South-Asians in places like Middlesex County, already guarantee them a cabinet post in State Democratic Administrations.
Jews will remain the dominant tribe in New Jersey for some time to come, but others are rising. All sounds a bit like Lebanon doesn't it? Meanwhile New Jersey continues to hemorrhage her legacy population to the Sunbelt.
Incident at Davos–
Turkish PM Storms Off in Gaza Row
"Mr Peres had told the audience Israel was forced on to the offensive against Hamas by thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel.
"The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas," the Israeli leader said.
"Why did they fire rockets? There was no siege against Gaza. Why did they fight us, what did they want? There was never a day of starvation in Gaza."
Mr Erdogan was cut off [by the moderator] as he attempted to reply to Mr Peres.
When the audience applauded Mr Peres, he said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong."
The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, …"
More poison spread across the world by Zionism.
The way those politics will change is through J Street. Politicians DO pay attention to stated concerns of their constituents and donations.
In my Congressional district, a very liberal one, form letters from my Congressman on Israel include comments about restoration of dignity for Palestinian people, to realize a just peace.
Don't mourn, organize.
Ranting won't make it happen, but coolly conveying your reasoning to your representatives will get heard.
It was also help to show just how much aid to Israel makes it back here to be used to lobby our representatives. I imagine it is distributed in a number of ways that make it difficult to track.
Ranting won't make it happen, but coolly conveying your reasoning to your representatives will get heard.
I agree Richard, and it should be added that money talks in American politics, so that is always a primary factor.
The other thing, as has been mentioned by Rowan and countless others, is the need to break through on the media front. If politicians are beholden to public opinion (and I don't know how much they are anymore in this country – certainly not as much as they should be), and public opinion is molded by the media (which it is), then the media holds the key. And with the concentration of media in this country, the large majority of which refuse to air Palestinian voices, it's increasingly difficult to change public attitudes.
Hopefully that is beginning to change.
I dunno…he took a gamble and pandered to the Arab-American Muslim community in Passaic and got his hiney smacked by non-Muslims in same locale. A number of sources quoted him as publicly expressing sympathy for suicide bombers.
How bleddy stupid was that?
Imo, his stupidity disqualified him, not what he said.
Next time, say it in Arabic at some one's private shish kebob bash. duh!
J Street is launching a campaign to cover Simon from 60 Minutes from the attack by the organized Zionists.
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/2747/t/3251/thankYou.jsp?campaign_KEY=2523&key=20352137
You can send Bob Simon your comments from this site.
I used to subscribe to the Washimgton Report magazine.It had a running total of all contributions to all current congress and senat members by the zionists and many jewish organizations.What struck me is the small amounts these guys receive.The career total per pol anywhere from $1000-$300000.It never looked that these small amounts can sway campaigns.Even other fringe benefets,like junkets to the racist entity seems to me as puny.What gives.Is it just the reputation of the Lobby?
"I used to subscribe to the Washimgton What struck me is the small amounts these guys receive.The career total per pol anywhere from $1000-$300000.It never looked that these small amounts can sway campaigns.Even other fringe benefets,like junkets to the racist entity seems to me as puny.What gives.Is it just the reputation of the Lobby?"
Thanks for bringing that up! No, it's not reputation. It's more that the punies have overblown the power of the Jews in their petty little minds.
Dagon, I think you're misinterpreting those numbers. The financial impact of the lobby can't be easily measured because it can't be found in the actual contributions of organizations; yes, those don't amount to much. It's the individuals who base their donation decisions on whether a candidate has the stamp of those organizations (and many of those individuals are "bundlers," who have networks of friends and associates who donate if they give the word). This is where the big money comes from. For many of these donors, Israel isn't the only issue that interests them, of course. But it is a deal-breaker. That is, no stamp of approval from the major Jewish organizations, no money to the candidate.
2004 Cynthia McKinney was defeated in the primary by an unknown. I looked at the campaign report from her opponent. She had over 1000 donations from NY, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This is for a House race in Georgia.
The Lobby organized the fund raising effort. Paul Finley experienced a similar onslaught. These guys can mobilize large numbers of relatively small donors in targeted races.
I used to subscribe to the Washimgton Report magazine.It had a running total of all contributions to all current congress and senat members by the zionists and many jewish organizations.What struck me is the small amounts these guys receive.The career total per pol anywhere from $1000-$300000.It never looked that
these small amounts can sway campaigns.Even other fringe benefets,like junkets to the racist entity seems to me as puny.What gives.Is it just the reputation of the Lobby?
Excellent question, and I'm curious to hear the responses of others. The reputation alone is certainly a major factor, but there is something to the reputation – it didn't just come from nowhere, even if it may have become, to some degree, exaggerated over the years.
The ability to organize a large amount of people in a short amount of time around any issue they see fit , and to get said people to pressure their representatives and media, is legendary among the lobby. In fact, the people are already organized, it's just a matter of telling them the issue at hand.
This is a testament to the organizational power of the lobby, and is also a happenstance of the close-knit nature of much of the Jewish community itself. Both are things that groups looking to counter the power of the lobby should seek to emulate in order to be effective. Obviously, the close-knit nature of much of the Jewish community is not something that is easily replicated among the diverse, multicultural American public, but the organizational power of the lobby, aside from its effectiveness due to the kinship of the Jewish community itself, is something that can and should be duplicated.
The money itself is a lot harder to follow. Suffice to say, the amounts you mentioned are not where the real money is at. Those are the amounts that are traceable since we do still have some semblance of financial transparency in American politics. But, as anyone inside knows, and much of the public suspects, there are other legal ways to funnel money to candidates and to officeholders that don't show up on the books. And, of course, there are illegal methods as well. I have intended to investigate the details of such maneuvers. Perhaps someone here can elaborate.
The link that syvanen provided for J Street was incorrect. I've provided the link below. It allows you to send comments to Bob Simon and 60 Minutes. I urge everyone to do it! Thanks syvanen.
Letter of support to Bob Simon
The lobby has a willingness to simply break the law when the stakes are high enough to justify the risk. AIPAC director Michael Goland fixed the California Senate race, but there was no do-over. AIPAC was caught red-handed coordinating PAC contributions in violation of its non-profit charter, but the FEC wouldn't investigate. A civil suit went to the Supreme Court, but they wouldn't rule on the merits. Rosen and Weissman. And there are other cases—but the quandary is clear—how do you lawfully compete against organized groups that time after time break the law to obtain what they want, only to benefit from prosecutorial forbearance?
The best analogy is the MAFIA running rampant before RICO statutes became available.
Witty: "Ranting won't make it happen, but coolly conveying your reasoning to your representatives will get heard."
Your faith in democracy is touching but I suspect big bucks backed by credible threats to have politicians trashed and defeated have far greater effect than a note from an unknown constituent.
Yes, big bucks mean something. It appears that the jews who are concerned back their concerns with their wallets.
The radicals for palestine seem to say "Get your money from somewhere else, but you better do as I say".
No wonder there are so few radicals in power.
Ted Turner has billions. Seems either he isn't willing to part with them to get people elected or he is a zionist.
Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a "fortress" by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields.
They told the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper that for years Hamas had used their property and homes as military installations from which the group would launch rockets into Israel, dig tunnels and store arms. According to the victims, those who tried to object were shot in the legs by Hamas operatives.
Palestinian Media Watch quoted the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat al-Jadida as reporting on January 27, "The Abd Rabbo family kept quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza strip into a fortress. Right now they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after Israel bombed the farm and turned it into ruins."
According to the report, the hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks Sderot, making it an ideal military position for Hamas fighters.
The Abd Rabbo family members emphasized to the paper that they were not Hamas activists and that they were still loyal to the Fatah movement, but that they had been unable to prevent the armed squads from entering their neighborhood at night.
It is a shame that families like this, corraled to be shields for Hamas, suffer. But there is little Israel can do to help.
Nice tag-team by JENSEN and chris Berel. JENSEN with the disinformation plant, and Berel, 25 minutes later, with the follow-up.
Are they one and the same? Hmmm…
Coincidence, or would you like to borrow my copy of the "protocols" to support your paranoia?
Holy crap! David Duke's endorsement of Mondoweiss on his website turns up on the first page of a google search–when you search this site!
*shudder*
This country has apparently snapped–probably even more so with the financial crisis.
I hope Jews are polishing their pistols and sharpening their knives…
Chris–how many regulars does this site have, would you say? Initially it seemed like a lot more because the obsession is soooo huge.
But I'm thinking it's like 10 contributors maybe. Am I wrong? I just stumbled across it yesterday, so I'm new.
Funny, I get no such hits doing a search on philip weiss or mondoweiss. What special search engine (or terms) do you use Suzanne.
I think you would do yourself a favor by stumbling along to the next site. And those knives won't sharpen themselves, will they?
o.mi.god! Theater of the Absurd online…lololol!
link to davidduke.com
I really don't see why everything David Duke likes is automatically painted brown by jewish morons. He probably likes hot buttered toast and eggs, too. So what?
Ever since Rowan drew attention to Suzanne's masculine (or at least boyish) speech patterns, I can't read "her" posts without laughing. :)
ahmed, what Suzanne did was navigate to David Duke's site and enter "mondoweiss" in the search bar on Duke's site. The resulting page has the address http://davidduke.com/index.php?s=mondoweiss&submit=go (this is what she posts in her message at 01:03). She then writes:
"David Duke's endorsement of Mondoweiss on his website turns up on the first page of a google search–when you search this site!"
I don't know what the statement means exactly, and I would imagine it was intentionally written so as to confuse people. A correct statement would have been:
"I navigated to David Duke's site and entered "Mondoweiss" in the search bar and it returned a page in which Duke refers to Phil Weiss as a "Zionist watchdog" and posts an article of his."
There is no "endorsement" of Phil, and even if there was, it means absolutely nothing. The fact that an unsavory character is fond of someone's work doesn't have anything to do with the veracity of said work. This is a logical fallacy, and is a tactic all too often used by people in an attempt to smear things they don't like. Zionists are especially fond of it. Unfortunately, it's a play to emotions, and that does indeed have an effect on people, especially in America, where reason among the masses is sorely lacking.
Suzanne has shown a deliberate pattern (that I can document from my first experience with her) of disrupting this site, and it's best she just be ignored. I'm not for banning people, but if further obvious engagement in "troll" activity occurs, I think it should be brought to Phil and Adam's attention, if they're not aware of it already. She's obviously not interested in any sort of debate or anything resembling intelligent, constructive discourse. I know that anti-Zionists have been banned for much less at other sites.
By the way, the article of Phil's that Duke put on his site is worth reviewing. It's from July of last year:
JFK Was Enraged at 'Zionist Control' Effected by Campaign Contributions
You must admire the courage of the family that spoke out and painted Hamas in such black colours – use of human shields is abhorrent.
Equally, you must admire sheer luck of Israel that such story has surfaced at such a fortuitous time.
Presumably, Hamas does not punish people for freedom of speech enough to prevent them telling their stories to Israeli and Western media.
I just love the rationalization here of Mondoweiss on David Duke's site. Incidentally a similar endorsement shows up on the Stormfront website too.
You folks are digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole.
Which pretty much makes all your self righteous talk about racist Jews highly laughable.
Does Weiss even go out in public these days?
This guy was once apparently prominent and somewhat respected–and now I guess he's holed up in front of his computer trying to make money off of hatemongers.
The rest of you are just carrions eating off the remains of someone's public decline into darkness.
Good theater!
"Presumably, Hamas does not punish people for freedom of speech enough to prevent them telling their stories to Israeli and Western media."
That family was brave beyond words. The fact that they risked their lives (and are still very much in danger) tells you how desperate things have become there. They probably feel they have nothing to lose at this point.
And perhaps also, it's indicative that Hamas took a heavy hit and the noose has loosened a bit from around civilians' necks. For now at least.
"Imo, his stupidity disqualified him, not what he said.
Next time, say it in Arabic at some one's private shish kebob bash. duh!"
Arab-Americans should learn at the feet of the masters!
Presumably? I suggest you go there, speak out against Hamas, and see what happens. Please let us know.
David Duke – Philip Weiss connection? link to davidduke.com
David Duke claims it's official. I believe the AMA also took a stand against hot buttered toast.
Suz, I have no idea how many fake posters are on this forum.
I'm hesitant to even reply, because Chris and Suzanne don't seem interested in having a good faith conversation. But I'll give it one shot….
Yeah, the scumbag David Duke linked to Phil's site. Duke is a racist and an anti-semite. A vile human being.
But guess what? There are equally vile human beings on Israel's side. Or maybe you didn't hear Rabbi Eliyahu Mordechair when he said: "The life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs."
Chris and Suzanne, I hope you feel the same way about him as I do about Duke. And if you do, then maybe we can both agree not to resort to cheap, hysterical elementary school-level guilt-by-association and try to have a reasonable, meaningful conversation about these subjects. Let's not judge either side by the odious fringe elements it attracts.
Contrarian
Mordechair's statement is vile and does not represent the Jewish or Israeli mindset.
The problem here is that the David Duke/Mondoweiss association IS the odious fringe element. There is no presence of anything else here…except a few supporters of Israel and Western democracy, like myself.
Whereas, supporters of Israel range from a few singleminded nutballs to a general population sympathetic with its struggle against Islamofascism.
There is simply no other way to spin that fact. That number includes critics who don't think Israel takes the high road 100% of the time.
This site appeals only to the odious fringe.
There are equally vile human beings on Israel's side.
There are equally vile human beings of all conceivable political opinions and ethnic affiliations, but they aren't all as mindless and ant-like as this pestiferous GIYUS clone, Suzanne, is:
Mordechair's statement is vile and does not represent the Jewish or Israeli mindset.
No, it doesn't, because 'the Jewish or Israeli mindset' is whatever you damn well choose to claim it is, i.e., bullshit.