Last night I said that Brooklyn congresswoman Yvette Clarke’s climbdown from supporting the brave Gaza "collective punishment" letter has gone unreported in the U.S. press. I’d done a google news search, but I was wrong. The Forward’s Nathan Guttman got the story:
The Jewish leaders’ intervention produced an open letter to Clarke’s Jewish constituents in which she expressed her regret for supporting the congressional letters. “Unfortunately, these letters are uneven in their application of pressure and do not sufficiently present a balanced approach/path to peace,” Clarke wrote, adding that the letters have “a provocative and reactionary impact.”…
Clarke’s retraction of her support for the Gaza letters echoes similar pressure put on lawmakers in the run-up to J Street’s first national conference, in October 2009. Then, too, some members of Congress from strongly Jewish districts came under constituent pressure to withdraw from a list of sponsors for the event.
Look at the picture at the Forward of Clarke surrounded by Jewish constituents. Ooga booga; I’d sign anything.
Look at them. They’re all fat, old and out of touch. What would they know about starvation and collective punishment?
Mind you, the guy in the center on the right (beige jacket) looks very intimidating. He could probably stare me in to retracting my name off my own birth certificate.
Yikes, a modern-day inquisition. Scary picture that she’s the pretty face, and their the money representatives. That’s capitalist demonocracy in action. I guess you can’t get what you want if you got cash.
Actually, much more nefarious than congress people who have a significant number of
jews in their electoral district, is the fact that AIPAC and its various sub-umbrella groups
impact any congress-running or incumbent person to rubber-stamp Israeli war crimes–obviously this is why Obama cannot put any teeth into his Cairo speech reiterating official US policy on Israeli settlements. The whole USA is hostage to Zionism. It’s a fact, and it will ensure the decline of the USA. And, oh, BTW, time to get serious about
Jewish American-Israeli theft of USA intellectual USA property rights:
link to intifada-palestine.com
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“Ooga-booga”?!!! These are her constituents. That’s how democracy works. This isn’t a question of money, but a question of her constituents. They scare her? If it was a Jewish congressman surrounded by black constituents would you write “Ooga-booga”? I think not.
They wouldn’t write ‘ooga-booga’ because it wouldn’t be true.
The Israel Lobby’s handiwork.
Superficial reply is superficial – kind of predictable that you’d come flailing in this thread saying ‘it’s democracy!!11one’
Those are Republicans. They’re not going to vote for her anyway, no matter how low on her belly she crawls for them.
Those were not her constituents. They were her paymasters. And the paymasters of virtually every other black member of Congress which is why they kept silent over Israel’s arms sales to South Africa during the apartheid period and why they keep silent today about Israel’s ongoing atrocities in the Middle East. With the occasional exceptions of Keith Ellison, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, and John Conyers, the Congressional Black Caucus should be more appropriately named, in the spirit of Malcolm X, the House Negro Caucus, for that is what they have become, the Zionists’ house Negroes. And that fact is known in the black community.
If one wishes to read Rep. Clarke’s letter, here it is on the Chabad/Lubavitcher web site in all its ugliness: link to chabad.info
The sad reality is that the Jewish establishment, both secular and religious, thanks to its unlimited purse strings, keeps America’s black leadership, such as it is under the circumstances, on what might be called an “invisible plantation.”
What a spineless, pandering, hack.
Absolutely disgraceful.
WJ said in another thread that this was ‘democracy’. Zionism rots democracy. It turns people into slaves.
Only because they have no collective spine.
Clarke, it turns out, was one of the 36 who voted against HR 867 (opposing the censure of the Goldstone Report) and thus far, they don’t seem to have forced her to recant on that. But she now knows her place and it is not sitting at the table but waiting on it.
link to clarke.house.gov
I accept that the independence of most black Congress people is lacking on the I/P issue due to the influence of Jewish money. I would also assert that most black Congress people do not have significant Jewish populations in their constituencies. But Yvette Clark represents Brooklyn and though I have not seen a map of her district, it seems she represents Crown Heights, home to the Lubavitch movement. These ARE her constituents. If it had been a photo of the big money Jewish people of the Democratic party you wouldn’t have seen beards and black hats. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I doubt that Lubavitch is a big money factor in the Democratic party.
And if the photo would have contained the regular looking folks who bankroll the Democratic party would Phil Weiss have said, take a look at these guys. I think not. Only here because they look different with beards and black hats was this tone used.
ooga booga to you too.
its not their appearance, it’s that he identifies them as being part of the Israel Lobby – which they are
“Look at the picture at the Forward of Clarke surrounded by Jewish constituents. Ooga booga; I’d sign anything.”
It’s their appearance.
Why? Nothing in that quote said, look at the demonic/bearded/top-hats.
The point is that she’s surrounded by them. And her recent statement articulates that imagery.
If you’re trying to imply there is antisemitism in Phil’s comment, then you’ll have to now be more specific.
Are they Jewish, or aren’t they?
Are they part of the Israel Lobby?
Did Clarke’s message come from her or from those Jews? Not literally, but vis a vis, the pressure.
Facts are not antisemitic. Your paranoia is though.
Pass the quote in front of 20 people, show them the photo and see how they react. Then tell me if I’m paranoid.
And Phil Weiss, tell me if it had to do with their black hats and beards.
And Cliff, I didn’t use the word “demonic” you did.
I fully concur with Wondering Jew.
No one would think top-hat + long beard = antisemitic.
You looked at Phil’s preface, then the picture and felt insecure.
So inside, you can understand the impact of the imagery. One congresswoman, a room full of Orthodox Jews. ‘Hocus Pocus, you love Israel!,’ exclaimed the Rabbi.
I’m being facetious.
This is about your insecurity and paranoia. Can you define antisemitism? Do you consider it’s application a serious matter? No. You’re like most Zionists on this blog (except Witty, who doesn’t bring it up much, which is a credit to his politeness and calm I guess).
And it doesn’t matter if 20 people agree with you. You have to EXPLAIN yourself, not get a majority of gut-reactions.
Have you read any books on antisemitism? Not ‘The Holocaust Industry’ but something like ‘Esau’s Tears’ by Albert Lindemann.
My impression of ‘ooga booga’ was that here is Clarke, by herself. SURROUNDED by Orthodox Jews, who are essentially going to put words in her mouth. They are part of the Israel Lobby.
It’s a symbolic picture of our foreign policy. Want to disprove that
Like I said, FACTS are not antisemitic. Conclusions are though. I’m concluding from the picture, that these Jews are part of a very powerful lobby (easily more powerful than any other ethno/religious lobby lobbying for another country). This woman ended up regurgitating Israeli PR. Word for word.
It’s like seeing her lips move, but hearing an Israeli man’s voice. That’s how fake she sounds.
whoops, “Want to disprove that?”
I forgot the question mark.
Here’s a simple question, if I report a story on illegal Israeli organ harvesting, am I antisemitic?
It happened. Is the fact that it happened, antisemitic? Do you blame, ‘reality’ for being antisemitic?
Does antisemitism exist outside of Life and Death and reality?
If antisemitism happens in a forest, when you’re not around, does it exist? Joking……. but not really.
Ooga booga means ‘scared’ or ‘amused by nervous’ maybe.
Wouldn’t you be nervous if you took an unpopular political stand (our political culture, facilitates identity politics and ‘Jewishness’ has the most political capital, relative to other ‘identities’) and were SURROUNDED by opposing views? Not just opposing views but a well-known manifestation (one of many, doesn’t have to be religious, doesn’t have to be Jewish even) of a powerful lobby?
As in the case of the friend of Phil Weiss, whom his wife accused of antiSemitism, I do not feel that antiSemitism needs a proof, as in angle side angle= angle side angle.
If Phil Weiss is being true to his supposed aim of convincing American Jews to abandon their support for Israel, then this is a case of Phil using a photo of a specific type of Jew to demonstrate to other Jews that these Israel supporting Jews are foreign to them.
Of course it does.
I had a friend in high school, whom I recall saying ‘don’t Jew me’. He said this to me one time I didn’t have any money to lend. Not in an angry way, but just a carelessly joking way.
It’s a very immature thing to say, and demonstrates a lack of compassion for ‘the other’. However, if you were to sit down and talk to these people, they would understand immediately what they did wrong and apologize.
In that case, if we’re being practical and not responding emotionally – I’d say the person who made such a comment (since I have known them), were making an antisemitic comment. But that they themselves were not necessarily antisemitic. There are different degrees and you’re just presenting all of them as a monolith. Or a slippery slope that leads to full-out Jew-hatred.
It’s even worse when it comes to Islam and Arab identity. Since those insensitive comments are so mainstream. And I can recall, talking to friends vis a vis online communication for video games I’ve played, that people find it culturally acceptable to rag on Islam/Arabs. It’s apparently a ‘joke’ that everyone gets. I knew a guy in this online game I played, who I later found out to be Zionist. He was half-Indian and half-Jewish. He was a very cool guy, and we were close friends in the context of an online gaming setting.
I found out he was a pretty hardcore Zionist, and due to various factors like the game getting boring and people from our online ‘group’ going their separate ways – the friendship just dissolved. The game itself facilitated the online friendships. It’s hard to keep them after the medium is gone.
Anyways, when we spoke about politics, he became fierce. So did I. When I reflected back to how he would laugh off jokes about his Jewishness, it was just a big shock to me how defensive he got when it came to Israel. He was very smart too and having talked to him a lot, I just didn’t see that side of him vis a vis his politics. I guess the same goes for me, since I dwell on this issue. It’s very polarizing..
Kind of related…from Esau’s Tears:
As for whether or not the Jews with blacks hats, beards, and extended tummies truly represent Clarke’s constituency, here’s the demographic breakdown of Crown Heights from Wikepedia, using known references:
“As of 1994, of the approximately 150,000 residents in Crown Heights, 90 percent were of African descent (70 percent from the Caribbean and 20 percent of American birth), 9 percent were Hasidic Jews, and less than 1 percent were Latino, Asian and other ethnic groups.
Despite the history of the Hasidic Jews having large families, it is unlikely that there has been a significant change in these statistics. What they represent is even worse than the Jewish equivalent of what were called “good Germans,” those members of the German population who went along with the Nazi agenda.
Those men around the table are nothing less than active supporters of Israel’s criminal behavior and engaged in suppressing criticism of that behavior. Thus, each and every one of them has blood on his hands. May that illuminating photo of their meeting with Clarke be distributed far and wide so their faces can be known.
Just what we needed, a voice to emerge and enlighten us with a Nazi analogy.
No one said that the people around the table represented the totality of the constituency in Yvette Clarke’s district. I merely said that they were constituents, which they are.
Actually, this is what you said:
You should clarify your earlier statement.
But even if you actually meant what you’re saying in your latest comment, you have to admit that this is another case of ‘Jewish money’ as you put it.
The lobby. And that’s the point. They surrounded her, physically and figuratively, and she sang.
Cliff, I’m not sure what kind of contradiction there is between my two statements that requires a clarification.
When you invite your constituents or a segment of your constituents into a meeting and meet them around a round table, they are going to surround you.
Since my first post on the issue I have googled Yvette Clarke’s website and she boasts about the sights and landmarks included in her district, including the headquarters of Lubavitch. The Lubavitch are more powerful in her district than their numbers indicate and a large part of that power is financial.
Yea, WJ. That’s the point of this exchange between yourself and JB and now me.
Remember your first comment was:
Blankfort went on to characterize them as ‘paymasters’ and not constituency. I consider that to be a matter of emphasis.
And I would stress their status as paymasters rather than as simply constituents of her district.
Like, I can donate money to ‘the Dems’, and then Haim Saban can donate money to ‘the Dems’ – and there is a big difference between us.
WJ, I disagree with the use of the word Nazi, only because it allows people to derail the topic. I made a very good case for the time I used it, and even then, my comment was derailed. Some asinine chastisement by yonira.
Even Fascism at one time wasn’t synonymous with gas chambers. It was a form of social organization. At one time, our government preferred Hitler’s fascism to the communists.
Anyways, if the point to make is ‘evil’ or ‘good German’ – like the sort of everyday, benign ‘evil’. People – who live well; who are ‘civilized – just apathetic to the humanity of others casually, and not caring. Then I don’t see the problem with Blankfort’s usage of the word.
You just don’t like being the ‘bad guy’.
Do you object to ‘Islamonazi’? Which is much more offensive because it attempts to connect Islam to Nazism (like how some people say Judeo-Nazi).
Cliff- This is the quote from JB’s post: ” What they [the chasids] represent is even worse than the Jewish equivalent of what were called “good Germans,” those members of the German population who went along with the Nazi agenda.”
If you think he is not raising the analogy, you must have a very powerful microscope at home and should enlighten me regarding what you see with your microscope that I don’t see with my bare eye.
I was talking more about the ‘Nazi’ label.
And I felt you were reacting to JB as if he had called those Orthodox Jews, outright Nazis.
Yea, he could mean that what they are supporting are ‘Nazis’ – but I just see it as a parallel to the apathy or willful ignorance maybe of the ‘Good Germans’.
To clarify things for “wondering Jew,” I am indeed making analogy to the Nazis because long before and quite apart from the gas chambers there existed a similar mindset between those who have endorsed Israel’s war crimes against both the Palestinians and Lebanese over the years and that of the Third Reich.
One reads almost every week, a racist comment from some Hasidic or other orthodox Jewish rabbi in Israel (and in their weekly rag, the Jewish Press out of Brooklyn, opinions about non-Jews and Palestinians in particular that would not have been out of place in Der Sturmer, except they have substituted Arabs for Jews.
I have seen them in Palestinian East Jerusalemm, after prayers on a Saturday night, marching four abreast by the hundreds, letting the Palestinians know who rules their land. For me in their mindset, again, they are no different from Nazis, and if the world would let them get away with it, they would do unto the Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews.
That their US co-religionists demanded that Rep. Clarke recant is nothing less than obscene and to rationalize their actions or excuse them is equally obscene.